Yuletide reveal!

[vaznetti]

I wrote two stories this year, both for canons that are near and dear to my heart.

First was a Lymond Chronicles story set post series:

Turn of Winter (4197 words) by Vaznetti
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Lymond Chronicles - Dorothy Dunnett
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Francis Crawford, Jerott Blyth, Philippa Somerville
Summary:

After the 1565 siege of Malta, Jerott Blyth returns to Scotland.

This story was so hard to write, because I find the canon really intimidating, and the request set me pretty squarely into the middle of it. I'm not sure that I really managed to avoid "optional details are optional" here, but I did try to give a glimpse of Francis, Philippa and Jerott after the events of the series.

Also, the 1560s were not a great decade for Scotland, you know?

Then I wrote a treat for selenak. I knew as soon as I saw the prompt that I wanted to write this story, but I had to get my assignment written first, and that went slowly, so I basically wrote this in about 24 hours, and played incredibly fast and loose with the first five months of 49 BCE. Not that anyone but me cares about that, I suspect. It probably should have historical notes, but when I started to write them it became clear that they would end up longer than the story itself, so if you have any questions, just ask them.

Scenes from something which is certainly not a friendship (3192 words) by Vaznetti
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Classical Greece and Rome History & Literature RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Lesbia | Clodia, Terentia Ciceronis, Livia Drusilla
Summary:

Clodia and Terentia, through the 40s.

At first I assumed that anyone who knows me would know that I'd written this, and then I realized that the only people who I talk to about this sort of thing are my students, and if any of them are doing Yuletide I really don't want to know about it.

Of course, the whole idea of a friendship between Terentia and Clodia is so unlikely -- Clodia did something to attack Terentia during Cicero's exile, and then there's the Pro Caelio, and the story in Plutarch that Terentia goaded Cicero to attack Clodius because she was jealous of Clodia (I think? It's been so long since I read the Plutarch), and Clodia's daughter with Metella had an affair with Dolabella while he was still married to Tullia... But hey, that's part of the fun of writing! I couldn't quite manage to get Julia in, although if the story had continued we would have had Terentia seeing Clodia in Julia, just as Clodia sees Terentia in Livia. Actually, the story might have expanded to include young Marcus, and the younger Clodia (Clodia's niece, the one who was briefly married to Octavian), and Scribonia. And Attica and Agrippa, and Vipsania... and if I ever do write a novel, selenak, it will be all your fault.

Comments

[fourteenlines.livejournal.com]

YOU wrote the Lymond story! Of course! It was one of my favorites, but I'm terrible about leaving feedback in Yuletide stories because I download them all to my iPad and read them offline. But it's one of the few I have saved. :) It's absolutely wonderful - I loved the glimpse at everyone, especially a more stable and landed Francis and Phillpa. And I couldn't help but adore the idea of Jerott coming back to them.

[vaznetti]

Oh, thank you! It was absolute hell to write, and I was about an inch from defaulting, so it's great to hear that people liked it! (And it was a low feedback year for me, as well) It was fun, if scary, to move everyone on a bit and give them new lives but keep them who they are.

And yeah, I really liked the idea of Jerott coming back -- someone needs to keep Francis honest!

[aceofkittens.livejournal.com]

You were way too hard on yourself wrt that story — it was lovely and well-written and well within canon DD. :)