Sutcliff Swap Letter
Jun. 15th, 2012 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerDear Sutcliff Swap Writer Person,
Thank you so much for writing this for me! I hope you have as much fun writing this story as I'm sure to have reading it. I tend to go on and on in these letters because I find it helpful when my recipient writes a lot, but please don't feel bound by anything I write here.
Things I Like Generally:
• Emotional complexity
• Flawed but likeable characters
• Relationships with trust issues, either because the characters can't trust each other but want to, or because they trust each other without reservation
• Relationships that are difficult but affectionate
• Long-term friendships
• Angst leavened by humor, or humor leavened by angst
• Hurt/comfort
• "Five things..." fics
• Bittersweet endings
I'm also a sucker for history, but I don't know enough about these time periods to notice if you get something wrong, so don't fret about it.
Request #1: The Silver Branch, Cullen
I find Cullen fascinatingly inexplicable and would love some fic either filling in the way he thinks or explaining his backstory. I mean, he has a tail. Not a real tail, admittedly…well, presumably not a real tail…though if you want to write about how Cullen is a trapped Fae creature with a tail, go for it. It would certainly explain how he acquired his own silver branch. Or maybe he wandered into the Other World, and got the instrument but also got a little touched in the head…
(Wikipedia helpfully informs me that the silver branch is probably an allusion to an instrument in the Irish medieval epic The Voyage of Bran, wherein Bran voyages to the Otherworld.)
But feel free to ignore all this and write a perfectly naturalistic story about how Cullen became Cullen! Or, alternatively: what does Cullen get up to after the end of the book, when he's serving Justin and Flavius?
Request #2: The Silver Branch, Justin & Flavius
This is my flufftastic request of incredible fluffiness. I want to read about Justin & Flavius doing something fun together: going hunting, or going fishing, or doing anything really as they get to know each other before the events of the story really get rolling. Chatting about Justin backstory! I love them both, but Justin is my favorite: I love how he's shy and stuttering but nonetheless possessed of a spine of steel.
Alternatively: Justin and Flavius SPYING ADVENTURES.
I tend to read Justin and Flavius as friends, not a pairing, but really, whatever floats your boat here.
Request #3: The Lantern Bearers, Flavia
I have two - no, three - possible story ideas here. First: how does Flavia go from terrified captive to reasonably self-confident bride of her Saxon abductor? What's her husband like? He must be reasonably decent, or I can't imagine she'd stay with him, but…well, he's a reasonably decent guy who kidnapped her and killed her whole family.
If that doesn't float your boat, I would also love something about Flavia's relationship with her son. He's clearly very proud of his Saxon ancestry - but of course he would play that up, given that he's talking to an enemy. Is he so "I am Saxon! Here me roar!" to Flavia? How does she feel about that? Did she try to teach him anything Roman - old myths, say, or the story of the Odyssey (which is Greek, I realize, but she would know it)? (Also, does she have any other children - a daughter, for instance? What's her relationship with them like?)
And finally, if those seem too involved and issue-ridden, I would also adore a fluffy tale from Flavia and Aquila's childhood. They're clearly very close: what are some of the incidents that brought them together?
Request #4: The Lantern Bearers, Ness
This is similar to request #3: how does Ness come to terms to being married to Aquila? He doesn't kill her family, and he doesn't literally carry her off, but being snatched out of her previous life must have been extraordinarily dislocating.
I'd also be interested to read something about Ness & her sister Rhyannid, either before Ness marries or if they meet again long after.
Thank you so much for writing this for me! I hope you have as much fun writing this story as I'm sure to have reading it. I tend to go on and on in these letters because I find it helpful when my recipient writes a lot, but please don't feel bound by anything I write here.
Things I Like Generally:
• Emotional complexity
• Flawed but likeable characters
• Relationships with trust issues, either because the characters can't trust each other but want to, or because they trust each other without reservation
• Relationships that are difficult but affectionate
• Long-term friendships
• Angst leavened by humor, or humor leavened by angst
• Hurt/comfort
• "Five things..." fics
• Bittersweet endings
I'm also a sucker for history, but I don't know enough about these time periods to notice if you get something wrong, so don't fret about it.
Request #1: The Silver Branch, Cullen
I find Cullen fascinatingly inexplicable and would love some fic either filling in the way he thinks or explaining his backstory. I mean, he has a tail. Not a real tail, admittedly…well, presumably not a real tail…though if you want to write about how Cullen is a trapped Fae creature with a tail, go for it. It would certainly explain how he acquired his own silver branch. Or maybe he wandered into the Other World, and got the instrument but also got a little touched in the head…
(Wikipedia helpfully informs me that the silver branch is probably an allusion to an instrument in the Irish medieval epic The Voyage of Bran, wherein Bran voyages to the Otherworld.)
But feel free to ignore all this and write a perfectly naturalistic story about how Cullen became Cullen! Or, alternatively: what does Cullen get up to after the end of the book, when he's serving Justin and Flavius?
Request #2: The Silver Branch, Justin & Flavius
This is my flufftastic request of incredible fluffiness. I want to read about Justin & Flavius doing something fun together: going hunting, or going fishing, or doing anything really as they get to know each other before the events of the story really get rolling. Chatting about Justin backstory! I love them both, but Justin is my favorite: I love how he's shy and stuttering but nonetheless possessed of a spine of steel.
Alternatively: Justin and Flavius SPYING ADVENTURES.
I tend to read Justin and Flavius as friends, not a pairing, but really, whatever floats your boat here.
Request #3: The Lantern Bearers, Flavia
I have two - no, three - possible story ideas here. First: how does Flavia go from terrified captive to reasonably self-confident bride of her Saxon abductor? What's her husband like? He must be reasonably decent, or I can't imagine she'd stay with him, but…well, he's a reasonably decent guy who kidnapped her and killed her whole family.
If that doesn't float your boat, I would also love something about Flavia's relationship with her son. He's clearly very proud of his Saxon ancestry - but of course he would play that up, given that he's talking to an enemy. Is he so "I am Saxon! Here me roar!" to Flavia? How does she feel about that? Did she try to teach him anything Roman - old myths, say, or the story of the Odyssey (which is Greek, I realize, but she would know it)? (Also, does she have any other children - a daughter, for instance? What's her relationship with them like?)
And finally, if those seem too involved and issue-ridden, I would also adore a fluffy tale from Flavia and Aquila's childhood. They're clearly very close: what are some of the incidents that brought them together?
Request #4: The Lantern Bearers, Ness
This is similar to request #3: how does Ness come to terms to being married to Aquila? He doesn't kill her family, and he doesn't literally carry her off, but being snatched out of her previous life must have been extraordinarily dislocating.
I'd also be interested to read something about Ness & her sister Rhyannid, either before Ness marries or if they meet again long after.
