It's that Yuletide time again!

[reynardo]

To my lovely, wonderful Yuletide writer:

Dear Writer,

First of all, you are amazing. Wonderful. Whatever you write, you wrote for me, and for that I shall be eternally grateful. Thank you.


Wellington Paranormal:

Officer O'Leary (Wellington Paranormal) Officer Minogue (Wellington Paranormal) Sergeant Ruawai Maaka (Wellington Paranormal)

Reports of a horse on the hillside at Maupuia Park are coming in thick and fast. But has someone dressed the poor horse up for Hallowe'en? Because horses don't normally have horns on their heads. Bonus points if a) there's a My Little Pony – Friendship is Magic reference, b) Suspicions that someone's made a prop at the nearby Weta Workshop and c) only Office Minogue is able to get close to it, which tells you far too much about Officer Minogue. Bring in any other characters (or OCs) that make sense. Or don't make sense. This fandom has enough stretch for everything.

Pull out Unicorn lore, folk stories, any contrasting information that might get Officer O'Leary in a spot of bother. Do it as a police report, as a news report, or even just a story - your call.


Dr Horrible

"He covets. That is his nature. And how do we begin to covet, Clarice? Do we seek out things to covet? ... We begin by coveting what we see every day."

When did Billy first see Penny, what drew him to her, and what happened as his desire grew?

Billy is a sad case. Pining after a woman who completely doesn't like what he does, even though he knows that. But pining has to start somewhere.

So where?


Cadfael

I adored these books after I stumbled over them in a bookshop in Sydney 40 years ago. So I'm looking for something that will use the knowledge of Cadfael, the sense of Hugh, and the history of Shrewsbury. After the Anarchy is finally resolved and the country settles down, you have feudal systems, a strong Church, politics - and the everyday people trying to live while famine and flood and disease and injuries happen. Please use anyone in the Cadfael universe to flesh this story out, as long as Cadfael and Hugh are the centre of it all.

Science is "Natural History", the Bible explains everything (or maybe there were some ideas elsewhere in the world that Cadfael picked up), alchemy should work, and of course there needs to be some action that shouldn't do anything but does. Go for your medieval heart-loving desire.


Endless Night.

Oh you've only picked the darkest, the most warped of the Chrsties. That where the main character is ...unredeemable, surely.

I would like a few of the major scenes of the narrator, with flashes in his mind of what could have happened if he had gone the other way. At least one of the scenes should be with Ellie, but the others can be with anyone from the novel.

And the darker and the more heart-rending, the better.

I remember when I read that, and thought WHAT?????

What if it hadn't been?

Go for it. See if you can make me cry



Little Red Riding Hood.

Yeah, don't talk to strangers, listen to your mother, be wary of changes to your grandma, the woodsman will save you.

Could you flip this? Make Granny and the Woodsman the bad guys? I'm sure they're actually running a child-kidnap ring or an organ-donation scam or something. And make the wolf Brave and Honest and Good?

Go for it.

I had an idea years ago that "Big Bad Wolf" was a story put around by certain people to deflect blame. I'd love to see what you make of it.


Little Women.

I'd love to know more about Nan - was she single from choice, or because her choice (*cough* other women *cough*) was illegal, or was the one she loved not interested?

If you can, though - big request this, but not compulsory:

In the middle of the book, there's a play at the Academy, and one part is played by an actual baby. Baby sits but does not walk, has no words, is completely calm and unruffled around the adults, and I have wondered for years WHERE DID THIS BABY COME FROM???

So now you get to tell me. I have my suspicions. I have no doubt that Nan is involved as the doctor who delivered the infant. One of Jo's sons may have had a hand in delivering it somewhere. But who was the mother? None of the March family - you couldn't hide something like that. One of the students? A servant? Who is the father?

Write it as somehow plausible, please, and ease my tortured mind.

So yeah - eternal mystery. I've even asked about this on a couple of Alcott discussion groups and it feels as if everyone's brushed it off! Would love to see what truth you can make of it.


Tales of Alderley

The Weirdstone came down through the farmer's family to Bess, then she passed it to Susan's mother.

So tell me about what happened to it in the years from when the farmer sold his milk-white horse to Cadellin, to when Bess Mossock gave it to the children's mother. I mean, someone wearing it when they walked on the moors, or holding it when a strange fog came in, or ... Keep it safe, send it down the line, but tell me about the almost-meetings, the strange noises in the night, the odd line of animals walking past the farm ...

40 years ago a family friend in Cheshire was driving me to their place and we passed Toad Hall (Which was actually T'Owd Hall - as in "The Old Hall"). And Alan Garner was just hopping out of his Land Rover to open the gate!!!

I do adore a good backstory. Please make it as amazing as you want, or full of easter eggs, or linking to other ideas ...


-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+


All fics - use any other characters that make sense to you in the story. You know them. You are listening to their voices, so write who they are.

If they lead down the path of heat and fire and bodies clashing, let them. But there's no need to force it. I'm quite as happy with G rated as I am with M. Or even E. Again, let them lead where they will. Stick your nose in this ratings list and I would prefer we stay inside green, blue and purple at the most, just this time. There are times for the others, but not this time.

Or friendship fic. It can be just friends. That would be fine too.

And don't worry too much if your fic starts straying outside the boundaries. They do that. It's all the characters' faults. You are making something for me, and I love you anyway. Write me a story, leave me going "yes, they totally would have done that!" and you will have a happy, happy recipient.

Thank you