i'm a prairie girl; lord, i know what space is

Another year, another Yuletide. I flew all the way to England to get the most recent source material for this fic! ;) And thankfully that turned out to be very useful. I was definitely the least popular of an already tiny fandom, possibly due to posting relatively early? But it was an interesting exercise and I got a delightful comment from my recip, so yay Yuletide!

Sometimes and After (3736 words) by kathryne
Fandom: Murder Most Unladylike Series - Robin Stevens
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Daisy Wells, Hazel Wong
Additional Tags: Future Fic, World War II
Summary: As war looms, Hazel and Daisy's worlds narrow and finally part... or do they?

I also notice I never shared the pinch-hit I wrote for femslash16 in October here, so while I'm on the subject...

Take Care Of Business (2154 words) by kathryne
Fandom: Killers Kill; Dead Men Die - Annie Leibovitz
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Aristocrat/Maiden Aunt
Characters: The Aristocrat (Killers Kill; Dead Men Die), The Maiden Aunt (Killers Kill; Dead Men Die)
Additional Tags: Hidden Relationship, Jealousy
Summary: PUCKER UP: this fast-talking fruit magnate-ess was spotted in a rare clinch on the dance floor at the RKO gala last night, showing off her assets in a gold Balenciaga number that had us by the pips... she's sweet as sugar now, but she's never been in a hurry to put down roots before... and with the sour looks she was getting across the floor, perhaps rumors of infidelity and sibling rivalry are flowering on the vine... don't expect her to settle on a main squeeze in the near future, we say.

These two were both chances to stretch myself in terms of tone and voice, and I think I did pretty okay on both of them - which is good, since I sure didn't write much else this year!

slow and steady (2427 words) by kathryne
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Scott & Bailey
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Julie Dodson/Gill Murray
Characters: Julie Dodson, Gill Murray
Additional Tags: Post-4x08, Friends to Lovers
Summary: After Gill's retirement, she and Julie must negotiate the balance between Julie's continuing career and their relationship.

That brings this year's word count up to a paltry 4927. Ouch. Here's to more words in 2016, or at least no fewer.

Another in the series of Last Tango in Halifax ficlets.

For Roses Too - Gillian Greenwood, Eddie Greenwood, Raff Greenwood; rated T, 1000 words. NOTE: this fic is spoilery for 2.05, and so are the warnings. Warnings and triggers are thus listed in the notes at the beginning of the fic. Gillian, pre-series, coming to a breaking point.

When you see this, post excerpts from three of your works in progress, says the meme. Well, it's not quite 'when I see it,' because I had to fetch my notebook in from the car and type up a chunk of my most recent, but nevertheless. 'In progress' might be stretching it a bit too, but 'on my mind,' at least?

None of the excerpts are spoilery for their respective shows. In rough order from first started:

( Scott & Bailey )

( Scott & Bailey )

( Last Tango in Halifax )

I still owe soupytwist a ficlet, but I haven't started it yet. *looks cute*

Title: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Author: tellitslant
Fandom: Scott & Bailey
Characters/pairing: Gill Murray, Julie Dodson, Janet Scott; background Gill/Julie
Rating: General
Word count: 4400
Notes: Many thanks to soupytwist for her keen Mancunian eye. This was originally begun as a prompt for sophia_gratia's birthday and finished for mine, so, thematic! As this was begun before s4 aired, it plays fast and loose with the show's timeline - but then, so too does the show, in places.
Warnings: None.
Summary: "I don't want to run the risk of getting drunk like someone I know did at her fortieth and run up and down the back garden topless at midnight in front of her few remaining guests singing 'I Am Sixteen Going On Seventeen.'" In the aftermath of Gill's birthday, Janet and Julie have a heart-to-heart.

Read it on AO3!

Title: Beating the Bounds
Author: tellitslant
Fandom: Scott & Bailey
Characters/pairing: Rachel Bailey & Janet Scott
Rating: G
Word count: 1800
Notes: Written in response to a prompt by chaila for a fic where Rachel takes care of a drunk Janet for once. Thanks to featherxquill for beta and titling assistance.
Warnings: None. Set late s2; no real spoilers.
Summary: Role reversal: the changing of positions between the protagonist and a significant other.

Or, another night out, another pub, only this time it's Rachel's turn to be the responsible one. Set late season two; no major spoilers.

Read it on AO3!

At last, the moment of truth. ;) I wrote two stories this year and thoroughly enjoyed both of them, which was very nice. I did have some... fun... writing a) one character in two different accents and b) one character in her first and second language when we don't actually get to speak her first language. :P

My assignment:

got a lot to not do (let me kill it with you) (3395 words) by kathryne
Fandom: Elementary (TV)
Rating: Mature
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/Jamie Moriarty | Irene Adler, Irene Adler/Sherlock Holmes
Characters: Jamie Moriarty | Irene Adler, Sherlock Holmes
Summary: I dearly hope you'll write soon.

I had kind of hoped to get a Joan/Moriarty prompt, because I would love to write them but didn't particularly have any useful ideas, but instead my recip asked for anything about Moriarty. I wrote a series of Holmes/Moriarty scenes interspersed with letters from prison; finding Moriarty's voice for the letters was great fun. (However: every single time I went to write 'Jamie,' as in 'Jamie Moriarty,' it came out 'Jaime,' as in 'Jaime Murray.' I do hope I caught those. *facepalm*) And now I want to write more Elementary fic and I do kind of have a Joan/Moriarty idea, so yay!

I still feel a bit silly about stealing a title from my latest favourite singer, but I do think it's perfect, so. I also wish I had had more time to do more research on London's East End, but that bit didn't come together until after the upload, so it's largely personal experience and google, which I feel meant it suffered a bit.

I am a bit sad that this didn't get more hits, when last year's Joan-fic got quite a few, but I think I should have given it a better summary. Oh well, I enjoyed it.

And a treat:

Light Gets In (1564 words) by kathryne
Fandom: Defiance (TV)
Rating: Mature
Relationships: Kenya Rosewater/Stahma Tarr
Characters: Kenya Rosewater, Stahma Tarr, Datak Tarr, Alak Tarr
Additional Tags: Misses Clause Challenge
Summary: Stahma does a colour study.

The recip (ellabell) is on my tumblr dash, so when I saw her go out on the pinch hit list in a fandom I'd been meaning to try writing in I stuck it aside for later, just in case. If I'd expected anyone to guess one of my fics, this would be the one; I thought it was incredibly in my voice and style, and there is a lot of overlap between the Defiance and the Warehouse 13 fandoms.

This one desperately needs a last edit, but I wrote it on the 24th and uploaded it about half an hour before the archive went live (I was actually still awake when the archive opened, though I chose to wait to read till the morning), so I'm okay with a couple of typos. I also really like how it turned out in terms of a character study. The summary is perhaps the worst (again! note to self: write summaries first next time), but I do really like the title: there is a crack in everything, and Kenya might be the one in Stahma's composure.

Overall I really enjoyed writing for Yuletide this year! Next year I will possibly not offer Elementary (three years in a row might be a bit much) and will, as always, try to get a requests/offer list done early and my writing done early. I expect to be just as successful on those as I always am. :P

That top ten AO3 stories meme is going around, and I don't believe I've done it before, so why the heck not?

( by hit count )

Conclusions: no one read anything I wrote in 2011.

( by kudos )

Conclusions: Yuletiders give more kudos! Also femslashers. I do wonder if fandom is really slanting away from comments and towards kudos. On the other hand, I do love getting an almost-daily kudos email...

And, okay, I'm not going to do 21 last first-and-last lines (how much do people think I write? *g*), but maybe ten?

( most to least recent )

Conclusions: none, really? None of these really demonstrate my penchant for semicolons; most of them are relatively short; it's actually the fics I dislike the most that I think have the best openings/closings. Hm.

I figured I'd wait a day till your flists were clear - I mean, I was too busy being emotionally wrecked by Les Miserables to post this yesterday, but. Yuletide reveal! Aside from receiving two lovely M-centric Bond fics this year, I also wrote two stories:

Practice (1333 words) by kathryne
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Elementary (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Joan Watson (Elementary), Sherlock Holmes
Summary: Working with Sherlock isn't changing Joan as much as he might think.

The request for this was "LITERALLY ANYTHING ABOUT JOAN," but sadly my immediate idea got jossed by canon like a week after assignments, ugh. In rewatching, though, I started thinking about how the show portrays the other doctors and medical professionals we see and what that might possibly say about former surgeon Joan and what she was like or still holds from that life.

*

No Such Roses (1571 words) by kathryne
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Maddie Brodatt/Julie Beaufort-Stuart
Characters: Julie Beaufort-Stuart, Maddie Brodatt
Summary: (redacted for people on my flist whom I am trying to make read this book omg read it read it)

SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK BTW.

The request for this was "OMG PLEASE HAVE THEM MAKE OUT" and, well, I was okay with that. This was written almost entirely on Christmas Day, but I really like my Maddie voice.

*

In general, I was quite pleased by this yuletide: both fics hit triple-digit hit counts ("Practice" over 300, "No Such Roses" over 150"), double-digit kudos (over 40 and over 20), and 9 or 10 comments. Which is pretty okay for yuletide, I think.

I wanted to write moar treats, but I had such a shitty last two months of 2012 that frankly I'm impressed I didn't default. Here's to more writing next time! :D

I am going to be largely out of interwebby contact for the next little while sooooo I thought I should say: do you like lady spies? Do you like lady spies mentoring each other? Do you like lady spies mentoring each other and unexpected crossovers with The Avengers? THEN YOU SHOULD READ MY YULETIDE FIC.

Protégé (2012 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: James Bond (Movies), Skyfall (2012), Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: M (James Bond), Eve Moneypenny, Moneypenny (James Bond), Peggy Carter
Summary:

M passes on what she's learned.

Also, I have two fics in the archive! I suspect one of them is totally unguessable and one of them is totally obvious. ;) They are both in fandoms that are new to both Yuletide and me this year. One is a print fandom. One is a tv fandom. One involves spies. One doesn't. Both focus on women (I know, shocker, right?). If you wish to guess, please do, and I will drabble or ficlet for you if you get it right!

It is -25 or so with windchill in Edmonton. Off to B.C. tomorrow where it will THANKFULLY be much nicer. So I hope you are all enjoying your day!