Arduinna

brightknightie posted: Milestones in FK fanfic archival totals (Could this be FK's last Yuletide?)

I had an embarrassment of riches this year, with three gifts written for me, two in the main collection and one in Madness.

Two absolute charmers were in Boston Legal, written for me by debirlfan:

Names and Other Irrelevant Labels (1073 words) by debirlfan
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Boston Legal
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Denny Crane/Alan Shore
Characters: Denny Crane, Alan Shore
Additional Tags: Post-Finale, Yuletide
Summary:

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Crane, 2015 (100 words) by debirlfan
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Boston Legal
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Denny Crane, Alan Shore
Additional Tags: Yuletide Madness Drabble Invitational
Summary:

You just know Denny would do it...

Boston Legal is a fandom of my heart, largely because of Denny and Alan, and I was over the moon to get two visits with them this year. ♥

The third was in Jumpin' Jack Flash, full of the awesome that is Terry Doolittle:

Old School for New Tech (1091 words) by BardicRaven
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Terry Dolittle/Her Imagination
Characters: Terry Dolittle, The Russian Lady Fitness Instructor, James Page, Miscellaneous I.T. semi-professionals
Additional Tags: Banks - Freeform, Finance, Money Transfers, Money, fitness, exercise, Russian exercise telly ruining data-entry scores, Data-entry, Soul-sucking jobs, Job Disatisfaction, Employment, problem solving, Old School, New Tech, Misses Clause Challenge
Summary:

Sometimes, ya just gotta handle it old-school.

Basically I spent Yuletide reveal night beaming my head off.


I wrote Invisible Man for Ark, who asked for "smutty and in love", so I was pretty much beaming my head off on assignments day, too. Right up my alley, that. I had a few false starts, but in the end I'm really happy with what I wound up writing:

A Day Like Many Days (1875 words) by Arduinna
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Invisible Man (TV 2000)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Darien Fawkes/Bobby Hobbes
Characters: Darien Fawkes, Bobby Hobbes
Additional Tags: Partnership, downtime, Dinner, after-dinner fun
Summary:

Sometimes a dinner invitation was just a dinner invitation -- but sometimes it was more.

I managed to forget to put the quote that explains the title in the end notes like I'd planned, but oh well, so it goes. I think it works anyway. :)

ETA: *facepalm* I forgot that this year's YT was being based on midnight UTC for major stuff, and have been sitting here sorting finances to have everything from 2014 done before 2015 instead of wallowing around in the archive. Which I just virtuously closed up the checkbook and the budget and was about to go do, and spotted people doing reveals posts already. Whoops!

Many thanks, merryghoul! <3 <3
/ETA

----

I should have spent today running an errand that I couldn't finish yesterday, since otherwise I won't have time for at least a week or two. But it consists mostly of driving for about 3 hours round-trip to stand in a line for probably 15 minutes to return some equipment, and I admitted to myself when I got up that I just didn't want to. I took a few days off this week (after months of incredibly busy RL between work and family), and it has been bliss to (mostly) just stay home and not worry about anything. I wanted one more day of that, so screw the errand; it's worth it.

That busy RL has meant that too much stuff has piled up around my house to let me actually dive into Yuletide and not come back out the way I wanted to, but I've managed to do some poking around without the usual pressure to squeeze in as much reading as I can between other obligations. Again, bliss!

Starting, of course, with my own gift. My request wound up going out as a fairly last-minute pinch hit this year, so I was completely bowled over when it turned out to be something targeted so closely to my likes:

Duck and Cover (1470 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Burn Notice
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sam Axe/Michael Westen
Characters: Sam Axe, Michael Westen
Additional Tags: Backstory, Missions, Missions Gone Wrong, Escape, Caves, Kissing, Pre-Series
Summary:

Sam and Michael are together on a mission in Thailand that goes wrong. What happens next involves a lot of running.

I mean, look at those tags! ♥

The voices in this are bang-on, and I could totally see this happening. And the ending leaves them in such a solid, together place. *happy sigh* Mike/Sam is woefully rare in Burn Notice, so I'm doubly chuffed to have gotten this.

Now, as usual, I just wish there was another week till author reveals, so I could work my way through more of the stories while they're still anon; there are whole fandoms I haven't touched yet as I've bounced around the list. c'est la yuletide.

If you haven't been following the yuletide_admin comm (there's also a DW feed of it: yuletide_admin_feed), things have been happening! The old Yuletide archive is going to be imported "in early May" -- there's no specific date, but this is happening within a matter of weeks. \o/

Originally they weren't sure if comments would be included. That has been steadily firming up, and as of today has reached a point I honestly never expected: not only are comments going to be imported with works from the old archive, but if you tell them exactly which stories to connect, IN ADVANCE, they'll also be able to import comments to old YT stories you've already uploaded.

eee!

If you imported them yourself from the old YT site, you're all set; it should happen automatically. If you uploaded them manually (that would be what I did), that link will give you a link to the contact form to give Open Doors the info, and will tell you exactly what information to include.

So here's the thing. Technically, "early May" is... next week. Looking at the schedule, it looks like the import won't happen till sometime after May 4 (since they have a "how will this work?" chat scheduled for that day), but that's next Sunday. Presumably, the import could happen at any point thereafter. If you want your old comments attached to works you've already uploaded, you have to set it up in advance, which pretty much means "do this now".

If you wait till after the archive import, it'll be too late, and you'll lose those old comments.

Unrelated to the comments issue, the YT admins have created collections for all YT years now, and you can go through and add your old works to the proper collections. Please do, if you're planning on keeping your uploaded versions instead of deleting them in favor of the imported versions! I am greedy, and want allllll the YT fic together. <3

If you haven't already uploaded/imported your old YT stories, you don't have to do anything but wait, then claim your stories after the fact. Your stories will be imported to the correct collections with comments intact.

More info from the AO3 announcement, including chat dates and times -- the first chat is going on as I type this, the second is next week, as mentioned.

(But first, I am so far behind on the meme, zomg -- I'm currently very glad that most of the end of the month didn't fill up, so I can shift the questions I haven't answered forward. I will get to them all!)

Yuletide bears ate me for most of the last week, but I got a story done and posted and edited and tweaked and made myself stop touching it a few hours before midnight on the 24th, to be safe. *g* Today was supposed to be for hours and hours of reading, but was more like a little reading, and then hanging out with mollyamory and therienne for a wonderful dinner and some presents and Doctor Who and a very nostalgic trip to the pilot episode of Stargate Atlantis.

But I did manage to read both my gifts, of which I got two! I don't usually get treats, so I was hugely chuffed to see one this year.

My official story was in Haven, which I'm just beaming over, having spent some time earlier this month wallowing in the joy of this season of Haven -- the story itself is set during the season opener, which! Really couldn't be better timing. This melted me into a little puddle of happy goo.

Complicated (3081 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Haven
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Duke Crocker/Nathan Wuornos
Characters: Duke Crocker, Nathan Wuornos, Jennifer Mason (Haven)
Additional Tags: Bruises, Hurt/Comfort, Bathing/Washing, Reunions, Missing Scene, Complicated Relationships, Self-Flagellation, Empathy, Kissing, Minor Injuries, Napping, Season/Series 04, Established Relationship, Yuletide Assignment, Yuletide 2013
Summary:

Having just found Nathan busily involved in his own peculiar brand of self-flagellation, Duke spends some time getting him cleaned up and the both of them reacquainted. (Takes place during the reunion scene of Season 4, Episode 1, "Fallout.")

The treat was in Forever Knight, and also made me really happy. I miss Schanke like crazy, and the author did a great job with him and the world he inhabits (and if you're a Cohen fan, she nailed Cohen in this, too).

Copper's Instinct (5788 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Forever Knight
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Nick Knight, Don Schanke, Amanda Cohen, Natalie Lambert, Officer Lipinski, Sgt. Mandrake (Forever Knight), Myra Schanke, Jenny Schanke, Det. McCabe (Forever Knight), Det. Dreyfus (Forever Knight), Janette DuCharme
Additional Tags: Canon Related, Wordcount: Over 1.000
Summary:

Schanke's perspective on the events of the Season Two premiere, "Killer Instinct".

I foolishly didn't take any time off this week or next, and I'm losing prime reading time on Sunday to a family get-together, so I'm flailing a bit at how to make it through the rest of the archive before reveals. But it's a fun kind of flailing, at least.

Yay, Yuletide!

And now to bed, so I can work tomorrow. Woe.

Thank you so much! The thought of a story in any of these fandoms is already making me happy.

I'd really like something that falls on the warm / happy / fluffy / vanilla end of the spectrum, if possible. If that isn't something you can do, I understand! Just please no deathfic or loss of a loved one, including pets; and no terminal illnesses of any kind as an h/c or angst trope. Thank you. <3

I love all six (!) of these fandoms unreservedly, so if you have a yen to explore the universe, or bring in additional characters I didn't list, it's all good.

If you want more information about my requests, read on - but please don't worry if your ideas go in a different direction. Optional details are optional! I would much rather read the story you wanted to write than the story you felt you were obligated to write because of something I said. As long as it's for one of these fandoms, and uses the characters, you totally win at Yuletide. \o/

( my fic tastes )

Why I love these fandoms

(Alphabetical, not ranked by preference! I love them all. :)

( Burn Notice )


( The Equalizer )


( Forever Knight )


( Haven )


( Kung Fu: The Legend Continues )


( Valdemar Series – Mercedes Lackey )

In short, yay, Yuletide!

I should really keep a list all year of things that strike my fancy, because I invariably forget things by nominations time, and wind up trawling through my old DYW letters and renominating old favorites. Some years I'm in more of an "any characters" kinda place, but this year I seem to be in a very specific slash-or-friendship pairing place, and stuck to just pairings.

I don't usually bother checking the spreadsheet first, because I don't care if I'm double-nominating things (and also I know it's not complete -- I'm one of the people who never bothers adding their nominations to the list), but this year since I'm nominating so late I went searching just for the heck of it, and went for things that aren't on the spreadsheets.

The Equalizer
Robert McCall
Control (The Equalizer)

The Invisible Man (TV 2000)
Bobby Hobbes
Darien Fawkes

Kung Fu: The Legend Continues
Kermit Griffin
Peter Caine

Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Carl Romeo
Tom Swale

I was really surprised that neither I-Man nor Young Wizards was on the spreadsheet yet, complete or no! Both of those are such perennial YT fandoms, and YW is a perennial *popular* fandom, so that was just odd to me. I'm unlikely to request YW (I tend to avoid book fandoms on signups), but it's one of the fandoms that always makes my YT reading list and I love Carl/Tom stories in particular, so. I can only assume that other people have nominated other characters as well,

I still haven't figured out my requests and offers for this year; poking through the spreadsheet, I spotted a fandom or two that made me go "ooo" besides the ones here, and a few other of my staples. I can't wait to see what the final full list is!

*breaks out Yuletide icon*

I am at !!BEARS!! so will distract myself with doing the Yuletide meme that's going around.

( Yuletide! )

Once again this year, despite some reservations about whether it was really a good idea for me, I signed up for Yuletide and stuck it out, and once again I'm happy I did. Beyond just giving and getting stories, Yuletide gave me something positive to focus on during what was otherwise a fairly crappy holiday season, and that made a world of difference.

Also there were stories!

I got an absolutely lovely Invisible Man story, which I have read multiple times now. It was everything I could have wanted, and if you like Invisible Man, you will like this story, trust me.

Taking the Waters (3002 words) by Lydia
Fandom: Invisible Man (TV 2000)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Darien Fawkes/Bobby Hobbes
Characters: Bobby Hobbes, Darien Fawkes
Summary:

They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Call them crazy, but Bobby and Darien are going to try the water park again. Water gun fights and sunburn ensue -- among other things.

It's warm, playful, affectionate, and bantery, with a little touch of underlying angst that adds just a perfect fillip of h/c to the whole thing. The whole thing makes me kinda flaily with joy. *hugs story*

Go, read, leave a comment or some kudos. ♥

---

I also wrote a story, as one does. I basically fell over laughing when I got my assignment, because once again I'd been assigned dorinda, just like a few years ago. Heeeeee. We matched on two fandoms, Peacemakers and I Spy, but as it happens, we'd just been talking about Peacemakers a week or two before, and what kinds of stories we were in the mood for. So I figured it would make it completely obvious that I'd written it, but hey, you can't beat having such a clear notion of what someone's looking for right at that particular point in time.

And this is what I came up with:

Shelter in the Storm (4529 words) by Arduinna
Fandom: Peacemakers (2003)
Rating: Explicit
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Larimer Finch/Jared Stone
Characters: Larimer Finch, Jared Stone
Summary:

It's warmer upstairs.

Many thanks to marycrawford for the beta, and to both her and mollyamory for cheerleading in the midst of my inevitable panic and keeping me going. <3

I went through a bunch of permutations on how to get them where they wound up, but eventually decided that something sort of quiet and low-key was the way to go. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I suspect dorinda suspected that I wrote it, but I refused to give it away, even if it meant avoiding IRC a lot this past week. *g*

---

Also as usual, I keep intending to do a recs post; I am now about three years behind on recs posts. But I've been trying to remember to bookmark and click rec on AO3 as I've gone along, at least to a minimal degree; there's so much to read that I haven't really been stopping to fill in the notes field with why I'm reccing things, other than a sentence here or there.

If you want to see what's struck me so far in YT 2011 (I am not remotely done -- so many stories!!), you can check out my recs here. It currently includes about 30 stories in 19 fandoms:

Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery, Are You Being Served, Boston Legal, Burn Notice, Circle of Magic - Tamora Pierce, The Closer, Dark Is Rising - Susan Cooper, Elfquest, Haven, Here Come the Brides, I Dream of Jeannie, Invisible Man, I Spy, MASH, NCIS: LA, Newspaper Games Anthropomorfic, Sports Night, Tangled, and Young Wizards - Diane Duane.

(A given fandom's bookmarks aren't necessarily together, since I was reading across multiple devices over the week at random times. They're not alphabetical by fandom, either, as I was skipping around deliberately. But they do have author names on them now, because the AO3 is awesome like that. <3 No having to remember to go back and add them in after reveal, woo!)

This will be added to over the next several weeks/months, as I keep reading; there are a lot of fandoms I haven't even looked at. And maybe someday I'll manage to pull together a proper set...

If you're doing deadline-based writing and you have an iPad, you have a new option: Write or Die has a new app out. It's $9.99, which is wincy, but that's how much the desktop version costs, so fair enough, I guess.

It has some features the free web app doesn't:

- save to various places, including email (put the account you want to email to in your Settings first) and a clipboard so you can paste it into another app (after doing some testing, this is the best of the two for preserving your line breaks). Eventually you'll also be able to save to Google Docs and Dropbox, but they're not active yet (Gdocs) and not working yet (Dropbox). Don't even try Dropbox yet, it'll freeze and you'll have to force-quit out. (I think he maybe pushed this out for nano a skosh earlier than he should, but hey. the writing part works!)

- a nyan cat punishment level (don't try this one in a real document; it worked but then I was stuck and had to force quit out)

- a storySpark section that randomly offers up three words or short phrases for inspiration (currently visible on mine: toy store, zen, peasant), and you can tap to get three more random things if you want something different

- autosave to a files section, so if you have to force-quit out you haven't lost everything, and you can go look at your files later and copy or send them elsewhere (you can't get back in to edit or add to them once you've quit out or hit "done" on a project).

- deadline countdown -- you tell it when your deadline is, and it tells you how long you have to finish. (hey, the entire point of this program is to scare you into writing.) You could set it for, say, the day before you would absolutely have to have your YT story out to beta... (someone out there must actually finish before the last possible day, right? /o\)

I think that's it for extra features; other than that it's regular Write or Die: you pick the word count you want to reach, the time limit you want to set for yourself, the grace period before the program starts nudging you, and the level of nudge you want, from a gentle popup to a horrendous noise to something that eats another word for every second you don't write to nyan cat.

In turn it will panic you into writing without stopping to edit and second-guess yourself, and will give you a word count as you go. Win!

You spend the day obsessively refreshing your mail for your assignment, then when it finally appears, you open the email with a hand over your eyes in abject terror of what it might be.

Happily, mine appears to be one of the fandoms I offered to write! Go figure. *g* Hopefully, my writer has made the same discovery and is not panicking at their assignment.

Also, for anyone who wanted a button to click to default rather than having to send an email, it looks like AO3 offers just that - in the "My Assignments" page, there's a section for "Manage [work]" that lets you click either "default" or "post to fulfill".

I have no idea what happens if you click default, and I'm not going to test it. *g* But it's there!

Now to start reviewing source...

\o/

There are a bunch of things I keep meaning to post about (Venture Bros, omg that second to last ep was so good! Burn Notice is back! [although I haven't watched this week's ep yet so please don't spoil me *g*] Fringe! [also haven't watched this week's ep, so please don't spoil that one either, sorry!] Yuletide signups are almost live! AO3 NOW ALLOWS VID EMBEDS OMG!!! - and, you know, has shinier code in general, and tons more Yuletide stuff, but omg VID EMBEDS! Permanent URLs even if your hosting changes! YAY!!)

But the thing that causes me to actually finish a draft for once is this:

( cut for image )

\o/ GO HEIDI! She looks fabulous, and as Tom and Lorenzo of Project Rungay put it:

"Ahem. As we recall, a certain Ms. Garcia threw down the gauntlet during the Project Runway Season 8 finale judging session with a derisive "I'd like to see you wear that dress, Klum."

Why, kittens. We do believe Miss Heidi Klum just gave Miss Nina Garcia the finger, figuratively (and fashionably) speaking."

HAH!

Now let's see if Nina actually wears Gretchen's godawful knit-granny-panties and hideous shiny green leather jacket combo.

There are more pics at the link - Heidi is totally showing that dress off, and looking very happy about it, too. Yay for Mondo!

(Icon totally aimed at Michael Kors and Nina Garcia, not Heidi. <3)

Thank you so much! The thought of a story in any of these fandoms is already making me happy. Whatever you want to do with them, I'm already grateful, and the happier you are with what you write, the happier I'll be reading it. If you have an idea that you're itching to write, go for it!

If you want more information about my requests, though, read on - but please don't worry if your ideas go in a different direction. Optional details are optional! As long as it's for one of these fandoms, and uses the characters, you totally win at Yuletide. \o/

( my fic tastes )

( why I love these fandoms )

If you're stalking my LJ or delicious for hints about me, my apologies - I never post much, and this year in particular I've been quiet in both places. But honestly, I adore all these fandoms, and will be happy with absolutely anything you write, as long as you enjoy writing it.

And thank you, again!!