Okay, so it took me a terribly long time to work through all the Yuletide fic, and I wanted to write only one rec post. In case you haven't figured it out: this is it. I'll start with my gift, which is a lovely fic about Main Hoon Na a movie that is the ultimate crack.

Over The Face Of the Water (1097 words) by thedeadparrot
Fandom: Main Hoon Na
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Ram Sharma, Lakshman Sharma
Summary:

Lucky lets go.

And under the cut you can find recs for: ( Caprica, Di Renjie|Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, Downton Abbey, Dresden Files, FlashForward, Gargoyles, Hua Mulan, Lost Girl, Maurice, Neverwhere, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi|Spirited Away, Spooks|MI-5, Warehouse 13 )

Title: Der 50. Geburtstag oder Dinner for Five
Fandom: Dinner for One
Length: 1793 words
Rating: 6+
Characters/Pairings: James, Sir Toby, Admiral von Schneider/Mr. Pommeroy, Mr. Winterbottom/Miss Sophie
Labels: humour, prequel
Beta: my family, sevilemar and cesy
A/N: Written for rebecca2525 and originally posted at the Yuletide 2010 collection.


( James went over everything again. The food was prepared, the dinner table was arranged perfectly … yes, everything was fine. )

Title: Beyond a Thousand Bars, No World
Fandom: Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken | Love in Thoughts
Length: 4359 words
Rating: 12+
Characters: Günther Scheller, Paul Krantz, Hilde Scheller, Hans Stephan
Labels: sadness, prequel, canon pairings, Günther/Paul
Beta: anotherslashfan and kristin.
A/N: Written for doveheart and originally posted in the Yuletide collection on the AO3


( The magnolias were in full bloom, shedding white petals over the ground below them. )

☞ Wrote 50.000 words. Finished 2010.11.19. Will post later to show off my badge.

☞ Volunteered to rake leaves. Don't know what overcame me. Probably didn't remember that it's hard work. And that we have a big garden. With a lot of trees, most of them of the leafy variety. Only managed to rake a fragment of our sphagnum lawn. It didn't help that my mother insisted on waiting until the ground was sodden and all the leaves had dropped.

☞ Went to yvi's on Saturday. Had lots of fun with her, zing_och and temve. And her cats. Even though they wouldn't cuddle (the cats, I'm sure the others would have been up to it). It's always good to meet other fans, and this is the first time I went to a meeting. It's definitely an experience worth repeating.

☞ Got assigned the fandom I least wanted to write about in Yuletide. I have to admit that I don't even like the canon and I only signed up for it because it really is super rare and I watched it ages ago. On the plus side, she wants angsty and character based (which I can probably do) and says she will be happy with any fic for the fandom. And research should be relatively easy, I just hope I won't lose myself in it, because the topic is interesting. Or that I won't project too many of my issues on the character. Dear dwircle, expect to be asked to beta.

☞ I've got a cold. The first one in 1,5 years. It's okayish, as far as colds go (no fever, for one), except for the headache. I hope it goes away soon, because I'm not used to this much anti-pain meds (two paracetamol in a day, most people will laugh at me) and I don't know how it'll interact with my other meds (which are working surprisingly well, by the way), and because I've got stuff to do:

☞ Yuletide, for one. I signed up again, and I hope I'll manage to write something decent in a month, even though I might not get it betaed in time. That took up the most time last year. And if I don't get assigned the crackiest fandom on my list I might just write something extra for it if I find the time and the recipient. It's just so cracky. And I love it.

☞ NaNoWriMo is going well. It's also part of the reason why I was absent a lot this month and why I have the cold. I probably caught that one during the real life meeting in the city last weekend. Anyway, since I had something of a rough plot and actual planning, I might just rewrite this one (didn't I say that with the others as well?), despite the fact that it taught me something new about myself: I write very purple het porn. If I'm lucky and write a bit faster, I'll even be finished when the Yuletide assignments are sent out. With the 50k, not the story, mind you. That just started.

☞ OTW elections are ... next weekish? Anyway, I'll vote. For Hele, because she is awesome and dedicated and incredibly good at interpersonal stuff and being on time for things. Even though she'll deny it.

Dear Yuletide writer,

first of all, I want to tell you a little bit about my general preferences, although I prefer to read different stories in different fandoms. I’m multifannish, and read more or less everything, slash, her and gen, I just don’t like stories that are overly porny. I prefer porn with plot. I also like bittersweet undertones, quirky humour and applied research.

I don’t read deathfic or stories that heavily feature mental illness (both is triggering), but if the death is canon or minor, I can deal with it. I’m not easily squicked, though. As long as your story doesn’t feature detailed descriptions of fingernail and eyeball torture, necrophilia or cannibalism, I’m okay. Rape, violence, mpreg, excessive fluff, child and animal abuse I can deal with as long as they have a specific purpose in the story. Of course, I don’t necessarily crave them either (see the specific requests).

I’d also like to note that out of the four fandoms I’m requesting, I’ve only read fic for one so far, because the other three don’t seem to have any written for them. This means that my requests consist more of a number of story ideas that I would like to read and less of one specific thing that interests me. Just choose the one (or two, if you want to combine them) that interest you the most. Even if you think you can come up with something else that you think I might like – go ahead! I’m truly grateful for every fic written for these fandoms (except maybe Mary Sue fic).

The fandoms:

Main Hoon Na – Any: Main Hoon Na is my favourite Bollywood movie. I love its cracky sillyness and I’d love to know what becomes of the characters after the movie. How do Ram and Lucky get used to being brothers? What will Lucky do now that he’s finally graduated? What would a romance between the principal and Mrs. Kakkad look like? Will Percy ever find the girl of his dreams? Of course I’m also interested in alternative perspectives. What does Miss Chandni think of Ram? And what about Lucky’s mother?

Raumpatrouille Orion – Any: I confess, I don’t ship the canon pairing Cliff/Tamara. Instead, I ship Cliff/Lydia van Dyke, Tamara/Helga, Mario/everyone and Lydia/everyone. Both Lydia and Tamara are my favourite characters, so of course I would love to read fic about them being awesome or having fun together. But I’d also read teamfic, adventure, canon pairings and a story about Villa or the other members of the crew. I also think a story about Spring-Brauner has potential. Canon left me with a desire for more that I haven’t satisfied yet. If you are a native speaker of German, please consider writing the story in German, if that isn’t against the rules. If not, English will do as well!

Sora wa Akai Kawa no Hotori | Red River | Anatolia Story – Any: I love history. And I love historical fiction, so I couldn’t not read this manga, since I had barely heard of the Hittites before. I’m especially interested in stories that explore the foe-yay/rivalry between Kail and Ramses (that naked wrestling match …), what the girls do when there’s no terrible danger lurking around the next corner, how the relationship between Ryui, Shala and Kikkuri works, what goes on in Ilbani’s head, what would have happened if Zannanza had made it to Egypt and married the princess, what happens to Juda … I haven’t read the last three volumes yet, so there is some stuff that I don’t know, but I don’t mind spoilers.

Survivors (2008) – Any: I love this series, I even made a picspam for it, but the fandom is sadly very small. I love all the characters, including the not so nice ones and those that were merely recurring, like Samantha Willis. You could write about her struggle to rebuild a society. I’d also love to know what happened to Peter and how he deals with having his mother back. How does Najid react to his presence? Will they become friends? I also love Al and Najid’s bonding experiences, the difficult relationship between Tom and Anya (especially from Anya’s PoV). What happens after the second season? What if Sarah hadn’t died? I’d read Greg/Tom hatesex too!

☞ Yes, I’m still here. I just noticed that it has been almost two months. Wow. Well, a) I was rather busy and b) I had nothing to post. I have two and a half story drafts finished, but my beta is MIA and so I haven’t posted them yet.

☞ I also will be rather busy during the next few weeks, because I will participate in NaNoWriMo again (jaaaarne, I added you to my buddy list). I even have something of a plan. I have no finale for the story, but an idea where the story in headed and who the protagonists are.

☞ I have a new obsession: Avatar: The Last Airbender. The series is adorable beyond belief. And the fanfic is quite good too. Well, I don’t ship Zutara, so that narrows it down a bit. Curiously enough, most of the fanfic seems to be posted on ff.net, so I spend much more time there for a change.

☞ I will also participate in Yuletide this year. We’ll see how that works out. I nominated Heroic Legend of Arslan, Main Hoon Na, Raumpatrouille Orion, Rome, Anatolia Story and Survivors. If everything goes according to plan I’ll post an entry about the three soonish. If not, there’s always Wikipedia.

☞ Also, hopefully, OTW retrospective. I’m too busy this weekend.

Title: An Elephant's Memory
Fandom: Neverwhere
Length: 2698 words
Rating: 6+
Characters: Door, Richard Mayhew, Marquis de Carabas
Warnings/Labels: teamfic
Beta: lelek
A/N: This is obviously the story that I wrote for colebaltblue during Yuletide 2009. I really liked her prompt and writing this story, although I might have defaulted if it hadn't been for merry_stew's support and help. You can find the story on the AO3 as well: An Elephant's Memory.


( In which there are a chess game, an elephant and a lot of mice. )

Okay, I've not yet read all of my gifts because half of them are in the Yuletide Madness Collection. I got six gifts in total, which is AWESOME, and the stories that I could read so far are AWESOME as well, even if my comments maybe aren't the most enthusiastic. If you're reading this dear mystery writers, it's not your fault, it's mine. I suck at writing glowing comments.

So here are the stories:

1. Ghoul Friday, Dresden Files, from Thomas' point of view. "Thomas does a lot for Harry, but entertaining cranky wardens might be going too far. Set somewhere between the novels Small Favor and Turn Coat." It illustrates Thomas' feelings for Harry and his trouble dealing with his Hunger very well!
2. Moving Out (and On), Dresden Files. "Ramirez discovers Thomas has easy access through Harry's wards. Awkwardness ensues," which is a very good summary, and the best about this story is the part that's between the lines, in my opinion!
3. Like Taking Candy from a Baby, Dresden Files. "Charlie had heard rumors about Warden Dresden, but he never expected this." Thomas scares a Warden. Very funny!
4. Carmel, Kings. "Jack sat out on the veranda sipping his coffee and watching the sun rise." A sweet short piece on Jack and Michelle before they return home after their father's death.
5. Like a Virgin, Velvet Goldmine, which is not exactly what I wished for, but incredibly good anyway. "Arthur has a chance encouter with Curt at a record signing that may just change the course of both their lives." Too cute for words.
6. Promise, Let Dai. "Jaehee looked up and couldn't believe his eyes." Jaehee and Dai meet again. Finally!

Updated to include Yuletide Madness stories. Also: My recipient loved my story. ♥

☞ I wanted to shake my Yuletide present this morning and discovered that my writer apparently defaulted because there's no gift uploaded for me yet. :-( Either that or there's a glitch in the AO3 software.

☞ I'm constantly tired at the moment. No idea why. It's just as if my mind never quite leaves this fuzzy state between half asleep and awake. And then there are these brief moments when I'm almost awake and should do stuff but they never last long enough. I suspect it might be low blood pressure again.

☞ Need to prepare for Christmas, mostly by buying food for four days. *sigh* My mother also threatened to send me a useful present, which is probably not the best idea ever. Her idea of a useful present are pans and pots and such and I absolutely hate getting useful presents from her because they tend to make me feel bad. The last time she tried it I would rather have had one present less instead of the one I got. It was a pot, and getting a pot as a Christmas present is really depressing. I'm afraid she bought an electric kettle this time, tbh, despite the fact that I repeatedly told her that I neither wanted nor needed one.

☞ Finally finished watching Jeeves & Wooster, which I loved, except that it's really difficult to keep track of all the characters. I frequently forgot about everyone but Jeeves, Wooster and Aunt Agatha.