rosie_rues (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rosie_rues) wrote2010-11-19 09:27 pm
rosie_rues) wrote2010-11-19 09:27 pm
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Dear Yuletide Writer...
Oooh, it's ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
yuletide time again. Christmas must be coming ^__^
First off, write something you'll enjoy. It's exciting just to have someone who loves the same crazy little fandoms as me, and I want you to have as much fun with it as possible. I'm not going to lay down some crazily precise requests, because I know how much that would throw me off, but I will tell you what I like about the fandoms I chose and hopefully that will give you some ideas.
Quick comment, as I know someone is pinch-hitting for this now (you're a star ^_^): What I said up there, about writing something you'll enjoy doing - that's what matters most. I've done a lot of Yuletide pinch-hits over the last few years, and I know how frantic and exhilarating they can be. Take as much or as little from my prompts as you like. Just have fun, please :)
1. Alan Warner - The Sopranos
My request: I love this book, the mixture of confidence and fragility in the girls. I'd love to know what happens to any of them after the events of the first book (I've read The Stars in the Bright Sky, and liked it, but don't worry about staying canon-compliant if you haven't, as it's the first book which I love best). If you want to write me Fionnula/Kay go for it, but I'd love to see any of them negotiating the adult world just as much.
Okay, so as I'm writing this, no one has offered this fandom, so take this as a rec for a really awesome book. The Sopranos was published in 1998 and I first read it when I was the same age as the girls, and I still remember that shock of recognition. I was never a bad girl, but I knew girls like this, and every time I read a critique of this book which says the girls are too laddish/old man's wet dream, I shake my head and sneer. The beauty of this book for me is how real and human and convincing all of them are. I love Kylah's passion for singing, and how its mirrored by her lack of ambition. I love Kay, who is quietly more rebellious of all, and I love Orla, with her terrible sense of her own mortality. Most of all, I love Fionnula, who leads the rest and has grown beyond them and who tries too hard to be wild and eventually drinks like a teenager and loves as an adult.
And, for those who don't know it, here's a taste of the language of this book, which is as wild and ridiculous as its characters:
Kylah, Fionnula (the Cooler), Chell, Manda Tassy and Orla! The Sopranos swinging or shouldering their bags from Room 37 towards the understairs toilets for final cigarettes.
They've youth; they'll walk it out like a favourite pair trainers. It's a poem this youth and why should they know it, as the five of them move up the empty corridors? We should get shoved aside cause they have it now, in glow of skin and liquid clarity of deep eye on coming June nights and cause it will go... After all what do we amount to but a load of worn-out shoes?
2. Jean Estoril, Drina books
My request: I'm interested in the stories behind the stories here, in the adult characters when they were younger: in how Betsy Chester became Elizabeth Ivory, or how Adele Whiteway picked up the pieces of her life. Alternatively, I'd love to know more about Terza, about her escape to England and how she adapted to life in a new country.
What I've said about this for the last two years: These were a childhood favourite of mine and I read them until my copies fell apart. I always adored Drina's big secret and the way she sometimes struggled to find her own way. I reread a lot of them last summer and it struck me how many other stories were crammed into the series - I found myself wondering about Marianne Volonaise and Igor Dominick Sr; about how Mrs Chester felt watching her daughter grow up; about Elizabeth Ivory herself and her transformation from gawky Betsy to ballerina- so many tantalising glimpses in the books. I wanted to know more about the Lorencz family and their escape from behind the Iron Curtain or about the life led by Adele Whiteway (who I think I always assumed was a lesbian) when Drina's not looking. Give me a sense of the time and place and tell me about one of these people and I'll be overjoyed.
3. Noel Streatfeild - Wintle's Wonders / Dancing Shoes
My request: I'd like to know what happens to the girls after the end of the book. It leaves them, particularly Rachel, on such an enormous turning point and I'd love to see how they grow up, how and if their dreams and priorities change, what kind of adults they become.
I love this book, which isn't as well known as her others. It's all about the love between sisters, and the way they still don't understand each other. For those who don't know the book, it starts when Rachel Lennox's mother dies and she and her adopted sister Hilary are taken in by Rachel's aunt. Hilary is a talented dancer, and their mother wanted her to go to the Royal Ballet School. However, their aunt runs a school training little girls to be dancers for musicals and pantos. Rachel makes it her mission to make sure that Hilary makes it as a ballerina; Hilary has absolutely no ambition and loves dancing in a troupe with the other kids. It's a world of pier shows and talent contests, the reality of girls working on stage to help their families and the odd ambitious mother (talented cousin Dulcie is a spoilt horror to beat all spoilt horror). Rachel's like the Dean Winchester of kiddy show-biz books, and watching her come to realise her own talents and let Hilary control her own life is one of the many joys of this book.
4. Son of Rambow
My request: Slash or gen, show me how their friendship develops over time.
*grins* Oh, this film. I just love it. Look, I'm a teacher in an all-boys school and half of us had this rolling as our end of term treat last summer because we all watched it and recognised those kids. Every teacher in the world has a soft spot for their own Lee Carter (Year 8, my current one, and prone to stomping even when he's sitting down), and I love the warmth and humour of this, the celebration of friendship and absurdity and imagination, and the sheer, gleeful fun of it. So, yeah, tell how they grow up, where their imaginations take them, what mayhem they cause, and above all, have fun. :)
On a completely unrelated note, I'm appealing to the wisdom of my flist. My little sister has just announced she's pregnant, and she's miserable and puking at the moment. I want to get her something for Christmas which is all for her and will make her feel pampered, as I think she'll be drowning in baby fever otherwise (it'll be the first baby in a new generation, and our grandparents are already besotted even though it's not even a bump yet). Does anyone have any suggestions? The closest I've ever been to pregnant is covering a Year 4 class, and even they were too little and freaky for me (why do they lick table legs? Why glue their worksheets to their foreheads? What's the appeal of sticking pencils up your nose? Give me stinky teenagers any day. At least I can mock them without making them cry).
yuletide time again. Christmas must be coming ^__^First off, write something you'll enjoy. It's exciting just to have someone who loves the same crazy little fandoms as me, and I want you to have as much fun with it as possible. I'm not going to lay down some crazily precise requests, because I know how much that would throw me off, but I will tell you what I like about the fandoms I chose and hopefully that will give you some ideas.
Quick comment, as I know someone is pinch-hitting for this now (you're a star ^_^): What I said up there, about writing something you'll enjoy doing - that's what matters most. I've done a lot of Yuletide pinch-hits over the last few years, and I know how frantic and exhilarating they can be. Take as much or as little from my prompts as you like. Just have fun, please :)
1. Alan Warner - The Sopranos
My request: I love this book, the mixture of confidence and fragility in the girls. I'd love to know what happens to any of them after the events of the first book (I've read The Stars in the Bright Sky, and liked it, but don't worry about staying canon-compliant if you haven't, as it's the first book which I love best). If you want to write me Fionnula/Kay go for it, but I'd love to see any of them negotiating the adult world just as much.
Okay, so as I'm writing this, no one has offered this fandom, so take this as a rec for a really awesome book. The Sopranos was published in 1998 and I first read it when I was the same age as the girls, and I still remember that shock of recognition. I was never a bad girl, but I knew girls like this, and every time I read a critique of this book which says the girls are too laddish/old man's wet dream, I shake my head and sneer. The beauty of this book for me is how real and human and convincing all of them are. I love Kylah's passion for singing, and how its mirrored by her lack of ambition. I love Kay, who is quietly more rebellious of all, and I love Orla, with her terrible sense of her own mortality. Most of all, I love Fionnula, who leads the rest and has grown beyond them and who tries too hard to be wild and eventually drinks like a teenager and loves as an adult.
And, for those who don't know it, here's a taste of the language of this book, which is as wild and ridiculous as its characters:
Kylah, Fionnula (the Cooler), Chell, Manda Tassy and Orla! The Sopranos swinging or shouldering their bags from Room 37 towards the understairs toilets for final cigarettes.
They've youth; they'll walk it out like a favourite pair trainers. It's a poem this youth and why should they know it, as the five of them move up the empty corridors? We should get shoved aside cause they have it now, in glow of skin and liquid clarity of deep eye on coming June nights and cause it will go... After all what do we amount to but a load of worn-out shoes?
2. Jean Estoril, Drina books
My request: I'm interested in the stories behind the stories here, in the adult characters when they were younger: in how Betsy Chester became Elizabeth Ivory, or how Adele Whiteway picked up the pieces of her life. Alternatively, I'd love to know more about Terza, about her escape to England and how she adapted to life in a new country.
What I've said about this for the last two years: These were a childhood favourite of mine and I read them until my copies fell apart. I always adored Drina's big secret and the way she sometimes struggled to find her own way. I reread a lot of them last summer and it struck me how many other stories were crammed into the series - I found myself wondering about Marianne Volonaise and Igor Dominick Sr; about how Mrs Chester felt watching her daughter grow up; about Elizabeth Ivory herself and her transformation from gawky Betsy to ballerina- so many tantalising glimpses in the books. I wanted to know more about the Lorencz family and their escape from behind the Iron Curtain or about the life led by Adele Whiteway (who I think I always assumed was a lesbian) when Drina's not looking. Give me a sense of the time and place and tell me about one of these people and I'll be overjoyed.
3. Noel Streatfeild - Wintle's Wonders / Dancing Shoes
My request: I'd like to know what happens to the girls after the end of the book. It leaves them, particularly Rachel, on such an enormous turning point and I'd love to see how they grow up, how and if their dreams and priorities change, what kind of adults they become.
I love this book, which isn't as well known as her others. It's all about the love between sisters, and the way they still don't understand each other. For those who don't know the book, it starts when Rachel Lennox's mother dies and she and her adopted sister Hilary are taken in by Rachel's aunt. Hilary is a talented dancer, and their mother wanted her to go to the Royal Ballet School. However, their aunt runs a school training little girls to be dancers for musicals and pantos. Rachel makes it her mission to make sure that Hilary makes it as a ballerina; Hilary has absolutely no ambition and loves dancing in a troupe with the other kids. It's a world of pier shows and talent contests, the reality of girls working on stage to help their families and the odd ambitious mother (talented cousin Dulcie is a spoilt horror to beat all spoilt horror). Rachel's like the Dean Winchester of kiddy show-biz books, and watching her come to realise her own talents and let Hilary control her own life is one of the many joys of this book.
4. Son of Rambow
My request: Slash or gen, show me how their friendship develops over time.
*grins* Oh, this film. I just love it. Look, I'm a teacher in an all-boys school and half of us had this rolling as our end of term treat last summer because we all watched it and recognised those kids. Every teacher in the world has a soft spot for their own Lee Carter (Year 8, my current one, and prone to stomping even when he's sitting down), and I love the warmth and humour of this, the celebration of friendship and absurdity and imagination, and the sheer, gleeful fun of it. So, yeah, tell how they grow up, where their imaginations take them, what mayhem they cause, and above all, have fun. :)
On a completely unrelated note, I'm appealing to the wisdom of my flist. My little sister has just announced she's pregnant, and she's miserable and puking at the moment. I want to get her something for Christmas which is all for her and will make her feel pampered, as I think she'll be drowning in baby fever otherwise (it'll be the first baby in a new generation, and our grandparents are already besotted even though it's not even a bump yet). Does anyone have any suggestions? The closest I've ever been to pregnant is covering a Year 4 class, and even they were too little and freaky for me (why do they lick table legs? Why glue their worksheets to their foreheads? What's the appeal of sticking pencils up your nose? Give me stinky teenagers any day. At least I can mock them without making them cry).
no subject
More generally, maternity clothes are really expensive. A voucher for somewhere with a good range might be a nice way of making her feel good when she gets bigger.
There are also some really fantastic pregnancy massages available, which would make her feel very pampered indeed. Or just a really nice mani/pedi - once everything starts swelling up, they're lovely for keeping your swollen extremites cool and looking pretty.
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Oooh, all good ideas. Thank you.
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When my sister was pregnant over Christmas two years ago (she's REALLY into having kids these days), I gave her a set of bath bombs, a fancy towel/robe thing, some fancy shampoos and soaps and so on. Like you, I figured she would be babied out by the gifts she would inevitably get, so although I got my (future, at that point) nephew lots of clothes and things, I also made sure she wasn't forgotten. Don't know if that helps, but congrats either way!
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Bath bombs are a good idea - she loves Lush stuff but it's usually a little out of her price range.
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Congrats on your sister's news! I have zero experience with pregnant women issues, but I hope she feels better.
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She's still feeling poorly, but she's so excited that she doesn't mind too much at the moment. I got emailed pictures of her scan this week, and just got a Christmas card from the bump XD
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*facepalms* Today is not a good typing day.
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