Let me thank you right up front for whatever you are going to write. Although you've seen my sign-up, I know that most people like more than that to go on. I hope this letter will prove helpful. I know I've said more about some fandoms than others, but please don't read any significance in that. All are dear to my heart. (I've listed them alphabetically.)


GENERAL POINTS:

• I love worldbuilding and character pieces—stories that explore more deeply—through backstory, or by elaborating the setting/history/culture or exploring people's motivations and personal interactions.


• I prefer gen; but I'm not asking you to ignore canon relationships. However, I don't care for anything more than PG-13: explicit sexual detail is definitely a DNW for me, especially when dealing with children's books.


• I love casefic; and, more generally, I like stories that are canon-compliant. The general exception to this is ignoring canonical character death if you want. (There may be other specific exceptions.)


• I'm okay with violence if necessary to the story; but not gore for the sake of gore. On the whole, I prefer not to have characters die in the story; but references to canonical deaths are okay. (I'm fine with having original characters murdered in casefic or killed in war, and that sort of thing.)


• I enjoy comedy—being able to recognize the ridiculous when it pops up; also wit and wordplay. Having said that, I totally leave it up to you whether you write a serious or comic story—or a serious story with comic interludes.


• No second person fic, please. First person is okay, especially for book canons that were written that way by the author.

REQUESTS:


Choir School series - William Mayne
Characters: Any.

I'd like you to write about some incident at the school, similar to the sort of thing that Mayne used to flesh out his books. Preferably seen from the point of view of one of the boys (since that's how he wrote), but not leaving out the adults, who are so much part of the series. Which boys to include is up to you: Trevithic is the only one nominated; but feel free to use any of the others Mayne mentioned, or an OC.

DNW any rating higher than PG13. DNW any pairing between nominated characters.

Although each of the four choir school books has a plot, it's the incidents that really make up the story. Through them we get to know the characters; and, when I say "characters", I refer less to the protagonists (though Mayne does distinguish them) than I do to the many and varied people in the supporting cast, references to any of whom would be welcome, though I think I nominated the most obvious ones. Don't feel you need to work all of them into one short story. Still, the more the merrier.

Suggestions.... Well, the setting is a school (with the inevitable lessons in various academic subjects); but, more specifically, it is a choir school. Music lessons and practice, as well as cathedral services, are a major part of the boys' lives. As well, it's a boarding school: you might perhaps write of personal rivalries, interactions between boys and staff outside school hours, hobbies, or holidays.

As these are boys whose voices have not yet broken, the oldest Choristers cannot be more than 13 or 14 (and the youngest Probationer is only about 7 or 8); so please keep to a PG rating.


The House in Norham Gardens - Penelope Lively
Characters: Clare Mayfield

What happened next? I'm not looking for more magic: to me, the book is really about Clare and her aunts and their lodgers. Perhaps an incident in their lives some months later? Clare's perspective as a young adult on the events of her youth? Dealing with the house after the aunts die?

Feel free to work in any of the characters. Clare's the only one I actually requested; but that's because she's the protagonist and I'd prefer the main focus to be on her.

DNW any rating higher than PG13. DNW any pairing between nominated characters.

Though I know Lively later won renown as a novelist for adult readers, I think this is her finest book. It's a keen look at a girl whose life, by most standards, is rather eccentric. She's forced to be practical in the face of her great-aunts' obliviousness to modern times; but she's obviously inherited the family brains. The story is partly about the people of the tamburan, and changing perspectives on exploitation, told through magio-realistic dreams. But my principal interest in in the portrait of Clare and her Oxford.

The story is complete in itself; but one wonders what happened later. I'm not interested in Clare as a psychic: I prefer to think of this as a stage she's going through, and largely a nonce event in her life. How, though, would she see it later? (She is, after all, a rather pragmatic girl, if only through force of circumstance.) Five or ten years on perhaps, how would she recall this time when attending an Oxford college or grad school? Does she still live with her aunts? Eventually, given their age, they'll die: presumably, she'll inherit; but what will she do with the house and all its contents? Or, if you don't wish to speculate so far into the future, perhaps a scene from Norham Gardens a few months later.

All the characters intrigue me; so feel free to include any of them in the story, as you please. However, I'm not interested in pairing Clare with either of the lodgers (or anyone else in the book with her, or with each other).


Stalky and Co. - Rudyard Kipling
Characters: Any.

Stalky being stalky; his friends backing him up; the masters trying to keep on top of the situation....

Basically, what I'd like is another story like Kipling's—not forgetting that part of his tales usually looked, at least briefly, at the adult perspective on the boys' activities. Or the story could be seen entirely from the perspective of the masters.

DNW any rating higher than PG13. DNW any pairing between nominated characters.

I knew the original, shorter volume as a child; but it was only in my teens that I really came to appreciate Kipling's hero and his associates. It was at that time that I discovered there were a few additional stories (and good ones, too). It takes fan fiction to continue the tales.

As with the other requests, I'm particularly interested in something similar to Kipling's own series.


Tales of Alderley Series - Alan Garner:
Characters: Colin Whisterfield, Susan Whisterfield, Atlendor (Alderley Edge series), Cadellin Silverbrow

What happened after The Moon of Gomrath, as alluded to in Boneland? Specifically, how did Susan disappear and Colin lose his memory? I'd really like something in the style of the first two books.

If you'd prefer to do a different sort of worldbuilding, I'd love to know more about the elves, the ancient wizard wars, or the binding of the Old Magic.

DNW any rating higher than PG13. DNW any pairing between nominated characters.

Although nominally a sequel, Boneland is so allusive as to provide the merest sketch, and lacks the fascinating magic of Cadellin, dwarfs and elves, and the Ride of the Herlathing. What happened from that perspective (regardless of how Colin dimly remembers it sans elves, dwarfs, and overt magic). How did Susan see her disappearance and transformation? Alternatively, I'd be interested in someone in the modern era encountering both Colin (as he is in Boneland) and the supernatural (in the style of the earlier books).

If you'd prefer to do a different sort of worldbuilding, I'd love to know more about the culture and/or history of the lios-alfar. Or, if you prefer to go back in time, what was that first battle against evil that led to the knights being ensorcelled? Did some specific event convince the wizards to imprison the Old Magic (and how did they do it)? There are hints; but Garner goes frustratingly little into the background of his world.