Dear Yuletide Writer

[dbskyler]

I already know you are wonderful, awesome and amazing because you matched me on one of these fandoms! And here you are reading this letter, which means you have come to my journal to try to find out more about me and the fic requests I made.

That is very nice and thoughtful of you -- thank you!

And now let me get one thing out of the way right off the bat: you have my permission to write me a story that I do not like.

Seriously, it's okay. Most likely we don't know each other, and how are you going to predict the story that I will like? I don't even do that great of a job of predicting what stories I will like! So please don't worry about pleasing me. Firstly, the odds are that I am going to love any story written in these fandoms with these characters. And secondly, I like a wide range of stories, including ones that fall into categories that I normally don't care for. So while I presume you are here to find out more about my likes and dislikes, don't let anything I say override your muse. Because chances are that your muse is going to lead you to a better story than I will, and there's nothing I like better than a good story.

But here you are, reading this letter, and so the least I can do is tell you a little more information about myself. Like most people, I do have general things I tend to like and dislike in a story. So, here we go:

General dislikes:
-- Smut, especially smut for smut's sake, and explicit descriptions of sex in general. I'm not really into it, and I often find it very boring to read.
-- Pairing up characters that were not romantically paired in canon. I'm not a big shipper, and creating new het and slash pairings out of canon characters usually strikes me as OOC behavior. (And yes, if you're a slasher that means you're pretty much out of luck with these fandoms -- my apologies! Hopefully you'll be willing to dwell on the strong m/m and f/f friendships instead.)
--Torture, non-con and dub-con scenes. Just not my thing.

General likes:
-- Pretty much any genre of story aside from PWP. This includes angst, action/adventure, hurt/comfort, fluff, humor and crack.
-- Stories that have a rating of PG-13 or lower, as a general rule. (This goes with the "dislikes" above.)
-- Stories that explore the characters, and stories that play off of something we saw in an episode. Missing scenes, tags and stories from another person's point of view. Stories that are clever. Stories that are funny, and/or touching, and/or leave you thinking. Um, I'm not being too helpful here, am I?

Feel free to look through my journal -- it's 99% public, after all -- and take a look at my fanfic (all in the "Doctor Who"-verse, I'm afraid, so it might be of limited use unless you're familiar with the fandoms).

Here are the three requests again, so everything's in one place:

Battlestar Galactica (classic) -- Starbuck
I've always loved Starbuck, and any fic focusing on him would be wonderful. It could be funny (does a gambling scheme go wrong?), or angsty (Starbuck was a child refugee, but that was hardly explored in the show), or action/adventure (Cylons!), or hurt/comfort (after all, he is a little on the reckless side). You could do an introspective character piece. You could go back in time (what happened when Starbuck first met Athena?) or forwards in time (does he ever learn the truth about Chameleon?) You could even bring in "The Return of Starbuck" from "Galactica 1980" (although it's also perfectly fine if you prefer to ignore "Galactica 1980" -- I generally do). My only requests are to please not pair Starbuck romantically with Apollo or Boomer -- I see their friendships as very strong, but platonic; and please don't write anything adult-rated (in fact, PG or G would be great). Other than that, whatever you want to write about Starbuck would make me very happy!

Space 1999: -- Tony/Maya
I love Tony and Maya. I love them separately as characters, and I love them together as a "you say you're not in love but we know you really are" couple. I'm not a big shipper, but this is the big exception -- I think they eventually married each other and lived happily ever after. So if you like to write shippy stories, go for it! (Please no explicit sex, though -- G or PG rating would be great.) On the other hand, I also think it took them a long time to get there, and so a story that doesn't focus on them as a couple works, too -- I love genfic, and I'm primarily a gen writer myself. Some ideas: Tony and Maya's first meeting; Moonbase Alpha coming across something from Psychon civilization; or maybe a missing scene or a tag around one or more broadcast episodes? Really, just feel free to explore whatever you find interesting about these characters.

Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (1969) -- Marty
OMG. If you were to write me something on this show, do you know how much I would love you? Because there is seriously almost no fanfic out there for it. I asked for Marty because to me Marty is what makes this show -- how he's a ghost but forgets sometimes, how he still has this great relationship with Jeff, how he's nervous and neurotic (especially about other ghosts), and how he's actually surprisingly smart and a good detective. Feel free to write about just him, or bring in Jeff and/or Jeannie -- heck, bring in Wyvern (from the 2000 remake) if you want to! I'd love love love some genfic here, in the vein of an unbroadcast story, but if you really like shipping then some Marty/Jeannie would be nice -- however I do see Marty as faithful to his widow, so please don't pair him with anyone else. If you want some ideas to start you off, how about: Marty on Halloween; Marty and Jeff have a fight about who's the better detective; or Jeff has to somehow rescue Marty (for a change).

And that's all I can think of to say, so hope this letter was at least a little bit useful! I look forward to reading whatever you end up writing, and thank you so much for the wonderful gift of your time and talent!