skygiants

genarti asked me for my top five favorite book covers! She gave me full reign to be ironic in my love, which is a privilege I will try not to abuse. At least 50% of these will also be rooted in fond nostalgia rather than any artistic merit, so . . . you are warned? I also stretch the definition of 'top five' a little, you are also warned.

( Lots of images under the cut, obviously! )

What about you guys? Favorite covers? Notoriously terrible covers that you have braved to find the gold within? Or, alternately, covers that should justly have been a warning to you?

I have only read an infinitesimal number of Yuletide fics so far, all in the As - aside from my own brilliant gifts which I can never ever glee about enough (Which World and Brush Contact, guys! I will fangirl until the COWS COME HOME). I regret this especially because there were a few of your fics I wonder if I would have been able to guess if I had gotten to them pre-reveal! But I am super looking forward to reading them all as I get to them. :D :D :D

I wrote three stories this year - one assigned, one pinch-hit, and a Madness drabble. My goal was to write more stories than last year so I am moderately pleased with this. Next year perhaps I will write FOUR! Though let's not get crazy in our ambitions.

My assigned story was for Joie de Combat (joiedecombat) in Baccano! fandom: While Recognizing the Importance of Luck in Certain Situations, Eve Genoard Continues to Disapprove of Gambling. It's about Eve Genoard and the Gandor brothers and Mafia politics, and features Luck Gandor getting kidnapped because it amuses me. I almost never write anything involving action, so this was epic amounts of fun for me to write - kidnapping! arson! assassins! severed fingers! dramatic games of billiards! - which is possibly also why it grew RIDICULOUSLY long. Also, genarti and areyoumymemmy are to blame for any and all horrible puns in the title and the chapter headings.

My pinch-hit was for Katrick (kindness_says) for Tamora Pierce's Tortall books: Armiger, a series of vignettes about the changes that take place in the friendships between Alanna and Jon and Gary and Raoul and Alex over the course of In the Hand of the Goddess. It was a bit bizarre writing fic in this fandom because the last and only thing I ever wrote for the Alannaverse was, um, my thesis, which meant I constantly had to remind myself that I was not allowed to get on any hobbyhorses about crossdressing and gender roles and Judith Butler. But fun!

And the one Madness ficlet (and the only DWJ fic I wrote this year, shockingly!) I wrote was for MiraMira (miramira.dreamwidth.org) for Homeward Bounders: Jamie Hamilton's Rotten Luck. I wrote this in half an hour in my towel on December 24th when I was struck by an idea that made me giggle in the shower, so I don't take much responsibility for it, but I never turn down an excuse to write dorky Homeward Bounders crossovers.

Also, while I am linking things, it strikes me that I never linked back here the fic I wrote ages ago for the Avatar: The Last Airbender Ladyfest ficathon. It was Jailhouse Rock for escalove and was about Mai and Suki not doing the insta-bonding thing postcanon (OR DO THEY???) I was quite pleased with it until I read it right after posting my Baccano! fic and realized I used at least two of the exact same turns of phrase. Uh. YOU NOTICED NOTHING.

genarti, areyoumymemmy, varadia and dictator_duck were all marvelous about beta-ing; thank you all so much! Special thanks goes to Emmy and Gen, however, for not only beta-ing an epically long fic in a fandom they knew not much about, but then patiently listening while I explained every little reference to them, usually while cackling maniacally ("NO SEE IT'S FUNNY IF YOU KNOW ALL ABOUT CLAIRE STANFIELD HERE LET ME TELL YOU!")