forever we try

Right now I'm away from home (hopefully getting back some time tomorrow afternoon), so I probably won't be able to catch up on everyone else's entries and comment until then, but I wanted to make a quick note that the author reveals for worldbuildingex  happened last evening! This was my first year doing this exchange and I had so much fun with it. I still haven't had the time to read all the fics in the collection that I wanted to read, but my gift was a really interesting Queen's Thief fic by prinzenhasserin :

The Royal Concubines: Irene couldn't hold onto the jewels of her mother, but she learned how to use treasures that weren't her own to get what she wanted anyway. (This was a great exploration of both Irene character and the potential dynamics of court life with her father's concubines.)

And I wrote another Penny Dreadful fic:

The Sacrifice: Her sister’s laugh follows her, clattering and brazen. “What then?” Joan demands. “You think the light will protect us? Think it holds any power over Them as walks the midnight roads?”This one was me trying to work out a bit of Joan and Evelyn's backstory--how they first came into contact with the Devil and became involved in witchcraft--and it took a RIDICULOUSLY long time to come together in my head, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. In the show, Evelyn is the character whom I have the hardest time sympathizing with (though I do love her), but I didn't have that problem while I was working on the fic, maybe because I decided to make her the viewpoint character and also pretty young. Her relationship with Joan has gone so bad at the point that we see it in the show that I really, really wanted to give them a moment of sisterly connection here...and it still ended up being pretty depressing, but hopefully in a more bittersweet way? Who knows. Anyway, once it finally started gelling I had a fun time writing it. 

Finally, here are two of the other fics in the collection that I've read and loved so far:

down to the shady groves by fiachairecht  (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina): Hilda tells her niece a bedtime story and plans for the future. (Gorgeously written, very creepy, also full of folklore and fairy tale vibes.)

The Wild Cat's Dance by Quillori (The Mark of the Horse Lord): From one side, it was clearly a battle for the true religion and the rightful king, but afterwards, the women remembered. (A really beautiful slice-of-life story that made me want to reread the book.)

Author reveals are out for trickortreatex  and even though I didn't sign up, I did end up writing a treat in the new fandom of my heart:

Witchwork (Penny Dreadful): “Soft.” The old woman spits it out like a bitter taste. “That soft skin and those soft hands, girl, they’ll not serve you here.” [Missing scenes from Vanessa's apprenticeship with the Cut-Wife of Ballentree Moor.]

Not that I don't love all the Penny Dreadful characters equally, but I imprinted on the Cut-Wife--hard--pretty much from the moment she first showed up, and her relationship with Vanessa is still one of my favorite parts of the entire series. But (who knows why) she's not the most popular character in the fandom, and when I saw a request specifically for her I knew I had to write something. So I did. :) There's also an absolutely huge amount of awesome-sounding fic in the collection that I haven't had the time to read yet, but once this week is over and all my bigger assignments are turned in I'll try to get around to that, and also hopefully write up a rec post.