my MCU AUfest fics

So, I wrote four fics; I had a few more treats on the list, but life happened.

For hiddencait, I wrote two MCU/Pacific Rim fusions, with a Maria & Pepper friendship slant (and some background Tony/Pepper and Maria/Steve):

title: Not The Standard Model
summary: "Ms. Potts. With all due respect, because you seem nice enough, I don’t really have time for this shit."

title: Fire Breathers
summary: "Everyone gets the Fire-Breather treatment the first time they’re out,” Carol says. “Only Maria likes it."

Zippit was a pinch hit I picked up because I could write a third story in the MCU/Pacific Rim universe that was to her pairing requirements:

title: In From The Cold
summary: Her first impression of him is dangerous. Her second is deceptive.

There's a whole universe's worth of fics in this - I got halfway through the third story in the Maria & Pepper series, and then the project I'm on hit with a vengeance and I had no brain power left. It'll get finished while I'm on holidays...

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By comparison csichick_2 got an emergency pinch-hit because I had her on the treats list, and apparently the fic that she received was long enough but not actually complete.

title: How To Ask A Girl To The Yule Ball
summary: It occurs to Steve that he might have started with some small talk. Only Maria doesn’t do small talk.

Speaking of holidays and writing, I need to work out just which fics I'm going to be working on so I can give them priority...

update

Made it out with minimally scraped pride. Now to see whether I still have a job when I get back...

Typing this on the plane at Hobart airport on the way back to Sydney...

So many things to do now, so little time...

the cost of a quilt

So, one of my f-list expressed an interest in buying The Promises Of Spring, and I figured it was a good time to utilise a spreadsheet someone in the Australian Quilting Community made about the cost of quiltmaking.

The someone who did the calculation spreadsheet is a he, btw. One of the few males in quilting, and he gains attention for being a male in a traditionally 'female' pastime - the glass elevator, as compared to the glass ceiling. So he's taught to value his work and is valued for his work, even as the women around him doing the same thing are less noticed and less appreciated for what they do.

However, the spreadsheet has a use, which is to put a solid number on an activity where I tend not to count the cost - mostly because I've never had to.

The Promises of Spring is this quilt:



Now, the price that someone would pay for it may be a different beast to the cost of making a quilt. I have no problem accepting a lower price - hell, most of the time I give these quilts away for free - and I believe people online are less likely to undervalue the cost, but it's good to see the numbers and have a better idea of just how much it might cost to put something like The Promises Of Spring together.

( a graphic of a spreadsheet, hopefully it displays )

So that's a conservative estimate of how much it cost to produce the quilt, not counting all the brainspace I used to angst over this or that regarding it. I'm more than happy to sell it at rather less, but it's good for others and for me to have a decent idea of what it costs to make, purely in monetary terms.

Dear Crossovering Author!

Okay, dear Crossovering Author,

This is a behemoth of a letter and I sincerely apologise. I've tried to put down some thoughts and ideas, but apart from focus on the women and keep the dynamics of the teams pretty much the core thing is that you don't stress about this assignment. Work it out as you can, and I will be delighted that you write something for me!

THANK YOU!

things I like
- women at the centre of the narrative, fuelling the action, thinking, feeling, acting, having agency, or using what agency they have in the most effective way they have
- female friendships: women working together, respecting each other's skills, valuing each others' differences, even if they don't like each other
- respectful heterosexual relationships: men who respect women as people, who treat women as people, who love women as individuals; women who struggle to trust but still choose to trust, even as they find ways to be who they need to be. (I hold to the view that if we can't model such relationships in fiction, then we will never see them in real life.)
- I prefer fusions (characters from one universe fused into another as though they've always been in the second universe) to crossovers (characters from two universes encountering each other with the canon history from their universe)
- my thoughts on fusion AUs as a guide to help you if you're stuck about how to proceed
- worldbuilding with people in

do not wants
- slash, even background slash (I have specific slash preferences, it's easier just to say 'no slash' than to try to navigate the permissible)
- refrigerated/ignored female characters (even if one of the fandoms is guy-heavy, you can go light on the guys and just give me the female characters)
- deathfic, hopelessness, downer endings

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( a note on fandoms )

Anyway, I hope that helps. If not, like I said at the start:
1. Ladies first.
2. Keep the dynamics.
3. Have fun!
4. THANK YOU!