Dear Yulegoat (or other ruminant),

 I don't use my LJ any more, but feel free to look at 
senji.livejournal.com if you want :-).  I now have a new blog at 
circle.thy.me.uk , but as yet there are only a few posts there and none 
of them are fandom related...

 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 horrible Polytangles all fine, but not required. 

 Likewise I'm not adverse to something that's not a traditional story
-- if your fannish inclinations lead you to Interactive Fiction or a
CYOA story, or whatever, then feel free!

OK, requests:

Alliance-Union - C. J. Cherryh
Character: Sam Whitely

  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.


Craft Sequence - Max Gladstone
Characters: Any/Worldbuilding

  "Whenever I create a new character I ask myself 'Does this character
 have to be white?  Do they have to be male?  Do they have to be
 straight?'" -- Max Gladstone

  Max's "Path least assumed" approach has, so far, produced four; 
 very different; books in a world both surprisingly similar and
 surprisingly different to ours.

  I don't really have any suggestions here; one of the things I like
 about Max's work is that there's always a surprise around the corner,
 and they don't go where you expect.

  Another thing I like about them is that they have some of the feel
 of a John Grisham novel or a Police Procedural; both of which are
 quite odd things in the fantasy genre.

  Finally, he actually manages to pull off making his very odd and
 unusual characters actually seem sympathetic and human; even when
 they're wanting to sacrifice one of the protagonists...

  I've read the first five of the books (and will probably have read
 Ruin of Angels before Christmas), but haven't played the games.


Requite Universe - Ankaret Wells
Characters: Tzenni, Ligeia

  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.


Chronicles of the Kencyrath - P. C. Hodgell
Characters: Jame, Timmon, Brier

  I've only come to the Chronicles of the Kencyrath last year and,
 having devoured the whole lot in the course of about two weeks, I
 obviously wish for more... :-D

  Jame, central character as she is, is partly an interesting
 character because while she does have a conscience and ethics they
 don't align with either those of the world around her or of the
 reader.  Timmon and Brier both stretch and test those ethics; in
 different ways.  I would be happy with a story involving Jame and
 Timmon or Jame and Brier; but I think the most interesting would be a
 story in which Jame is caught in the tension betwen Timmon and
 Brier's worldviews.


Kerbal Space Program
Characters: Any / Worldbuilding

  I originally nominated and requested this back in 2011; so I'm
 delighted to see it back in the tagset because clearly someone else
 thinks its amazing too.  The following from my 2011 letter is
 surprisingly still true although the game has been fleshed out a bit
 more.  I don't think I can really add anything to it:

  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! :-).


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.
 Option 2)  Pick another fandom!  Requite is two books/ The Craft
           Sequence is six books so far but they're only loosely
           linked and any one would be sufficient.  Kerbal Space
           Program has a demo version available for download (although
           at the time of writng the Demo download page isn't working;
           oops!) and the forums and wiki are public.  My Cherryh
           request relies on two books - Cyteen and Regenesis (but
           they're both quite fat). The Kencyrath might 
           be a bit big to dip into new for Yuletide.

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.