holmestice | Guessing Post

Thank you so much for another wonderful round of Holmestice! The mods want to say THANK YOU to all the creators who joined us for this round. You put in a lot of hard work and made some really great fanworks.

Reveals and the Master List go up on December 21st. Until then, please enjoy and comment on all the lovely fanworks. Creators, please do NOT respond to Dreamwidth comments or post your fanwork elsewhere on the Internet until reveals go up in the community. You may of course reply to comments on AO3, which preserves your anonymity.

But we're not done yet -- treats are coming up! We'll continue to accept treats right through until reveals, so if there's a prompt for which you want to whip something up, please do! Just send it to holmesticemods@gmail.com using the regular submission guidelines.

If you'd like to guess at who created what in this round, a list of all the contributors -- including treat-makers -- is below the cut. Go ahead and take a guess! It's all in good fun.

796116311389 / redpenrevolution

a_different_equation

alexcat

belle82devart

colebaltblue

disheveledcurls

dogandmonkeyshow

dovahlock221

dryadinthegrove

elwinglyre

fridaythegowerstreetcat

gardnerhill

graycardinal

hp_swl_cumbercookie

ireallyshouldbedrawing

iwantthatcoat

keenir

bererjs

lamplighter1890

language_escapes

luthienberen

merindab

mightymads

milverton

monkiainen

nottoolateforthegame

orchid314

pagimag

penaltywaltz

phoenixfalls

pipmer1

rachelindeed

sanguinity

sanspatronymic

scfrankles

shinychimera

smallhobbit

starfishstar

tassynicole

tei

tripleransom

trobadora

venusinthenight

whoufflelover24

write_out

Go forth and leave love for your fellow Holmestice authors, artists, and vidders, and keep an eye out for the upcoming treats. See you again on the 21st, when we reveal who made what!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

sanguinity

I was shocked (shocked!) to refresh my dash yesterday and find a treat (a treat!) for me (for me!) that I knew nothing about! (!!!) It seems my wife, my co-mod, and my giftor all CONSPIRED TOGETHER to not only gift me a treat, but to make sure that I knew nothing about it.

Including, it turns out, who made it! (Do you know how much I've missed participating in the guessing part of the guessing post? SO MUCH.) So. Before I accidentally spoil myself while going about my modly duties...

I think

starfishstar wrote The Glorious Disguise.

The treat's very existence immediately made me think of starfishstar -- they once expressed an ambition to surprise me for Holmestice, and there was some real effort here put into doing just that. Moreover, the opening lines of the author's note made me think of them as well, a certain comfort with effusiveness that I have long marked and admired in starfishstar. Further, I know they were churning out completed stories during November like a machine, whereas most of the other people I might finger for this were under tighter (although admittedly not impossible) schedules.

As to the story itself, when I compare it with The Fixed Foot, starfishstar's earlier foray into My Dearly Beloved Detective, there's a similarity in the style of author notes, as well as a consistency in thought about both the Robbie Summers question (i.e., Jane never married him) and also about that night at the Gentlemen's Club. (Namely, that both women needed to change their behavior: Jane to become more comfortable with risk and disguise, Shirley to be more respectful of Jane's limits.) It's a small fandom, but neither of those are universal opinions. Similarly, starfishstar noted in their sign-up that "for me their parting at the end either never happened, or was quickly rectified afterwards offscreen" -- again, a certain commitment to this particular handling of the Robbie Summers question -- and that they wanted a happier story (which this is, whereas the fandom as a whole tends to run toward melancholy). Again: this is all very consistent with the story being theirs. As to writing style, there's also a consistent aesthetic between the two stories about what a sentence should look/sound like.

None of which is conclusive -- confirmation bias is always a concern! -- but I'm having trouble coming up with another candidate that seems half as likely.

Edited Date: 2018-12-17 04:59 pm (UTC)

From:

starfishstar

Now I can finally say: I'm SO THRILLED you enjoyed your surprise!

I didn't even know it would be possible for you, as a mod, to see the fic without seeing the author attached, so that was a wonderful surprise for me too, that you got the fun of guessing.

This all started because I wanted to do *something* extra for you, since you're a mod and never get to be surprised. So I figured, if who you're getting a gift from isn't a surprise, maybe the number of gifts could be. (I wanted to write you a hat trick – three fics in three different rare 'verses – but any other one would have required a lot more canon review, and time didn't allow!) But then when I approached colebaltblue about how sneaky we might be able to be about this, she said, actually, we could hold back on posting the fic, and coordinate so that it all happened really fast before you could be accidentally spoiled to the surprise. There has been much cloak-and-dagger scheming these past weeks, and I'm so pleased you enjoyed the result. :-)

And please know, 9/10 of the credit for this belongs to colebaltblue! I just showed up when and where she told me to. (She got grrlpup to keep you out of the way at the critical juncture, too.) :D

As for the fic itself...well, as you can tell, I didn't even try to disguise myself, since I didn't know you would see it as anonymous! But you are right on all counts about what makes this obviously me. Funny story, in an earlier draft I was still trying to juggle catering to the fandom consensus on how view Shirley and Jane's fight (on Shirley's side) with how I actually feel about it (on Jane's side!) and it was all a bit of a mess. colebaltblue said, don't do that, just write it how you see it. So I did. :-) And yeah, it's just so tragic to me that they would have this single disagreement and then part ways forever. So I change that whenever I can!

As to writing style, there's also a consistent aesthetic between the two stories about what a sentence should look/sound like. – if it's something you can expand on at all, I would be so, so eager to know more about this. I have very little idea what my sentences are like! (Aside from...long.)

a certain comfort with effusiveness that I have long marked and admired in starfishstar – this is such a kind thing to say, and moved me so much. I think of my effusiveness as something a bit absurd that could do with reining in, so to hear it described as a positive did me profound good.

And lest you doubt it, I very much meant that author's note – you have inspired me so much, and I wanted to do *some* small nice thing back to you.

From:

sanguinity

I didn't even know it would be possible for you, as a mod, to see the fic without seeing the author attached...

Only if the three of you got your timing right!

When you post a fic to the collection, even as a draft, AO3 puts it into our "Waiting for Approval" queue and sends us an email that it exists. The email might actually have your name in it, I don't know, I never open them, I just go straight to the Approval queue to see what's up. In the queue, it would say "The Glorious Disguise // starfishstar for sanguinity" (along with a bunch of ticky boxes for reveal/anon/whatever), and boom, I'd be spoiled before you could say Stroop effect. Even if colebaltblue got rid of the announcement email, I'd still probably notice the gift sitting there waiting for approval the next time I was in the Approval queue. And between one thing and another, I'm in the Approval five or six times a day.

BUT. She approved it and got it out of that queue right away, into the "Approved Items" tab. And the Approved Items tab? Unless I mess something up and need to dig around in there for an approved-but-borked work so that I can fiddle with its ticky boxes, I never go in there.

And in every other view in the collection, including the work page itself, we just see what any participant sees: it says that the work is by "Anonymous," end of.

So! If you guys had messed up your timing -- if you, say, had saved it in draft form before colebaltblue had been available to approve it -- then I would have been spoiled. But you coordinated it beautifully, whisked it out of the queue where I couldn't help but see it, and into an out-of-the-way place that I could easily make the decision to avoid going. (Which I of course did! You guys went through all that effort, and I wasn't going to mess that up with a bit of ungrateful snooping.)

And I was so touched that you three went through the effort of arranging it!

colebaltblue said, don't do that, just write it how you see it. Excellent advice, that! I'd rather read a given author's true take on a thing than the fandom consensus on a thing. Those kinds of contortions tend to eat away at the foundations of a story, and I already know the fandom consensus anyway. :-)

Your effusiveness is a joy. :-) I hope you meet many people in the world who think so.

And you are terribly kind. Both in your words and in your going through the trouble of arranging this surprise for me. Thank you so much!