cadma2

Hi and thanks for writing for me! I’m excited about all these canons and I like talking about them so I’ve talked a bit about why I like the characters and what I find interesting about them. If it sparks anything use it but if not feel free to ignore it. The specific prompts are also totally optional. I would just be happy with anything featuring these characters and settings, either gen or shipping. Mostly behind cuts for navigation:

DNW: suicide, abuse, incest, internalised homophobia, gender identity issues, anal sex, noncon (dubcon’s fine)
So I like all three of these characters but I’d really like a story about Edith. The film’s so much from Clive’s point of view that we never see the older Edith – in fact, I’m not sure we ever see her when Clive’s not there? Her life must have been just as interesting as Clive’s and Theo’s and I’d like to see some more of it and know how her experiences affected her.

I’m intrigued by the suggestion that Edith’s family didn’t want her to go to Berlin and wanted her to stay at home. She’s obviously determined to do the things she’s made up her mind to do – like inviting Clive even though she doesn’t know him – even if it doesn’t always work out like she intends. I wonder how far she marries Theo because she likes him, and how far because she doesn’t want to go home. I get the impression she’s developed feelings for Clive by the time he leaves, and doesn’t think he reciprocates. But from what Theo says in 1939 it sounds like they were happy together.

I really enjoy all Clive and Edith’s scenes together – they both seem a bit socially awkward at first but then they start having fun together. I enjoy Clive and Theo’s friendship too. Possibly they don’t think about each other much between meetings? – apparently Theo lives in London for years without telling Clive and Clive doesn’t know whether Theo and Edith have children in 1919? But they’re there for enough important moments in each others’ lives that it makes sense they’d be close in old age, especially once they’ve lost their families.

NB I can read German and if you’re able to include any it would be extremely cool. But obviously this is totally optional and I’m not expecting it or anything. Also you don't have to use both Clive and Theo if it doesn't suit your story.

• Edith survives and comes back to London with Theo in the 30s. Does she feel like she fits in? Can she find a job? What does she do when Theo gets interned? How does she get on with Johnny?
• What’s it like for Edith in WWI when her two countries are at war with each other? How about when Theo comes home and is angry about Versailles and the English attitude – does she still automatically defend England like she did over the Boer War? Theo says she wants to go back to England after the war but chooses to stay with him – how does she come to that decision?
• Something set when Clive, Theo and Edith are all staying in the nursing home together – I would enjoy anything where they’re becoming friends or having fun together. I’d also be up for Edith/Clive/Theo.
• If you’re stuck on writing Edith or don’t want to, I’d also enjoy a story where Clive and Theo meet during WWI but before it’s clear which side will win. How would they feel about each other at that point? Would one help the other survive or escape?
I love Mildred’s narration in this book – she’s funny and curious and imaginative. At the same time she’s convinced that because she’s a reserved church-going spinster everyone must think she’s really dull. I wonder how far she’s right about this – I’d love to read a story where we see her from someone else’s point of view. Any of the other three characters' perspectives would be great and you don't have to include all three. Or if you get stuck, I'd be happy with more of Mildred's point of view as well.

Helena: Mildred clearly thinks Helena’s everything she’s not but I find it hard to judge what Helena thinks of Mildred. She’s obviously picked up on Mildred’s attraction to Rocky but does she know how far it goes? How does she feel about Mildred and Everard together – surprised, jealous, relieved? It’s interesting that they both come from religious backgrounds in small villages, but Mildred stayed at home for all of her twenties whereas Helena seems to have left as soon as possible. How did she get into anthropology as a career? Does she see Mildred’s life as something she escaped or does she think Mildred has more freedom and has her life in order? I know a later book says she gave up anthropology after moving to the country with Rocky but I’d rather ignore that.

Rocky: He’s nice and he likes Mildred but is she right when she says he doesn’t really understand anything about her? I also wonder if Mildred really understands him – she does spend a lot of time thinking he’s shallow, and apparently he’s a painter but she just says she doesn’t understand his paintings and doesn’t show any more interest.

Everard: the first time I read the book I wanted Mildred and Everard to get together until he got out his proof sheets and then I was like “No Mildred! Don’t do it!”. But actually I think he is a good option – more suitable than Rocky (sensible, religious) and more exciting than Julian (good-looking, expert in an exotic field, impressive to strangers). And I’d like Mildred to get a guy since she clearly wants one. But if you don’t want them to get together that’s fine too.

Everard and Helena: Did they have an actual affair which was supposed to end when Rocky came back? I lean towards no because Everard is devout and seems like he’d stick to his principles, but I’d find it totally plausible so go with what seems right to you.

• A different character’s point of view of one of the events in the novel. Helena on the reading of the paper and subsequent dinner? Rocky when he comes back from Italy and finds Mildred not Helena? Everard trying to get Mildred to go out with him near the end (what does he think when Mildred turns him down then tells him Julian and Mrs Grey have just split up?)
• Helena comes to London to give a paper at the Learned Society for the first time since Everard and Mildred got together; awkwardness ensues (or not)
• Mildred dumps Everard; he asks Rocky or Helena (or Julian or Winifred) to help him get her back

Trollope is so good at describing his characters’ thoughts and reactions and he makes them seem so real. He’s also pretty amazing at female characters for a male Victorian novelist, even if he sometimes punishes them for stepping out of line. Really I’d like anything with any combination of these four. I’ve tried to come up with prompts for stuff that wouldn’t happen in canon, since there’s so much canon and it explores everything that happens pretty thoroughly, but if there’s something in canon you want to explore further go for it!

Phineas and Laura: Laura’s definitely punished for stepping out of line imo. She and Phineas are pretty evenly matched at the start – they’re both idealistic, both interested in politics in a way that’s more to do with the drama and excitement than the policy detail the way e.g. Plantagenet Palliser is interested. Phineas has an advantage by being male and Laura has the advantage of social class. Then Phineas picks himself up and moves on every time something goes wrong whereas Laura makes one mistake and it ruins her life. I like the storyline in ‘Phineas Finn’ – the fact this can happen to women is an interesting theme in the series. It gets upsetting in ‘Phineas Redux’ though – it seems like a huge loss of dignity for her to be so obsessed with Phineas and have nothing else in her life. So slightly specific DNW – if the story’s set after ‘Phineas Finn’, could you either ship them or set it in an AU or later point in time where they’re equally happy to just be friends? Anyway, I love both characters, even when Laura’s being aristocratic and superior or Phineas is being selfish and getting away with it because he’s so charming and friendly.


NB on the massive length of this series: I originally read it a few years ago and I’ve reread parts since, but I definitely don’t remember everything in it. So don’t feel like you have to reread the whole thing or remember every detail to write it. Also you don’t have to include all four characters – pick however many you want to write about or work for your story. I didn’t have room to nominate her but I also enjoy all the appearances by Asphasia FitzGibbon so it would be cool if you wanted to use her but totally optional of course.

• Inspired by Disraeli/Daubeny, Phineas becomes a romance novelist to fund his political career.
• Once she’s free of Mr Kennedy, Laura uses her wealth/free time/connections to play a role in the feminist movement – after enough time has passed for old scandals to be semi-forgotten…
• London is invaded by Martians (or vampires or some other supernatural force) – how does the Mildmay/Omnium government react?
• If you also like ‘Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell’ (book version), a crossover would be very cool. Either featuring now-elderly JS&MN characters – Strange, Stephen Black and Arabella are my favourites but any would be great – or just set in the same universe fifty years on.

//I've just been editing this bc I didn't have time to write as much as I wanted before assignments went out, sorry! But it's definitely in its final form now.//

Thanks for writing for me! I really like these fandoms and these characters, so I’m looking forward to anything you write. Please go with whatever you want from this letter, and bring in any of your own ideas that you want to!

General likes: Missing scenes, AUs where the plot goes a different way, misunderstandings, understandable mistakes which snowball into disasters, characters who have more to them than meets the eye, couples with different strong points who work together, suppressed emotion, characters who care about doing something well, idealistic characters dealing with compromise, cynical characters turning out to care about something, established relationships, characters helping each other

DNWs: Modern AUs, noncon, suicide, long descriptions of sex (like longer than two paragraphs or so), anal sex or roleplay during sex. Most characters in these canons lived through wars so realistic violence/gore is fine in that context, but I'd prefer nothing extreme outside that context.


---The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943): Edith Hunter, Clive Candy, Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff---


This film is such an amazing achievement! It’s so long, and often quite slow (random conversations about Sherlock Holmes anyone?) but I never find it boring. It really captures a sense of time passing for me, and the change and continuity over the course of the characters’ lives. Clive is kind of instinctively loyal – I totally believed in the importance of his friendship with Theo, even though when you think about it they basically met twice before 1939 – and instinctively kind. Theo on the other hand seems to think about stuff more, and so he changes more in response to what happens to him – and of course he sees far more and worse changes in his society than Clive does in his. I find that contrast really interesting.

What I’d really like though is a story about Edith -- her life and experiences were just as interesting as Clive and Theo’s, but we mostly just see her from Clive’s perspective at the beginning and second-hand from Theo later on. She went out to Berlin alone and she doesn’t want to go back to England – apparently to a family that would prefer her to stay at home until she gets married, like a good Edwardian girl. But then she does get married, despite her outspokenness against the idea.

Does she marry Theo so she can stay in Germany, because she really likes him or because she doesn’t want to be waiting forever to see if Clive says anything – or a bit of all three? And does she ever wonder if she did the right thing, even though she stuck by him through everything?

An AU where she survives into the WWII section could be interesting – would she feel as out-of-place in the modern world as Clive and Theo do or would she prefer it once women had more freedom and opportunities? When Clive shows Barbara’s portrait to Theo there’s an interesting contrast between Clive’s idealised memory and Theo’s more complicated real relationship with her -the AU could be a good opportunity to explore that.

Alternatively, a story where Clive and Theo meet again earlier in WWI would also be good – how would the war situation affect their relationship when it’s not clear who’s going to win yet? Hard to get Edith into that one in person but some mention of how she’s doing and what she thinks of the situation would be enough. Incidentally I can read German so if you want to include any in the story go for it – no problem though of course if not.




---A Canterbury Tale: Alison Smith, Bob Johnson, Thomas Colpeper, Peter Gibbs---


This film is so weird and unique and it’s the one black-and-white film that I wish was in colour, just for the views of the landscape. I’ve been to Kent once and the little village we were in seemed quaint compared to other parts of England, so it must seem really different to someone from Oregon. It’s also the kind of landscape that’s really inseparable from it’s human inhabitants, just because human activity has played such a role in shaping it – ‘gone are the forests since the enclosures came’. And the Glue-man is almost like local folklore – everyone seems to take him for granted except for the newcomers.

I like watching Bob and Alison being openly curious and taking an interest in the village and the countryside. I also love the scene where Peter meets the cathedral organist – after he’s been rather detached for most of the film, we see what he cares about and where he fits in. As for Colpeper – I don’t really sympathise with his explanations for his actions, but I do find him interesting, and I’d love to know if he changed after his experiences in the film.

I like the almost mystical relationship the characters have with the countryside and its history in this film. There are definitely some religious overtones to the way Colpeper is punished for taking it on himself to judge others and Peter is rewarded for choosing his love of the organ over reporting Colpeper to the police. If you’d like to try taking the supernatural hints a bit further, something where one of the characters sees or hears something from the past or has an encounter with someone from the past would be cool – maybe a crossover with the original Canterbury Tales, or with a real-life figure from that time? Maybe it would be cool to see some of what the landscape itself was like when it was more wild?

I’d also really like a story set much later, when the war itself has become history – if one or more of the characters came back to the same part of Kent, how would they feel about it and what would they find? Perhaps some later local historian could be trying to solve the Glue-man mystery. I like all four characters equally so any one or any combination of them would be good – I do particularly like the friendship between Bob and Alison and the odd parallels and contrasts between Peter and Colpeper. Alternatively, I’d be interested in how Colpeper and Alison get on after Bob and Peter have left—do they become friends?




---Back Home – Michelle Magorian: Rusty Dickinson---


I got into the other two canons this year but this is an old favourite and I was excited to see it in the tagset! When I was Rusty’s age I was very into the angsty loneliness of her boarding school career, but now I prefer the happier parts of the book. I love the descriptions of family life with the Omsks, with all the warmth and fun and encouragement of creativity, but I also like the way Rusty learns to find happiness and appreciate the good things about England. I especially like the growing relationship with her mother and brother, including Rusty learning to accept the ways Peggy seems unconventional to her as well, like the mechanical work and the relationship with Harvey.

Later in the book she comes to understand much more the impact the war has had on the people around her, and that she’s missed something so important to them, and she seems to be making an effort to understand and be fair even to the people who are deeply unsympathetic to her, like her father and the girls and teachers at her school. But I love the way that she keeps her own values all the way through and doesn’t let anyone make her think she deserves to be treated badly. American individualism sees her through!

If one or more of her American family came to visit her, how would they find she had changed and what would she be like as a guide to England? If she went back to the US later on, what might seem different to her? I’d also enjoy any story focused on her and Peggy’s relationship – maybe working together on the house after they’ve moved back to Devon, volunteering together or spending time with Peggy's WVS friends.

Alternatively, a story about how she settled in with the Omsks when she was first evacuated would be really interesting – it must have been just as big an adjustment as moving back to England, even if she forgot about it later. What impression would the Omsks have had of her background and what elements of her later personality and interests show up even after being raised in her grandmother’s house?