questionoftheday asks: Do you sleep in silence, or do you have to have background noise? Is there a reason for this? How about light? Does it have to be pitch black, or do you need at least a sliver of light to sleep?

My answer:

I have insomnia a lot of the time, but when I do sleep, I can sleep through noise or light. Normally I have a fan running, though not blowing on me most of the year, because I get cold easily, but that's more because I like the sound of the fan than anything. (And as I live now, J can't sleep without a fan, so it's a good thing noise like that doesn't bother me.)

When I'm in hotels on my own, I'll usually fall asleep with the t.v. on, because it's such a strange thing for me. (We don't have cable at home nor a t.v. in the bedroom.) I'll shut it off at some point, though.

I sleep best in a dark room that is cool enough I can sleep under a heavy comforter, but it can't be too cold, because if my feet are cold, I can't get to sleep, yet I hate wearing socks to bed (and in general). (I never wore socks to bed at all until I lived in Michigan and then, despite how warm I kept my apartment, sometimes I needed it. I still sometimes do so in winter, but it is a rare, rare thing.)

J likes to fall asleep to stand-up comedy. It doesn't keep me awake as a noise, but I do sometimes get caught up listening to it as an actual thing I want to stay awake for rather than background noise, so I have to be careful not to get caught up in it. (Much like getting caught up in a story I'm reading.)





Unrelated, I haven't talked about Yuletide as much as I normally do, mostly because I have been fighting a depression crash over the past few months and have been left feeling flat. I got my story done, I wrote one treat, and I'm trying to finish another. Compared to the years when I wrote 10 stories, this could be disheartening, but (a) I've been writing longer stories for my assignments the past few years and (b) I was frantically trying to finish the first draft of a novel before the end of the year (which I did), and that took far more of December than I expected, time which normally would have spent on Yuletide.

I love the assignment I wrote, though, and I think the recipient will enjoy it.

If only I'd counted this before Yuletide 2017, I could have hit an even 65 stories. Damn.

Yuletide fandom summary (note that some stories were crossovers so fill multiple fandoms)

6 Yuletide stories:
Baby-Sitters Club series by Ann M Martin (2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 x2)
Lost Boys series (2008, 2014, 2016 x2, 2017 x2)

5 Yuletide stories:
Fast and the Furious series (2009, 2011, 2014, 2015 x2)

4 Yuletide stories:
Jurassic Park series (2008, 2015 x2, 2017)
Make It or Break It (2010, 2015 x 3)

3 Yuletide stories:
Emelan by Tamora Pierce (2005, 2007, 2012)
Lilo & Stitch (2011 x2, 2017)
Practical Magic (2009, 2013, 2014)

2 Yuletide stories:
Blue Crush (2009, 2010)
California Diaries series by Ann M Martin (2009, 2015)
Confidant – Demi Lovato (music video) (2016, 2017)
Full House (2016 x2)
Mean Girls (2005, 2006)
Sons of Anarchy (2010, 2012)
Thunderheart (2013, 2014)

1 Yuletide story:
Bend It Like Beckham (2005)
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2014)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2012)
Carmilla (web series) (2014)
Dog Soldiers (2006)
Dustland Fairytale by The Killers (music video) (2010)
Ice Princess (2015)
Fairy Tales (2009)
Fallen London (2011)
Follow Me Down by Seanan McGuire (2013)
Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti (2014)
Making Out (2014)
Never Cry Werewolf (2017)
Oregon Trail (2011)
Pioneer Trail (2011)
Scooby Doo (2009)
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series by Ann Brashares (2008)
Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris (2008)
Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire (2010)
Werewolf party game (2013)


( 64 Yuletide Stories, 2005 - 2017 )

Holy shit, y'all, I got two perfect stories for Yuletide in two absolutely tiny fandoms of my heart.

ETA: Oh, right, the archive is open.

Mouse Kills Cat (3073 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 16 Ways to Kill a Vampire at McDonalds (Interactive Fiction)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Claire/Lucy (16 Ways to Kill a Vampire in McDonalds)
Characters: Lucy (16 Ways to Kill a Vampire in McDonalds), Claire (16 Ways to Kill a Vampire in McDonalds), Maggie (16 Ways to Kill a Vampire in McDonalds)
Additional Tags: Pre-Femslash, Vampires, Vampire Hunters, Canon-Typical Violence
Summary:

Lucy laughed despite herself. If it was just her, she wouldn’t be this nervous. She had been bait plenty of times – it was easy, especially at a party. One beer – not enough to get her drunk, but enough to get some blood into her face, but act like you’ve had three, and the mosquitos came swarming.

But this was also Claire’s first hunt, so Lucy was felt so tightly wound she feared she might burst. If it went badly – well, Lucy didn’t want to think about that.

The source material on this is a super cute game where you play as Lucy hunting a vampire in McDonalds, and this story perfectly captures the fun, humor, and tension of the game, has an amazing Lucy character voice, and is a great sequel to it. It references details of the game in subtle, fun ways, but can be read without knowing the source material (or at least without knowing more of the source material than the title of the game).


Finally Winning Out (2509 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Down in the Library Basement - Rona Vaselaar | sleepyhollow_101
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Cassie (Down in the Library Basement)
Additional Tags: Libraries, Literary References & Allusions, Movie Quotation(s), Yuletide Treat
Summary:

There are a lot of libraries out there in the world. Cassie isn't even remotely surprised to find out others are as interestingly occupied as hers.

The source material here is a short horror story available on both the NoSleep podcast and the NoSleep reddit, about Cassie who finds something lurking down in the library basement. This is another perfect sequel to the source material. I think it is possible to read this without knowing the source material, because it centers on a different library and a different sort of thing lurking in it (and the thing lurking is hilarious and delightful). I am utterly in love with Cassie in the original story, and the author here captured her perfectly, her voice and her sense of humor and her dedication to both her library and the things down in the basement. It's perfect and warming and sweet.


This Yuletide is a great Yuletide for me. I'm so damn lucky.

I currently have four stories in the collection. I'd like to finish at least one more over the weekend so I can match last year's numbers (just had to go confirm I remembered correctly, but yes, there were five), but even if I don't, I am very pleased with this year's stories. (One assignment, three treats. Didn't manage to get a pinch hit that worked for me.)

All of the stories are in fandoms I've written at least one story for in the past, all are more than 1000 words, and all feel like they scream that I wrote them, but I know that's a lot easier to feel from the inside than it is to see from the outside. (Or maybe that's just me, because a lot of people do make great guesses each year.)

I wanted to spend this weekend writing treats and marathoning horror movies, but as usual, writing and day job and social obligations have gotten in the way. Still. Friday night will be horror movie + writing time for me, and I can't wait. Little bit of hard cider (warm), cuddly dog against my thigh, and a werewolf movie on my screen, and I'll be good to go.

And then I must turn to Yuletide. Still love my assignment, trying not to panic that I don't have an outline yet. Self, you don't have an outline because you have been focusing on Trick or Treat all month. Chill.

Dear Yuletide Author,

Yuletide is my favorite fannish time of the year, and I can’t wait to see what you create. It brings me great joy to write stories for people for Yuletide, and I hope that you have a lot of fun and a wonderful experience this Yuletide.

Below, I’ve provided some general likes and Do Not Wants, as well as a few thoughts about why I like specific fandoms and characters. If there is a discrepancy between the general likes and DNWs and the fandom-specific information, go with the fandom-specific information.

My absolutely favorite things: werewolves, crossovers, and monsters and magic.

You can find me on DW, LJ, and AO3 as escritoireazul.

( Likes and DNWs )

Requests

There are spoilers in my prompts.

( 16 Ways to Kill a Vampire at McDonalds: Lucy )

( Down in the Library Basement - sleepyhollow_101: Cassie )

( United States of Asgard - Tessa Gratton: Amon Thorson, Astrid Glyn, Glory | Fenris Wolf, Soren Bearstar )