Baked goods, bads, and morally ambiguouses.

This year, I had my first experience with the "I signed up to write what?" feeling of Yuletide. On reading my recipient's request, I'd actually considered writing a 20th Century Boys story, since she and I were the only ones requesting that particular fandom, and I honestly thought I was going to write one . . . right up to the point where I wrote 1600 words of and if they are not dead, a post-series Monster fic. (Okay, so I went from one Naoki Urasawa work to another, but still.) Spoilers galore if you haven't finished the series (either anime or manga), although I admit just knowing who's alive and who's dead by the end of the series is a bit of a spoiler in itself. I'm glad it turned out so well, thanks to my fantastic beta readers.

After I'd posted it, I gave in to the spirit of Yuletide and wrote a treat at the drop of a hat: Alone Time, a bit of fluff for the Vorkosigan series. Cordelia really is my favorite character, and I saw TigerKat's request for some Cordelia/Aral fluff, and the story just wrote itself.

In terms of beta work, I gave beta advice for The Nine Defeats, a Dragonlance story set during the second trilogy. Man, it's been a long time since I read those. This is heavy, heavy angst, piled on the most angstmuffiny character in the whole series, and it works. Not least because of the sonnet and the minotaur alliterative verse.

I also contributed a little to the brain-breaking crossover The Hundred Acre House, though my additions were more along the lines of beta help than anything else. The twisted germ of the original idea was all the author's fault. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. (Incidentally, if you're at all familiar with House of Leaves, go take a look. There were two fanworks based on it this year, one serious and very well done, and...well...this was the other one.)

And I'd really like to thank telophase for my fantastic Master Li story Three Jade Mice, which was really just perfect to wake up to on Christmas morning. (And it's even more awesome now that I know the Peking Gazette was real! And the Golden Silk Cat! And, and -- oh, just go read it already!) It comes with its own bibliography and further reading, all of which I now have to follow up on. Woo!

Damn, this was fun. I am so doing it again next year.

I'm kind of new to this whole Yuletide recommendations thing, but here are a few that stood out for me and that seem to have gone under the radar so far. ( Fandoms include Nochnoi Dozor, Samurai Champloo, Astro City, Pan's Labyrinth, To Say Nothing of the Dog, Greek Mythology, Neverwhere, Damar. )