Dear Author Letter Yuletide 2020

[sunrisemagpie]

Dear Yuletide Author,

Thank you so much for offering to write in my fandoms! I am also SunriseMagpie on AO3.

So like the admin post said, “This has been an especially tough year for many of us” and I am no exception. I wasn’t even planning on doing Yuletide this year because last year was just so perfect, but after the absolute hellpit that has been 2020, I need to spread and receive joy however I can—and what better way to do that than through fiction? 

My definite Do Not Wants: rape/non con, self-harm, incest, graphic descriptions of violence. Unless otherwise indicated, please also no character death. Mentions of the reality of the world today are going to depend on which fandom you elect to write for (specifics below) but please no one catching covid or dying of covid on the page. Background mentions of covid (the disease) in general are okay as long as they’re in passing. I’m totally fine with the plot involving “lockdown” or “quarantine” or “having to stay home and do school/work via Zoom.” If you go that route, though, I do NOT want the story to end at a point where restrictions are lifted and everything is “back to normal”.

Things I LOVE in fics:
You might get a good idea of what I'm about by looking at my bookmarked fics on AO3, but I always want to gush about what I love in fiction.

• I love stories told through ephemera, whether that's through email, social media, case notes, whatever. I'm not as much of a fan of epistolary stories told solely through one person's journal/diary, but (as evidenced by my love of My Most Excellent Year) I'm a big fan of stories where that's just one aspect of the story.
• I'm a big fan of people who are just WILD about the people they like, whether that's romantic/sexual/platonic/whatever.
• I love puns!! I love language shenanigans, but I do recognize that is a very difficult thing to pull off.
• I adoooooore stories about relationship negotiation as people are becoming friends or becoming lovers--I see this a lot in polyamory fics and I wish I saw more of this kind of story in other areas!! Relationships are constantly shifting and I love seeing how different characters deal with these changes and come out stronger, more honest, more accurate-to-who-they-are.
• I love stories about people who are in College/University or just done with it and totally lost as to what they want to do with their lives. (Cause that's where I am right now, and it's very comforting to read about characters dealing with this themselves!!)
• I'm a big fan too of FAKE DATING for parental/family/business benefit, especially if that goes along with SHARING A BED. Also a fan of "pretending we aren't dating" for similar reasons.

Fandom Info:

Fandom: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston
Characters: June Claremont-Diaz, Nora Holleran, Percy "Pez" Okonjo

I would absolutely LOVE to see what happened between June, Nora, and Pez that night! Either as a one-off threesome or as the first step on the way to becoming a triad. I’m a big fan of fics that show people trying to navigate a long-time relationship as it shifts to a new understanding (platonic to romantic, casual to serious, platonic to sexual but not romantic, etc.) AND of polyamory negotiations in general. If you are not a fan of the three of them in this framework, then I’m fine with a fic about the three of them in an intense-but-platonic relationship. I would strongly prefer NOT to have a covid-related story if this is the fandom you're writing for, mostly because in canon, covid doesn't exist.

Fandom: GEICO Insurance “Idina Menzel Sings Personalized Theme Song” Commercial
Characters: Idina Menzel (GEICO Insurance "Idina Menzel Sings Personalized Theme Song" Commercial), Tara (GEICO Insurance "Idina Menzel Sings Personalized Theme Song" Commercial)
Link to the ad.

Okay so this ad was on like EVERY SINGLE AD BREAK during the whole NHL playoffs bubble this year and it got stuck in my head in many ways. I know the misreading Tax Attorney as taxidermy thing is an Adele Dazeem reference, but like. I just want to know what it was about Tara that made Idina think that was correct???? After Idina sings the theme song, is she embarrassed? How does she make it up to Tara? (I’m fine with smut, for the record, but I’d prefer it to be of the vanilla kind and not BDSM or D/s) What led Tara to want to become a tax attorney in the first place?

Fandom: My Most Excellent Year – Steve Kluger
Characters: Alejandra Perez, T.C. Keller, Augie Hwong

This book is one of my top two favorite books of ALL TIME, and so few people have ever heard of it, so when I tell you I YELLED upon seeing this in the tagset, I am not being hyperbolic. This book is weirdly timeless, for all that it’s actually pretty firmly set in 2003-2004 school year, so if you decide to set this in the real world, I would prefer if you rolled with the canon timeline for things—meaning TC, Ale, Augie, and Andy graduated high school in 2007, and presumably graduated college in 2011. I’d love anything you do with them in college—who breaks up and who stays together the whole time? I’m leaning towards “Ale and Tick break up mostly due to schedule incompatibility” and “Andy and Augie agonizingly drift apart but get back together shortly after they’re both graduated and have jobs” but whatever headcanons you have are fine by me, as long as the story doesn’t end while they’re broken up. Does TC end up working for Obama’s re-election campaign? Is Ale part of the Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton? Does Augie direct/choreograph anything big? Who gets married/has kids first? What role does Hucky continue to play in everyone’s life? I would strongly prefer NOT to have a covid-related story if this is the fandom you're writing for.

 

Fandom: Knives Out (2019)
Characters: Marta Cabrera, Benoit Blanc (Knives Out)

I absolutely adore the rapport between Marta and Benoit, but I guess I'm in the fandom minority because I don't ship Marta with ANYONE from this movie. So a major DNW is PLEASE NO ROMANTIC OR SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MARTA AND BENOIT. I would love anything with the two of them after the events of the film--do they keep working together on cases? Does Marta keep being a nurse but constantly gets phone calls from Benoit at 2am where he tells her all about his current case? How does Marta's lying-induced vomiting affect their friendship? Honestly, I'd actually be really interested to see how each of them deal with covid and everything--if you go this route, I'm fine with OCs getting covid/their deaths being mentioned, but PLEASE no one from the film dying. (Also, as above, please don't write about the future. Probably best to set it at the latest in October 2020.) What I'm looking for in this is a replication of the respect and snark these two have for each other.