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Jan. 1st, 2020 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsFor the first time in many years, I only wrote one fic for Yuletide this year, and barely managed to finish that (with much appreciation for agonistes and ep_birdsall for coming to the rescue with my EXTREMELY last-minute requests for beta help). October/November/December were just murderous months for me in terms of free time and the absence thereof.
(Relatedly, I have only made my way through a very fractional portion of the archive, but January should be much more chill so hopefully I will have more time for it soon!)
Anyway, the fic I wrote was The Affair of the Necklace, for the Benjamin January books; my recipient had several prompts, including an exploration of Dominique's relationship with Olympe and casefic about Dominique solving a mystery with Chloé, so this fic is an attempt at doing both those things.
This was a challenging story to write for a lot of reasons, but it did give me the excuse to reread three of my favorite Benjamin January novels. For those unfamiliar, these books focus on a free black pianist/music teacher/surgeon who also finds himself frequently fighting crime in 1830s New Orleans (I have written about them a few times before.)
The books I reread:
Die Upon A Kiss, Hambly's Phantom of the Opera riff and MY FAVORITE MESS. I'm just going to list off subplots until I forget them:
- an angry opera genius attempting to get revenge on his plagiarist
- the financial rivalry between two theater impresarios
- one of whom might unrelatedly be an Austrian spy
- a ring of slave smugglers
- a cold case in which a man murdered his mistress five years ago
- an opera diva attempting to poison her rival
- at least two separate love polygons involving opera personnel
- unrelatedly, the actual main protagonists progressing from a friendship to a romance
- the mysterious attempted murder of a ballet mistress who happens to be the protagonist's friendly ex
- angry Italian nationalists trying to blow things up
- the kickoff of the ongoing subplot about Henri's marriage to Chloé, which was my excuse for rereading the book
- EXPLODING THEATER VOLCANOES
Is that only 12? I'm definitely forgetting some. Anyway, it's nonsense, and I love it. One thousand percent OPERA!!!! I'm sad that the angry Italian nationalists are such minor characters to the series overall that I probably will never get fic about Cavallo and Ponte and Drusilla, because the dynamics there are fascinating and barely explored due to the eleven other plots.
Wet Grave, which starts off slow and sad with a lot of relationship drama and the sad death of a sympathetic youth, and ends with a band of rogues taking advantage of a slave rebellion during a monsoon to hunt for secret! pirate! treasure!!! An amazing book for Benjamin's sister Dominique and also the proper introduction of Chloé and thus very important for my purposes, but also just a great book in general; in addition to all the other plots, I really appreciate how Ben January spends the whole book in a huff refusing to help his sometime-detecting-partner Abishag Shaw with solving a murder among the upper crust because he's so annoyed no one is working on the other murders that he actually cares about, and then accidentally solves it at the end anyway. Relatedly, GREAT Shaw stuff in this book.
Good Man Friday, a Benjamin January Traveling Adventures book, which usually I don't like so much as the ones set in New Orleans, but this one has a few very important features: a.) Dominique and Henri and Chloé are all there in DC with him and doing interesting things, which means Benjamin's family stuff remains front and center; b.) the emotional dynamics of the B-plot about an alcoholic Kentucky politician and his enslaved half-brother have really good painful sharp edges; c.) Hambly is having SO much fun with 1830s politics and historical baseball nonsense and joyfully self-indulgent cameos. I had completely forgotten that like a third of the book is Ben fighting crime with Surprise Edgar Allen Poe! How did I forget this!
I probably should also have reread The Shirt On His Back, because it covers the time period during which my fic is actually set, but a.) I ran out of time and b.) I don't like that one as well anyway.
There are at least two new books since I last checked in back in 2017 -- the last one I got around to was Drinking Gourd -- so catching up on the series will certainly be something I do in the new year!
agonistes and ep_birdsall for coming to the rescue with my EXTREMELY last-minute requests for beta help). October/November/December were just murderous months for me in terms of free time and the absence thereof. (Relatedly, I have only made my way through a very fractional portion of the archive, but January should be much more chill so hopefully I will have more time for it soon!)
Anyway, the fic I wrote was The Affair of the Necklace, for the Benjamin January books; my recipient had several prompts, including an exploration of Dominique's relationship with Olympe and casefic about Dominique solving a mystery with Chloé, so this fic is an attempt at doing both those things.
This was a challenging story to write for a lot of reasons, but it did give me the excuse to reread three of my favorite Benjamin January novels. For those unfamiliar, these books focus on a free black pianist/music teacher/surgeon who also finds himself frequently fighting crime in 1830s New Orleans (I have written about them a few times before.)
The books I reread:
Die Upon A Kiss, Hambly's Phantom of the Opera riff and MY FAVORITE MESS. I'm just going to list off subplots until I forget them:
- an angry opera genius attempting to get revenge on his plagiarist
- the financial rivalry between two theater impresarios
- one of whom might unrelatedly be an Austrian spy
- a ring of slave smugglers
- a cold case in which a man murdered his mistress five years ago
- an opera diva attempting to poison her rival
- at least two separate love polygons involving opera personnel
- unrelatedly, the actual main protagonists progressing from a friendship to a romance
- the mysterious attempted murder of a ballet mistress who happens to be the protagonist's friendly ex
- angry Italian nationalists trying to blow things up
- the kickoff of the ongoing subplot about Henri's marriage to Chloé, which was my excuse for rereading the book
- EXPLODING THEATER VOLCANOES
Is that only 12? I'm definitely forgetting some. Anyway, it's nonsense, and I love it. One thousand percent OPERA!!!! I'm sad that the angry Italian nationalists are such minor characters to the series overall that I probably will never get fic about Cavallo and Ponte and Drusilla, because the dynamics there are fascinating and barely explored due to the eleven other plots.
Wet Grave, which starts off slow and sad with a lot of relationship drama and the sad death of a sympathetic youth, and ends with a band of rogues taking advantage of a slave rebellion during a monsoon to hunt for secret! pirate! treasure!!! An amazing book for Benjamin's sister Dominique and also the proper introduction of Chloé and thus very important for my purposes, but also just a great book in general; in addition to all the other plots, I really appreciate how Ben January spends the whole book in a huff refusing to help his sometime-detecting-partner Abishag Shaw with solving a murder among the upper crust because he's so annoyed no one is working on the other murders that he actually cares about, and then accidentally solves it at the end anyway. Relatedly, GREAT Shaw stuff in this book.
Good Man Friday, a Benjamin January Traveling Adventures book, which usually I don't like so much as the ones set in New Orleans, but this one has a few very important features: a.) Dominique and Henri and Chloé are all there in DC with him and doing interesting things, which means Benjamin's family stuff remains front and center; b.) the emotional dynamics of the B-plot about an alcoholic Kentucky politician and his enslaved half-brother have really good painful sharp edges; c.) Hambly is having SO much fun with 1830s politics and historical baseball nonsense and joyfully self-indulgent cameos. I had completely forgotten that like a third of the book is Ben fighting crime with Surprise Edgar Allen Poe! How did I forget this!
I probably should also have reread The Shirt On His Back, because it covers the time period during which my fic is actually set, but a.) I ran out of time and b.) I don't like that one as well anyway.
There are at least two new books since I last checked in back in 2017 -- the last one I got around to was Drinking Gourd -- so catching up on the series will certainly be something I do in the new year!
no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 06:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 08:18 pm (UTC)I hadn't remembered the politician and his half-brother, so I may have to re-read Good Man Friday. My primary takeaway was appreciation at Ben's ability to collect the local drunken poetic failbucket of any city he seems to find himself in.
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Date: 2020-01-01 08:36 pm (UTC)Ben really does have a gift!
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Date: 2020-01-01 08:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 09:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 09:11 pm (UTC)//shrieks
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Date: 2020-01-01 09:15 pm (UTC)You personally should definitely see The Tall Target (1951).
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Date: 2020-01-01 09:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 09:17 pm (UTC)(unrelatedly, I just remembered but we need to figure out a time to see a possibly-terrible 1970s PBS film!)
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Date: 2020-01-01 09:17 pm (UTC)Yes! E-mail me. I would like to do this thing.
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Date: 2020-01-01 09:18 pm (UTC)LOOK, MURDER INVESTIGATIONS ARE ONE THING, BUT PYROTECHNIC EFFECTS ARE VERY IMPORTANT
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Date: 2020-01-01 11:09 pm (UTC)This made me grin so big.
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Date: 2020-01-01 11:23 pm (UTC)Also Hambly's ability to write books that are both self-indulgent messes and really well-crafted and full of beautiful characterization at the same time kind of blows my mind and this post reminded me of that.
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Date: 2020-01-02 02:55 am (UTC)AND YEAH, I always forget until I'm in the middle of one just how gloriously self-indulgent they are. Die Upon a Kiss is like the self-parody version of this but even the more restrained books tend to have at least five plots, one wildly over-the-top dramatic reveal, and a Gratuitous Historical Cameo and it completely works because what we're really in it for is the rich relationships and historical worldbuilding.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-02 02:53 pm (UTC)