2021 Yuletide Promo Post

[crantz]

Welcome to the Fandom Promo post, everyone!

Here's where you get those eyes on your fandoms for sign ups!

Share what makes your Yuletide fandoms the shiniest and why you love them. A big part of Yuletide is how small our fandoms can be, and this is a good way to make sure other people know what gems there are out there!

Suggested form to use:

<b>FANDOM NAME</b>:
<b>WHAT MAKES IT GREAT</b>:
<b>WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional)</b>:


(Bonus optional: What are you thinking of requesting for this?)

EDIT:

Useful tips (Not required, but helps people if they want to engage with your fandom!):

- Mention what form of media the canon is. Is it a comic miniseries? Is it a twenty season tv show? Is it a book? Is it a twitter feed?
- Is it standalone or part of a series?
- It's best to make each fandom its own entry with its own title in the subject line! That makes it easier for people to find/see what you're promoting! Don't worry about 'spam', that is the entire point of this entry and you're using it exactly as intended.


For reference, last year's promo post!

Comments

Jacqueline Kirby - Elizabeth Peters

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What It Is

A short series of mysteries by the late and much-loved Elizabeth Peters, best known for her tales of Amelia Peabody Emerson and family, the greatest Egyptologists of this or any other century. Jacqueline is initially a librarian and later a novelist by trade, though none of the books are set in or around a library.

Why It's Worthy

My very first Elizabeth Peters heroine was Jacqueline Kirby, by way of The Murders of Richard III. She and I are both serious about books, enthusiastic about Shakespeare, amused by the eccentric ways of professional writers, and not at all hesitant to jump in at the deep end of the pool when our enthusiasms warrant. Fortunately, though, I have not adopted Jacqueline's habit of falling into the orbits of actual murderers.

It should be noted that there's some variation in tone between the books. Seventh Sinner is very early Peters in which she hasn't yet fully developed the sharply acerbic wit that became her trademark (it's there, but it's not dominant), and Naked Once More dials it back a bit, so that the novel reads in some ways more like the author's works as Barbara Michaels. By contrast, Die For Love and Murders of Richard III are much more snark-filled.

Where To Find It

I believe all of these are still in print:

The Seventh Sinner - set in and around Rome
The Murders of Richard III - a classic country-house whodunit
Die for Love - a romance-writers' conference in NYC
Naked Once More - involves a sequel to a long-vanished writer's iconic bestseller

Prompts & Possibilities

A number of obvious questions arise that deserve thoughtful and entertaining answers: What happened to the (never seen) father of Jacqueline's (likewise never seen) now-adult children? Have any of her kids inherited her sleuthing gifts? What are the legendary origins of The Purse? What has she written beyond what we've seen (is there a series character)?

I’m also fascinated by Jacqueline's ability to charm without being charmed, as it were. She ends several of her adventures with a man in tow who is then Never Seen Again, and insofar as we know, she's still on speaking terms with most of them. I am intrigued that this works; show me how she does it. And then there's casefic: in her first outing, Jacqueline is more or less the guest sleuth in someone else's story – it would be entertaining and satisfying to see a further adventure of that kind.

Extremely Optional Bonus Points

I have for years held the private theory that Jacqueline could very well be the unnamed editor of the Emerson papers forming the basis of the Amelia Peabody series. (It really can't be Vicky Bliss; John doesn't seem to have inherited that particular archive.) A story riffing on that theory would be totally welcome...and if Jacqueline should encounter Vicky and John in the course of her editorial duties, one can but imagine the potential for fireworks.