FIC: "Solace and Solitude" (Jane Austen)

Here's my entry for this year's femgenficathon. It's my first attempt at Jane Austen fanfic, and I thoroughly enjoyed the writing. The story started out to be quite different; it was going to focus almost entirely upon Charlotte Lucas -- who ended up not even being mentioned. Ah, well. In such mysterious ways does the muse work.

Title: Solace and Solitude
Author: kelly_chambliss
Fandom: Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Characters: Lydia Bennet, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Anne de Bourgh
Word Count: 3500
Summary: Mr and Mrs Darcy host a house party at Pemberley for Christmas. The invited guests have an interesting variety of responses.
Prompt: There are days when solitude, for someone my age, is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall. -- Colette (1873-1954), French novelist.
Author's Notes: My everlasting thanks to those best of betas, therealsnape and my beloved partner. And grateful thanks to tree_and_leaf for historical background. La! Writing this story was such fun.

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( Solace and Solitude )

Random Fandom

Just some random fandom thoughts and recs for a Saturday evening. . .

• The femmeslash rec queue at crack_broom is dangerously low. Go here to sign up.

• I read the most fabulous story at femgenficathon, based on Dickens' Great Expectations: Star. The author is the wonderful a_t_rain, who wrote that excellent piece of Minerva, Hermione gen a couple years back, The Supervisor's Tale. This new story is written from Estella's point of view and is just beautifully done -- well-paced, well-characterized, written in an excellent quasi-Dickens style. I'm quite impressed.

• Sign-ups continue at hp_halloween. Quick and low-key -- just a 200-word drabble. There are only one or two teacher requests so far. So go sign up.

• Calling all McSnape fans! One of my favorite new (to me) writers, dueltastic, has started a fine story, The Spellbook of Minerva McGonagall. It's the sort of intriguing premise that I wish I had thought of: so imaginative, and yet, once you hear it, it seems so inevitable that you wonder it never occurred to you before. The two entries written so far are "Amortentia" and the stunning (pun intended) "Stupefy." The latter contains clever, inventive magic theory, a beautifully-characterized Minerva, and a indirect, perfectly-calibrated MMSS romance. I'm looking forward to reccing this story for my weekly entry on the quibbler_report.

• Check out the participant list at snapecase. When is the last time you've so much Snapely talent gathered in one place? The flist is well-represented, I'm glad to see. So in a just a few months, we'll have stories from Perverse Idyll, Albalark, Duniazade, Verdeckt, Leela Cat, and others.

I'm not going to be able to participate, unfortunately, since I already have three holiday fests going. Just from a selfish pov, I wish this one had been a month or so later. But I'll be looking forward to it.