One prompt, free to a good home

Who would have thought I'd manage to find too many things to request for Yuletide? Generally I worry if can find enough. But this year it was almost impossible to bring it down from a final seven to the permitted six. So, very sadly, my perennial Chinese Mythology request fell by the wayside, on the grounds people wrote it for me last year. It seems unlikely anyone else will be requesting it, since I was the only one who nominated it, but who knows? Anyway, I post my poor abandoned prompt here, so that I'll have it to hand for next year, nicely formatted, and so that if anyone was wondering who the hell Ch'ing-nü was anyway, they can look at the handy links I've included.

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Chinese Mythology - Any (Ch'ing-nü | Qing Nü, Māzǔ)

For Matsu, I'd love something with the seductive power of the sea and the grey savagery of its storms, the loneliness and desperate hope of those who wait on shore and the fitful presence of the divine that lets her save her brothers (or, if you prefer, that leads to her death and apotheosis). For Ch'ing-nü, something about the beauty of frost, delicate and fragile yet deadly, ushering in the killing cold of winter even as it provides a longed for respite from summer’s heat.

( Read More )

Dear Yulegoat

Ancient Egyptian Religion - Ma'at, Imhotep, Set, Thoth

(Please feel free to take this as ‘OR' not "AND" - you don't have to fit all of them in.) Anything at all with Ma'at, whether stories that could have been told about her, or how her presence speaks to her followers. A hymn, or a story made up from fragments, or a story where she hovers always around the edges ... whatever you like. Or something dealing with Imhotep's role as god of science and magic, or with his position as a god who was once a man. Or perhaps one of the less well known stories about Set? Or something about his relationship with his worshippers. Or Thoth/Imhotep, or Thoth&Set (or indeed Thoth/Set), or anything about Thoth and his worshipers, or the scribes under his protection.

( Read More - quite long owing to all the characters and combinations )

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The Arrival - William Timlin

Although this was originally an illustration from the artist's own novel, I'm not at all asking for fic of that story (which I have not, in fact, read, never having come across a copy) - I'm asking for a story based solely on this piece of art. A ship sailing through the skies! A path of birds! The lake with the elegant bridge, and are those towering spires a distant city or a mountain range? And who is the single figure by water's edge?

( See picture )

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Golden Age 1,001 Nights Illustrations - Any

Large and ornate boxes with unknown contents, trees that grow human heads, cities that fly, mysterious spells performed in the wastelands... just tell me what is going on with one or all of these.

( Read More )

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كتاب ألف ليلة وليلة | Kitaab 'alf layla wa-layla | One Thousand and One Nights - جعفر بن یحیی برمکی | Ja'far ibn Yahya al-Barmaki

Famous for his power and wealth, and the favour of his Caliph, famed too for his eloquence and liberality, but led suddenly away to death in the midst of all his prosperity by that same Caliph. What sort of man was Ja'far, and did he live always with the knowledge he might fall, or was it an unthinkable betrayal?

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The Reluctant Widow - Georgette Heyer - Francis Cheviot

More Francis Cheviot! Going to his tailor, playing cards, spying, seducing French agents … anything at all.

( Read More )

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Liáo zhâi zhì yì | Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio - Pú Sônglíng - Any

I'm interested to see whatever you choose to make of this. Retell one of Pu Songling's stories or tell one of your own. Play around with language and allusions or concentrate on plot or on character. You could do something with the ever present fox spirits - they're viewed in such a range of ways, from meriting death through to the ambivalence of stories such as Cut Sleeve to admirable heroines (e.g. in Lotus Fragrance). Or you could do something with the relation of dreams to reality, or the extent to which stories are a type of dream. If you want to stick to a single story, you could look at Shican and Huang's relationship in Cut Sleeve - there's a lot of emotional ground at the end of that story the remains unexamined. Make your language as densely allusive or as simple as you please, your tone as light or as dramatic as you want. Gen, slash, het; light-hearted, bitingly satirical, restrained or sly or melancholy ... anything that strikes your fancy.

( Read More )

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In General

I really would prefer you to write the best story you can, and one you're happy with, rather than trying unsuccessfully to do something that doesn't suit you to fit what I asked for. I'm most interested in what you, dear writer, make of the source material.

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