emma_in_dream

Hello –


I feel like the last kid at the school to become aware that there is a cool party going on, but last year was literally the first year I realized what the purpose of Yuletide letters was. I saw them on my LJ feed and I even wrote them *but I did not realise they were aggregated centrally*. I thought people just went looking for the person they were writing for, checking if they had an LJ account and if they had left a message. When I found out last year that there was a central list – after participating for about a decade - I was so excited! I wrote several stocking stuffers!


So, right of the bat, you will realise you are not writing for the brightest or most tech savvy of people. Cough, moving along.


Things I like: people working together as teams! Loyalty! Friends becoming family! People being competent! And communicating vital information to each other in a sensible manner! Also, slash!


I had heaps of trouble deciding on the fandoms I’d like to request this year because I am all about the most obscure pairings of the most tiny fandoms.


First and foremost, I would love pretty much any story around Rosemary Sutcliff’s *Simon*. This is one of her lesser known, non-Roman historical works. It’s set in the 17th century and inspired 13 year old me to try to read about that century. I managed to get a biography of Thomas Cromwell rather than Oliver Cromwell and was rather confused. But I wound up with a doctorate in early 16th century history, so the book had its impact.


It’s classic Sutcliff, with loyal best friends separated by being on opposing sides in the civil war. Yet still loyal! Anything about Simon and Amias’ friendship would please me, from their boyhood days, their time at school, up to post-war slash (or pre-war, or during the war which, after all, went on for a really long time). Other things that would make me happy: I’d like to know more about Zeal-for-the-Lord’s life; what kinds of secrets did Mouse find out with her spying habits; how did they celebrate Christmas when Christmas was outlawed (because of the actual, literal Puritans).


Zombieland is that rarest of jewels – a satisfying zombie apocalypse comedy. I’ve got to say that I really want any fic written in in this fandom to be equally light hearted and happy. No one is to be eaten in a bad way!


I have to admit to really just wanting happy fic in this fandom. I’d like anything about their created family being competent and kicking ass. And I’d be very happy to read smut about Columbus and Wichita, Columbus and Tallahassee or (ideally) both Wichita and Tallahassee sharing Columbus like the little bond-creating, anxiety ridden moppet he is.


Since this is 2015 I think it’s an appropriate time for a whole lot of Back to the Future fic. Here we are! In the future! Though sadly without flying cars or self-zipping shoe laces.


I’d like pretty much anything that focussed on the fact that Doc and Marty (and to a lesser extent Jennifer and Clara) have become cut off from the rest of their timelines. They’ve got different memories to pretty much everybody else. Anything featuring them being a group with special ties would be great.


Also, having just rewatched the movies, they are a lot darker than I remembered. They are played for comedy but the ‘happy’ 1985 that they end up with is the direct result of taking stuff (and people) away from Biff Tannen and giving it to George McFly. Not that I want date-rapist Tannen to get his horribly dystopian Trumpesque happy end, but it is still creepy. So if you wanted to go dark that would be fine.


That’s a lot of information but here is the take away message: Thank you for writing to me. Whatever you give me is fine.

Archive of Our Own name - Emma_Oz

Back to the Future (Movies)
Zombieland (2009)
Simon - Rosemary Sutcliff

First of all, check out my own fic, set in Rosemary Sutcliff's *Frontier Wolf*. Heartbeat by Anonymous for Emma_Oz It's short but hot.

I would also recommend these stories:

In the Terminator fandom, Intuition and Ingenuity by Anonymous for stars_inthe_sky. It's about Miles Dyson's son, who gets an odd job interview from some people who are interested in his father. Then someone starts stalking him and his computer gets this weird virus. It is chilling, as the reader knows more than the narrator.

I am also impressed at the way the author brings up the experience of being a young black man with an ambivalent relationship with the Police (who did, after all, shoot his dad).


And I really like Gentle Antidote by Anonymous for Nympha_Alba. It's a Lord Peter Wimsey story, where he meets Harriet Vane because they are soul mates with each other's names written on their skin. The flirting through quotes and literary references is so exactly like Sayers that it is actually hard to remember this is an AU.

1, Among the books I ordered in a bout of depression was a Rosemary Sutcliff I have never read before. Drum roll. A whole new Rosemary Sutcliff novelette, and it's even one of her Roman Britain ones. Yes!

2, *Huckle* came to visit today which was nice.

3, I planted the two apple trees in my parents' back yard and I ripped out a scrubby native shrub in my front yard and replaced it with a lemon tree.

You can see the trailer here: http://community.livejournal.com/sutcliff_fics/3449

This was one of the last stories Sutcliff wrote before her death, and it was the last published.

As with *Chess Dream in a Garden*, it moves away from historical fiction into fantasy. This is a story about a minstrel who finds and rears a baby dragon. They are separated, and then reunited. It is very gentle – with some digs at knights on white horses who feel compelled to pick fights with dragons.

The illustrations are watercolours, which suits the softness of the story.