SO. It is Halloween, and my favorite fannish time of year has kicked off with a real bang. I love what I managed to write for old favorite Trick or Treat and new Shipoween, though it wasn't nearly enough due to other obligations taking up far too much of my writing time, but even more than that, I love my gifts!

Trick or Treat collection | Shipoween collection

You should go read the fic, because I think there are going to be a lot of fun stories, but you should definitely start with my gifts!

First, I received two wonderful Trick or Treat stories, one for Criminal Minds (Garcia/Alvez) and one for the Nasty at Bellua!

( Criminal Minds )

( Nasty at Bellua )

And Shipoween was just as good to me with an Agent Carter Peggy/Daniel/Jack fix-it!

( Agent Carter )

Realized last night that there is a part of my Yuletide canon that I didn't know about and now I have to consume it before I finish my assignment. Still have time, but this is cutting it a little close for me to discovering things in a canon I thought I knew well!

rachelmanija asked: What's your very favorite book that contains werewolves?

ASKING THE HARD QUESTIONS.

I think Stephen King's novella, Cycle of the Werewolf, is probably my favorite werewolf book, if I had to choose just one. It has a lot of things I love about werewolf stories: interesting lore (particularly around how the werewolf became a werewolf), monthly full moons around holidays as the base of the scenes (even though the holidays and full moons wouldn't really align like that, I love it enough that bending it to fit is perfect, and King flat out admits he did it), people unsuccessfully hunting monsters (the movie adaptation, Silver Bullet, has a great scene about this part), and a werewolf that is both somewhat sympathetic and still monstrous.

Couple of short stories that I love which are available free online:

The Moon and Other Beasts I Keep With Me by Danny Lore

The author said this on their site: It asks the same question that we ask ourselves as QPOC on a daily basis–when we are so othered that no one will believe that our experiences are authentic, where does that leave us?

This story is so damn good.

The Nasty at Bellua by Danny Lore (and NightLight: THe Black Horror Podcast did an amazing performance of this The Nasty at Bellua)

WEREWOLVES! IN! SPACE! It's creepy and dark and wonderful.

The Cage by A.M. Dellamonica

Identical twins, murdered sisters, interesting werewolf worldbuilding, terrible werewolf hunters, delightful queer romance, HUGE SECRETS -- it's great.

Last year, I read the Debra Doyle and James Macdonald werewolf series, Bad Blood, for the first time, and I fell in love with it. It's about Val Sherwood, a teen girl who becomes a werewolf accidentally and who has amazing adventures and fights for her friends and struggles to stay alive as people she loves are dying. By the third book, the worldbuilding gets weird, but I still love it.

A sampling of other books/series from my werewolf collection: Werewolf Marines by Lia Silver (heh), Goosebumps werewolf books (possibly all of them), Howl by Katy Lipscomb (a coloring and art book), the Raised By Wolves series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Bitten by Moonlight by Catherine Lundoff, Granite Lake Wolves series by Vivian Arend, Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn, Leather, Denim & Silver: Legends of the Monster Hunter, and Wolfen by William Strieber (deeply creepy book; less creepy but still fun movie).

I am watching the cheesiest movie off my Netflix queue, Avengers Grimm. It is a ridiculous send-up of superhero movies and fairy tale retellings, and mostly it is terrible, but there is a fucking amazing bit of storytelling around Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood. I deeply, deeply want some fic about them and their queer love and their hurt/comfort and their adventures together saving the mundane world from magic. (Also, Rapunzel kicks serious ass with her hair.) (And I could use some werewolves in this story, too, not just a wolf in human form.)

So, potential Yuletide fandom for this year.

I only managed five stories across three fandoms for Yuletide this year, half as many as last year, but I'm mostly very pleased with what I did write. We'll see how next Yuletide goes, as always. Perhaps I will scale my goal back to 5 stories a year for the next few years.

Assignment: The Light That Carries You Home (Full House, gen) (for celeria)
Characters/pairings: DJ Tanner, Kimmy Gibbler, Stephanie Tanner, Michelle Tanner, Danny Tanner, Becky Donaldson, Tommy Fuller Sr
Tags: Road trips, cabin fic, sister-sister relationship, college anxiety, post-series, pre-series, first meetings
Word count: 10k+

Summary: The summer before she leaves for Berkeley, DJ says good-bye.

I was so excited to get this assignment, and then I struggled, and struggled, and struggled some more. Part of it was that I always struggle to write fiction without monsters, and I just finished another such project before I started this, and part of it was the election fallout. I wrote probably 20k total on this in fits and starts, with deleted scenes and three different openings (one of which became a treat) and multiple drafts and multiple betas and lots and lots of rewriting. I'm fairly pleased with how it came out.

Treat: The Face of Someone Who Needs You (Full House, DJ/Steve) (for celeria)
Characters/pairings: DJ Tanner/Steve Hale, Danny Tanner
Tags: Post-series, break up, growing up, male-female friendship
Word count: 1800+

Summary: DJ loves Steve, still, and she'll always be grateful for prom, but that doesn't mean they're getting back together.

This is, of course, the opening that I cut from the main gift but which stood enough on its own to be read as a treat. It is more bittersweet than I normally write for Yuletide, but I really love DJ in it.

Treat: Oh, That Curse I Cannot Lift (Confident - Demi Lovato, Michelle/Demi) (for st_aurafina)
Characters/pairings: Woman (Demi Lovato)/Woman (Michelle Rodriguez)
Tags: Alternate universe - werewolf, first time shifting, pack building, outdoor sex, oral sex
Word count: 5100+

Summary: There’s silver bullets in Demi’s belt, a silver core to the metal band around her throat. Michelle wonders if she knows, if she can smell the similarities between them.

When I finally had the second draft of my assignment done and off to the beta, I went looking through the prompts again, wanting to write treats. I had avoided the other Confident prompts, because I try not to write in fandoms I request, but I decided to skim through them to see the different things people wanted (I love seeing the different ways people are inspired by the same source material), and when I saw the werewolf prompt, I immediately opened a file. The first words were: WEREWOLF CONFIDENT PROMPT OMG YES THIS IS MINE.

So, yeah. That happened. Of everything I wrote this year, this story is the one that has a neon sign with my name on it, and I would not be surprised at all if everyone who knows me and read it immediately guessed it was mine.

Once again, I got to write Michelle Rodriguez as a werewolf, which is one of my favorite things.

Treat: Comes the Night, Comes the Shadow (Lost Boys, Star/Michael/David) (for havocthecat)
Characters/Pairings: Star/Michael/David
Tags: Bloodplay, blood drinking, public sex
Word count: 1900+

Summary: Star is sixteen when she comes to Santa Carla.

As soon as I saw havocthecat's Lost Boys request, I knew I wanted to try to write a gift fic for her, and then I bugged her to post her letter, which means I would not at all be surprised if she knew this was me. I love how she loves the Lost Boys, and Star in particular, and I have become so deeply sold on Star/Michael/David. This was, as always, a joy to write; Lost Boys was my second online fandom, and I've been writing in it for nearly 20 years now. I love it so.

Treat: Straight On 'Til Morning (Lost Boys, Star/David, Star/Michael) (for skazka)
Characters/Pairings: Star/David, Star/Michael, Marko, Dwayne, Paul
Tags: Alternate universe - always a different sex, fortune telling, peter pan references
Word count:

Summary: Star saw a knight in the cards, but there was no boy in shining armor on a white horse. There wasn't even a boy in a car, offering her safety and family and home. There wasn't a boy at all, though boys come to Santa Carla by the dozens, and die just as fast.

There was, though, a girl.

This was the first story I started for Yuletide 2016, and the last I finished. I saw the prompt before I even read my assignment and immediately fell in love with it, particularly the way skazka loves Santa Carla and the feel of the movie, and his lesbian biker gang prompt was the greatest thing ever. I love this story, and this world, and if I write more lesbian Lost Boys gender swap, do not be surprised.

Dear Trick or Treat Creator,

Halloween is my favorite holiday and fall my favorite season, so Trick or Treat is an awesome mix of things I love combined with fandoms I adore. I had a blast last year, and I can’t wait to see your creation.

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. I like both fic and art, and my prompts generally work for both. Feel free to mix and match tricks and treats, within a fandom or across fandoms, or to ignore my prompts completely.

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

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

Likes:

+ girl slash, gen, and het more than boy slash, mostly because I really love stories about women
+ women being awesome and competent and smart and funny and sexy
+ werewolves and werewolf packs as families and women being amazing werewolves and werewolf alternate universes in any canon and full moons over the ocean
+ chosen families being loving and protective and a little snarly with each other because they trust each other to always be there and adoption stories where adoption is treated as totally normal and not a BIG DRAMATIC SECRET to up the tension and siblings as friends and friends as family
+ Halloween and horror movies
+ roadtrip stories and motorcycle rides
+ crossovers, the more twisty and complicated the better.

Do Not Want:
+ disrespect for characters of color, queer characters (particularly bisexual and trans* characters), fat characters, or characters with mental illness
+ character bashing
+ rape and non-con and dub-con (including as backstory)
+ use of "crazy" to mean bad or dangerous or scary, etc.
+ stories set at mental hospitals, whether currently active or abandoned
+ embarrassment/humiliation
+ animal cruelty or death
+ incest
+ spiders. Especially in art, but sometimes even the word is enough to get to me.

( Emelan - Tamora Pierce )

( Jurassic Park series )

( Cursed (2005) )

( Tortall - Tamora Pierce )

( The Breed (2006) )

( The Librarians (Tv 2014) )

Some Trick or Treat fic recs.

Z Nation

You and I, At a Standstill (2210 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Z Nation (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Cassandra/Roberta Warren
Characters: Roberta Warren, Cassandra (Z Nation), Murphy (Z Nation)
Additional Tags: Romance, Angst, Fluff, Friendship, Family, Post-Season/Series 01, Slow Romance, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, Bathing/Washing, Loss of Identity, Reunions, Trick or Treat 2015, Guilt, Touching, Touch-Starved, Pre-Slash, Hurt/Comfort
Summary:

Cassandra comes back to her less than human, but Roberta knows she’s not less of herself.

I love this look at Roberta dealing with Cassandra as a woman, and as a monster, and as both.

Wreck-it Ralph

Malicious (543 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Wreck-It Ralph & Vanellope von Schweetz
Characters: Vanellope von Schweetz, Wreck-It Ralph
Additional Tags: Horror, Trick or Treat 2015, extra treat
Summary:

There's a virus loose at Litwik's Arcade.

Creepy and lovely and heartbreaking.

Star Trek (reboot)

Fingerpainting (357 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Gaila/Nyota Uhura
Characters: Nyota Uhura, Gaila (Star Trek)
Additional Tags: Body Paint, treat
Summary:

Gaila, Uhura, and chocolate body paint.

Beautiful and sexy.

Star Trek (original series)

Click (1521 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: SCP Foundation, Star Trek: The Original Series
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: SCP-978 - Character, James T. Kirk, Crew of the Starship Enterprise, Original Alien Character(s)
Additional Tags: Horror, Cameras, Crossover, treat
Summary:

Kirk discovers a camera that can expose people's true desires.

Slowly builds to a nicely creepy ending.

Breaking the Cycle (619 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: The Original Series
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Leonard McCoy, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Werewolves, treat
Summary:

McCoy discovers he's not the only werewolf on the Enterprise.

Werewolves in spaaaaaaace! I really love the detail about why a werewolf would want to be on a spaceship, and the world building that leads to. What an interesting idea.

The Stars Are Bright Tonight (584 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: The Original Series
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Spock, James T. Kirk
Additional Tags: Stargazing, treat
Summary:

On a visit to Iowa, Kirk takes Spock stargazing.

This is lovely, and has a great bit about humanity's obsession with the moon.

Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater

the midnight hour is close at hand (640 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Blue Sargent, Calla (Raven Cycle), Maura Sargent, Persephone Poldma
Additional Tags: Pre-Series, Halloween, Trick or Treating, Rituals, Magic
Summary:

Nobody ever bothers to trick-or-treat at 300 Fox Way. That's probably for the best.

Magic and love, teasing the locals, and rituals after the kid's asleep -- it's a gorgeous little story about the wonderful women of 300 Fox Way.

Pacific Rim

Safe Harbor (502 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Pacific Rim (2013)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Mako Mori, Raleigh Becket
Additional Tags: Emotional Hurt/Comfort
Summary:

"I'm your partner. Which means you gotta trust me a little, yeah?"

This is lovely, sweet and a little heart breaking, and just gorgeous.

and then, and then (507 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Pacific Rim (2013)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Mako Mori
Additional Tags: Shatterdome
Summary:

It’s at the Shatterdome, they say, and so she goes.

Gorgeous little fic, with a gut punch ending that stole my breath.

Pitch Black

Afterburn (414 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Chronicles of Riddick Series, Pitch Black (2000)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Richard B. Riddick, Carolyn Fry
Additional Tags: Fix-It
Summary:

They're both bleeding but alive when he hauls her back to the light.

Touching without being cloyingly sweet, with a nice sharp edge of humor to it.

Young Avengers/Marvel 616

Ghost Hunting... Fail (341 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Young Avengers, Marvel 616
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kate Bishop/America Chavez
Characters: Kate Bishop, America Chavez
Additional Tags: Ghost Hunters, Haunted Houses, Kissing, Anniversary
Summary:

Kate takes America on an interesting date for their anniversary.

Super cute story about two delightful characters even better together.

MCU

A Worthy Foe (678 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man (Movies)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Pepper Potts, Natasha Romanov
Summary:

Pepper confronts Natalie Rushman about her true identity.

I love the Pepper and Natasha characterizations here so much, and the smart intelligence of them both.

Dear Trick or Treat Author,

I am thrilled to participate in Trick or Treat this year. Halloween is my favorite holiday, and fall my favorite season, so Trick or Treat feels like an awesome mix of things I love combined with fandoms I adore. Good times.

I can't wait to read your story or see your art. I've provided a little bit of information about things I do and do not want, along with a few thoughts about why I like particular fandoms and characters, but mostly I want you to have fun creating. Don't let any prompts or thoughts below stress you out. I love both fic and art. Feel free to mix and match tricks and treats, within a fandom or across fandoms.

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

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

( General Likes and Do Not Wants )

Requests:
( Baby-sitters Club )

( Jurassic Park )

( Cursed )

( Trick R Treat )

( All 30 Days )

3 – For each of the fandoms from day two, what were your favorite characters to write?

ARE YOU SHITTING ME? SIXTY-TWO FUCKING FANDOMS, MEME. SIXTY-FUCKING-TWO.

Well, the last one took three days to finish. Let's do this.

( 62 fandoms, people )

Wow, that went much faster. No explanations, for the most part, just names, that was the way to go. Takeaway: if Michelle Rodriguez is in the movie, her character is my favorite, and WEREWOLVES ALWAYS WEREWOLVES.

A brief look at current fannish joy (minus Furious 7, because it will have its own post):

iZombie

J and I started watching iZombie, and I find it charming and fun. It doesn't quite fill that Veronica Mars season one hole in my heart (but, to be fair, Veronica Mars doesn't fill that hole, either, even though I mostly enjoyed later season, the movie, and the two books), but it's a lot of fun. (It could be much, much better about diversity, though.) I love the hell out of Ravi and Clive in particular, think Liv is a delightful main character, and wish we'd see a lot more interaction between Liv and Peyton. (Who I just learned is Aly Michalka. Man, I failed hard at recognizing her there. I freaking love Aly & AJ/78Violet, though AJ has always been my favorite. She just charms the hell out of me.)

( Spoilers )

J is the one who suggested we give it a try, and was then aghast when I told him it was a comic book show. He swears he hates comic book shows and movies. I pointed out he loves Walking Dead and Gotham, and now that he's figured out James Spader is in Age of Ultron, he wants to watch that too. Preeeeeeetty sure you're coming over to the comic book side, J.

MCU

Before J decided he wanted to watch AOU, I bought tickets to go see it with MJ, one of our friends. I tought about heading back to KC to do one of the movie marathons, but in the end, decided it wasn't worth the trip when I'm not living up there anymore. The theater here we use isn't my beloved KC theater, but it's still pretty great, and MJ and I have great seats. I can't wait.

While I'm not marathoning anything myself (not yet, at least), I love owlmoose's Mega Marvel Rewatch: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man 2 so far. I can't wait for the rest.

I am both incredibly excited about AOU and worried, because I do not trust Joss Whedon not to fuck shit up. He's already done so with Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. I hate that he's touted as this great addition to MCU (and anything else he touches). I loved BtVS/Angel and Firefly, flaws and all, but he's not getting better, and my anger grows.

The 100

J got me watching The 100, and I still haven't seen all of season one, but there's so much talk about it on my reading list right now, and I love it. I have so many feelings about this show, mostly GIRLS ARE AWESOME and TEENAGERS *HEART EYES* and GOD EVERYONE IS TERRIBLE AND WONDERFUL AT THE SAME TIME.

marina has a great post about it: sci-fi aimed at women and interesting moral dilemmas.

coffeeandink talks about The 100 being shaped by Passover.

musesfool talks about the characters.

Raven Boys

I first read THE RAVEN BOYS a few years ago, by which I mean, I ended up with a free copy of the audiobook and listened to it sporadically on road trips across Missouri. At the time, it was okay; enjoyable enough to pass the time, but the reader really put me off when he voiced Blue. I didn't think much about it after I finished listening. Sometime last year, I found a great deal on the second book in hardcover, so I grabbed a copy of the first book, too. (The audiobook had since expired, and I had no interest in ever listening to it again anyway.) Sunday, I unpacked THE DREAM THIEVES (the second book), and realized I didn't remember how THE RAVEN BOYS ended. I grabbed it off the shelf, expecting to skim it for the next week or so, and ended up devouring it in a couple hours. Reading it for myself worked a lot better for me than listening to it, and I found the characters and their friendships utterly compelling. I'm now forcing myself to read THE DREAM THIEVES slower, because BLUE LILY, LILY BLUE won't be here for a couple days, and of course the fourth book isn't out until this fall. Preordered it, though, which is something I rarely do. Until this point, Stiefvater is not an author I buy her books new, much less in hardcover; I've never managed to finish SHIVER, despite werewolves, and while I like her short stories well enough (I'm a big fan of Tessa Gratton, and their writing group puts out books of short stories sometimes), I've never been caught by any of her other works (I don't like stories about faeries, and skimming THE SCORPIO RACES didn't capture my attention, despite horses and racing, though I'll give that one another try). Pretty pleased with this series, though.

I've saved a bunch of fic to read once I'm caught up, too.

Incryptid

POCKET APOCALPYSE WEREWOLVES OMG YES PLEASE FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER.

I really don't have much to say about this series, except I love this family and this world, and I need to do a full series reread soon. There are four main books, plus a ghost story novel, plus short stories. I love this series so much.

(I'm so glad I do, too. I've been reading Seanan McGuire's blogging for years before she was published, and I wanted to support her writing, but again, I don't like stories about faeries, so had no interest in October Daye, her first big series. I enjoy the hell out of her work as Mira Grant, but I wanted a big, grand epic supernatural adventure series to love, and the Incryptid series is that. And now it has werewolves. SO MUCH JOY.)