FiaB and Yuletide reveals!
Jan. 2nd, 2026 07:39 pmI was utterly enchanted with my Yuletide present, which in a *shocking* twist of fate turned out to be by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
black_bentley, and featured three of my very favourite things: Bertie, Gimlet, and a writer nerding out over something they love <3 <3 <3 I'm often very aware when I write of that out-of-my-depths feeling when it comes to characters' special skills and enthusiasms, especially when it comes to writing characters like Bertie and Gimlet who are constantly driving Bentleys, shooting things, blowing things up, and enthusing about the Grand National; so it was *amazingly cool* to get to read a fic about them written by someone who shares one of their passions, and can write them into a world that I don't know at all but would have been so familiar and important to them. In other words, BB wrote me AMAZING SEAGULL BACKSTORY FIC and I couldn't be happier <3 <3
Title: Lot 57
Author: blackbentley
Rating: G
Word count: c.3.7k
Characters: Bertie & Gimlet
I will be nicking all of it for my headcanons from now on <3 I have already nagged BB shamelessly for a DW entry showing some of her working for the horse lore in the fic: find it here.
I was assigned to write forrosanicus, which was a bit of an embarrassment of riches really - every one of their prompts sounded like something I'd enjoy writing, so I spent the first few weeks basically paralysed by choice 😂 I eventually decided that since I could have written something for any of them, I should probably write for the most niche option available; because who else was going to write an Adventures In Time-influenced nonsense-treated-semi-seriously crossover fic between the Biggles series and WEJ's deeply obscure 1933 standalone novel 'The Spyflyers'? (Brief write-up of Spyflyers with some spoilers by Philomytha on her DW.) Was this a good idea? I'm not sure, but here we are anyway.
Title: Alternatively
Rating: G
Word count: c.12.7k
Characters: Mostly Erich von Stalhein (Biggles series) & Major Fairfax (The Spyflyers), with cameos from 266ers.
I actually started off writing a completely different much more 'standard' fic for Spyflyers, and got about 14k in before deciding it wasn't quite coming together right and there was too much Plot to wade through in the time, so turned my attention to That Really Stupid Other Idea I Had Which I Was At Least Amused By and wrote the fic I ended up posting. Writing pure Spyflyers fic was very odd - it's an early novel, and for obvious reasons most of the characters aren't as well fleshed-out as their analogues in the Biggles series. You get the feeling that the dual protagonists, Rex and Tony, are really only two characters because WEJ needed them to chat to keep things moving; for me the stand-out character is Major Fairfax, who WEJ clearly had a lot more fun with. I think I need to work out some more Characteristics for everyone before I embark on the main fic again, though I'd like to get back to it some time - it also features rather a lot of Major Sterne, which was very good fun.
Fic in a Box reveals also flew past without my quite noticing it - my gorgeous gift fic Thesis, Antithesis was byysande, in yet another shocking turn of events. I must say that I think we were all *extremely* moderate on DW and the Discord in not just immediately and openly assigning fics to their respective writers, given that there were only two of us requesting this pair of characters, which made things a little obvious 😂 I enjoyed the delicate little dances around the subject we had to do during the time between the archive going live and the author reveal.
In further shocking news, I wrote:
so few and such morning songs (14k, G, Bertie & Gimlet) as my main exchange fic for ysande, and
Abide With Me (60k, G, Bertie/Gimlet), as the world's most monstrous treat, as I wasn't quite sure whether I was going to get it finished in time (and it didn't tally massively well with the terms of her request: unsurprisingly, as it actually started life as a response to her H/CEx prompts.) I was delighted to have a chance to get it out of my system, as sections of it had been haunting me for months.
black_bentley, and featured three of my very favourite things: Bertie, Gimlet, and a writer nerding out over something they love <3 <3 <3 I'm often very aware when I write of that out-of-my-depths feeling when it comes to characters' special skills and enthusiasms, especially when it comes to writing characters like Bertie and Gimlet who are constantly driving Bentleys, shooting things, blowing things up, and enthusing about the Grand National; so it was *amazingly cool* to get to read a fic about them written by someone who shares one of their passions, and can write them into a world that I don't know at all but would have been so familiar and important to them. In other words, BB wrote me AMAZING SEAGULL BACKSTORY FIC and I couldn't be happier <3 <3Title: Lot 57
Author: blackbentley
Rating: G
Word count: c.3.7k
Characters: Bertie & Gimlet
I will be nicking all of it for my headcanons from now on <3 I have already nagged BB shamelessly for a DW entry showing some of her working for the horse lore in the fic: find it here.
I was assigned to write for
rosanicus, which was a bit of an embarrassment of riches really - every one of their prompts sounded like something I'd enjoy writing, so I spent the first few weeks basically paralysed by choice 😂 I eventually decided that since I could have written something for any of them, I should probably write for the most niche option available; because who else was going to write an Adventures In Time-influenced nonsense-treated-semi-seriously crossover fic between the Biggles series and WEJ's deeply obscure 1933 standalone novel 'The Spyflyers'? (Brief write-up of Spyflyers with some spoilers by Philomytha on her DW.) Was this a good idea? I'm not sure, but here we are anyway.Title: Alternatively
Rating: G
Word count: c.12.7k
Characters: Mostly Erich von Stalhein (Biggles series) & Major Fairfax (The Spyflyers), with cameos from 266ers.
I actually started off writing a completely different much more 'standard' fic for Spyflyers, and got about 14k in before deciding it wasn't quite coming together right and there was too much Plot to wade through in the time, so turned my attention to That Really Stupid Other Idea I Had Which I Was At Least Amused By and wrote the fic I ended up posting. Writing pure Spyflyers fic was very odd - it's an early novel, and for obvious reasons most of the characters aren't as well fleshed-out as their analogues in the Biggles series. You get the feeling that the dual protagonists, Rex and Tony, are really only two characters because WEJ needed them to chat to keep things moving; for me the stand-out character is Major Fairfax, who WEJ clearly had a lot more fun with. I think I need to work out some more Characteristics for everyone before I embark on the main fic again, though I'd like to get back to it some time - it also features rather a lot of Major Sterne, which was very good fun.
Fic in a Box reveals also flew past without my quite noticing it - my gorgeous gift fic Thesis, Antithesis was by
ysande, in yet another shocking turn of events. I must say that I think we were all *extremely* moderate on DW and the Discord in not just immediately and openly assigning fics to their respective writers, given that there were only two of us requesting this pair of characters, which made things a little obvious 😂 I enjoyed the delicate little dances around the subject we had to do during the time between the archive going live and the author reveal.In further shocking news, I wrote:
so few and such morning songs (14k, G, Bertie & Gimlet) as my main exchange fic for ysande, and
Abide With Me (60k, G, Bertie/Gimlet), as the world's most monstrous treat, as I wasn't quite sure whether I was going to get it finished in time (and it didn't tally massively well with the terms of her request: unsurprisingly, as it actually started life as a response to her H/CEx prompts.) I was delighted to have a chance to get it out of my system, as sections of it had been haunting me for months.
