Snowflake Challenge #8: When You Wish Upon the Net

[ng_moonmoth]

You don't know quite what you'll get! Guess I'll find out.

I've been putting my responses to these questions on a filter, so I don't have to gender- and identity-police myself quite so strictly to maintain the general feel of the blog, but this is a wishlist the doesn't interfere with those things, so I'm putting it out for larger circulation. All I ask is that any work you send me because of this prompt is something you did because you yourself wanted to do it, not because I asked for it.



In your own space, create a wishlist. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Your wishlist can be anything between one and ten wishes as a rough guide.

Have you ever wished for icons for a character(s) or a fandom; art for a story, podfic or fanmix you’ve created; a podfic for a story you’ve written; or a story for some artwork you’ve created? Do you have a plotbunny you’d like someone to adopt?

Maybe you'd like to find more people to squee with over your favourite fandom; or someone to collaborate with over a project? If you are new to a fandom would you like some story recs, or communities to join? Or would you like some recommendations for a new fandom?

Or is there something else you would like? If so, this is your opportunity to ask!

Note: If you would like artwork or podfic, please include a link to your story/podfic/fanmix. If you’ve requested icons or other artwork it’s helpful if you can link to any screencaps or image galleries.

More works that center queer people (pretty much anyone in the QUILTBAG) that don't center the queerness. That is, the story is not about the people being queer; instead, it's a story about something, and there are multiple queer people in it, and they mostly talk about anything other than being queer. If you aren't up to making one yourself, recs are fine and would be appreciated.

Song prompts for me. Anything I can use as inspiration for a song will work. ight write original music, might write parody, but it will be something I wrote. No guarantee of if or when I'll get around to it, but I promise I'll take a look.

Icons of anyone at my Snowflake Challenge dinner party:
Charlie Stross' Laundry Files creations Bob, Mo, Pinky, Brain, and Persephone.
ysabetwordsmith's creations from a number of storylines (see notes):
Astin, Palmer, V, Spalling, and Backup from their Army of One storyline;
Kenzie, Blair, Bobtail, Smoking Breath, and Blazing Grass from their Polychrome Heroics Iron Horses storyline;
Captain Left and Captain Right from their Polychrrome Heroics Kraken storyline;
Salvo from their Polychrome Heroics Cuoio and Chiara storyline.
CJ Cherryh's creations Tully from the Chanur storyline, and Tabini-aiji and extended family plus Bren Cameron to translate, from the Foreigner storyline.

Comments

[sjh2009]

I love your wishlist, thank you for sharing.

I think you have some great wishes here, so I hope that some or all of them are granted.

Personally, I love this challenge as I really enjoy creating things from other people's prompts and the whole act of gifting people, I actually find it easier than just writing for myself. It's what I used to love about the old Fandom Stocking event, perusing the stockings and prompts and creating something for someone else's enjoyment.

I'll try to come back to you with some song prompts when I've finished modding. I love song prompts.

Thanks for commenting and appreciating

[ng_moonmoth]

Glad you liked the wishes. Looking forward to seeing your prompts.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> More works that center queer people (pretty much anyone in the QUILTBAG) that don't center the queerness. That is, the story is not about the people being queer; instead, it's a story about something, and there are multiple queer people in it, and they mostly talk about anything other than being queer. If you aren't up to making one yourself, recs are fine and would be appreciated.<<

The technical term for that is background parity, and it's a late-stage point in identity literature, when it's far enough along that a (normal) writer can put a trait-having character into a story without 'stealing' it and making the whole story About Trait. Me, I do it all along, but I'm weird and also have ulterior resources.

>> Song prompts for me. Anything I can use as inspiration for a song will work. ight write original music, might write parody, but it will be something I wrote. No guarantee of if or when I'll get around to it, but I promise I'll take a look.<<

The song and chime of ice. In winter, when the temperature is fluctuating, ice hangs from the eaves in icicles and clings to the branches in sheets. It pings and sings when the air moves over it. And the sunlight bounces off it in bright sparks and gleams. (I have read that glaciers are even more musical, but I've never heard one of those.) It reminds me of a bell box, where dozens of little balls fall off a magnet on the ceiling of the box and hit the bells inside, random little tings.

Oh, and a few things from the January fishbowl are lyrical poetry, with rhyme and meter, if you want to use any of them.

Re: Thoughts

[ng_moonmoth]

>> The technical term for that is background parity <<

It's even got a name! That's cool!

>> Me, I do it all along, but I'm weird and also have ulterior resources. <<

One of the many reasons why I read, prompt, and sponsor.

I've noticed the concept beginning to show up in more mainstream contexts. Spouse likes the NCIS family of shows and watches regularly. Although the little-bit-too-advanced-to-be current technology and over-reliance on gunplay (especially automatic weapons) to further the plot puts me off the show, the producers do get high marks for not only having diversity in their recurring cast, but doing it right. Case in point is a somewhat recently-introduced character in NCIS: New Orleans who was introduced as an out lesbian. She talks about her girlfriend within the normal range of how and how often a straight woman might talk about their boyfriend, and all the rest of the cast reacts appropriately.

>> The song and chime of ice. <<

That's a really neat aural image. Taking it in to see whether it inspires anything.

>> Oh, and a few things from the January fishbowl are lyrical poetry, with rhyme and meter, if you want to use any of them. <<

I'll take a look. I usually at least poke a bit at anything of yours that might be a song.

Also toying with a very poetic line nsfwords left in this weekend's Creative Jam: "Bonfires on a dark summer's evening". Which is getting me thinking about the bonfires around midsummer in various places, and Lammas night, and the beacons of Gondor. For a bonfire is not something one makes S'mores over, after all.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> It's even got a name! That's cool! <<

I described the whole process here.

I just never have the patience to wait 20-30 years while other people fumble through all the steps that suck. New trait? Trait!hero! Boom. Done. If I fuck it up for lack of essential details, I figure the trait-having people will point out what's wrong or missing, and then I can hustle them for trait-written references so I can either fix the first thing or write another thing. It's worked so far.

>>One of the many reasons why I read, prompt, and sponsor.<<

My crowdfunding work: chucking literature into the culture gaps since 2007. \o/

>>I've noticed the concept beginning to show up in more mainstream contexts. <<

They do eventually figure it out. Hardly anyone thinks left-handed people are evil anymore.

>>That's a really neat aural image. Taking it in to see whether it inspires anything.<<

Yay! Some electronic keyboards have a really good "ice" voice or two. A few percussion instruments do. I have an onyx windchime that does.

>>I'll take a look. I usually at least poke a bit at anything of yours that might be a song.<<

Okay, I checked. All the lyrical ones have been sponsored and posted except "Tempestry," the pantoum about temperature blankets. Do you want a backchannel copy of that?

>> "Bonfires on a dark summer's evening". Which is getting me thinking about the bonfires around midsummer in various places, and Lammas night, and the beacons of Gondor. <<

Nice.

>> For a bonfire is not something one makes S'mores over, after all. <<

*laugh* Yeah, we do that. You just have to wait until it burns down to a bed of coals. Unless you like to light your marshmallows on fire, cooking them over open flame is a poor idea, even with a small campfire. They're very flammable. To get a golden brown, gooey marshmallow you need radiant heat rising from coals. Our firepit is big, so we build good-sized bonfires sometimes.

[dhampyresa]

anyone in the QUILTBAG
I am unfamiliar with this terminology and searching doesn't bring up anything relevant that I can tell, do you mind explaining?

That is, the story is not about the people being queer; instead, it's a story about something, and there are multiple queer people in it, and they mostly talk about anything other than being queer.
Yes THIS. I love this!

[ng_moonmoth]

Not at all. QUILTBAG is an acronym representing a large variety of the English words that describe various members of the gender- and sexually-variant community. I find it pleasing because it's an actual word, denoting a bag that someone who does quilting uses to carry the fabric and tools they are using. The contents, and often the bag itself, employ a wide range of patterns and colors, which nicely represent to me the variety of the community. The word doesn't need as much modification to include new categories as they identify themselves, and centers "queer/questioning", which feels more inclusive to me, for even a lot of people who eventually identify themselves as something else start there.

[indywind]

If fiction where the Thing Story Is About is genre romance, specifically supernatural romance involving, like, animal- or mythical-creature/humanoid shapeshifters, vampires, werewolves, fae, eldritch abominations, and that sort of thing, that may also have action-adventure plots in addition to the romance plots (and sometimes, explicit sex)... then I can rec some of those, pro epubs written by acquaintances of mine, that have background parity for QUILTBAG characters. That is, the story will be about something like (random made up example) how a werewolf and a vampire overcome the historical distrust between their peoples and humankind while also falling in love, and they both happen to self-identify as male, so it's coincidentally gay werewolf-vampire romance but the gay is not the point.
Fair warning, many do have some gender binarist leanings even if they're not really steryotypey and obtrusive.

If you follow rachelmanija you may have previously seen her adverts for charity anthologies; though you have to pay for these, profits (30-70% of the purchase price) go to Outright Action International, an international QUILTBAG human rights advocacy org. If you try to avoid Amazon because of Evil Corporate Despot reasons, Rachel might be willing to send you a pdf copy privately in return for a donation directly to OutRight, or to her to pass to them. I provide the Amazon links not as an endorsement, but just for convenience.
Her Magical Pet and His Magical Pet are romances with cute magical pets as a big part of the stories, and female-identified/lesbian leads or male-identified/gay leads respectively, who may or may not be entirely human themselves-- one's an incorporeal eldritch abomination, in "How to Get A Girlfriend (When You're A Terrifying Monster)."

Two Mates For The Dragon features all MMF relationships, so effectively bi/pan male-identified people (& dragon-people) and polyamory. I think there's more explicit porn in this one? which may be a point for or against it, depending on your tastes.

Her Wild Soulmate, which featured lesbian romance, appears to be currently out of publication.

[ng_moonmoth]

Thanks for your thoughtful response. I haven't been much interested in romance, natural or supernatural, so far. Might be that kind of story not lining up too well with my own demiromantic orientation, even though I understand that many (most?) people are different from that, and as a result are drawn to stories that align with their experience. Or just that I didn't feel like I was missing anything by not having any kind of life partner and not feeling any lack. Life is different now, and probably an improvement overall.

You are right on about the kind of story I'm after. As far as gender binarist leanings, I'm not especially bothered by that. I freely acknowledge that "man" and "woman" are valid gender identities, and that lots of people do well by categorizing their own and their partner's/partners' gender identity that way. It's just not how I think.

I've heard good things about His/Her Magical Pet. In fact, someone else in my circle squeed recently about getting a story in one of those.

I'll check out your recs, and look you up if I decide I want to check out some of your acquaintances' stories. Thanks for passing them on.

[dhampyresa]

Thank you.