nomadicwriter

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition random Candy Hearts treat in a fandom I've never written before!

Been feeling like my media-consumption has been a bit backward-looking in recent years, what with my project to reread and rewatch a bunch of stuff and the fact I don't really do streaming, so I've been making an effort to dust off my neglected iPlayer account and also check out some more recent books and DVDs. Hence this fic for Ludwig, a BBC detective dramedy from last year that I really enjoyed. It stars David Mitchell as a reclusive puzzle-creator who's roped into impersonating his missing police officer twin by his sister-in-law, Anna Maxwell Martin.

The Simple Things You See Are All Complicated (Ludwig, John/Lucy UST, 3250 words)

The longer James is gone, the more complicated things get. Still, at least they have John's natural grace in navigating emotionally difficult situations to see them through.

Might try and write some more fic for the fandom, since mine is currently only the sixth in existence. (Apparently I can get into newer canons, but still unerringly lock on to ones that are tiny in terms of fannish activity, because that's just how I roll.)

Other things:

I watched S1 of Severance, since it got a DVD release ahead of the new series. Didn't love it as much as I hoped, though sticking it out resulted in a more favourable opinion than I might have had if I'd bailed early on. Very slow-paced, and doesn't really start getting rolling until episode six of nine; there's a lot more focus on atmospheric worldbuilding at the expense of plot progression than is really my thing, and while the cast is strong and it had its moments, I ultimately didn't get very invested. Wouldn't completely rule out watching more, but no burning urge to, either.

Tried out and bounced off a lot of other things as either too-humourless dramas or too-episodic sitcoms, and as a result currently seem to have fallen into watching Jonathan Creek. Which is rather counter to my objective of watching more recent canons, but it's surprisingly hard to find the sort of procedural dramedy I'm apparently in the mood for right now. At least it's mostly new to me, aside from the odd snippet caught on TV here and there.

Book-wise I've also been checking out the Slough House/Slow Horses books. (I've heard good things about the TV series, but it doesn't seem to have a UK DVD release.) Wasn't sure I was going to get on with the writing style at first, but the sense of humour won me over, and on the strength of the first book I bought the next few in the series to read. Currently halfway through the second.

A year of Yuletide treats in new fandoms for me, and all gen this time. I wrote for Mary Stewart's Merlin books after doing a recent reread, plus finally got around to watching the BBC series Ghosts and ended up unexpectedly writing five different fics for it. Wasn't sure I was going to be able to come up for any new ideas for my perennial fandoms this time around, but then at the last minute I managed to squeak in an Eroica fic too.

Forms of Fire (Mary Stewart's Merlin)
Even the simplest tricks can have their uses. (3600 words)

After finishing my Discworld reread last year I revisited some other fantasy series I last read twenty or thirty years ago, including LotR and this series. Reading those two back to back had me thinking on how differently and sparingly the use of magic is depicted compared to more modern series where there's often much more of a D&D/videogame-ish attention to detailed magic systems with clearly defined rules, hence a story themed around Merlin's magic. This is set during the first book about his younger years, which was always my favourite, possibly because it's less restricted by following the outlines of well-established Arthurian legend.

Lend Me Your Ears (BBC Ghosts)
Talking can be difficult, but getting someone to listen might be even harder. (4400 words)

The first of my five Ghosts fics. The recipient suggested a five-times style fic about N times the Captain tried to come out, and that seemed like a great way to get a feel for writing different members of the ensemble without just launching straight into tackling eleven characters at once.

Philosophical Differences (BBC Ghosts)
Thomas and the Captain talk under the stars. Well, clouds. But the stars are still up there somewhere. (2050 words)

Another Captain-POV fic. I find him and Thomas a fun combination to pair up because they're such opposite extremes in terms of dealing with emotions. Like the recipient noted, they don't actually interact that often in the show itself, so this ended up being a missing scene from the camping episode.

Chest Trouble (BBC Ghosts)
A box found in the attic turns out to hold a wealth of history. Alison would have preferred a wealth of wealth. (4700 words)

This one is pure canon-style ensemble comedy hijinks and my first stab at juggling the whole cast all together. Great fun to write and spurred me on to revisit the other Ghosts prompts and see if I could keep the ball rolling with another fic or two. (Yuletide always seems to be a time of sitcom fic for me; I love writing comedy dialogue, but it can be tough to come up with plots without a prompt as inspiration.)

Nothing Sweeter, Finer (BBC Ghosts)
Snowfall brings back memories for everyone, but for the Captain most of all. (2150 words)

Back in the Captain's POV. The prompt was for heavy snowfall bringing back memories, so it seemed natural to set it during the canonical snow in the wedding episode. I ended up doing a ridiculous amount of research into past bad winters for the various ghosts to reference that then mostly got condensed into one-liners where I didn't even name a specific year, as these things usually go. Also, I slightly fudged things in my quest for an era-appropriate title, as it's from the song 'Winter Weather' which is 1941 while the Captain's flashback is to the winter of 1939. But, eh, close enough.

Dead Likeness (BBC Ghosts)
Mike tries to learn a little more about his new housemates. (2450 words)

Set between series one and two, the last of my Ghosts fics and funnily enough the one that most took off. I guess there's a yearning for Mike fic out there? I initially planned to switch to Alison's POV in some sections for logistical reasons, but decided it was stronger and probably funnier to find a way to stick with Mike's POV of not being able to see or hear the ghosts throughout. This went through a succession of terrible titles I was unhappy with until I finally pulled this one out at the last minute.

The Gift of the Major (Eroica)
Klaus and Dorian exchange gifts - in a way. (3100 words)

Much to my surprise I still had several days left to write another fic, so I revisited prompts for old favourite fandoms and managed to come up with a plot for some Eroica shenanigans. Then I had a chance to get my vaccine booster, spent a day and a half mildly feverish and in no mood to concentrate, and suddenly had a lot less time. I was still revising this and not yet sure it was going to come together an hour before I went to bed on the 24th, but it finally clicked. I tried various wordplays on exchanging gifts as a title before this one came to me, so I punted that bit to the summary instead.

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All in all, not sure how or why, but this seems to have been my most prolific Yuletide yet! I managed seven treats back in 2019 as well, but with a lower total wordcount. Might try and keep the momentum going and write some more Ghosts fic while I'm apparently on a roll. (I actually played myself by assuming there'd be lots of shippy requests and so being more of a gen writer I should get a head start on coming up with some story ideas... and then everyone wanted gen. So I might go back and see if I can turn any of those into fics.) But no promises I will actually produce anything.

In other loosely fandom-related news, I'm planning on going back to my project of rereading various book series from my youth after having been briefly sidetracked by filling some gaps in my Stephen King collection and then some non-fiction reference stuff. Earthsea and A Song of Ice and Fire are on my list fantasy-wise, though Yuletide also reminded me that I wanted to reread the Cadfael books. I also finally finished rewatching Cheers earlier in the year, and I did grab the whole-series box set of Frasier to follow up at some point, but I'm not sure I want to commit to another really long show just yet. Ghosts was about the right length for me to breeze through; I'm not so good at making it through shows with multiple seasons of twenty-something episodes these days.

Anyway, I would hopefully like to produce more fic of some sort between now and Yuletide 2022, but if not, see you in next year's version of this post.