Yuletide Reveals 2025
Jan. 2nd, 2026 03:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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yuletide is now over for another year! I did, in fact, have the misfortune to turn up at the exact wrong moment to catch the reveals bug on the 24th, so I saw the identity of my gift-writer, although as they were someone that I only had the vaguest idea of having seen the name around AO3 somewhere before, it didn't really spoil anything, thankfully.I had hoped to do some little treats, as I got on and got my fic done as soon as I could, but I moved instead. However, as I cut out one section from my assignment and posted it separately in Madness, I did technically still post a treat as well!
I wrote The Winslow Boy for
edwardianspinsteraunt, so I was not super anonymous really, for anyone who actually looked that far, but I had a lovely time spending a month or so rewatching the film and coming up with different scenarios from their prompts and my head for a 5 + 1 Times fic. By the end, I decided, though, that the "+1" just increasingly didn't sit right with the rest, so I split it off, hence the Madness treat.Passing Acquaintances (8985 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Winslow Boy (1999)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Robert Morton/Catherine Winslow
Characters: Robert Morton (Winslow Boy), Catherine Winslow, Arthur Winslow, Grace Winslow, Desmond Curry
Additional Tags: 5 Times, Post-Canon, 1910s, World War I, Trains, London, Smoking, Politics, Cars, Suffragettes, Yuletide, Edwardian Period
Summary: Five ways Catherine and Sir Robert might have met again, after the trial.
( Some writerly blathering )
I wanted to include the Winslows lose the case AU if I could, as I knew
edwardianspinsteraunt was keen on that idea - and as I thought would it might rather put paid to any Catherine/Robert, at least for quite some time, it fitted well into the format as the "one time they didn't" (meet again) (although never at any point was that categorical). It did work out well and was maybe the most Rattigan section in the end, I thought, so I had to post it even after I cut it. (Although had I realised sooner I was going to set it loose alone, I'd have found a way to make the start a little less in media res, although tbf, it's an unlikely one to appeal to anyone who doesn't know canon).Anyway, here it is:
and watch the things you gave your life to broken (2799 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Winslow Boy (1999)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Robert Morton/Catherine Winslow
Characters: Catherine Winslow, Desmond Curry, Arthur Winslow, Violet (Winslow Boy), Dickie Winslow, Robert Morton (Winslow Boy)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, 1910s, Edwardian Period, The Winslows lose the case, Yuletide Treat
Summary: The Winslows lose the case.
With the usual thanks to
persiflage for the beta!! <3<3<3come and gone
Dec. 31st, 2025 06:38 pmraptureofthemoonI badly needed this time off.
And I badly need to keep up, not the momentum, but some of the habits I've been cultivating over the last week and a half. Which is staying off social media more often (largely not a problem, save for the wasted time I spend on Reddit) and reading more, be it in fits and spurts or in a long sitting.
I actually managed to read 10 books this year, which is more than I read last year, and probably more than I've read in a year since I graduated undergrad in 2006. Something about English degrees just royally fuck up your momentum.
I gamified my reading for the year by making it a challenge on Good Reads. (My challenge was eight books.)
Of the 10 books, at least two were "meh." One of them because it was a very easy (simple writing, fairly formulaic) popcorn read. While I have nothing against popcorn, I don't want to read popcorn just to inflate my book count for the year, just to hit a challenge goal.
I'll keep setting challenges, but I'm going to make it a point to sink my teeth into the somewhat meatier books I have on my list. Maybe I don't finish them quickly, but whatever. I just need to keep up the reading habit. I miss it when I'm not doing it.
And with those habits increased, I'm hoping they'll lead to an increase in other habits (particularly writing).
On this New Year's Even, I'm not making any big resolutions apart from building these habits and continuing the ones I've already built.
Though I am planning a project for this January, and maybe February, which will be writing a haiku a day to get back into wording.
The last two times I've done a month of haiku, I published them on my WordPress blog. This time, I might keep them for myself and see if I can do something else with them at a later date.
Happy New Year.
Yuletide Recs (Part 1)
Dec. 29th, 2025 08:17 pmthisbluespirityuletide fic here and there suited my current state, and I've had a lot of fun with it so far, I actually have a whole batch of recs ready to go for once. (I still need to go back and pick up some fandoms, especially in the first half of the alphabet, and I've barely touched Madness).( 22 recs in As You Like It, British Airways, Cabin Pressure, Cadfael, Dogsbody, Enigma, Flower Fairies, The Good Place, Georgette Heyer, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme, Ludwig, The Prisoner, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Shakespeare & Hathaway, Time Master, Welcome to Our Village Please Invade Carefully & Yes Minister )
Yuletide
Dec. 28th, 2025 02:33 pmthisbluespirityuletide, in the right sort of place to do reading through it, if not much else! So much so, there should be a recs post to follow soon. But first of all, of course, my lovely gift!It was for Enigma, which I was excited enough about just for that, but it is also excellent - a really well-done layered look at Tom & Hester running into Wigram a few years post-canon. Plus, my recip turned up to leave a comment on my assignment, so Yuletide 2025 is a win! \o/ (Even more so, as that other Enigma ficlet I mentioned? The author replied to my comment to say that they'd watched the film because of my promo post, so double yay and bonus outside-of-Yule ficlets!)
After the End (1472 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Enigma (2001)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Tom Jericho, Hester Wallace, Wigram (Enigma 2001)
Additional Tags: Post-Canon
Summary: Summer 1949. An encounter in a Parisian park.
Happy solstice!
Dec. 21st, 2025 08:39 pmsewnWinter has been almost snowless so far, but today it snowed a bit here. Temperature might stay subzero so perhaps it'll stay. In Turku, the sun has been out for two days the whole of December.
Fall was busy with work at the city archives. Enjoying it a lot. Still tiring. Will update more later. I will go back to work on 30rd, then I have the 2nd and 5th off so I can enjoy a little holiday in Turku as well. I will be starting rTMS that week, which is cool. I already had the calibration session and it was an interesting experience.
I always feel a little down around this time of the year, but a little less stressed than last year. Big sister will be here on Tuesday and we'll do a lot of cooking. I think I'll start with the casseroles tomorrow.
How are you doing?