Christmas cold in full swing but I'm currently treating it with Edinburgh Gin's Christmas Gin and that's helping my mood if not the actual cold. At least Today and tomorrow I have to do almost nothing so reading my way through Yuletide is tomorrow's plan.

I have been utterly spoiled by Yuletide story this year because my anonymous author took two of my prompts (Little Women and Hamlet) and put them both together ♥

Each Word Made True and Good
Josie Brooke plays Horatio in a student production of Hamlet, and learns about patience, friendship, and love.

I also got a lovely little Yuletide treat about Josie too: Confidence

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Life is stupidly busy as ever but some of the tidying and organising I did over Christmas seems to be sticking and I think maybe it will help? I feel completely exhausted but marginally less stressed... though if I'd been typing this last night that wouldn't have quite been true so it's very much a work in progress!

My big achievement this year is in leaving comments on Yuletide stories- I've tried to leave a comment on everything I liked enough to bookmark as at least a starting point and I'm mostly succeeding.

Anyway this evening I had planned to try and write some thoughts about 2017's books but I realised I never posted my December reading so here's that first.

• White Boots - Noel Streatfield
  
• Fictions - Jorge Luis Borges (Andrew Hurley trans.)
  
• Vinegar Girl - Anne Tyler
  
• The Power - Naomi Alderman
  
• A Short and Easy Method of Prayer: Praying the Heart of the Father - Madame Jeanne Guyon
  
• Lanterns Across the Snow - Susan Hill
  
• Guardians of the Whills - Greg Rucka
  
• Grooks - Piet Hein
  
• Christmas Stories - Everyman Pocket Classic
  
• Sonnets - William Shakespeare

( December ReviewsCollapse )

(I'll make my whole year post separate which might mean tomorrow)

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Now that the yuletide reveals have all gone through a HUGE thank you to Arithanas, whetherwoman & utsusemi for my wonderful stories (I still can't believe I got Dream of the Red Chamber fic and you should read them all <3)

My story was Growing Pains which is a White Boots story and which I very much enjoyed both writing and rereading the canon for. There's another lovely White Boots story in the archive too!

I'm reading backwards from Z this year and I've just finished reading the M's (and sobbing at the beautiful Moonlight fic). My highlight from the whole bunch this year (so far) has to be the multifandom joy of Assistance to British Nationals Abroad and it's worth reading just for the list of fandoms!

• British Government Cats RPF
  
• Slip Slidin Away - Paul Simon (Song)
  
• Monstress (Comics)
  
• Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
  
• Young Wizards - Diane Duane

(But don't worry if you don't know any/all of those it's just a great story!)

And so my new year begins with fic and this morning with old films (On the Town) and a long-ish walk followed by brunch and yet another attempt by me to organise my life... I've got further through my "Christmas/New Year limbo to do list" than ever before and I still have one day to go so maybe it'll stick? Or maybe I'll just continue having anxiety dreams about this whole year and collapse with nervous exhaustion. I think we're about 50/50 on that at the moment.

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This afternoon I've actually ticked some things off my longterm to-do list which was a good feeling!

And now I'm eating Gin&Tonic Creams (courtesy of my sister & her husband who made them!) and reading Yuletide which is also a very good feeling.

My presents this year were mostly chocolate, gin or book related which means I am a very very happy person even before the fact that I got THREE Yuletide stories which was a wonderful surprise. Though all three do involve death so... maybe I should try for happier prompts next year?

I got two different takes on Teddy Bhaer & Dan Kean's relationship in the Little Women book:

The mountains are calling and I must go Written in a series of letters from Teddy to Dan.

Words of Candor Which talks about them from the point of view of a woman writing to her friend.

And then, as if that wasn't enough, my super super rare "I'll never get this in a million years" prompt also got written ♥

The fandom is 紅樓夢 - 曹雪芹 | Dream of the Red Chamber - Cao Xueqin and my prompt was about the troupe of actresses owned by the main family in the novels and particularly about
Ouguan & Yaoguan who play the romantic leads in several of their plays and OH the story is just utterly lovely and you could absolutely read it knowing nothing about the novels so please do and leave lovely comments because it really is a teeny tiny fandom outside China.

A Walk in the Garden, An Interrupted Dream

My recipient hasn't commented yet which is a little unnerving but thankfully other people seem to like my offering so that's taken some of the sting away!

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Well I wasn't going to but then that felt too weird so this is a placeholder for my letter...

Dear Yuletide Author,

To start with- please don't worry, I am really very easily pleased and several of my requests are properly tiny fandoms where I'd be hapy to receive ANY story even if you can't stay within my visions for the characters.

I'm not a big fan of overly marshmallow-y fluff type stories. Happy stories and in love stories or happy ending stories are all fine but I'd like there to be some kind of conflict or edge to show off the happiness. That said if it's set anywhere near Christmas my liking for fluff goes up hugely *g* When it comes to angst I'm particularly fond of the yearning wistful kind (with our without the resolution)

My requests this year are (as always) quite mixed, in the end I'm mostly interested in relationships between people and although I am a slash fan het, slash or gen are all good with me.

Oh and I always love a good Christmas/Yule/Hogmany theme though it isn't at all mandatory (or necessary)

( My fandom specific requests/detailsCollapse )

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I'm off work for 4 days and it's meant to be a combination of spring cleaning (new year cleaning?) sorting through some financial stuff and then ALL the exhibitions. In practice exhibition going will happen on Thursday & Friday because today and tomorrow I had to be at things in the early evening that would have meant rush hour travel.

Today ended up being a lot lazier than I'd originally planned... I mean I got about a quarter of the way round my room in a methodical manner chucking stuff away and properly cleaning but given I only have one more day set aside for this... we shall see. I've managed to half fill a bin bag and also three carrier bags for charity shops though so that's progress!

I also have a pile of notes about last year's theatre sitting and reproaching me. Not to mention my first show of this year. Tomorrow will be better *nods*

(on the otherhand I have very nearly got through all of the main Yuletide collection so at some point I might manage a highlights post from there <3)

In other other news I have just realised that Andrew Garfield making a spectacle of himself at the Golden Globes might make Angels in America tickets even more stressful next week (this week if your a super-priority-patron type person). Oh well. What will be will be. If I got Cursed Child tickets then how hard can these be?

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Happy New Year everyone :-)

Full look back at my year in books to come but December was a pretty good month for reading even if some of the books were really quite short *g*

• League of Dragons - Naomi Novik
  
• Drowned Worlds - Jonathan Strahan (ed)
  
• The Circle - Dave Eggers
  
• Little Book of Advent - Canon Arthur Howells
  
• The Secret Christmas: An Anthology of the Deeper Meanings of Christmas - Terence Handley-MacMath
  
• The Ladybird Book of Boxing Day - Jason Hazeley & Joel Morris
  
• he Ladybird Book of the Meeting - Jason Hazeley & Joel Morris
  
• The Carols of Christmas: A Celebration of the Surprising Stories Behind Your Favorite Holiday Songs - Andrew Gant

( December reviewsCollapse )

Oh and whilst I'm here my Yuletide story was a Stand By Me story: If the world has ceased to hear you

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So we're nearly at the end of 2016 which is obviously an arbitrary marker in an indifferent universe BUT...

( Cut for sadnessCollapse )

Um. I've had a lovely Christmas. All that previous paragraph under the cut is true and has been difficult but I truly have been blessed this Christmas. I've seen all my family and a lot of my friends and I got lovely lovely presents and two Yuletide stories both for Georgette Heyer's Venetia <3

And then the rest of the week vanished somehow. I mean I saw people and did some sales shopping and did a bit of preparing for next year and panicked because my job has been advertised (this is not a surprise but the timing is a little... I have till the 11th to apply)

Honestly though- I have books and chocolate and some amazing necklaces plus a calendar of Jenny Dolfen's art and my two goddaughters gave me chocolate and wine (wine came from the grown up one :-P) and I hope you've had Christmasses as lovely as this one.

And I hope 2017 is better :-P

(ps. I have not properly registered all the current LJ is over/Russian/unsecure news and I will and maybe, finally, start crossposting properly to DW but I'm not quite awake enough to work it out right now. My last attempt failed because I couldn't work out how to ensure I saw everyone's posts without seeing them all twice)

Dear Yuletide Author... I'm so sorry my letter wasn't done before assignments went out but who was expecting that to happen so fast! I hope my brief suggestions got you excited but here are a few other thoughts in case they help...

( What I want for Yuletide (please)Collapse )

Good luck with Yuletide and I hope you enjoy the writing as much as I know I'll love the reading!

I started doing one of those year in review things and then realised I was just depressing myself so here are some lovely things I have found so far in 2016.

(aka that question about what has kept me sane in 2015? fandom, theatre and you lot <3)

• This amazing multifandom video by Llin
  
  
  Touch the Sky
  
  
• Basically everything Star Wars on tumblr including all the art and everything this cast chooses to be but also all the amazing headcanons including this amazing one from astolat.
  
  (did I say I'd see Star Wars TFA? Because I have and it was amazing and I love it very very much)
  
  
• All of yuletide (obviously) :D I'm only up to H and have slowed down a lot because OMG so much Hamilton fic <3 So far however I would most like to draw your attention to
  a thing with feathers which is an amazing modern AU of Georgette Heyer's Devil's Cub
  Things Which Brought Us Here in which Peggy Blackett meets Petrova Fossil <3
  books to help you with your life because who knew I wanted to read Grantchester fic that wasn't about Sidney (it's Leonard Finch/Ben Blackwood)
  and finally
  A rare confluence of events which is anthropomorfic about London stations :D
  
  
• There's a new BFFComic update. I mean I say it's a lovely thing and it IS and yet also my soul has been crushed into a thousand tiny pieces and the worst things of all is it turns out I may actually have stopped shipping my OTP for the comic and I feel like such a traitor. (I love BFF Comic very very much)(technically the update was on NYE but I only saw it today)

This year's resolution- not to freak out when posting lists with even numbers of things and then either not actually post them or add something I don't really mean because who makes a list with only 4 things? This time I do. (Human brains are strange strange things aren't they?)