My Yuletide Stories

This Yuletide I wrote six stories, five in the main collection and one in Madness. The fandoms are, in alphabetical order, "The Author of the Acacia Seeds" - Ursula K. Le Guin, Dark Tower - Stephen King, Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey,Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin, The Iron Dragon's Daughter - Michael Swanwick, and Sandman - Neil Gaiman.

The Quiet Rebellion of Tardigrade Sela Writings, for lady_ragnell . "The Author of the Acacia Seeds" - Ursula K. Le Guin. You are no doubt familiar with the major genres of tardigrade literature.

I was absolutely delighted to see someone prompt for this wonderful story which can be read online. I immediately vowed to write for it, and hoped others would too. I was rewarded with two other excellent stories, both of which you should read if you haven't already.

lady_ragnell mentioned her favorite animals and made a passing reference to tardigrade opera. I have always loved tardigrades, so I chose them though I gave them written works instead. They are famous for survival, and I love survival narratives, which is how I came up with the mainstream of their literature and their titles. But the title part of Le Guin's original story isn't about the mainstream of Ant literature, but about an unusual manuscript which appears to be either a manifesto or memoir of rebellion. So I decided to make the apparent focus of my article be on the little-known counterculture of tardigrade literature.

What is countercultural to survival? While I was thinking about that, I was also thinking about words for cultural concepts - mono no aware, saudade, panache. They often get absolutely terrible articles written about them, like "Ten Ways To Embrace Hygge in Your Home," which briefly made me consider writing one of those. But while deciding not to do that, I did land on something a bit like hygge (Danish) as the inspiration for sela. And yes, sisu (which I think I first heard about in connection with the WWII Finnish sniper Simo Hayha) was the inspiration for ela.

I now really wish I had access to a library of translated tardigrade manuscripts.

Feverblossom, for sasha_b . Dark Tower - Stephen King. The ka-tet prepares a surprise for Jake while he's recovering from being poisoned.

sasha_b wrote me a delightful Dark Tower story a while back, Once and Future, so I was excited to get the chance to return the favor. I adore Mid-World and it was great to delve into its weirdness and the love of the ka-tet, plus one of my favorite aspects of the book, which is the different times the characters come from. Thanks to scioscribe for suggesting both the concept and Susannah's gift.

A Hatching at Half-Circle Sea Hold, for chess (Kastaka). Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey. “That’s a rather extraordinary proposal, Menolly,” said the Masterharper.

I love McCaffrey's dragons and fire lizards, and was delighted to see a prompt to write about my favorite thing - a Hatching! I'd also wanted for a while to write a story about Menolly returning to Half-Circle Sea Hold. Fire lizards for EVERYONE!

The Colors of Lorbanery, for penintime . Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin. The woman who had once been Akaren stayed inside her house for several days, changing.

The brief scene in The Farthest Shore with Akaren, the dyer of Lorbanery, is one of the most haunting moments in the entire series. I'd wanted for a while to write about her, and what happens to her afterward. I chose to set it before the end of the book because hope is a choice we make as well as an emotion that we feel, and as a choice, it's most meaningful and important when we have no idea how things will turn out but they're not looking good.

Say Not the Struggle Nought Availeth

To See a World in a Grain of Sand, for Northland. The Iron Dragon's Daughter - Michael Swanwick. Jane was the first to notice that a ragtag band of refugee meryons had made a camp behind a sofa in the student lounge.

This is one of my favorite books and I was thrilled to see it requested for Yuletide. I shamelessly indulged myself by choosing to write about the canon tiny people and their tiny worlds. I had an absolute blast detailing their projects, and also Jane's awful/hilarious roommate situation. I think you can read this without knowing canon, but if you've read the book, you'll catch certain parallels between the meryons in the story and Jane's arc in the book.

An Explorer of Delirium, for scioscribe . Sandman - Neil Gaiman. Delirium gets a visitor.

There's not much I can say about this one without spoiling it, but I had so much fun writing it. SO MUCH FUN.

I enjoyed doing canon review for all these, I was really happy with how my stories came out, and I absolutely loved the stories I got, and I had a marvelous time reading the collection, and I have a ton of stories yet to read. In short, I had a wonderful Yuletide this year, and I hope you did too.

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