For the myoldfandom gift exchange, I wrote my sister "Jean at the Witching Hour", my third story based on Janet Sandison's series about a Scottish girl at the beginning of the twentieth century. It's a great favourite of Flo's, one that she requested more than once at Yuletide before she concluded that no one else would ever offer it.

This time, I thought I'd write about Doris, a tart with a heart of gold who appears prominently in the first book but recurs in later ones as well. However, when I reread the books (yet again!) in preparation, I found that the dates did not add up. Oh, the main portion of what I had planned still held up: i.e. her seduction when she was a fifteen-year-old scullery-maid at the Castle, leading to her father disowning her. However, in the fourth book it is strongly implied that her seducer is "Old Pillans", the villain of the series. As I scribbled down dates and did sums to work out people's ages, I realized that can't be true. I suppose it may be that readers are inferring something that the author didn't intend; but I suspect that it's more likely that Sandison was hit with belated inspiration, added the hint, and never really did her own sums.

So, in the end, I wrote Old Pillans' story.

This presents its own problems. Old Pillans is a pretty one-dimensional villain in the series—a boogey-man to young Jean in the first book, and an off-scene diabolus ex machina in the rest of the series. What little we are told of his past comes from brief snatches of Lochfoot history told to Jean by the elderly; and not only does the reader have to assemble the puzzle but also fill in a lot of missing pieces.

So I worked out how the history of the town seems to have gone during the last half of the nineteenth century, from its evolution as a farming community overlooked by the Duke's Castle to its growth as a commuter suburb of Glasgow with grungy tenements housing underpaid railway workers. In the latter era, Pillans is primarily known as the mysterious, loathsome owner of a secondhand/pawn shop, though he is actually the secret landlord of much of Lochfoot, with additional property in Glasgow. On the other hand, the scraps we know of his early days indicate that he was originally an incomer who worked as ploughman on a local farm, was the local milkman, and had a reputation as a seducer. "Jean at the Witching Hour" is, then, the story of how events turned Pillans-the-ploughman into The Loathsome Villain.

This is a long story: slightly longer than any I've written, in fact, barring the novel that I wrote for my first fkficfest. I had Part One written by the upload deadline; and it could have ended there. However, rather than complete the story in sequels, I wrote two more chapters over the next week. Each chapter now has its own webpage, linked off a title page. However, as Flo was staying with me for a fortnight, I didn't manage to finish them until this week.

As with the previous two Jean stories, I selected a background to represent the setting: in this case, a stone wall suggestive of an old farmhouse. On the title page, I also inset a small panel with a grassy background and a picture of dairy cattle. This represents the most important business of Castleside Farm, where Pillans canonically worked when he came to Lochfoot and which he inherited in mysterious circumstances after the suicide of the owner's daughter.

The reveal for myoldfandom took place a couple of weeks ago—and was, indeed, a couple of days late since a last-minute pinch hit was needed. That makes this post more than a little overdue. However, as I was assigned to write for fawatson, who is my sister, and she to write for me (and for the second time this year!), I dare say she'll forgive me. Certainly we both were working on our stories right up to the very deadline, and tweaking afterwards.

Flo wrote me "Big Feet Speak Louder Than Words": a crossover based on two of Janet Kagan's books, Hellspark (which was the one I requested) and Mirabile (which she knows I've also read). Both Tocohl and Maggy were featured, solving an intriguing mystery that took them to Mirabile. It's a delightful story, with spot-on characterization of both of them. In so far as I have a complaint, it's that there isn't more of it.

I wrote her "Jean at the Witching Hour", based on Janet Sandison's series about Jean Robertson.

It's been a while since I posted a seasonal ficlet to FKFIC-L. However, I had an idea; so "Heat in the Kitchen" was posted in the wee hours, just before I went to bed. A good deal of the day was spent making it a page on my website; and I've just finished posting it to AO3 (so those whose ISP, for some reason, bars access to the webhost can read it there).

I decided to go with a thematic background for the webpage, and worked for a while with the tile I cropped from a screen capture of Natalie's office, doing it in different colours, before selecting a beige version (representing a backsplash). The frame around the story is done in wood tones (cupboards) and a sort of glossy white (formica countertop). I found a suitable wood-coloured divider to use under the title.

The picture after the story was, as usual, cropped from a photo on Wikimedia Commons. It looks delicious; and I'm sure Natalie's own baking was, too.

I began Yuletide eagerly last fall, with my usual list of potential treats and (seemingly) time to write several of them. Life decided otherwise. I did get my assignment started; but, as my mother's health worsened, I eventually had to admit that there would never be time to finish it, and defaulted.

However, when my mother died a week before Christmas, there was suddenly time to write. Or perhaps that's more accurately time to distract myself with writing. After the holidays were over, though, Real Life had to take precedence. It is only in the last couple of weeks, therefore, that I have finally found time to make webpages for them.


Trumpet St Peter's Angels

My assignment, "Trumpet St Peter's Angels", is a Last Knight story. (Yes: my third in the same year. Chance is odd that way.) My recipient had only one request, for LK fix-it fic.

The result is a story that I can only recommend to those who are trufen. It depends for its effect on your devoted knowledge of Forever Knight (in general) and the finale (in particular). Essentially, it deconstructs the events that lead to the denouement, and "fixes" them as requested. As such, the story is not an overwritten, underplotted melodrama an action-packed tragedy. Rather, it is a character piece with touches of humour.

Basically, if the last line resonates, you'll probably like the story.

The title, of course, comes from Lacroix's speech in the loft. To match it, I picked a ripply, vaguely feathery, gold variant of a background that I got from GRSites, matched with a bronze and silver border around the story. Those who can't access my website can find the story on AO3 in the Yuletide collection, along with comments.


Long is the way and hard

The first treat I wrote was "Long is the way and hard" (on AO3, with comments). This is actually the third in a series of divergent AU stories based on Mary Renault's novel, The Charioteer.

( a bit of background )
As it is part of a series, its webpage has the same design that I used on the earlier two stories.


Hobbiton Farm

The last treat, "Hobbiton Farm" (here on AO3, with comments), was written in a flash. Whereby hangs a tale.

Over the last decade or so, the BBC has made a series of series in which a group of historians and archaeologists re-enact life on a farm in an historical period: Victorian Farm, Edwardian Farm, Wartime Farm, and so on. One of halotolerant's requests was for a story based on this "Historical Farm series". What particularly caught my eye was the conclusion of the prompt:

“Feel free, also, to set a story in ‘AU History’ - if you want them to be farm workers in a pre-industrial setting, it doesn't have to be ‘literally historically accurate 1650’ or whatever, some counter-factual history or setting in a fantasy world like Westeros or Middle Earth or Pern could also be cool!”

A crack idea? Undoubtedly: but best done straight.

Because I'd had the idea early in the fall, back when people had been posting links to their Dear Author Letters, it had been germinating on some level for quite a while. So, when I sat down to write it on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, the words just poured out with hardly any revision required. I uploaded the story shortly before reveals.

For the webpage, I decided that "Hobbiton Farm" needed something subdued and very respectable looking. The rich tapestry-like background graphic comes from 321Clipart.com; and the border to the panel with the story combines stone and parchment textures. I also made the story a fancy title in a font that looked suitable, and added (at the end) a clip from a Wikimedia Commons photo of the New Zealand "Hobbiton" set.

When I asked for Prehistoric Park last Yuletide (not to mention the Yuletide before), my hopes were not high. Although it's a marvellous series, the amount of fan fiction is slight—and basically on ff.net, with all that implies.

My birthday came, my birthday went. Last Friday, to be exact. I received, among other things, a bag of presents from my sister Flo (better known in these parts as fawatson), who had left them with our mother when she came over here last Christmas. She did say in an e-mail that there was another present to come....

Well, I just received it! Officially, it is a New Year's Resolution (i.e., part of the small ancillary fanfic collection for stories written to Yuletide prompts during the following year). However, it is also my birthday present! I exult!

"Sea World" brings Prehistoric Park into the present, accounting nicely for the gap in time since the series was cancelled. Now under new management, having survived the recession (!), it is ready to expand its collection of prehistoric creatures with specimens from yet another era. This time, Nigel and his team go to the mid Jurassic in search of sea monsters. Meanwhile, back at the park, the head keeper, Bob, and the veterinarian, Suzanne, have to prepare for...who knows? (For as fans know, Nigel never brings back only what he set out to catch.)

For all that, when I first asked for Prehistoric Park two Yuletides ago, Flo had never heard of it, she has clearly done a lot of homework since. Not only does the story have a new Mesozoic menagerie, with all the adventures one could hope for, but the original cast is back for more, with all quirks intact.

Do check it out. It's a delightful sequel to the series.

I've just added two more ficlets to my website, both based on Mary Renault's The Charioteer. The first, "Wings of Bim" is actually a drabble that my sister wrote for Brigit's Flame. However, I tweaked it a bit; and she liked the result so much that she said she considered it to be co-authored (which is rather generous, really). The other, "Faded Valentine", was written for the Valentine's Day Challenge on maryrenaultfics.

"Wings of Bim" may be nominally the thoughts of a character from The Charioteer; but, in truth, it could be any airman from the Battle of Britain. At any rate, I decided that I wanted a sky background. Nothing I had in my files suited. (On the whole, sky graphics don't tile well: the repeat is too obvious.) So I decided instead to use a gradient. On it, I positioned two little fighter planes, a Spitfire and a Messerschmidt, derived from photos that I got from Wikimedia Commons.

For "Faded Valentine" I initially thought I'd go with a traditional (if not trite!) red or pink hearts'n'flowers theme. However, most of the hearts I had were far too modern. Instead, therefore, I used a rather pretty white rose background that is clearly bridal—but, as the story is about Laurie's mother's memories of her romance with Michael Odell, whom she married, this isn't inappropriate.

For the fancy border, I decided to modify a gradient that I got ages ago from Syruss.com. Given the breadth of modern browsers, it's too narrow to be used as the background for a webpage; but it is still suitable for the sort of border that I put around stories, provided I specify the width of the table. Two variants are actually used, one slightly pinker than the other.

I also modified a clipart rose, which I used to decorate the title of the story. The rose was originally a rather strong (though lightish) pink; but I created a series of variants in softer shades of pink, peach, apricot, cream, and white, and then used the one that seemed most suitable to the colour scheme.

Well, it has been a while since I last posted, hasn't it? In the interim, I've written several stories for Yuletide, enjoyed a family Christmas (my sister having come over from England to join us for the holiday), and played in the latest Forever Knight War on FKFIC-L.

Yes, indeed. I have been busy. I'm not sure that counts as an excuse; but it is an explanation.

First off, let me say that Yuletide was as satisfying this year as last. I received a delightful story by Tolakasa, "Rondeau", in which Captain Cohen reluctantly attends the office Christmas party. Reluctantly, because her husband is there—and he has a wicked sense of humour. We never met him in canon (and only know that his initial is "D" because it's on the Missing poster in "Black Buddha" under Next of Kin). Tolakasa has invented him from scratch; and he's quite delightful. Strongly recommended!

My own assignment was to write a story for Juliandarling based on Mary Renault's The Charioteer. This proved to be such a very plump plot bunny that I started to wonder if I'd get it finished by the deadline. Indeed, since my beta (my sister, fawatson) declared that, if I was going to introduce packages then readers would definitely want to see them opened, I wound up adding another 2K between the upload deadline and the reveal, for a total of 12K. (Agggh!!!) As the title, "Exit Stage Left, a Wounded Warrior: The Lost Chapters of The Charioteer" suggests, the story represents itself as the next two chapters of the novel, bringing Laurie's story up to Christmas 1940.

I managed to squeeze out enough time, between duties on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, to write a few treats, as well as ficlets for fkcommentfic and maryrenaultfics. All but the last have now been HTMLed and added to my website. (The latest of my appleficlets is only No. 4, with two more parts to go; so I'm waiting until I finish the entire series.)

I figure the best thing to do is just try to get caught up. So I'm going to comment here on all these stories.

( Read more... )

People subscribed to FKFIC-L will probably have read "To Be Thankful" last month, for I posted it for Thanksgiving (and here in Canada, of course, that's the second Monday in October.) However, although I immediately put its webpage on my site, I haven't yet mentioned it here or discussed the graphics.

Which are pretty straightforward, really. I looked through my collection for a nice autumnal background (a sugar bush, from the look of it), and then gave the central panel a border in warm brown tones, finishing the whole thing off with maple leaves.

The story was actually inspired by one of the prompts in this year's fkcommentfic, asking what Stonetree would do when he retired. I wrote half a bad ficlet and scrapped it; but it did make me wonder a little about his relations with his family.

Although, when fkcommentfic opened, I quickly posted a couple of drabbles, I always intended to go back and linger a little over some of the other prompts. However time passed, and more time passed, and then the deadline loomed....

On 27 September, I finally posted a ficlet, "To Dine in", based on one of amilyn's prompts, “Janette deals with amorous advances from a stranger”. It was duly posted to FKFIC-L, and provided with a webpage. However, my trip to Stratford interrupted things pretty thoroughly: not only did it take up a whole day, but left me feeling very tired and stiff from the bus trip; and the kinks did not work out with a good night's sleep. And Saturday brought its own schedule, entailing rather too much walking, leaving every old cramp re-knotted.

However, the next day was the final day of fkcommentfic; so I simply had to go back to the prompts. I wound up spending hours writing, and finished no fewer than four ficlets: "The Church of the Holy Blood", "Truth and Consequences", "Rat's Tail", and "Trilemma". One or two other prompts looked mildly tempting; but not enough for me to be able to churn turn out a story in the time available.

All have now been posted to my website. ( Each of the webpages has its own design. )

Last week, I provided the members of maryrenaultfics with a prompt; so I have, of course, been working on my own story. However, the "apple"-fic has not yet been finished, because I had a Forever Knight story that I was also working on. (What with spending a fair amount of time with my mother because of the holiday, I think it's fair to say that I've had a busy weekend!)

"Let's Go to the Ex" was sent to FKFIC-L on September 3rd, and just posted to my website. It had to be finished first, you see, because it had a "due date". It references the Canadian National Exhibition, which runs for the last two weeks of the summer, ending on Labour Day. So the story simply had to be posted on or by the holiday. (Now, though, I can get back to working on my "apple" story with a clear conscience.)

For the webpage for "Let's Go to the Ex", I wanted to give the impression of the carnival side of the Ex. At the same time, since the climax of the story is after dark, I wanted that as well. So, for the background, I worked on one of the many starbackings that I have collected. First, I tinted it to a rusty off-black: the CNE is, after all, held in a city; and city skies are never that pitch black you get in graphics. I also did a version with a yellowish tint, from which I trimmed out the stars to paste over the now-pink ones on the first version. Then, having tried out the result, I decided to blank out a fair number of the stars themselves. Let's face it, lights downtown wash out most of the sky in any big city.

To represent the carnival aspect of the setting, I selected graphics in red and gold for the borders to the story panel. However, I also went through the animated tiles that I'd collected from Light Speed Web Graphics, years ago when I started to make webpages. As far as I can tell, they don't exist any more; but that doesn't mean I can't use their animations. Too many, of course, would induce a migraine! Judiciously applied, though, they simulate the flashing lights that decorate the attractions on the midway.

These two stories are only drabbles; but even drabbles deserve a webpage. Of course, neither story will be new to anyone, since they have already been posted to fkcommentfic, as well as to FKFIC-L. Now, though, they are up on my website: "On the Doorstep" is here, and "Fangs in Paradise" is here.

"On the Doorstep" was written as a thank-you to brightknightie; but it qualified for fkcommentfic as it also fulfilled her request for something about either Reese or Screed, neither of whom featured prominently in any of the longer fkficfest stories. No especial feature of "On the Doorstep" inspired me with a design for its webpage—though, given the subject matter, it obviously needed to be done in subdued tones. I selected a simple textured background whose colours are echoed in the border around the central panel.

"Fangs in Paradise", on the other hand, sees Nick hiding in a conservatory; and I immediately decided that I wanted the webpage to reflect this. I hunted through my collection of background tiles, but found that the only floral and foliar designs that I had were all emphatically outdoor and daytime. However, I continued to search, and was delighted to find a graphic which gives the impression that one is seeing through frosted glass into something green-toned. There is a remarkable three-dimensionality to this background graphic: the panel for the story actually seems to be lying on the glass.

The bluish green tones of the background gave me the colour scheme. I found an icy marble for the main graphic in the border; and, to echo the night scene, I used a black panel for the story itself.

The joke, of course, is that in the end the only picture of an actual plant I used on the page is a silhouette of bamboo up near the title.

Of the stories that I've written lately, there is one that will be new to anyone who isn't on the FKFIC-L mailing list: "Unattainable". Sadly, as it doesn't fit any of the prompts posted to fkcommentfic, I couldn't include it in that collection. Still, ideas come as they will, don't they?

Once "Phases of the Moon" was safely uploaded to AO3, I happily returned to making more faction icons—in between reading fkficfest stories on AO3, that is. Among the icons I had already made were pretty well all those for character-based factions, including quite a number invented for the occasion. So my focus was on completing the rest of the icons for couple factions.

( Mind you, from a logical perspective, there are quite a few couple factions that are missing. ) However, although I recently tried to interest people in a little "couple factioneering", no enthusiasm could be whipped up. Janette/Miklos? Miklos/Urs? Schanke/Myra? No takers. Nor did anyone want to suggest a name for the trio of Nick/LaCroix/Vachon. (I have seen a few names factioneered for that trio in old FORKNI-L digests; but none of them particularly appeals to me. Nor to others, clearly).

I kept returning to Janette/Schanke, though. To me, there was an obvious name—and an obvious scenario. The bunny seemed easy to catch, but then slipped out of my grasp for a while. Eventually, though, I did get the story revised to my satisfaction, and posted it to FKFIC-L on the 16th of August. ( Of course, I also put it up on my website.... )

It's been a while since I've made a post discussing the graphic design of the webpage for a story—but then it's been a while since I uploaded any stories! Now, though, I've put up four in quick succession. "Phases of the Moon", which I did for fkficfest, is by far the longest, coming in at about 6K words (not to mention a ridiculously long section of notes of one sort or another). For that reason, I'm going to discuss it on its own. The three "small fry" will get a separate post.

Once fkficfest was over, I immediately posted "Phases of the Moon" to FKFIC-L and my website. In the intervening period, I'd had plenty of time to work on the design. You can see the page for it here. It's a big story, in my opinion, and so I wanted to give it a special webpage design.
( Naturally, I wanted a design to suit the story.... )

I thought I might just give people a bit of an update on how things are going.

At the end of last week, I finally figured out a way to tell the people at FanLore Wiki about the disappearance of FortuneCity; and, as it turned out, no one there had realized it was gone. They immediately put together a spreadsheet with a long list of fandoms, posted an urgent call for help (as did the OTW), and told me that—as I'd brought it to their attention—they were putting me in charge of the project.

Eep.

Fortunately for my sanity, it didn't actually work like that. (In fact, I think it was MorganDawn who did a lot of the organizing.) What did happen, though, was that quite a large number of people rallied to the call. They buzzed around, busily googling "FortuneCity" and their favourite fandoms to find what sites had existed, and then adding them to the ever-growing list. So, of course, I had to pitch in and help too.

However, now that the list of lost fan sites is getting fat (though people are still finding things to add), I've finally had a chance to catch my breath. And that means that I've finally signed up for fkficfest. (I think brightknightie's been getting rather worried. So far, very few people have signed up, and the deadline is this Friday.)

Of course, the truth is that I've had it in mind for the last couple of weeks, and simply been too busy to even think about what sort of story I want. Nevertheless, although I did give a couple of prompts that were pretty close to ones I asked for last year, I did also toss in something new.

Anyone else who's thinking of taking part this year, please don't forget that sign-ups close Friday!

Having participated in rarewomen (and got my story, "Cliffs of Fall" in with fifteen minutes to spare!), I found it immensely frustrating that the reveal didn't come for almost a week. Of course, I totally understood why this was done: there were pinch hits still outstanding; and naturally the mod wanted all recipients to get their stories simultaneously.

Because of the delay, I'd thought I might add a treat or two; but, in the end, I found myself extremely busy last week with another project—of which more elsewhere, because this post is about rarewomen. So I just posted the icons I'd been saving for less frequent female Forever Knight characters...and waited for the reveal.

Which produced an absolutely gorgeous gift for me from skieswideopen.

"Midnight Shakes the Memory" is a Forever Knight story. It opens during the events of the Season Three premiere, as Myra Schanke gets the ring at the door that is so dreaded by every police officer's spouse; and then follows her over the next few days and months, showing us the impact of Don's death. The pattern of her grieving shifts subtly with time, as it would. I was reminded, in fact, of the months after my own father's death; and Myra's response in this story rings very true to me.

We are also treated to a very different perspective on Nick. Usually, if fans decide to see him from another's point of view, they employ the principal supporting cast. LaCroix on Nick is easy to find! Myra on Nick...rather less so. Here, too, we see a shift in her response: the two interact rather more after her husband's death than they ever had before, precisely because he is the focus for both of them.

The story ends before the events of "Last Knight". This was, I think, a wise decision. For a fan, that would have shifted attention to Nick; and this is not his story. It is Don and Myra's—and then just Myra's, poor woman. A cop's wife's life is not a happy one.

You can find "Midnight Shakes the Memory" here.

My conscience is relieved of one small burden: I've just posted a story to maryrenaultfics and my website, thus satisfying the Sunday Tea prompt "sap rising" which was given two weeks ago. (I'm afraid I've been so busy making icons for Forever Knight fandom that I've grossly neglected maryrenaultfics lately.)

Ah, well. Now all I have to do is fulfil my rarewomen ficathon prompt by the end of the month. (Whether I'll get inspired to add any treats is a whole other matter.)

( As for my nice new story.... )

Belatedly....

This was my first Yuletide—though not, I hope, my last. My sister has been doing it for several years now; her obvious enjoyment enticed me to take part this time; and I also found it to be a lot of fun. Of course, it didn't hurt that I was staying with her this Christmas. We showed each other our stories, got a bit of basic beta'ing from each other, and generally fed the mutual excitement. So here are a few comments I have about the things I wrote.
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Dear Author, let me thank you right up front for the story you are going to write—which, sight unseen, I'm sure is one that I will love.
( Read more... )

Although it hasn't yet been sent to FKFIC-L, "The Sun of Cairo" is now up on my website. To make its webpage (which is here), I went with a sky blue gradient coupled with a frame dominated by a sand-textured graphic. (The connection with Egypt should be obvious.) The fact that the sword I used as decoration is actually a claymore off a website of Scottish graphics—well, I'm no weapons expert to care a lot about accuracy, and it works visually.
( Read more... )

At this point, three of the four stories I wrote for the Dead Dog Party on fkcommentfic have been posted to FKFIC-L and put up on my website: "Gold Regrets", "A Cup of Coffee", and "The Flavour in his Mouth". Only "The Sun of Cairo" remains to go to FKFIC-L, though it is on the website. (I might have posted that this weekend, but instead wrote a ficlet in memory of last year's war.)
( Read more... )