caffeine diary

MY YULETIDE ASSIGNMENT IS SO AWESOME HEE YAY WIN. <3<3<3<3<3!

(And my original assignment was REALLY NEAT too and I'm kind of tempted to write that one too! You know. In all my spare time.)

Dear Yuletide writer,

I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, "What kind of sick freak is my recipient, anyhow? Who requests Baby-Sitters Club het?" (Yes, I am sure that is the squickiest thing I requested. Yep.)

Okay. So. I'm Ari, and I'm a polyfictional Christian lesbian who's a fan of cross-gen and has Interests Not Suitable For LiveJournal. I'm a gigantic dork. I love fiction of all kinds. I'm a theology student. I'm a femslasher but didn't request any femslash this Yuletide. I bring my own subtext. I'd love it if you brought yours too. I love these source texts like squishy things and hope you do too. Thank you so much for volunteering to write, and I hope you have a blast reviewing some source material and writing something that you enjoy. Except for the one restriction noted in my sign-up -- no NC-17 Anne of Green Gables fic -- everything goes, including: kink, incest, boyslash, girlslash, het, three or moresomes, character death, background pairings I didn't request, [ETA] genderbending, genderplay, genderfrell, or any variation thereon[/eta] -- you shouldn't write these things if they don't appeal to you, but if that is the way the story moves you, feel free.

Mostly, I would love a story that in some way demonstrates love for the source -- I have great big litcrushes on Ann M. Martin and Father Greeley and Lucy Maud because they've written these universes that I adore, that I can dive into again and again and feel like coming home, because they've created these characters who I love like family, who were part of my growing up, who were my solace and my escape from the real world. The sourcetexts aren't perfect and it's fine to acknowledge that -- it's hard not to write BSC pastiche that isn't a little bit of a gentle parody, I think, and goodness knows Greeley has some skanky race and gender issues -- but really, I love these sources. I love the worlds, the characters, and I think the sense of innocence of all the series. (Yes. This is why I asked for slash and incest. I don't really get me, either.) I would love fic written in-the-style-of, and I'd love fic written in a completely different style so long as something in the writing remains true to the spirit of the texts, the important themes, the characters at their depths. I know that's hard to define, and don't worry about trying to figure out what I think is the spirit of the books. I'd rather you figure out what you love about the source and celebrate that in your fic.

[more specific tl;dr behind the cut]

( YULETIDE )

I wish someone would take away L.M. Montgomery's ellipses. I realize Ms. Montgomery has been dead these many a year and that there isn't an ellipsis key, anyhow, and that she probably wrote long-hand, but I still wish someone would.

Her editor seems to curb her impulse well in the first several books in a series, but at some point apparently someone decides, Rice-like, that she's too good for an editor, which is patently untrue because, ellipses! Now, I abuse dashes and ellipses myself, so I have some sympathy, but honestly! This woman needs a lesson in punctuation.

Alcott-love naturally leads one to Yuletide, which really makes you think... Google retrieves 2 million sites with the word "yuletide" in them.

The very first hit is Yuletide Treasure.

What can one say? Rarefic is taking over the internets!

Also, it took me till just now to realize that Alcott and Montgomery have the same first two initials. Louisa Mae/Lucy Maud, OTP! There love is so ellem.