Meme from, oh, everyone by now.

[nineveh_uk]

Give me the title of a story I've never written, and feedback telling me what you liked best about it, and I will tell you any of: the first sentence, the last sentence, the thing that made me want to write it, the biggest problem I had while writing it, why it almost never got posted, the scene that hit the cutting room floor but that I wish I'd been able to salvage, or something else that I want readers to know.

Comments

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

I did enjoy Lord Peter Views The Tubbies. I thought your Laa Laa particularly in character, especially when dealing with the salmon.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I loved writing this. How could I resist when [lj-user nonexistant] told me about how her four year old adored the Sayers videos, and was shocked to learn that when Peter was a little boy there wasn't any television.

I love the salmon scene, too. I am only sorry that I had to cut the haddock stuff - just too self-indulgent.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Lord Peter Views The Tubbies.

Best title ever!

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

I found your Chalet School LOLCATZ a work of unending genius. I particularly liked the way you portrayed Mary-Lou so sensitively.

(Do they count as fanfic?)

And actually, now I come to think of it, I really want to see this...

[clanwilliam.livejournal.com]

I want Chalet School Lolcats too!

I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier!

[clanwilliam.livejournal.com]

The cat looked up hopefully as the door to the study opened.

"I can haz cheeseburger?" it inquired in slightly pathetic, slightly hopeful tones.

Eyes that had never yet needed glasses regarded it sternly.

"You certainly can," replied Miss Annersley. "Whether you may is an entirely different matter."

Re: I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

This is brilliant. Sublime AND ridiculous!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Help! How do I upload an image to a comment...?

[aunty_marion]

< img src="whatever url your image is at" alt="description of it"/ > (obviously without the spaces immediately after/before the < and > (it's in the LJ faq, I almost always have to look it up....)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I loved doing this. Mary-Lou is such a misunderstood character in much of CS fandom. I especially liked writing the scene with Miss Annersley, and how the headmistress comes to understand that Mary-Lou really understands the school much better than she does.

Hell, I still can't embed the image: here (http://pics.livejournal.com/nineveh_uk/pic/0002y27s/g89)!

[azdak.livejournal.com]

I've always been a huge fan of your "The More Loving One", in which Harriet watches Peter die slowly of Alzheimer's a few years after the war. Even bleaker than the legendary "Tell Beauty How She Blasteth," by tree-and-leaf, "The More Loving One" is the story I turn to when I need my fix of brave humanity soldiering pointlessly on in the teeth of the indifferent cruelty of the universe. The title is, of course, a reference to Auden's poem (http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/618.html), with its famous opening lines, "Looking up at the stars I know quite well/That for all they care, I can go to hell".

You needn't tell me why it almost never got posted - obviously you were afraid it would be too much for your readers, and indeed there was a suspcious rise in the suicide rate amongst Wimsey fans, following its appearance on ff.net

Have fun :-)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

That is just evil. But I shall still have fun.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I still can't believe you were evil enough to come up with this (see, I am a nice person, and believe Peter dies in bed, of a sudden massive stroke, in old age but not so old Harriet doesn't have a few years of enjoyable widowhood).

Opening line(s):

Harriet Wimsey stared out over Audley Square from the window of Peter’s – what had been Peter’s study. Until only last year, Peter had still liked to sit in here, but as things worsened he had become oddly uneasy, and then distressed and anxious about the place, as if, Harriet thought it reminded him, somehow, of what he had lost. At last Harriet and the nurse had decided it was too much for him, and then there was one more locked room in the house. Her fingers toyed with the key in the top drawer of the desk. Lock. Open. Lock. The drawer slid out on silent runners and Harriet ran her hands over the smooth metal inside. She had done a great deal in life, one way or another, to regret, but nothing, surely, so dreadfully to be regretted as the hysterical fight in this room over the old service revolver, her own victory, and that look in Peter’s eyes, seen too late, when she had won.

*

Final line:

Peter smiled, that old, swift sideways smile.

‘I do love you, Barbara,’ he said.

*

Re. cutting room floors, whilst in the end I didn't miss anything out, some of the included scenes were the result of very difficult decisions. I had some serious qualms about the rape scene in particular. Obviously it is integral to the narrative, but I was still rather nervous about the reception, not to mention whether Id be up to scratch in writing something so graphic.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I find Aubrey/Maturin really hard, so I was particularly proud to finish this. Oddly, I didn't originally intend the Aubrey POV, but rather fell into it, and yet it was just what the work needed. I admit that my own favourite line is the one about Killick's hair - and the scene with the sloth, of course. Actually, that was really quite difficult. As you know, I am a stickler for accuracy - none of those sex scenes that require human spines to be made of rubber for me! I did a lot of research in order to get the sloth right - happily the curator down at the Zoology museum is in fandom himself so was quite happy to give a demonstration once I explained what I wanted.

[clanwilliam.livejournal.com]

I have to say, my absolute favourite is The None and Only, your wonderful reworking of It's a Wonderful Life with a suicidal Mary-Lou.

I particularly loved the twist at the end when she decided to go ahead and jump since she realised how many people had led lesser lives thanks to her interference.

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

*sniggers*

(and then I noticed your icon and laughed still further)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

The angel looked down at the rushing water.

"Frankly, Mary-Lou, my coursework has been so good that I'll get my wings even if I fail this assignment. Even if that weren't the case, I'm not sure that my conscience could let you live. Go on, jump. There's no gym-slip belt to save you now."

I knew it would make enemies in some quarters, being such a change from my previous depictions of Mary-Lou as a force for good (see above). But there comes a point in every artistic journey when the artist has to confront her own creation and ask whether it really is the best she can do and explore away from her comfort zone.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Personally, I just loved that AU story about how Lord Peter Wimsey never goes out in the sun because of the sparkles, and how sad he feels about it, but how Harriet loves him all the same because (OMG) their love is True and Real. The way you write him, he's just so dreamy....

Of course, I do understand that it isn't technically canon, but I don't suppose Sayers ever read Twilight, and I think your version was better than canon anyway!

*runs away, pursued by mob of angry Sayers-fen.* This probably wasn't a good place to make that joke!

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I forgot to mention the title - the never-to-be-forgotten epic "A Little Ray of Sunshine"

[clanwilliam.livejournal.com]

Some of us are trying desperately to muffle our giggles here at work on a quiet Friday afternoon!

[azdak.livejournal.com]

I just loved that AU story about how Lord Peter Wimsey never goes out in the sun because of the sparkles

Don't you mean the one where Harriet sparkles, and can't accept Peter's proposals because You Know What would happen if she ever gave way to him, but she loves watching him sleep in punts?

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Ow. Ow, ow, ow.

Any Sayers-fans on this LJ can just learn to live with jokes.

[marginaliana]

*snicker snicker snicker*

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Thank you! To be honest, I was just so disappointed in Gaudy Night. Sayers sets it all up so wonderfully in the previous two books (all those hot scenes on the beach, LOL!), and then throws it all away. All that stuff about education and women, she makes Harriet such a Feminazi! So though you know that I normally consider AUs the last resort of the desperate, I really felt morally obliged to write this one. What did you think about my treatment of Helen? I know that she's not always kindly portrayed in canon, but I think her aristocratic character is just misunderstood. Anyway, I can't believe that anyone wouldn't fall in love with Peter and making him a vampire just makes him so much sexier. Though honestly I already think it's in the sub-text - he's so pale and self-controlled, just like Edward!

*

(The chessmen scene)

"But you needn't cry over that chest of drawers while I have a shoulder at your disposal, need you?"

"Oh Peter!"

He moved towards her and she stumbled into his arms. He clasped her hot, human body against his hard, cold nchest. Her scent rose into her nostrils, a mixture of Savlon and ink, and rushed into his lungs in an intoxicating cloud. He gasped, trying to keep control of his urgent need."