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I wrote EIGHT stories for Fic in a Box! I had a really good time with this exchange - I wrote a lot, and there were a lot of great stories to read and beautiful art to admire.
Biggles - W. E. Johns
If you haven't read any of the books, all you need to know is that "Biggles" Bigglesworth and his buddy Algy Lacey have been pilots since fighting in WWI together, and Erich von Stalhein has been Biggles' nemesis since that time. Biggles and von Stalhein have a kind of "beloved enemy," mutual respect, flirt in between shooting dynamic. Canonically, von Stalhein starts out as a German spy in WWI.
Spoilers for his arc in the book series. He later works for the Soviets, is sent to a gulag in Sakhalin after refusing to assassinate Biggles, is rescued by Biggles, and then defects to England, where he and Biggles become friends.
I'm avoiding spoilers for my own stories in the body of the post, but feel free to post spoilery comments in comments.
Biggles in the Dark. Biggles and von Stalhein are forced to work together when an explosion traps them in a pitch-black cave.
This was really fun to write as they're doing all sorts of things in absolute darkness, so there are no visual descriptions for most of it. Also, Biggles is a sort of unreliable narrator in this story, as there's something very important going on that he doesn't understand but the reader does. I love writing with those sorts of pre-set rules/restrictions.
Aid and Comfort. A standoff between Biggles and von Stalhein leads to them spending the night together in a freezing cabin.
Also very fun to write. Biggles is so very Biggles that it nearly breaks von Stalhein's brain. Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Fever, Delirium, Canadian Shack, Home Improvement, Spies & Secret Agents.
With My Own Hands. When an undercover job goes wrong, Biggles is forced to torture von Stalhein.
The torture, I should note, is brief and fairly mild as torture goes. And yes, I also really enjoyed writing this. They're working together rather than enemies in this one, and I love undercover stories and people having to communicate with each other without onlookers realizing what's going on.
Danny Dunn series - Jay Williams
Mrs. Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Date. After an accident at the lab, Mrs. Dunn and Carl Ellison have their first date on the ceiling.
All you need to know to read this story is that Mrs. Dunn is the live-in housekeeper for an eccentric professor who invents things like shrinking rays, and Carl Ellison is a cop who bonds/flirts with her over coffee in one of the books.
I have always loved looking at ceilings and imagining being gravity-reversed so I have to walk around the ceiling fan.
Deliverance (Movie)
Trust Fall. Bobby tries to bury the memory of what happened to him, until his insurance agency mandates a team-building camping retreat.
I watched the movie recently. Cultural osmosis has reduced it to a joke reference to an extremely non-jokey scene, but it's much more than either the meme or the scene. It's got excellent performances, beautiful cinematography, and some interesting commentary on toxic masculinity, nature, and civilization.
But of course, my immediate reaction was that I really wanted to write a coda for Bobby. How do you deal with a trauma that's so socially unacceptable to experience?
江湖 | Triad Underworld (Movie)
Cena. Hung Yan-Jau and Lefty at the restaurant, through the years.
Probably incomprehensible unless you've seen the movie. But just in case: Hung Yan-Jau is Andy Lau, Lefty is Jacky Cheung in paisley velvet, they're gangsters, they have a restaurant.
Star Trek - The Original Series
A Diplomatic Relationship. Federation Envoy Uhura meets Princess T'Pring for diplomacy, flirting, and literary allusions.
AU suggested by recipient. I had a lot of fun with it, and with coming up with Vulcan terms and literary allusions. I now want to read the series of Vulcan pulp novels I invented.
Sandman - Neil Gaiman
Lucky's Chance. A veteran trying not to dream is visited by Delirium and Dream.
All you need to know to read this is that there are seven siblings who embody core concepts like Dream, Delirium, Death, etc.
Biggles - W. E. Johns
If you haven't read any of the books, all you need to know is that "Biggles" Bigglesworth and his buddy Algy Lacey have been pilots since fighting in WWI together, and Erich von Stalhein has been Biggles' nemesis since that time. Biggles and von Stalhein have a kind of "beloved enemy," mutual respect, flirt in between shooting dynamic. Canonically, von Stalhein starts out as a German spy in WWI.
Spoilers for his arc in the book series. He later works for the Soviets, is sent to a gulag in Sakhalin after refusing to assassinate Biggles, is rescued by Biggles, and then defects to England, where he and Biggles become friends.
I'm avoiding spoilers for my own stories in the body of the post, but feel free to post spoilery comments in comments.
Biggles in the Dark. Biggles and von Stalhein are forced to work together when an explosion traps them in a pitch-black cave.
This was really fun to write as they're doing all sorts of things in absolute darkness, so there are no visual descriptions for most of it. Also, Biggles is a sort of unreliable narrator in this story, as there's something very important going on that he doesn't understand but the reader does. I love writing with those sorts of pre-set rules/restrictions.
Aid and Comfort. A standoff between Biggles and von Stalhein leads to them spending the night together in a freezing cabin.
Also very fun to write. Biggles is so very Biggles that it nearly breaks von Stalhein's brain. Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Fever, Delirium, Canadian Shack, Home Improvement, Spies & Secret Agents.
With My Own Hands. When an undercover job goes wrong, Biggles is forced to torture von Stalhein.
The torture, I should note, is brief and fairly mild as torture goes. And yes, I also really enjoyed writing this. They're working together rather than enemies in this one, and I love undercover stories and people having to communicate with each other without onlookers realizing what's going on.
Danny Dunn series - Jay Williams
Mrs. Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Date. After an accident at the lab, Mrs. Dunn and Carl Ellison have their first date on the ceiling.
All you need to know to read this story is that Mrs. Dunn is the live-in housekeeper for an eccentric professor who invents things like shrinking rays, and Carl Ellison is a cop who bonds/flirts with her over coffee in one of the books.
I have always loved looking at ceilings and imagining being gravity-reversed so I have to walk around the ceiling fan.
Deliverance (Movie)
Trust Fall. Bobby tries to bury the memory of what happened to him, until his insurance agency mandates a team-building camping retreat.
I watched the movie recently. Cultural osmosis has reduced it to a joke reference to an extremely non-jokey scene, but it's much more than either the meme or the scene. It's got excellent performances, beautiful cinematography, and some interesting commentary on toxic masculinity, nature, and civilization.
But of course, my immediate reaction was that I really wanted to write a coda for Bobby. How do you deal with a trauma that's so socially unacceptable to experience?
江湖 | Triad Underworld (Movie)
Cena. Hung Yan-Jau and Lefty at the restaurant, through the years.
Probably incomprehensible unless you've seen the movie. But just in case: Hung Yan-Jau is Andy Lau, Lefty is Jacky Cheung in paisley velvet, they're gangsters, they have a restaurant.
Star Trek - The Original Series
A Diplomatic Relationship. Federation Envoy Uhura meets Princess T'Pring for diplomacy, flirting, and literary allusions.
AU suggested by recipient. I had a lot of fun with it, and with coming up with Vulcan terms and literary allusions. I now want to read the series of Vulcan pulp novels I invented.
Sandman - Neil Gaiman
Lucky's Chance. A veteran trying not to dream is visited by Delirium and Dream.
All you need to know to read this is that there are seven siblings who embody core concepts like Dream, Delirium, Death, etc.
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I read so many of these and loved all of them. And I also want to read those Vulcan pulp novels.
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https://libgen.rs/fiction/?q=biggles+flies+east&criteria=&language=English&format=epub
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Anyway, 8 stories! Wow what a productive exchange! FIAB is really fun because of the multiple gift boxes.
I loved your gift to me and the other Biggles stories you wrote very much! ♥
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... this is very much a tangent, not least because they only spend about 5 minutes as nemeses, but it occurs to me to ask if you've ever seen Powell and Pressburger's The Life And Death of Colonel Blimp?
Because I feel you need to meet Clive "Sugar" Candy and Theodor Kretschmar-Schulldorff (and the three very different women, all played by Deborah Kerr, who occupy the third role in the triad).
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It's such a startling film.
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Also it’s really beautiful! I love the Technicolor!
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And the film keeps pulling the rug out from under your feet when you think you know where it's going, especially with characters turning out to be so much more complicated and three-dimensional than they seem at first glance.
Also it’s really beautiful! I love the Technicolor!
Yeah, the Technicolor is so lush, it's got those peachy tones that make redheads (like Livesey and Kerr) look amazing. And the whole thing feels so bold and rich and ambitious.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Blimp
But it's not a dramatization of the cartoons; it's not about Colonel Blimp, it's about Clive Candy, who in some lights will come to bear a remarkable resemblance to the colonel, but is a very three-dimensional human being instead.
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And I have been enjoying mentally wandering all over my ceilings now and noticing how many RSJs we have in the main room and how awkward they would be to step over...
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I'm so thrilled that I inspired you to explore the world of your ceiling.
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Hung Yan-Jau is Andy Lau, Lefty is Jacky Cheung in paisley velvet, they're gangsters, they have a restaurant.
This is very accurate. Also Lefty's wardrobe is great. XD
Deliverance [...] I watched the movie recently. Cultural osmosis has reduced it to a joke reference to an extremely non-jokey scene, but it's much more than either the meme or the scene. It's got excellent performances, beautiful cinematography, and some interesting commentary on toxic masculinity, nature, and civilization.
I also watched this recently, though without having any cultural osmosis for it at all (that scene was a complete shock to me). I didn't end up feeling fannish about it at all and am not even sure I'd want to watch it again, but it's everything you say, beautifully filmed and performed and just an absolutely intense and striking film all around. Despite not being fannish about it, I've enjoyed pretty much all the fic I've seen for it so far, and just clicked through to check out yours and loved it. I'm glad you linked it here, because I completely overlooked Deliverance in the FIAB fandom list.
I have still not yet checked out any of the Biggles fic. (Honestly today is almost the first chance I've had to look at anything besides my gifts.) I'm still hoping to check some of it out, and will report back on how well it works to read canon-blind, if I do!
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