Yes, I wound up writing Neverwhere again for Yuletide, but it's a fun fandom to write for, so I have no regrets.

In this one, I play a bit with Marquis backstory, ditto for Hunter, and have the crew run afoul of the Oxford Circus and its mysterious Ringmistress.

The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning (19634 words) by Sophia_Prester
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Richard Mayhew, Marquis de Carabas (Neverwhere), Door (Neverwhere), Hunter (Neverwhere), Serpentine (Neverwhere)
Summary:

Some stories have many beginnings and many endings, and it can difficult to tell one from the other.

What can be said is that in the middle of this particular story, Door learns that finding her sister is not the same thing as getting her back, Richard struggles to come to terms with his new calling, and the Marquis may have forgotten something very important.

Christmas itself was actually quite relaxing (more on that later), but I spent a good 15 hours yesterday Being Productive. This included errands (Bed, Bath and Beyond makes me lose my faith in humanity), the emptying and re-organizing of every single drawer and shelf in the bedrooms, cleaning, ironing, paperwork, hanging blinds, etc. etc. etc. Today, after I go do my workout, I'll be able to collapse and spend some time browsing through the Yuletide archive.

Speaking of Yuletide, I'm counting this year as a solid win.

One, my recipient LOVED the fic I wrote for her. I'm quite pleased myself with how it turned out, especially given that I was still doing major work on it through Christmas Eve morning.

Two, I received not just one but TWO fics in the fandom I had mentally tagged as "least likely to receive" out of all my requests! Both are for "Sapphire and Steel," which is a delightfully creepy British sci-fi series from the late 70s/early 80s starring Ilya Kuryakin and Patsy David McCallum and Joanna Lumley. Anyhow, what's especially delightful is that each author picked a different aspect of the prompt I left, and I got two very different and very wonderful stories.

One is a nicely creepy story that explores some of the (many) unexplained aspects of the show's world, gives the spotlight to a character I adore, and has an OC who could fit perfectly into the original show. The other is a pitch-perfect Discworld crossover that plays the characters from both verses against each other perfectly (Silver and Nanny Ogg? Brilliant).

If you have any familiarity with the fandom at all, I highly recommend both of these.

In Darkness (4870 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sapphire and Steel
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Silver (Sapphire and Steel), Sapphire (Sapphire and Steel), Steel (Sapphire and Steel), Plutonium
Summary:

Silver doesn't like assignments that begin with him alone in a place where nothing is as it seems. These things shouldn't happen to a technician, especially not more than once.

Of Elements and Existence (2642 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sapphire and Steel, Discworld - Terry Pratchett
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Steel (Sapphire and Steel), Sapphire (Sapphire and Steel), Silver (Sapphire and Steel), Death (Discworld), Mustrum Ridcully, Ponder Stibbons, Esmerelda "Granny" Weatherwax, Gytha "Nanny" Ogg
Summary:

There are some places even Elements should never go. The Discworld is unquestionably one of them...

It took a while, what with some other projects (including SPN RBB), but I finally have the next card in this series:

( Card #1 - The Magician )

I have been coveting a crossover between these two fandoms for a while, and I just found a truly lovely one:

It's Hard Out Here for an Archetype

I'm now on day three of vacation and heading out to do some serious exploring/sketching. I went out and about locally yesterday and got one good plein air pastel done and got some good reference photos for some other pieces. I also got my field kit figured out a bit more, and am taking the refined version out with me today for a road test.

So far while here, I've also taken a couple of beach walks and made a gallon (plus a wee bit left over) of beach plum jelly. A friend of my mom's had leftover juice (which is a bit like having leftover gold bullion if you know anything about beach plums) so that's how that happened.

Also, I've been in contact with my RBB author, and I am beyond thrilled with what she has in mind. Part of what I am hoping to do today is get a few reference photos/sketches.

In more traumatic news, I found out my stepdad has read the entire Shades of Grey trilogy. There is not enough brain bleach on the world.

I've been thinking about this and doing sketches for the past few weeks, and I've finally created my first card.

( Card #0 - The Fool )

I've been having a lot of fun with pastels of late.

( Three pastel studies )

The Lost is a WIP with 5 out of 22 chapters posted, but I'm not waiting to rec this fic. It's a case fic involving Jane Foster's extended family. She's just come back in town to visit Thor when she gets word that her infant niece has been kidnapped. Quite naturally, the Avengers offer to help out.

What's brilliant about this story is that the author lets scenes play out fully but without dragging on. Too often of late, it seems like many fics are falling into the trap of telling vs. showing. This, on the other hand, lets the detective work play out in a way that got me feeling like I was watching a well-scripted crime drama. Plus, the character interactions and dialogue feel very natural and unforced.

It's brilliant stuff.

After six weeks of massive disruption and dust unlike anything I have ever endured before, my new bedroom is complete! The previous batch of pictures showing the early stages can be found here

( Cut to spare friends' lists )