Flutterings

==Yuletide==

Because if one can't be a little bit extra in the midst of death (*) and despair, then when? (**)

More important, the recipients plus others (including writers whose work I've admired from afar) seemed to like them. Pieces at both the ends of the length spectrum (i.e., at least two of the drabbles and the longest story) got rec'ed. The drabbles were a way to relax; I ended up racing the countdown clocks for both the main and Madness collections to get revisions and coding in place in time.

Total: 1 pinch-hit, 2 full-length treats, 30 drabbles (and umpteen outlines/sketches for future NYR or exchange fics)

Fandoms: England Series (KJ Charles), Will Darling Adventures (KJ Charles), The Dark Is Rising Sequence (Susan Cooper), Le nozze di Figaro, Henry IV Part 1, Hot Goth Lady and Himbo Witch and Fair Maiden, Florida Man Catches Alligator in Trash Bin, Duolingo Welsh Course, Yudah Cohen (Rebecca Fraimow), Simon Feximal/Green Men (KJ Charles), Lord Peter Wimsey (Dorothy L. Sayers), Sotherans


The pinch-hit

Lie Still, Ye Thief (8015 words) for Ferritin4
Fandoms: England Series - K. J. Charles, Henry IV Part 1 - Shakespeare
Rating: Mature
Summary: Theatre manager Frank Benson favours a certain type of actor. Archie and Daniel are added to his Henry IV anyway.

The recipient provided perfect prompts for this -- guiding without confining. I am indebted to rymenhild for pushing me to make this twice as good as the drafts sent to her on super-short notice.


The full-size treats

Sharpening (7789 words) for leiascully
Fandom: Dark Is Rising Sequence - Susan Cooper
Rating: Explicit
Summary: Jane looks back and moves forward. Will and Bran share what they can.

What the recipient asked for: "I'm an inveterate Will/Bran shipper, but I also love Will/Bran/Jane. I'd even be interested in Will gently pushing Bran/Jane together because he's an Old One and will have to leave them at some point. I love stories where Bran still has a little magic, or sort of remembers, or sometimes his heritage shines through in some other way. I like Will trying to live a relatively normal life. I like Jane coming into her own."

Beta'd by the beauteous aunty_marion, who also answered ninth-hour queries about onions and pence for the other treat I pulled together . . .

Put to Their Books (6 chapters + notes) for azurewaxwing
Fandoms: Sotherans (Twitter), England Series - K. J. Charles, The Will Darling Adventures - K.J. Charles, Undisclosed Fandom
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Dramatis personae: Oliver, Chris, Rebekah, and Rosie (Sotherans); Daniel da Silva, Archie Curtis, Fenella Carruth, and Patricia Merton (England); Kim Secretan and Phoebe Stephens-Prince (WDA)
Summary: Beleaguered booksellers. Reincarnated operatives. Things get social.

Me troubleshooting CSS tags at 2 a.m. on Boxing Day = people dealing with "some assembly required" overnight on behalf of Santa. Totally worth it. :)


The drabbles (non-explicit unless otherwise indicated)

Le nozze di Figaro | The Marriage of Figaro - Mozart/Da Ponte
Di dolcezza e di piacer (Contessa/Cherubino) for foxtwin

Hot Goth Lady and Himbo Witch and Fair Maiden (Tumblr Post)
Love Is Not a Cinch for epicycles

Florida Man Catches Alligator in Trash Bin
Running Scales (Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia pledge and alligator) for FandomisOhana

Duolingo Welsh Course
Noson hir yn y glwb nos (Owen and too many parsnips) for sabinelagrande

Yudah Cohen Series - Rebecca Fraimow
Und mir haltn zikh in eynem (descendants) for imperfectcircle
Un mir zaynen freylekh munter (ghost klezmer band) for partypaprika

Simon Feximal Series - K. J. Charles/Green Men Series - K. J. Charles
Light on the Blue (Jo/Sam) for torakowalski

The Will Darling Adventures - K.J. Charles
Letting Rip (Teddy, Maisie, Phoebe, Kim, Will) for Luna
E dico ben, se 'l voler no me muta (Will/Kim) for dkwilliams
Conveyance (Maisie/Phoebe) for Sixthlight
Fashioning Channels (Maisie/Phoebe, Kim/Will) for brutti_ma_buoni
Daimlers Are a Girl's Best Friend (Kim/Will, Maisie/Phoebe) for azurewaxwing

The Will Darling Adventures - K.J. Charles x Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Outside the Primrose League (Will, about Lord Peter) for pressdbtwnpages

The Will Darling Adventures - K.J. Charles x England Series - K. J. Charles
Improper Intelligence (Kim, about Jimmy Yoxall) for Jenett
And Beautiful (Will and Daniel) for FairestCat
Foresight (Kim/Will) for celli
Prideful (Archie/Daniel) for Sixthlight
It Tutors Nature (Maisie, Laura, Phoebe, Fen) for scintilla10
Standing (Kim, about Daniel and Will) for Roga


England Series - K. J. Charles
Sounding: Daniel and Sounding: Archie (Archie/Daniel; explicit) for goseaward
I will unclasp a secret book (Archie/Daniel) for Ferritin4
Skill Born of Long Practice (Archie/Daniel) for Jenett


Dark Is Rising Sequence - Susan Cooper
The Lady brought home a west wind (Will/Jane/Bran) for leiascully
The Path Taken (Will/Jane/Bran) for coralysendria
Usefully Jolly (Merriman & Ellen Drew) for magelette
Towards the Light Is Striving (Merriman) for sageness
A New Verse (Will/Bran) for Rimedio
Not Any Man's (Gwen Stanton, Will/Bran, Robin Stanton) for sultrybutdamaged
Slicing Ginger (Black Rider/Will; explicit) for blueteak


(* Got a "Call me" message yesterday afternoon, about someone I had danced and taught with. The silver lining was a chance to catch up with the messenger, a friend I hadn't talked to in months.)
(** I'm mostly kidding. IRL I'm highly allergic to drama and maddeningly matter-of-fact. But I really did have a fine time crafting this lot.)

==The rest of the year==

The Dark Is Rising (drabbles)
"Impact Factor" (Will and Bran)
"Fearful Parallel" (Jane/Will)

England Series
"Competence" (15824 words) for whetherwoman
"Matter of Fact" (404 words)

The subject line is spoken by Pericles in the Shakespeare play of the same name, upon hearing that his beloved father-in-law is dead.

Hearing it tonight, at the Nashville Shakespeare Festival, I immediately thought of David Bevington, my University of Chicago Shakespeare professor, who was for many years a familiar figure flying from his home on Blackstone to various classes, meals, and performances around campus. A renowned scholar, he was also a very gracious man who was unquestionably responsible for me getting offers from grad schools (several interviewers made a point of telling me his letter on my behalf was impressive -- this in spite of me not having earned a solid A in his courses) and also a dedicated violist.

Since hearing of his passing, I haven't been sad, exactly -- he was in his late 80s, and I had figured that I would be reading his obituary sooner than later, although he was also spry enough that I also wouldn't have been surprised if he had made it to 100. But the world does feel a distinct shade colder with him gone.

The performance of Pericles was by the apprentice company, and it was a mixed bag. Some of the singing was gorgeous, and much of it wasn't quite in tune. But I was entertained by other audience members' attempts to understand what the heck is going on in the play (it's such a mess -- I'm fond of it, but it is SUCH a mess), I finally got to try the vegan ice cream joint that's been getting rave reviews (Kokofetti and peach scoops, yo), and even though I know the play well, I nonetheless cried in reaction to a couple of peak moments. Nice to see graceful dancing by non-waifs, too. Oh, and as Shakespeare does, there was a standout moment that hadn't registered with me during previous performances/reads: this time it was the nurse telling Pericles to pull his damn self together because his kid needs him.

For marymary, who was railing about The Taming of the Shrew a little over a year ago:

...the free will of a genuinely created character has a certain reality, which the writer will defy at his peril. It does sometimes happen that the plot requires from it characters certain behavior, which, when it comes to the point, no ingenuity on the author's part can force them into, except at the cost of destroying them. It may be that the Activity has chosen an unsuitable plot, or (this is perhaps more frequent) has imagined an unstable set of characters for working that particular plot out.

In such dilemmas, the simplest and worst thing the author can do is to behave like an autocratic deity and compel the characters to do his will whether or not. ... [W]restlings of natural truth abound in those romances where the heroine, after treating the hero for interminable chapters as though he were something the cat had brought in, is rescued by him under peculiarly humiliating circumstances and immediately falls into his arms in a passion of gratitude and affection. Knowledge of the very ephemeral nature of gratitude in proud and vain persons and of its irritating effect on the character, prompt the reader to wonder what the married life of the couple is likely to be, after thus starting from a false situation. It is a falsity of this kind that makes both actors and audience uncomfortable about The Taming of the Shrew; whether it is played as burlesque or softened into sentimental comedy, we are still left protesting that "'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tamed so," and nothing will persuade us that characters like those would really subdue themselves to a plot like that.

- Dorothy L. Sayers, The Mind of the Maker (p. 69)

I didn't get there in time for the pre-show lion-dancing, but the Nashville Shakespeare Festival's production of Macbeth turned out to be quite good. In particular, both Macduff and Macbeth's reactions to the deaths of their wives were affecting, and the staging of the Weird Sisters was terrific -- they were in flowing backlit acid green robes (think fairytale white witches meet Morsmordre), billowing from a balcony, and they chanted rather than shrieked (something I've disliked in other productions). Also, this is the first production I've seen in which minor characters such as Ross and Lennox (sp?) came across with their own personalities -- dunno if earlier productions simply cut their scenes, if I was just more awake for this one, or if the directing brought it out. Now I want to reread the play. But not before bedtime...

"On Shakespeare's Sonnets, and Why Gay Marriage Is Good For Business."

April 23 is often celebrated as Shakespeare's birthday; this year, it will also mark the 390th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. There has been considerable controversy over the centuries regarding Shakespeare's sexual orientation; in this service, we'll look at why it matters, what will be at stake this November, and what Unitarian Universalists are doing to promote marriage equality.

I'll be a building a dossier from the usual raft of books and online resources, of course, but I also know that some of you are already exceptionally well-versed on these topics: if there are particularly references or links you're itching to recommend, please feel free to comment or to send me a holler. I'm particularly keen on addressing domestic partnership benefits from the employer/taxpayer angle -- e.g., data to convince corporate officers (and politicians they influence) that doing the right thing will help their bottom line...