Dear Yuletide Writer....

[desertvixen]

 ... I have been a good girl this year.

General things: Stories don’t need to be super sappy and sugary , but please don’t get all grim and dark.  Bittersweet can work, as long as there are hopeful tinges.  Holiday-themed is fine if that’s where the story takes you.  I prefer het or gen on the fandoms listed.  I am deployed to Afghanistan this year, so very much looking forward to Yuletide as pretty much the only part of my Christmas-time celebration that's not getting messed up.

Have fun writing whichever one we match on, and I know I'll have fun reading it!

1. Nancy Drew: Nancy Drew, Helen Corning

I'd really like to see something with Helen Corning (preferably still a single girl) and Nancy doing something mystery-related, and can pass the Bechdel test. Any era of Nancy (original, yellow spines, Nancy Drew files) is good.

Helen Corning – the sidekick before George and Bess came on the scene, last seen as a married woman in Nancy Drew #46, The Invisible Intruder. She’s pretty plucky, and generally up for assisting Nancy with an investigation as well as being social and decorative. I miss her.

So, what I am looking for here is one of three things – an adventure in the “original Nancy” era (1930s) – a time when the books were rife with bad cultural, ethnic, and racial stereotypes, but Nancy was a little more kick-ass and take charge, part of the social “betters” and she knew it, a return to the yellow spine days of sheath dresses and flower arranging with Nancy and Helen being suitably social girl detectives (preferably pre-Helen’s wedding, but that’s not described in the books so you could even work with that) OR update Helen Corning to the 1980s Nancy Drew Files world.

A story about Helen’s wedding would be cool, but only if they have some kind of mystery attached.

A return to Lilac Inn (either original or revised) would also be great – it’s my favorite book with Helen in it.

I even had kind of a throwaway thought when I was reading The Supergirls on my Kindle (a history of comic book heroines) and how Helen would make an excellent candidate for the debutante/secret heroine badass type of role.   

Feel free to drag the other characters in the tag set in as needed. I’m a Nancy Drew/Frank Hardy shipper (hey, bring him along too if you like!), so please avoid Ned Nickerson. Don Cameron is a character from ND #3 The Hidden Bungalow, and there if you need convenient muscle whom Nancy occasionally dates. (He is also in Nancy Drew Files #27, but a little differently envisioned.)

I’d like the fic to have some Bechdel-compliant moments (google the Bechdel test if you need an explanation). Romance is not a requirement – although as long as it’s not Ned Nickerson, I won’t complain. There’s also an extra candidate for possible romance in Lilac Inn – you’ll know him when you see him.

This is a repeat request, but please don’t feel bad if we didn’t match on it!

Miss Marple: Miss Marple, Sir Henry Clithering, Lancelot Fortescue, Percival Fortescue

Miss Marple always figures out who the bad guy is, but we rarely see that bad guy apprehended. I'd love to see a "how they caught him" for A Pocketful of Rye's Lance Fortescue.

So, pretty much what the request says. Miss Marple grows on me the more I read her, but there are so many cases where the murderer is identified, and the book closes on the assumption that they will be caught and punished.

A Pocketful of Rye is one of my favorite Christies. I love the characters, the setup, and Miss Marple’s escape from St. Mary Mead.  

Originally, what I was going to ask for was a non-Jane Marple centric story where we saw Lancelot Fortescue’s fate, whether it was being caught just as he was to be apprehended – escaping and dying in a plane crash – deliberately crashing a car to ensure going out on his own terms. (All 3 of which have been featured in Christie endings) I personally picture Lance as either option two or three, but I’m open to suggestions.

However, I may have been reading all the Tuesday Night Club short stories, and I wouldn’t be opposed to some kind of scene like that – perhaps where Sir Henry Clithering relays the story . I know the short stories probably take place before the books, because I believe Raymond (her nephew) is already married to the artist Joyce Lempriere, but work with me. Sir Henry is definitely going to be the conduit.

I have Lance in the tags, but you don’t have to use him – I’m actually a little more interested in Percival and how he responds. Probably in disgust for his brother’s notoriety, but the whole part where Lance tries to insinuate that Lance was never the troublemaker, but Percy always got him in trouble, is interesting…  I'm more interested in people's reactions about/to Lance than Lance himself.

Clue: Miss Scarlet, Mrs. White, Yvette

What if the FBI agent in the movie wasn't Mr. Green, but Miss Scarlet? Feel free to involve the whole gang here.

There are no words to tell you how much I love this movie. I love Miss Scarlet and her pretty brash, frank, sexy demeanor. I love the dress and the one-liners. In short, I have watched this movie enough times I could probably quote the whole thing. I love it.

So what if instead of the madam who’s not afraid to own it, she was an undercover FBI agent? What if maybe, just maybe, Yvette was the madam? Several of the best lines could easily be twisted to make this work. Mustard’s concern about the photographs, the slightly adversarial snaps between Scarlet and Yvette – the only hitch might be the cop.  Thoughts about when they're searching the house would be awesome - I love the scene in the kitchen where they draw straws.

I've included Mrs. White mostly because the two play off each other so well.

Give me funny, and snarky, and awesome Miss Scarlet. Give me a reset of the movie, maybe some aftermath, but make Miss Scarlet own the thing.

http://www.awesomefilm.com/script/clue.html - for possible reference needs

The Nonesuch: Tiffany Wield, Patience Chartley, Mrs. Underhill, Lady Lindeth

Tiffany Wield was sent up to London, but I always doubted that she would stay there.. give me a Heyer-esque romp (possibly focusing on Patience and Julian's wedding) that shows her getting her comeuppance in the vicinity of Staples.

So, Tiffany Wield is one of the Heyer characters that many people (including me) love to hate. She’s strikingly beautiful, rich, self-centered, petted and spoiled beyond belief, but still young enough that she could change. She probably won’t though.

When last seen at the end of the Nonesuch, she was off to London to wind a bachelor uncle or two around her thumb. I would be willing to bet, however, that she doesn’t stay there long… I envision her being sent back to Staples for either her own good or her guardian’s sanity.

Give me a Heyer-esque romp, possibly concerning Patience and Julian’s wedding (don’t let her ruin it, but comeuppance is always fun to watch) in the vicinity of Staples. I’m a big fan of Patience. Maybe a story where Sophia, Lady Lindeth, realizes how awesome a choice Patience is instead of Tiffany (I know in the book Patience’s mother and Sophia were supposed to know each other). Maybe a story where she *almost* creates havoc.  Maybe Mrs. Underhill will finally get a little spine where little Miss Tiffany is concerned?