The Middle Distance

I wrote only one story for Yuletide; that was about all I could handle.

Noisy Night, Holy Night
Fandom: The Desert Peach
Rating: PG-13 for language
Warning: Offensive language and attitudes
Summary: If there's anything the 469th Halftrack, Gravedigging, and Support Unit of the Afrikakorps needs desperately, it's a Christmas party. If there's anything Udo Schmidt never ever needed, it's to become an event planner.

The Desert Peach is an awesome, hilarious indie comic by Donna Barr. It's set in North Africa during WWII, and it centers around a German army unit of complete misfits and "stray puppies," headed by General Rommel's fictional flamboyantly gay brother.

It was for skew_whiff, who seemed to really enjoy it, so YAY!

For me, Shewhoguards wrote And the Bells Were Ringing Out (Fairytale of New York), Rimedio wrote Baile an Fheirtéaraigh Garda Station – Christmas Eve 2011 (Fairytale of New York) and Greekhoop wrote A Secret History (Mongolian History RPF). THANK YOU!

I got a three stories this year, my main one and two treats. I've never gotten any treats before! That in itself makes it special.

And I love my stories.

Two of them are based on this song:



The tune is a Christmas classic, of course, made all the better because the Pogues are one of my favorite bands of all time and I've loved this song since the album came out in 1986.

There are a lot of ways you can go with writing about this song - even though none of the characters are named, it has a lot of them. There's a novelistic richness to it.

And the Bells Were Ringing Out tells it from the point of view of one of the "boys" of the NYPD Choir, contemporaneously with the song.

Baile an Fheirtéaraigh Garda Station – Christmas Eve 2011 also is narrated by an Irish-American New York cop, and it's set in the present day about brings things around full circle in a terribly bittersweet way.


In addition to that, I got an incredibly lovely piece of original fiction: A Secret History. It's under the Mongolian History RPF tag, but it isn't really - it's a contemporary story, and it's a beautiful tale about the tension between modernity and tradition and a very sweet, if slightly prickly, sibling relationship.


Anyone want to try to guess which one I wrote? Here's some hints: (1) It's in a fandom I've never written before, but I did directly reference it in another fic once. (2) It's the only story in its fandom this year.

I had the usual angstfest and deadline stress eruption, but overall I think it turned out well, and pretty close to my recipient's request, and the recipient seems very happy, so all is well in V-Yule-land.

Oh frak, I just signed up for Yuletide after weeks of thinking I wouldn't!

( My dear writer, anything to be of help to you )

I hope that's helpful to you, dear writer.

Madimi is hiding under the futon after I managed to get 2 of her 10 claws trimmed. When she ran from me, though, it wasn't like a real "that hurt, I'm scared, I hate you" running-and-hiding. It was that chase-me-chase-me-chase-me game.

While I'm waiting for her to come out, have a random Yuletide rec: PARADISE LOST, being the story of one
BASEMENT CAT, in which, through many travails and desperations, he attains his TRUE DESIRE. It's kinky LOLcat pr0nz. Fer srs. And kind of touching.