Kinda had an itch in the immediate aftermath of the Skeleton Crew finale. Might have more. Who knows.

TITLE: For the voyage is long and the winds don't blow
FANDOM: Star Wars: Skeleton Crew
RATING: PG
PAIRING: None
CHARACTERS: Jod Na Nawood, Female Jedi Exile
SUMMARY: A little history of the pirate known as Jod Na Nawood, though he would not own a bit of it, in truth.

AO3 link

Thought I would share the awesome trio of Little House on the Prairie stories I received for Yuletide and Yuletide Madness! Of the fandoms I requested this year, it surprises me that this was the one each writer chose, but it is a definite win for me :-)

Hasty Hearts and Steadfast Love - Almanzo Wilder/Laura Ingalls and Charles Ingalls/Caroline Ingalls, but it's just as much about Ma and Laura and is a wonderful little glimpse at the kind of advice Ma would be in a perfect position to give.

On the Way Home - Almanzo/Laura. One of my prompts was for Laura and Almanzo to be stuck waiting out a blizzard in the Brewster schoolhouse, and this author delivered in spades. I love the way this brings both of them to a bit quicker understanding of one another, but also respects the age difference and boundaries set by Laura's father. Almanzo is just perfect here!

Warm Together - Almanzo/Laura, a quick little drabble about Laura craving warmth and a picture of early marriage. One thing this made me think about is how Laura, and most likely many of De Smet's residents who survived in The Long Winter, would never want to be cold again, and would very likely fear it.

All told I think I'm now due for a Little House re-read. Maybe in the new year.

Happy Yuletide to all!

Hurray, Austen!

Dear writer, thank you! I'm pretty easy but also brimming with ideas. Please take anything you see here as suggestions and not directions! Frankly I'm just always thrilled to read Austen fanfiction.

Here we go:

( Persuasion )

( Crossover Fandom )

( Pride and Prejudice )

Snowflake continues....

Challenge #10

Five Things! The five things are totally up to you. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


How about, the last five fics I read on AO3? And I'll make this a little more interesting than that by only choosing one per fandom (I tend to binge in fandoms) and none of my own Yuletide gifts.

Sweet Ginger by pauraque (Black Beauty) - A drabble about Black Beauty's dream of Ginger. It brought me right back to my childhood - I loved this book! - and boy, it's a gut-punch.

The Adventure Begins by Shadaras (Star Wars) - I don't want to spoil this for you! Just know, it's an alternate tale for how Luke's story begins, and Beru Lars is awesome here.

Catch Fire by igrockspock (The Diplomat) - You'll be outright spoiled for the end of The Diplomat season one, but this is an excellent take on how the new season could begin.

Until Some Other Day by sheafrotherdon (Captain America/MCU) - I still love all the stories about Steve Rogers returning to Peggy Carter, but this one really sticks with me.

The Art of Marriage by Jen_814 (Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen) - Edward marries Lucy and Elinor has to move on. One of my favorite AU tropes for S&S featuring my favorite AU pairing.

Skipping a few (for now, or forever, who knows) to answer Challenge #8.

Challenge #8

Talk about a current fannish project (fic, art, vid, crochet, funko pop village) (that you are creating or enjoying)

I'm geeking out over New Rockstars' retrospective breakdowns of the X-Men movies on YouTube.

We watch a lot of New Rockstars at our house, and I'm also digging this video about what might have happened during the MCU Blip for Matt Murdock/Daredevil. It's a plotbunny generator, seriously.

Challenge #3

Create a wish list of fandom things (podfic, graphics, playlists, canon recs translations, research help, vids, sky's the limit!) that you'd like to receive

Oh gosh. I think most of all I'd like the Josh Lyman/Donna Moss video I thought of years ago, set to Avril Lavigne's "Complicated."

I don't think I have anything new, though. Here's the list I put together in 2019. It all stands.

Will this be the year I complete the challenge? Stay tuned! I'm starting several days late, so...

Anyway, Snowflake #1!

Challenge #1

Update your fandom information. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


Well, let's see.

My primary fandoms these days are MCU and Jane Austen. If I'm watching or reading, it's there, and if I'm doing fannish activity online it's probably writing Jane Austen. I'm always talking about doing more (the padawan has asked me for Jyn Erso/Cassian Andor fix-it fic, so...), and I'm really and truly only productive in micro-fandoms meant for Yuletide, but there you have it. My primary participation in fandom is in fic writing and reading; I've stayed out of the forum/community/whatever circuit for awhile, with the last really being The Americans.

Historically, I came up from X-Files fandom and haunted Harry Potter fandom for awhile. I was an almost day-one Livejournal addict, ran a website for awhile, participated in niche groups for X-Files on forums and email lists that eventually moved to LJ or died off.

My fic is housed here at AO3. (I think that's all of it, or all that I'm willing to keep published)

I'm trying, anyway.

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Yuletide was awesome, and I feel properly spoiled. I'm also going to brag on my 2022 gift, because I was a crappy recipient at the time and want to draw your attention to the awesome. But we'll go in reverse order.

2023 - I've gotten so predictable in my requests, y'all, but this year I went with a dark horse in Werewolf by Night and it paid in spades. It's a Fearless Life by treewishes is a really great what-if of Jack wishing he had never been born, featuring founding member of the X-Men Angel in the Clarence role. I truly love this story and think you might as well, if you were, like me, delighted by Werewolf by Night.

Keeping with the It's a Wonderful Life theme, I also got Love is Patient by Karios , a look at the whole story from Mary Bailey's POV with a bonus ending for the film that I would have loved to see in canon. Mary Bailey is very probably my favorite film character, and I love her more every year. This story gave her agency without breaking the film's story and I really love it.

These stories really were a gift. I was one of the amnesty recipients for Yuletide after a default with no NYE make-up story. I did turn in a story this year - and I will share that later, this post isn't about that - but I felt pretty guilty anyway. 

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Okay, looking back at 2022 - I don't know how I got so lucky, and I confess that I was really, really bad about commenting. I'm never a great commenter - I sometimes get these several paragraph responses to stories and I feel inadequate. And then I just...I don't know. I was so busy at the beginning of 2023, and trying to keep up with everything, I always knew I would drop things I didn't realize I was even holding. This was one of those things and I regret it awfully.

First there's this super A League of Their Own drabble by desertvixen (Marla Hooch, Dottie, and Kit), which is delightful and spoke directly about, I think, the most underserved character in ALoTO.

But also! 

igrockspock wrote me some Matt Murdock/Jennifer Walters entitled Baggage That Goes with Mine. My request IIRC was to just pair Matt and Jen and see what happens. Answered! Every big of Daredevil and She-Hulk that my bruised fangirl heart needed, more than once, several times actually, throughout 2023. I scrolled through and re-read pieces of it often, rediscovering it more than once. Alas, usually at 2am, on my phone, half-asleep, but that was 2023.

This right here is why I ship them, if you're wondering:

I can't recommend this story highly enough. And now I need to stop typing and go re-read this while drinking something warm and caffeinated (tea. I'm going to drink tea.)

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BUT WAIT. I CAN'T YET. Because I haven't told you about THIS ONE.

buries wrote a nearly 20,000-word story about Matt Murdock, Jennifer Walters, and...HOWARD THE DUCK.

Y'all.

Look, 2023 - I know, you know, we all know. And I read this story and my brain just did not compute what just happened. This is a gloriously told story. Implausible and fantastic. The characterization is dead-on throughout, none of the characters are left behind. Matt and Jen - oh lordy, Matt and Jen! Obscure villains! Howard! But also, you guys, Jessica Jones. Trish. This is concept art for a movie that really SHOULD be in development because this entire universe is so much fun.

And again with the oh-so-perfect Matt and Jen, who are not allowed to date anyone else now that I know they can be so good together. This is just fact.

Witness:

This is ALSO why I ship them. And why I read this story more times than I could count, but again, failed to somehow praise and thank the author for sufficiently. 

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So yeah, I need to go curl up and read. And read and read again.

Hello Spacer! Thank you for signing up and thank you for writing for me. I know whatever you come up with will be a joy to read! Here are some things about my taste and some ideas to get you started.

Generally speaking: I prefer angst over fluff, I like happy endings that come after struggle or discord as much as I love angsty cliffhangers that keep the work grounded in the fandom's reality. I love character studies and backstories. I love minor characters in fic, the chance to flesh out what we don't see on the page or screen. Not into pregnancy AU, high school or university AU, or modern AU. BUT I love canon-divergence or AUs within the given universe (a different meet-cute, or a different ending, for example). While I love angst, I don't love trauma, especially of the sexual variety. Not really into a lot of kink or graphic sex. Love friendship, team-building, friends-to-lovers, unrequited pining, requited pining that's more complicated than those involved want. Absolutely DNW non-canonical character death, rape/dub-con, sexual violence of any kind, body horror, A/B/O, or underage sex.

Specifics:

Galaxy Quest - I very much like the idea of Alexander Dane and Gwen DeMarco as a couple. Whether it was a one-and-done or a longstanding relationship, it would be interesting to me. Especially interested in the idea that he also served as a kind of acting mentor to her during the show's original run. Or maybe they had a fling and it didn't work out, and it took decades to settle the score? You choose, I'm interested. As far as the fans and fandom, please tell me about the earliest days, and the first conventions, and the printed fanfic 'zines! Even better - what if the Thermians weren't the only intergalactic fans of Galaxy Quest? Who else is watching and what do they think?

Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi - I was one of those who really loved the introduction of young Leia, and I would love to see more interaction between her and Obi-Wan over the years. I would REALLY love if you could take it all the way up to A New Hope and allow a reunion between them. Or turn the story on its head and let Obi-Wan be looking after Leia instead of Luke (or both twins) from the beginning. Even small interactions without huge storytelling consequences are great here. (PS - I sort of ship Padme/Obi-Wan and wouldn't mind if you made him, not Anakin, the twins' father. I'm just saying.)

Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies) - Gamora/Peter are an OTP for me. Would love to see stolen moments with them where Gamora is realizing the depth of her feelings for him and trying to decide what it means. Kisses, discreet touches, Peter introducing Gamora to Terran music or traditions (Valentine's Day!), all that kind of thing. Wouldn't mind, too, seeing more of Peter's mourning process and how it gets turned upside down when he sees her again. Also, what does the revelation about their relationship do long-term to the alternate Gamora?  As for Gamora and Nebula, any kind of sisterly bonding, coming to understand each other better, ganging up on Thanos, learning how to lead together, or even a look at them through the eyes of Thanos' other "children" would be very interesting.