Making the Yuletide Gay since 2007
Jan. 6th, 2018 09:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pensnestThe SeSa experience is different every year. For my first one, in 2005 (when it was DWNOGA), I looked around in confusion at all the SeSa angst, because I had an ideal assignment and a recipient whose stories I had read. Yes, then the following year I had to write a new (to me) pairing for Torch. And last year, I had to produce a Brian story, though I was not in a good place to sympathise with Brian's political beliefs.
Anyway.
Well, it started out with an excellent assignment. I have not been asked for Trickyfish for Christmas… wow, not since 2005. Not that I haven't written plenty of it anyway, but still.
My immediate thought was ooh, I can write the Wallow, and I began figuring out the timeline for what will be a very complicated story. I even explained it in great detail tochalcopyrite who came to visit me for a SeSa Weekend, and who may have been a mite puzzled to read the MTYG collection and not find it there. Because I had second thoughts: the Wallow is perhaps rather too angsty for a Christmas present. Also, it wouldn't really work as an MTYG story because DEATH. (My fellow mod would kill me!) Okay, time for a re-think.
Then I remembered another story that I'd been meaning to write—and in that one, I didn't really know what happened, so I settled in to tackle it and found that it went rather well. Lance helped (a bit), by doing an article on the best places to get brunch in LA, just at the perfect moment. Not as serendipitous as Justin's Pair of Wings song turning up in time to help me finish a dragon story, but pleasing nonetheless. All kinds of interesting stuff turned up in the story which I had not known was in there (whether 'there' is 'the story' or 'my brain'). However, as it was nearing completion I realised that the Trickyfish element was, shall we say, minimal, and that might not be quite what my recipient was hoping for. So I finished the story in plenty of time to come up with something more recipient-specific, and decided this one should be From The Elves, and that its title would be Mirror, Mirror. A big thank-you tosperrywink for the beta. I know that at least one person picked up the Star Trek references—the title is from an Original Trek episode in which the mirror universe versions of Our Heroes are evil, and Spock has an Evil Goatee. I don't know if Chris was ever a Trek fan, but I think it's part of our culture these days.
Then, on to writing my actual assignment story for Den, and that happened along quite handily, too, because I am on the brink of adopting a pussycat or two, and pet adoption is a heartwarming thing to have for Christmas. Lance and Chris are dog people, not cat people, of course. My thanks to Terri for reassuring me that I got the emotional parts right, and to Nopseud for picking the story up by the scruff and giving it a good shake, at which point I had to let the characters do what they wanted, instead of pushing them into uncomfortable places For Plot. It worked out much better that way, and I ended up very pleased with it. It's sweet and cuddly and quite emotional at times, and ended up being named for the little dog with the starring role, Jamie.
By that time there was a pinch-hit needing to be written, and I had not written Joey/Kevin before, which made quite a change from Trickyfish. I thought I'd steal a plot, a good way to get stuff done in a hurry, and as Much Ado About Nothing is and will always be my favourite Shakespeare, I decided they'd been lovers before and had a breakup that neither had really got over, and set Brian and Chris to plot to get them back together. And then I bethought me of a setting, which is a place thatnopseud had found years ago during our regular quest for places to hold Camp Sparkle, a fort in the middle of Portsmouth Harbour which has been transformed into a luxury hotel. At the time we looked at it, I don't think it was a hotel, it was like an extremely fancy rental cottage at which guests could arrive by helicopter. Anyway, I fudged the details, brought Joey and Kevin on as antagonistic chefs, and things fell into place very nicely. Thank goodness for the internet, though, because I was able to clarify lots of things about How Kitchens Work and steal recipes from fancy chefs all over the place, etc. Though in retrospect I think the Pimms Jelly may have been a mistake—too summery. Anyway, that was No Man's Fort. There wasn't time for an in-depth beta, this being due at 8am on Christmas Eve, but sperrywink was kind enough to look it over and give me some helpful reassurance! Oh, and if you'd like to see what Kevin's cake looked like, it would have been something like this. Do go through all the pics, by the way, the place is amazing.
AND THEN, at some point during Christmas Eve I thought I should be a dutiful mod and check that we were ready to go live, and found that… we weren't. One of our authors had not turned in her story. Panic mode, we mods both tried to contact the missing author via email, and I set to writing a *very* last-minute pinch-hit just in case. Happily, our author—who'd had some distressing family stuff to deal with—came through with her story, but as by the time it came in I'd pretty much finished a story set at a somewhat disguised version of the Nine Worlds convention, we thought Luxshine, who has been an MTYG stalwart for years, could have both stories. And that was how Con-Stir-Nation came to be written.
So that is how I came to write four stories for MTYG this year, and to run the gamut from "really, really early" to "OMG THE PRESSURE". Possibly the oddest thing is that I don't have a favourite. From the one I'd secretly been incubating for months which needed the MTYG kickstart to get written, to the one which emerged under frantic fingers at the *very* last minute, I'm really happy with all of them.
And what a great way to get one's feedback fix!
Anyway.
Well, it started out with an excellent assignment. I have not been asked for Trickyfish for Christmas… wow, not since 2005. Not that I haven't written plenty of it anyway, but still.
My immediate thought was ooh, I can write the Wallow, and I began figuring out the timeline for what will be a very complicated story. I even explained it in great detail to
chalcopyrite who came to visit me for a SeSa Weekend, and who may have been a mite puzzled to read the MTYG collection and not find it there. Because I had second thoughts: the Wallow is perhaps rather too angsty for a Christmas present. Also, it wouldn't really work as an MTYG story because DEATH. (My fellow mod would kill me!) Okay, time for a re-think.Then I remembered another story that I'd been meaning to write—and in that one, I didn't really know what happened, so I settled in to tackle it and found that it went rather well. Lance helped (a bit), by doing an article on the best places to get brunch in LA, just at the perfect moment. Not as serendipitous as Justin's Pair of Wings song turning up in time to help me finish a dragon story, but pleasing nonetheless. All kinds of interesting stuff turned up in the story which I had not known was in there (whether 'there' is 'the story' or 'my brain'). However, as it was nearing completion I realised that the Trickyfish element was, shall we say, minimal, and that might not be quite what my recipient was hoping for. So I finished the story in plenty of time to come up with something more recipient-specific, and decided this one should be From The Elves, and that its title would be Mirror, Mirror. A big thank-you to
sperrywink for the beta. I know that at least one person picked up the Star Trek references—the title is from an Original Trek episode in which the mirror universe versions of Our Heroes are evil, and Spock has an Evil Goatee. I don't know if Chris was ever a Trek fan, but I think it's part of our culture these days.Then, on to writing my actual assignment story for Den, and that happened along quite handily, too, because I am on the brink of adopting a pussycat or two, and pet adoption is a heartwarming thing to have for Christmas. Lance and Chris are dog people, not cat people, of course. My thanks to Terri for reassuring me that I got the emotional parts right, and to Nopseud for picking the story up by the scruff and giving it a good shake, at which point I had to let the characters do what they wanted, instead of pushing them into uncomfortable places For Plot. It worked out much better that way, and I ended up very pleased with it. It's sweet and cuddly and quite emotional at times, and ended up being named for the little dog with the starring role, Jamie.
By that time there was a pinch-hit needing to be written, and I had not written Joey/Kevin before, which made quite a change from Trickyfish. I thought I'd steal a plot, a good way to get stuff done in a hurry, and as Much Ado About Nothing is and will always be my favourite Shakespeare, I decided they'd been lovers before and had a breakup that neither had really got over, and set Brian and Chris to plot to get them back together. And then I bethought me of a setting, which is a place that
nopseud had found years ago during our regular quest for places to hold Camp Sparkle, a fort in the middle of Portsmouth Harbour which has been transformed into a luxury hotel. At the time we looked at it, I don't think it was a hotel, it was like an extremely fancy rental cottage at which guests could arrive by helicopter. Anyway, I fudged the details, brought Joey and Kevin on as antagonistic chefs, and things fell into place very nicely. Thank goodness for the internet, though, because I was able to clarify lots of things about How Kitchens Work and steal recipes from fancy chefs all over the place, etc. Though in retrospect I think the Pimms Jelly may have been a mistake—too summery. Anyway, that was No Man's Fort. There wasn't time for an in-depth beta, this being due at 8am on Christmas Eve, but sperrywink was kind enough to look it over and give me some helpful reassurance! Oh, and if you'd like to see what Kevin's cake looked like, it would have been something like this. Do go through all the pics, by the way, the place is amazing.AND THEN, at some point during Christmas Eve I thought I should be a dutiful mod and check that we were ready to go live, and found that… we weren't. One of our authors had not turned in her story. Panic mode, we mods both tried to contact the missing author via email, and I set to writing a *very* last-minute pinch-hit just in case. Happily, our author—who'd had some distressing family stuff to deal with—came through with her story, but as by the time it came in I'd pretty much finished a story set at a somewhat disguised version of the Nine Worlds convention, we thought Luxshine, who has been an MTYG stalwart for years, could have both stories. And that was how Con-Stir-Nation came to be written.
So that is how I came to write four stories for MTYG this year, and to run the gamut from "really, really early" to "OMG THE PRESSURE". Possibly the oddest thing is that I don't have a favourite. From the one I'd secretly been incubating for months which needed the MTYG kickstart to get written, to the one which emerged under frantic fingers at the *very* last minute, I'm really happy with all of them.
And what a great way to get one's feedback fix!
no subject
Date: 2018-01-07 08:42 am (UTC)Also, Kimberly is a sneaky fiend. While things happened to mean I couldn't actually post my guesses I had told her a few in an email while I was working up to posting and mentioned how I thought No Man's Fort was written by one of the UK people but I knew it wasn't you due to you writing something else, but it didn't feel like anyone else I knew. And she said nothing. Sneaky!
Every one of your stories was gold.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-07 08:20 pm (UTC)Thank you so much. I am very pleased with all of them!
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Date: 2018-01-07 09:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-07 08:23 pm (UTC)I know
no subject
Date: 2018-01-07 01:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-07 08:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-07 05:06 pm (UTC)Four stories is above and beyond, go you.
And you're welcome for the beta and looksie. My pleasure as always.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-07 08:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-07 08:51 pm (UTC)Did you know that the Third Doctor met the Sea Devils at that fort: No Man's Land Sea Fort?!
no subject
Date: 2018-01-07 08:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-14 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-14 10:44 pm (UTC)