Bobcat Moran

Hello, Yuletide Author!

Apologies for the delay! Real life has happened, along with a healthy dose of procrastination ^^;;

Pre-emptive thank yous and bouncing with excitement to read whatever it is you write!

Optional Details Are Optional, as the saying goes, so if you’ve already been visited by the inspiration fairy and have a fic idea you’re ready to write, please, by all means, go for it!

However, if you want some extra guidance, I have an overly-long letter.

( hiding behind the cut )

Anyway, I think that (more than) covers it. Happy Yuletide, and don't get eaten by bears!

Hello, Yuletide Writer!

Many many thanks and good seasonal tidings towards you!

Optional Details Are Optional, of course, and if you have a great fic idea that you're just dying to write, please by all means go for it!

However, if you want some extra help, I have an overly-long letter ( behind the cut )

I hope this helps and that you have a bear-free Yuletide!

Dear Yuletide Author,

Hi! I am terrifically late with this! In my defense, I was expecting the Ye Olde Yuletide delay of a few days between signups closing and assignments going out, and I’ve been out of town for two out of the last three weeks and have been actually *gasp* being social out in brickspace a lot recently — this is my first evening home after work this week.

Anyhow.

In all seriousness, I would be pleased as punch with pretty much anything written for any of the characters I asked for. I know that if you poke around my Ao3 or Tumblr, you’ll see that I’m a Les Mis fangirl, but please don’t let that lead you down the path of, “Oh no, she won’t like it if I matched her on one of the other fandoms.” I mean, I asked for them for a reason.

So, if you already have been struck by the inspiration fairy and have an idea/WIP, by all means, go for it! But if you need a little more help, below the cut is a bit more…er…guidance? Sure. Let’s call it that.
( I am making up for my tardiness in sheer volume of text )

Man, are you still here after all that? I mean, this letter is longer than most of my fics. Anyway, thank you again, Yuletide Author! Happy writings, and remember that optional details are optional!

Dear Yuletide Author,

This year I wanna erector set and a new dolly and a real live pony and…

Just kidding.

So, obviously you are a person of discerning taste, since you like at least one of these fandoms enough to have signed up to write it. Rest assured that I will totally love anything you write for any of these fandoms. If you read my requests and went, "Oooh! Oooh! I know exactly what I am going to write!" go for it! I'd far rather you write what you want to write than have you tie yourself in knots trying to please me on every little detail. But if you need or want a little extra help, read on.

( I swear these get longer every year… )

Oh, hey, lookit that, reveals are over for Yuletide. Guess that means I can share what I wrote with y'all.

This year, I ventured into Tangled, Disney's Rapunzel movie, with The Frost Fair. Basically, it's Flynn and Rapunzel spending the day at the kingdom's winter carnival. "Adorable" seems to be the adjective of choice in the comments and the couple of recs I've seen. Considering that I didn't even sign up for this fandom, I think it turned out rather well, with thanks to my youngest sib who helped me wrangle a bunch of fragments into something more story-shaped.

I didn't want to add it to the Gigantic Post of Doom last time around (yeah, it's been that long since I've toted my laptop over to the library), but now that reveals are over, I can share my Yuletide story!

I got another Roald Dahl fandom this year, although whereas James and the Giant Peach was relatively light and sweet, The Witches is…erm…not, with about half the book dedicated to describing in detail witches' raison d'êrte, namely "squelching" children. Anyway, I wrote a fic for it! It's a prequel, telling the story of Grandmamma's early adventures as a Witchophile. I did a ton of research on Norway, figuring out where the Grand High Witch's castle was going to be and everything. Then Grandmamma decided to travel out of the country. These things never turn out the way I originally plan them. As a side effect, I now really want to travel to Norway. Dang, that country looks neat.

Anyhoo, the story is called An Austrian Adventure, with much of the action taking place in Salzburg.

Also, I received a totally awesome Axe Cop story, entitled Ask Uni-Man, from helarctos. It's practically perfect in every single way, down to links incorporated to point you in the direction of the (hilarious) comics that are referenced. If you're not familiar with Axe Cop, it's a webcomic, written by a six year old and illustrated by his twenty-nine year old professional artist brother. It's all sorts of hilarious and wonderful, and you should read it. Then read the fic. Because you should read that, too. *nodnod*

Oh, haha, lookit that. Yuletide reveals were…what? Almost two weeks ago? I guess this means I can share what I wrote with y'all now. ^_^

I wrote another Time Traveller's Wife fic this year. Research was fun (and delicious), as I did it by baking and making sure that the NY Times no-knead bread recipe had actually been printed before my story was set. As it just so happened, the date that I had arbitrarily chosen as a placeholder was not only a month after the recipe came out, but also had a convenient snowstorm, which meshed perfectly with the other part of the story.

Anyway, Like Home-Baked Bread is the name of the fic. It's a bit of fluff, a bit of angst, and contains a bit of a spoiler re: What Happened With The Parking Garage, if you haven't read the book. Or if you haven't seen the movie, although I do not recommend the movie even if you liked the book, as Henry and Clare's early relationship comes off as not just kind of messed up but horrifically creepy without the benefit of first-person narration.

Hi, Yuletide Author!

( letter behind the cut )

Hey, f-list (and anyone else who happens to be reading this), signups for Yuletide are open! I'm so excited. This will be my third year participating, and although my nominations for the Ruby-Spears Mega Man series and Super Mario RPG got the boot under a franchise rule (why, yes, I am a nerd, thanks for noticing), with 3,554 fandoms to choose from, there's certainly no lack of other options. It took me quite a bit of winnowing to get down to four fandoms I want to request. Now I just need to figure out what I think I can write for.

For those who don't know, it's a massive, multi-fandom fic exchange, exclusively for teeny-tiny, sometimes otherwise nonexistent fandoms. The average Yuletider seems to be more literate than the average fan (omg so many book fandoms), and thus, the quality of fics tends to be noticably higher as well.

In past years, I've written for "The Time Traveller's Wife" and "Dead Like Me" and received fic for "The Time Traveller's Wife" and "Twice Upon a Time." The FAQ can be found here, a highly helpful guide to signing up can be found here, and the ridiculously huge list of nominated fandoms for this year can be found here. From The A-Team to Zorro, it's truly a spectacular collection of books, movies, games, music, you name it. Someone even nominated the Gmail themes.

It's a ton of fun, and if you've got the writing bug (and aren't doing NaNoWriMo or really, really have the writing bug), you should give it a try. Signups close on the 12th!

So now that the big author reveal for Yuletide is over, I guess I can share what I wrote with y'all. :)

First of all, if you haven't read The Time Traveler's Wife, go to your local library and check it out. Read it. That was a really good book, right? Okay. Now hopefully my fic will make a bit more sense.

La Primavera
Fandom: The Time Traveler's Wife
Rating: G
Summary: Being a teenage girl isn't easy. Being a teenage girl who time travels isn't any easier.

The other Time Traveler's Wife stories written for Yuletide in this and previous years are by and large of amazingly high quality, making it a somewhat intimidating but satisfying group to be part of. Actually, that comment goes for *all* Yuletide stories. And extra-special thanks to Cormorant for writing me a story that came from a direction I'd never have thought of and doing something wonderful with it.