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rachelindeed
Contact email: It's this name at yahoo dot com.
I will create:
A fanwork of the following type(s): fic, podfic
In one or more of the following parts of fandom: Books: Doyle - Canon; TV/Film: Granada TV Show; Sherlock BBC
For one or more of the following relationships: Gen/Friendship or Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
I like working with one or more of the following categories: Alternate Universe; Magical Realism; Romance; Established Relationship; Friendship; Humor; Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence; Missing Scenes; Character Study/Slice of Life; Adventure; Historical AU; Wing!fic; Hurt/Comfort; Fluff; epistolary; fairy tale or myth
With any of the following ratings: 1) suitable for general audiences; 2) non-explicit sexual content; 4) mild to moderate violence or depictions of non-sexual mature themes
I am willing to create for the following squicks and/or kinks: none
I want to receive:
A fanwork of the following type(s): fic
In one or more of the following parts of fandom: Books: Doyle - Canon; TV/Film: Granada TV Show; Ritchie Films; Sherlock BBC
For one or more of the following relationships: Gen/Friendship or Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
I like stuff in the following categories: Alternate Universe; Magical Realism; Romance; Established Relationship; Friendship; Humor; Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence; Missing Scenes; Character Study/Slice of Life; Adventure; Historical AU; Wing!fic; Hurt/Comfort; Fluff; epistolary; fairy tale or myth; crossover (Peter Wimsey novels)
With any of the following ratings: 1) suitable for general audiences; 2) non-explicit sexual content; 4) mild to moderate violence or depictions of non-sexual mature themes
I wouldn’t mind any of the following squicks and/or kinks: none
Please include further details about what you’d like to receive:
John Watson is my favorite character, so I would like my gift to feature him as a main character. His relationship with Sherlock Holmes is where my heart is, and I am equally happy to read about them as lifelong friends, asexual romantic partners, or intimate lovers. However you want to cast their relationship, I would like them both to be happy and, if they are romantically/sexually together, I prefer to see them faithful and committed to each other. I'd prefer not to have them paired with other people over the course of the story. (The exception is, in any Victorian-era verse, John/Mary is fine if you are writing Watson and Holmes as friends, but I prefer to avoid love triangles and/or unrequited love.)
In general I am angst-averse, though I do enjoy subtle conflict. To clarify: It's fine if the characters get physically injured, face a near death experience, or support each other through some grief or pain, and pining is also fine unless it reaches the level of misery. When I say I'm angst averse, I just mean that I don't enjoy it when the characters are miserable, when some serious betrayal happens between them, or when they end up permanently separated in some way.
I like to see Watson being intelligent, competent, kind, and a bit sharp, able to twit Holmes without diminishing his love and admiration for him. I like to see Holmes's wry humor, charisma, and courage, and perhaps hints of vulnerability without fully showing his hand.
In the field of romance, combinations of formal/restrained/understated language and actions with deeply felt underlying passion will make me swoon. The same approach also works for me in deeply felt friendships.
I would prefer it if my gift did NOT include the following elements: incest, infidelity, sex work/prostitution, abortion, miscarriage, non-con or dub-con, polyamory, the good guys torturing or killing the bad guys (legitimate self-defense is okay), suicide, euthanasia, horror. Also, I was not a fan of Series 3 of BBC Sherlock, so if you write in that verse, I'd prefer that you either write a story set in the timeline of the first 2 series or do an AU that doesn't deal with the Series 3 storyline.
I know that some authors like to have prompts as a starting point while others find them confining. I will list some prompts below, in a variety of forms, in case my author might find them helpful. But if you are a writer who prefers to work without prompts, please do!
Optional Prompts:
- A magical realism or fairy tale fic would be amazing.
- I enjoy the epistolary form: letters, telegrams, emails, texts, diary entries, etc.
- If there are any fans of Dorothy Sayers' Peter Wimsey novels out there, I would be fascinated by a crossover in which World War I brings young officer Wimsey into either Holmes or Watson's orbit.
- Of the cases Watson mentions but never explains, I have always been intrigued by "the shocking affair of the Dutch steamship Friesland, which so nearly cost us both our lives." That's all Watson ever says about it. I'd love to hear your version of that story, either in Victorian or modern times.
- I'm always interested in Holmes and Watson encountering clients later in life and seeing what has become of them.
- Alternate meetings and/or alternate professions are also a favorite trope.
- I have some favorite cases that I would love to see missing scenes, epilogues, or modern twists for: The Devil's Foot, The Reigate Squires, The Greek Interpreter, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Musgrave Ritual, The Blue Carbuncle. Or any story where you find the personal dynamics intriguing and worth further exploration.
And I'll throw in a few quotations to see if anything catches your imagination...
"And since you know you cannot see yourself
So well as by reflection, I, your glass,
Will modestly discover to yourself
That of yourself which you yet know not of."
(Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)
"The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools." (Thucydides)
"Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart!
Unlike our uses and our destinies.
Our ministering two angels look surprised
On one another, as they strike athwart
Their wings in passing."
(Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
- gift of silence
- conscious of the gap
- people besides you have self-respect
- I thought I knew
- no very sweet temper
- that dangerous calm
- half-humorous, half-cynical
Special requests: I tend to write short fics, so I'm probably not best paired with someone who wants a long fic or an intensely plotty one.
rachelindeedContact email: It's this name at yahoo dot com.
I will create:
A fanwork of the following type(s): fic, podfic
In one or more of the following parts of fandom: Books: Doyle - Canon; TV/Film: Granada TV Show; Sherlock BBC
For one or more of the following relationships: Gen/Friendship or Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
I like working with one or more of the following categories: Alternate Universe; Magical Realism; Romance; Established Relationship; Friendship; Humor; Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence; Missing Scenes; Character Study/Slice of Life; Adventure; Historical AU; Wing!fic; Hurt/Comfort; Fluff; epistolary; fairy tale or myth
With any of the following ratings: 1) suitable for general audiences; 2) non-explicit sexual content; 4) mild to moderate violence or depictions of non-sexual mature themes
I am willing to create for the following squicks and/or kinks: none
I want to receive:
A fanwork of the following type(s): fic
In one or more of the following parts of fandom: Books: Doyle - Canon; TV/Film: Granada TV Show; Ritchie Films; Sherlock BBC
For one or more of the following relationships: Gen/Friendship or Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
I like stuff in the following categories: Alternate Universe; Magical Realism; Romance; Established Relationship; Friendship; Humor; Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence; Missing Scenes; Character Study/Slice of Life; Adventure; Historical AU; Wing!fic; Hurt/Comfort; Fluff; epistolary; fairy tale or myth; crossover (Peter Wimsey novels)
With any of the following ratings: 1) suitable for general audiences; 2) non-explicit sexual content; 4) mild to moderate violence or depictions of non-sexual mature themes
I wouldn’t mind any of the following squicks and/or kinks: none
Please include further details about what you’d like to receive:
John Watson is my favorite character, so I would like my gift to feature him as a main character. His relationship with Sherlock Holmes is where my heart is, and I am equally happy to read about them as lifelong friends, asexual romantic partners, or intimate lovers. However you want to cast their relationship, I would like them both to be happy and, if they are romantically/sexually together, I prefer to see them faithful and committed to each other. I'd prefer not to have them paired with other people over the course of the story. (The exception is, in any Victorian-era verse, John/Mary is fine if you are writing Watson and Holmes as friends, but I prefer to avoid love triangles and/or unrequited love.)
In general I am angst-averse, though I do enjoy subtle conflict. To clarify: It's fine if the characters get physically injured, face a near death experience, or support each other through some grief or pain, and pining is also fine unless it reaches the level of misery. When I say I'm angst averse, I just mean that I don't enjoy it when the characters are miserable, when some serious betrayal happens between them, or when they end up permanently separated in some way.
I like to see Watson being intelligent, competent, kind, and a bit sharp, able to twit Holmes without diminishing his love and admiration for him. I like to see Holmes's wry humor, charisma, and courage, and perhaps hints of vulnerability without fully showing his hand.
In the field of romance, combinations of formal/restrained/understated language and actions with deeply felt underlying passion will make me swoon. The same approach also works for me in deeply felt friendships.
I would prefer it if my gift did NOT include the following elements: incest, infidelity, sex work/prostitution, abortion, miscarriage, non-con or dub-con, polyamory, the good guys torturing or killing the bad guys (legitimate self-defense is okay), suicide, euthanasia, horror. Also, I was not a fan of Series 3 of BBC Sherlock, so if you write in that verse, I'd prefer that you either write a story set in the timeline of the first 2 series or do an AU that doesn't deal with the Series 3 storyline.
I know that some authors like to have prompts as a starting point while others find them confining. I will list some prompts below, in a variety of forms, in case my author might find them helpful. But if you are a writer who prefers to work without prompts, please do!
Optional Prompts:
- A magical realism or fairy tale fic would be amazing.
- I enjoy the epistolary form: letters, telegrams, emails, texts, diary entries, etc.
- If there are any fans of Dorothy Sayers' Peter Wimsey novels out there, I would be fascinated by a crossover in which World War I brings young officer Wimsey into either Holmes or Watson's orbit.
- Of the cases Watson mentions but never explains, I have always been intrigued by "the shocking affair of the Dutch steamship Friesland, which so nearly cost us both our lives." That's all Watson ever says about it. I'd love to hear your version of that story, either in Victorian or modern times.
- I'm always interested in Holmes and Watson encountering clients later in life and seeing what has become of them.
- Alternate meetings and/or alternate professions are also a favorite trope.
- I have some favorite cases that I would love to see missing scenes, epilogues, or modern twists for: The Devil's Foot, The Reigate Squires, The Greek Interpreter, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Musgrave Ritual, The Blue Carbuncle. Or any story where you find the personal dynamics intriguing and worth further exploration.
And I'll throw in a few quotations to see if anything catches your imagination...
"And since you know you cannot see yourself
So well as by reflection, I, your glass,
Will modestly discover to yourself
That of yourself which you yet know not of."
(Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)
"The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools." (Thucydides)
"Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart!
Unlike our uses and our destinies.
Our ministering two angels look surprised
On one another, as they strike athwart
Their wings in passing."
(Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
- gift of silence
- conscious of the gap
- people besides you have self-respect
- I thought I knew
- no very sweet temper
- that dangerous calm
- half-humorous, half-cynical
Special requests: I tend to write short fics, so I'm probably not best paired with someone who wants a long fic or an intensely plotty one.
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no subject
Date: 2016-04-13 03:20 am (UTC)Also, thank you for the fantastic ACD story recs on AO3! I kept meaning to read some of the stories so I could reply ~properly, and now it's much later and I feel guilty for letting the time slip by, but I really appreciated them! I'm looking forward to reading the stories. :D
no subject
Date: 2016-04-14 03:44 am (UTC)"Placetne, magistra?" made me swoon.
ME TOO, YES. Now that you mention it, I think my taste for heartfelt passion as expressed through restrained and formal language may in fact owe a great deal to the Wimsey novels :)
Oh, never worry about time passing, that's nothing to feel guilty about at all! I just love enthusing about Holmes stories, and sometimes it can be nice to have an ACD cheat sheet to find some of the good character bits which is why I need little to no encouragement to rec my favorites! But they come with no strings attached, honest :) Read at your leisure, and I hope you will find some you like along the way!
Speaking of reading at your leisure, I will just leave a little rec here for what I thought was a really lovely and well-thought-out Wimsey fic. It's a soulmate AU, so feel free to ignore this if that trope is not to your taste, but I find the writing, characterizations, and world-building marvelous (and they continue in fascinating ways in the comments section). It's actually really intriguing to recast Peter's immediate proposal to Harriet within a society that culturally normalizes that kind of sudden attachment (though Harriet, being Harriet, is not wholly convinced.) In addition to passing the Bechdel test with flying colors, it plays with and consciously inverts some of the central themes of Strong Poison, which is probably why it is called...
Gentle Antidote (http://archiveofourown.org/works/2802470) by x_los. At twenty-one, Harriet Vane gets her Name. It's rather longer than she expected.
And, to conclude, Grand Admiral Thrawn rocks. Who wouldn't love him? The first Timothy Zahn trilogy will always hold a special place in my heart <3
Do you think you'll be able to join in holmestice this round, too? I am crossing my fingers that you will, but I know it's a busy time for a lot of people (me included! Eeep! don't think about it too hard...it's all fine. *deep breaths*)
no subject
Date: 2016-04-19 03:54 am (UTC)I just started Busman's Honeymoon! I love how the author's note at the beginning basically just says "Don't blame me if this is too fluffy; you asked for it."
Now that you mention it, I think my taste for heartfelt passion as expressed through restrained and formal language may in fact owe a great deal to the Wimsey novels
Totally understandable! I also loved the scene on the riverbank after they've gone punting, when Peter catches her looking at him. That one barely used any words, and it was still stunning.
Oh, never worry about time passing, that's nothing to feel guilty about at all!
Oh, I know, and I appreciate it! I've just been a very slow correspondent for a while now. I blame RL.
I will have to check out the Wimsey fic! That sounds interesting. :)
Grand Admiral Thrawn rocks. Who wouldn't love him? The first Timothy Zahn trilogy will always hold a special place in my heart
Mine too! Timothy Zahn's books were the first EU books I read, and I think they're still the best. He did such a good job with the characters, and of course, Thrawn is an exemplary OC (as is Mara!). You've got to love an intellectual, art-historian villain. He was compelling enough that I was half-rooting for him, even though I didn't want him to win. (Back when Sherlock first got popular, I saw a lot of fancasts with Benedict as Thrawn, and that always fannishly pleased me.)
Oh, thank you! Yes, I'm going to sign up tonight or tomorrow; I've just been dragging my feet. I wish I could find a monthly writing challenge for the rest of the year; I'm sure there must be such things, but I'm not good at Tumblr. I do the writerly equivalent of doodling all the time, but I seem to require an impending deadline to make me actually post something. o_O