Yuletide wrap-up

[vaznetti]

I had an excellent yuletide -- I received a lovely story and both of the pieces I wrote were well-received. AND I finally persuaded aceofkittens to take part, so I had someone to chat about the exchange with!

My assignment was The View from the Aventine (3097 words) by Vaznetti
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Falco Series - Lindsey Davis
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Marcus Didius Falco/Helena Justina
Characters: Marcus Didius Falco, Helena Justina
Additional Tags: historical fiction - Freeform, Flavian History
Summary: From all the way up here, you might almost think you could escape Rome. Falco and Helena at two turning-points, at either end of a decade.

I was really pleased by how much feedback this received, because I honestly thought no one but me and my recipient remembered the series! I realised as I reread a lot of the books that although this series has a lot of things that drive me crazy in other historical fiction canons (misuse of "plebeian" and "patrician"! not caring about how Roman nomenclature works!), I really don't care because I'm too fond of the series and the whole setup of the hardboiled private eye who can't actually be a loner because everywhere he goes he runs into his sisters/parents/nieces and nephews/inlaws.

I also wrote a treat: The Place of Birds (2378 words) by Vaznetti
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin, Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Penthe (Earthsea), The House (Piranesi)
Additional Tags: also a lot of birds, Magic, Metamorphosis, Learning to Fly, Crossover, Yuletide Treat
Summary: In the wreckage of the Tombs, Penthe finds her way to the House, and to her own power.

I started about three stories about Penthe, and this was the one which developed legs, despite -- as the recipient pointed out -- the obvious fact that Penthe and The House are a really bad match for each other. And yet I'm quite pleased with how I managed my way through that problem here.

I've been away since the 30th so I still have a lot of stories in the collection to comment on, as well.

Comments

[selenak]

Roman nomenclature: ha, I remember how this annoyed me when I first read The Silver Pigs but soon I was captivated enough that I thought, what the hell, I don‘t care, I love this.

It wasn‘t until I started to read up on the later Roman era, though, that I realised where Lindsey Davis got at least two of her names from - given that in the year of the Five Emperors after Commodus got assassinated, you have a Didius and a Pertinax among the five…

[vaznetti]

Roman nomenclature: ha, I remember how this annoyed me when I first read The Silver Pigs but soon I was captivated enough that I thought, what the hell, I don‘t care, I love this.

Yes, the narrative was charming enough that I stopped caring very soon! I guess if I want I can imagine that the sisters are all Didia Maia, or Didia Whatever. And by the second century senators just had ropes of names, so whatever. But mostly I just like the books enough not to care.

[rachelmanija]

I loved your Penthe story so much.

[vaznetti]

I'm so glad! Part way through I was like, "am I writing a story about learning to fly for rachelmanija? Is that an actively terrible idea or not?"

[rachelmanija]

Hahaha. I didn't even think of that!