Dear Yulegoat (or other ruminant),

 Firstly as you can tell I'm an awkward person who doesn't use his lj
any more.  Feel free to look at senji.livejournal.com if you want
though :-).

 In general I'm big on interesting genfic.  Plot preferred over 'ship,
but I'm not averse to shipfic, or even a good PWP.  Het, Slash,
Femslash, Groupsex, BDSM, sex-with-aliens, sex-with-chthonic-entities,
and complex Polytangles all fine, but not required. 


OK, requests:

Alliance-Union - C. J. Cherryh

  I was going to start this off by saying that Sam Whitely is in some 
 ways the token "normal" person in Reseune, but I got barely halfway 
 through that sentence before deciding that he isn't.  It's only because
 we're seeing him in a context full of Political Psych that he doesn't 
 look like a genius.  He almost certainly doesn't think he is.  But 
 he's the only one who can make Ari II relax, his architectural skills
 are sufficiently respectable that he managed to persuade people other
 than Ari to let him build Alpha Wing, and he appears to have an
 absolute eye for design.

  Whilst he's a minor character I think we see quite a bit of his 
 personality and skills.  He's in many ways another outsider in Ari's 
 coterie, and in the Reseune Lab environment.  What I'd like is something
 that either puts a spotlight on Sam, or that uses Sam to be a spotlight
 on the rest of the books. 

  Sam has a canonical pairing, but there's lots of room for before, 
 after, as-well, affairs, or many other kinds of things, if you want.


Kerbal Space Program (Computer Game)

  Right.  So this one's a little odd.  We're looking at a pre-alpha 
 quality "build your own rockets" computer game with very little 
 back-plot, the three characters you actually see in game have 
 personalities that are literally two-dimensional (they're internally 
 represented by two numbers), and the game-play is currently a fairly
 simple sandbox.

  On the *other* hand, the descriptions of rocket parts in the game
 are very evocative, there's a strong community on the forums, and a
 gestalt strong sense of what the Kerbal way of doing things is.

  What I'd like is some kind of story that evokes the Kerbal way of
 spaceflight.  With explosions, of course.  Whilst character-death is
 probably a likelihood, I'd prefer it if Bill, Jeb, and Bob survive 
 (they die often enough when I'm playing the game!).  This could be 
 anything from an Apollo-11 style "first Kerbal on the Mun" story, to 
 an Apollo-13 homage, to pure and simple slapstick humour in space.  
 Dig around the forum, the wiki, and play the game a bit, and find
 inspiration! :-).


Requite Duology - Ankaret Wells

  Requite is very much a book (well two) about a geek, Tzenni Boccamera; 
 albeit a geek who isn't a stranger to direct action and weapon-play.  In
 some ways it's a coming-of-age story, although a very different one to
 the traditional farmboy-makes-good style of fantasy.  On the flip side
 of the request we have her sister, Ligeia, whom we might describe as the
 martial one (or whom Tzenni would probably call the _responsible_ one).
 They are sisters, they've grown up together, and the text actually does
 a good job of demonstrating how this has influenced the way they view
 each other (often with blinkers).  

  I think there are broadly two ways to go with this request -- before 
 and after.  After is fairly simple, the text leaves it in no uncertain
 terms that Ligeia is unhappy with Tzenni's choices, and that she's 
 unlikely to let things lie.  Before is slightly more subtle; The Maker's 
 Mask starts in-media-res and only quite oblique references are made
 to the sisters' relationships growing up.

  Oh, and don't be worried that I've left Catha out because I hate her, 
 I'm just more interested in the Tzenni/Ligeia dynamic at the moment.


Seven Kingdoms Trilogy - Kristin Cashore

  This request has seeped in from last year; despite not re-reading the 
 books since last Yuletide they've remained in my head, particularly with
 Bitterblue coming up.  Kristin Cashore was my big author discovery last
 year.  And my what a discovery.  Short, dense fiction full of interesting 
 ideas, interesting plot, and character development.  Also she's entirely
 happy with people writing fanfiction (so long as they don't make her
 read it), yay!

  I've requested the character Fire because she is, to my mind at least, 
 one of the most interesting characters in the series so far; one who has
 to make hard choices and who has a quite noticeable impact on the world 
 around her (Katsa also has an impact, but the changes she engenders are
 mostly in the future of Graceling, and we'll presumably see some of them 
 in Bitterblue).

  It's hard to give a prompt, there's just so much interesting and
 unexplored here, never mind the possibility of continuation fic or
 going back to write about Cansrel's influence or....  Pick something
 that interests you in the story, and write about that!  

  Also, if you have a good plot idea that doesn't include Fire, run with 
 it.  Any fic in this setting will make me happy.


Right, so you've read all that and you don't like what I've written
for the fandom we've been matched for?

 Option 1)  Optional Details are OPTIONAL.  I'm not going to cry,
           stress, drama, or flounce if you complete ignore what I've
           written above.  Also feel free to ask the mods to get back
	   to me for more details, more ideas, or to sound me out about
	   something.
 Option 2)  Pick another fandom!  Cashore or KSP is probably the place
           to go if you take this option.  _Fire_ is a single 480 page
           book (in HB edition) and you don't have to read _Graceling_
	   to fulfil my prompt.  _Kerbal Space Program_ is downloadable
	   from the internet for free, and has a forum and a wiki online.
	    Cyteen/Regenesis and Requite are both fairly heavy pairs of
	   books, but a fast reader could get through them in time to
	   write something for Yuletide (I probably wouldn't recommend
	   it though).

    http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Graceling-Kristin-Cashore/dp/0803734611/
    http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/

Finally, if you come to #yuletide IRC for a beta I'm usually online
there and I may be hippoing.  My nick will generally be some variant
on 'Senji'.

Senji.