Came home and pounced on my three full-length Yuletide stories to cuddle them close. I'd submitted a request for Neil Gaiman's American Gods, specifically for stories like those stories of gods and goddesses that one finds between chapters in the original book. The three stories I received give three very different glimpses into the lives of gods: all of them less than they were, all of them looking for survival, all of them distinctly not human.

The Geographic Cure is Artemis and Apollo in 1692, squabbling as only siblings can do: "Apollo might be here to talk medicine and money, but she had used nearly the whole remaining store of her power to make the humans overlook the incongruity of a woman sitting her horse astride rather than sidesaddle and riding with the hounds as an equal to the men. She had no patience left for idle conversation."

The Edge of Spring puts a Slavic goddess in San Francisco, and evokes a strong sense of place and season and loss: "She was a goddess of the sun and a goddess of winter. This combination had never made sense in her Slavic homeland. Hoary trees bent under December snow might go weeks without seeing even weak sunlight. She arrived in this city, carried by the tales of its immigrants, and the world began to make sense."

do zla bog gives us the backstory of Czernoborg and the Zoryas from the book, and it is creepy and dark and just right: "So why, astute readers may wonder, do some older gods survive? Why are they, too, not forgotten in the wind, lost to newer gods with deeper thorns and larger armies at their back?

If I tell you it is good deeds and miracles, you will know that I am lying."

Not written for me, but also making me very happy, was a Nero Wolfe story, Dirge, Saul Panzer POV that somehow manages to bring in some meta issues from the books without really breaking the fourth wall--I'm describing that badly, but there's just some fascinating and clever things going on here and I love Archie as seen through Saul's eyes: "Archie who wandered into their lives with no past of his own, just a shifting tapestry of dead ends and a colorful string of clever, unreliable narration."

I gather one has to be logged into A03 to read that one.

In other news:

1. Recipients who write enthusiastic comments on their stories are *awesome.*

2. I am clearly going to have to uncheck the preference where you can see how many hits your stories get. Because it is doing bad things to my brain.

3. I have more Yuletide Madness stories waiting for me. I don't even know what to do with that amount of goodness.

Tags: yuletide

Finished Yuletide story 3 of 3 a few minutes ago, just in time to head off and away from the Internet through either the evening of the 25th or the afternoon of the 26th, depending on driving weather.

I am filled with a ton of gratitude looking at my dashboard on AO3--either my original writer defaulted or entered the story late, which meant I ended up on the pinch hit + madness lists, and am now blessed with a truly staggering amount of riches. If you're one of those writers, thank you so, so much--your generosity is much appreciated, and I am looking forward to getting to read.

Fandom = awesome.

Tags: yuletide

Fear not, Loyal Fans. I know many of you have worried on my behalf after a recent and entirely misleading promotional preview posted by the BBC. ( Rest assured that it is all Fiction. )

Tags: craft projects, damn uther, destiny, knitting, they don't know what a gift i am, young pendragon, young warlock
Current Location: little cottage in the hills
Current Mood: domestic
Current Music: John Farnham - You're The Voice