kelly_chambliss

For my contribution to this year's HP Sweethearts fest. I received a lot of fun prompts and character requests from Val_Creative, an interesting writer new to me in the fandom. I chose F/F Minerva (surprise, surprise) and "tattoos." Here's the result:

Title: Bad Girls, Bad Girls, Whatcha Gonna Do?
Characters: Minerva McGonagall/Rolanda Hooch, Dolores Umbridge
Rating: low R
Word Count: 200
Summary: Madam Hooch and Professor McGonagall learn that Headmistress Umbridge disapproves of tattoos.

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( Bad Girls )

The incomparable hoggywartyxmas has finished posting (reveals Sunday the 9th), and I'm here to report the following:

1. As always, the entries were high quality and vastly enjoyable.
2. As always, participants have been super-generous with comments.
3. As always, therealsnape has been a paragon of a mod.
4. As always, I received a gift that not only Exceeds Expectations, but is absolutely Outstanding.

Title:
Earth is the Right Place for Love, Part I
Earth is the Right Place for Love, Part II
Earth is the Right Place for Love, Part III
Author: Anonymous for now eldritcher
Characters: Madam Rosmerta/Minerva McGongall/Severus Snape, Griselda Marchbanks, others

Do yourself a favor and set aside a few hours to lose yourself in this treat of a story. No rec I write can do justice to the complexity and atmosphere of this insight-packed, magical, poetic story. The style is lush and dense, even confusing at times, which is part of the magic and mystery, reminding us that not everything in the world is explicable or clear. There are lines and phrases you'll want to ponder and linger over, characterizations and ideas you'll want to savor. This is a story that repays study and rereading.

The prompt I offered was a line from my favorite Robert Frost poem, "Directive": "if you'll let a guide direct you / Who only has at heart your getting lost"

The author took this line and not only ran with it, but won the entire marathon. Written in three intertwined "canticles," the story includes and builds on cornucopia of Frost poems: "Mending Wall" and "The Black Cottage" and "Birches" and "Directive" and "The Death of the Hired Man" and (I think) "Mowing" and more that I'm not remembering at the moment. Through repetition and revision, the author weaves together Frostian images, themes, and lines into a marvelous complex tapestry. It's Frost rewritten and reinvented for HP, and it works beautifully. I was moved and breathless by the end; the atmosphere stayed with me.

Go read! You won't be sorry.

Here's my entry for this year's wand_in_a_knot fest. The premise is really fun: each participant gets "tagged" by a previous participant and given a prompt. We then have 24 hours to create a story or art with an R or NC-17 rating. Any characters, any kink. So basically insta-porn. It's a really enjoyable challenge.

My prompt came from mywitch:

You're the picture of the devil's daughter,
I'm a pitcher of holy water.

I flung angels and devils and holy water up into the air, and they fell down as this story.

Title: The Devil Wears Tartan
Author: kelly_chambliss
Pairing /Character: Pomona Sprout/Minerva McGonagall
Summary: Pomona Sprout's relationship with Minerva McGonagall is a religious experience.
Rating: R
Word count: 1425

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( The Devil Wears Tartan )

Reveals have occurred at daily_deviant's Banging Birthday fest, and I can lay claim to my story, written to an excellent prompt from songquake. When I saw "sapiosexuality" (being sexually aroused by intelligence) as a requested kink and "Minerva/Hermione" as a pairing option, I knew I'd found the prompt I wanted.

Now tbh, I don't think Minerva and Hermione would ever have a sexual relationship. But I always enjoy stories that make me say, "no, this would never happen. But if it DID happen, it would happen just like this." So that's the effect I tried to achieve here. I'm rather pleased with how the fic turned out; I hope you will be, too.

(Oh, and it turns out that my lovely Minerva/Severus gift, Adversaries and Anniversaries, was written by the always-excellent purplefluffycat. Thank you, my dear!)

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Title: Sesquipedalia
Author: kellychambliss
Characters/Pairings: Hermione Granger/Minerva McGonagall, Parvati Patil, Ron Weasley, OCs
Rating: NC-17
Kinks/Themes Included: sapiosexuality
Other Content: cross-gen
Word Count: ~7000
Summary/Description: The story of Hermione Granger's relationship with Minerva McGonagall is polysyllabic.
Notes: Many thanks to both of my excellent betas, therealsnape and Boadicea12.

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( Sesquipedalia )

Here's the story I wrote for this year's minerva_fest. Though it was a coincidence, the title turned out to be rather fitting: the last story posted in the last running of the fest. I'll seriously miss minerva_fest; it's been a staple of my life for five year and has yielded many, many wonderful stories and artworks. But it's time to move on (for now, anyway).

I always enjoy subverting Minerva's Pottermore backstory -- so here's another version.

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Title: Parting Gift
Author: kellychambliss
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~4600
Characters and/or Pairings: Minerva McGonagall/Millicent Bagnold, Elphinstone Urquart. Plus cameos by Madam Puddifoot and several Hogwarts staffers.
Summary: When Elphinstone Urquart decides to move out of the country, he leaves Minerva a parting gift.
Author's Notes: Mostly at the end. Many thanks to my beta, Boadicea12, for her kind last-minute work.

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( Parting Gift )

femslash_remix has finished posting (though there's an amnesty period to come). I love remixing in general and femslash in general, and I particularly love it when all the stories in a femslash remix fest feature Minerva!

It was a small but dandy little fest (three stories). (A couple of them received very little response, which is a shame. They're excellent. You should go read them). I've already recced my remixed gift here, from _hannelore. The third fest entry is by woldy, who remixed a fun story by cranky__crocus.

And finally, here's my fic. The story I remixed, by magnetic_pole, appeared in the first run of hoggywartyxmas and was one of my favorites of that year. When I saw that Maggie had offered her femslash stories for remixing this year, I jumped at the chance to revisit "Inheritance."

I hope you'll enjoy the result.

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Title: Bequest (Remix of "Inheritance")
Author: kellychambliss
Rating: PG-13
Pairing/Characters: Minerva McGonagall/Walburga Black, Minerva McGonagall/Rolanda Hooch, Sirius Black
Word count: ~6000
Summary: Walburga Black has left behind more than just a grim old house and a shrieking portrait.
Warnings: none
Original story/artwork, creator, and link: Inheritance by magnetic_pole. (I have taken the liberty of borrowing several lines from the excellent original.)
Author's Notes: Many thank-yous are called for: to magnetic_pole for offering her fine stories to be remixed; to woldy for running the fun fest; and to lash_larue and Boadicea12, my stalwart and helpful betas.

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( Bequest )

Reveals have taken place at daily_deviant's Kinky Kristmas fest, and I can claim my fic, which I wrote for an excellent prompt from writcraft. It's been a while since I wrote Wilhelmina/Minerva, and I enjoyed getting back to them.

(On a related note, I received an excellent KK gift in exchange, a Minerva/Severus fic called Amends [which I recced earlier here]. I was looking forward to finding the author's identity, so that I could read the rest of hir work. The author turns out to be named Deianaera, who is new to me. But sadly, s/he has deleted/purged hir Insane Journal account. I'll have to see if I can run hir down on LJ.)

Author: kellychambliss
Title: Bespoke
Pairings: Minerva/Wilhelmina, pre-slash Ginny/Millicent
Rating: R-ish
Kinks/Themes Included: cross-dressing
Other Warnings/Content: none
Word Count: ~5900
Summary: Millicent Bulstrode gets some new clothes, and Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank gets some.

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( Bespoke )

This story was my entry in hp_beholder for 2013. My recipient was my good friend lash_larue (*waves at Lash*).

Thousands of thanks to my dear betas, therealsnape and Boadicea12.

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Author: kellychambliss
Title: The Muggles Have a Word For Them
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Rolanda Hooch/Aurora Sinistra, Fat Lady/Violet, background Minerva McGonagall/Elphinstone Urquart
Word Count: 8250
Summary: In which the Fat Lady plays matchmaker and learns some new vocabulary.
Author's Notes: Though JKR may be coy when it comes to directly acknowledging same-sex relationships in HP, she's kindly given us subtext galore. Fat Lady/Violet is practically canon (if you ask me), and then there are all those lovely dykes with short grey hair and monocles. So I thought it was about time that someone brought their story out into the open.

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The story takes place before the arrival of the Trio at Hogwarts -- c. 1986.

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( The Muggles Have a Word For Them )

femslash_remix has posted its master list. It was a dandy little fest, with an excellent range of pairings, some fabulous remixes, and three Minerva stories. Here's the one I wrote:

Title: The Good Life (A Remix of "It Takes Two")
Author: kellychambliss
Rating: R
Pairing: Minerva McGonagall/Rita Skeeter
Word count: ~2000
Summary: On the third Wednesday of every month, Minerva McGonagall and Rita Skeeter have an appointment at the Hog's Head Tavern.
Warnings: lack of plausibility -- or so Minerva and Rita would prefer you to think.
Original story, creator, and link: It Takes Two by miss_morland

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( The Good Life )