Unconventional Courtship 2015

[aralias]

Hello again, and-

Welcome to 'Unconventional Courtship 2015'!



'Unconventional Courtship' is a panfandom fic fest where you write and post a 1000w+ fic based on a M&B/Harlequin plot. Fics will be posted to this community, staggered through April 2015 (from the 1st to the 31st).

How to play:

It's as simple as:

1. Sign up! All you need to do is comment on this post with the day you want to post your fic. You can tell me which summary/pairing you're going with, but you don't have to. You can also ask me to assign you a summary, if you want. (You don't need a Dreamwidth to play - just comment with OpenID, although you will need to ask me to post your fic on the com. If you are on DW, please follow the community!)

2. Choose a M&B/Harlequin summary (or two etc) - we have hundreds of suggestions here, but there are literally thousands. You can write more than one fic, if you want. You can also combine prompts, if you like.

3. Replace the names (and pronouns if necessary) with the names (and pronouns) of the pairing of your choice. Any any all fandoms and pairings are welcome in this fest.

You can also replace place names and jobs as long as you keep to the spirit of the prompt. So, if you want to write Kirk/Spock, but you don't want to write a modern day AU, you could replace 'the Sahara desert' with 'a desert planet' and Kirk wouldn't need to be the boss at a law firm, he could be the boss... in the sense that he's the captain.

4. Write a fic based on your altered summary. You can take the prompt seriously or use it as an improbable basis for lols.

4.5. Pimp the fest far and wide. I'm only going to post to coms that I'm already a member of, so it is up to you - the players! I've re-uploaded the make-your-own banners and of course you can use any that I've already made. But please do pimp where ever you think would be appropriate.

5. Post the fic to this community on your assigned day. Use the header provided.

You can also post to our AO3 collection, but please post to the com whatever you do, and please post to the com first.

We ran this fest last year, so you can see some examples of Unconventional Courtship fic by looking through the collection, or earlier in the com.

6. Profit! Fics for all! I'll post a masterlist once all the entries are in. Crossposting is encouraged.

Any questions? Leave a comment or PM me or email me at heroic.tendencies@gmail.com


Rules:

1. All fics must be over 1,000 words long.

2. You must use a modified Mills & Boon and/or Harlequin summary.

3. You don't have to use a beta, but it is strongly advised.

4. Please use the following header (or similar - the AO3 share function is fine) when you post to the community:

<b>Title:</b> <b>Author:</b> <b>Fandom:</b> <b>Pairing/Characters:</b> <b>Rating:</b> <b>Length:</b> <b>Summary:</b> <b>Notes:</b> <b>Link:</b>

5. Please post on your assigned day. If you can't for whatever reason, please let me know either by PM or email heroic.tendencies@gmail.com

6. You can use this fic for another challenge i.e. trope_bingo

7. You can sign up for any day you like, but if it is possible for you to sign up for a day that nobody else is interested in then that'd be best of all.


1st April: merryghoul
2nd April: crookedspoon
3rd April: gingayellow, john_amend_all
4th April: sidhe_faerie
5th April: rikym, tasbine
6th April: suzy_queue
7th April: estirose
8th April: terdactyll
9th April: percussionbox
10th April: cybernetickitten, wrabbit
11th April: john_amend_all, sunspot
12th April: psikeval, tielan
13th April: rubiconjane
14th April: dangerousdame
15th April: samuraiter, forgotten_foretold
16th April: asfriedhr
17th April: imogenbynight
18th April: milkbutnotsugar
19th April: nanslice, misslucyjane
20th April: ingridmatthews, abovetheruins
21st April: liadt
22nd April: thisbluespirit
23rd April: katemacetak, sapphire2309
24th April: flipflop_diva
25th April: evil_plotbunny
26th April: paranoidangel, aaronlisa
27th April: tentaclesock
28th April: rubylily, g_uava, vilakins
29th April: lilly_c
30th April: rroselavy, wendelah1


If you have questions, feel free to ask! And/or consult the FAQs from last year, which are still mostly accurate.

Comments

[terdactyll]

Could I have April 8 please? This is so awesome there's so many possibilities... Pairing will definitely be Sam/Gabriel, now I just need to go find me a good summary :)

[aralias]

yes, of course. good luck choosing a prompt!

[zellieh]

I'm thinking of posting a link to this on a writing comm I'm part of. Some people there write fanfic and some write RPF, which I saw in the FAQs would be fine. But some people write original fiction; is original fiction allowed?

[aralias]

yes, that's fine. i've actually updated the FAQs to reflect this too :)

[ingridmatthews]

I'll take April 20th. :D I have no idea about pairing/fandom yet. Will have to look at prompts.

[ingridmatthews]

I have a pairing and a prompt ... Holmes/Watson RDJ Holmes films.

[asfriedhr]

I'd like to take April 16th, please! I've my pairing and my prompt. :)

[aralias]

cool. thanks for signing up - i've added you to the list.

[psikeval]

Hi! Could I take April 20th? Dragon Age fandom, Cassandra/Vivienne, probably #204 or a similar "rich/powerful woman and her stoic bodyguard" prompt :)

ETA: oop, didn't mean to duplicate days, how about the 12th?

[aralias]

no worries - we're about to start double stacking - but the 12th works well! added you to the list.

[ravengown]

I will take April 5!

[aralias]

great! nice early date, thanks. added you to the list.

[sidhe_faerie]

Hi! May I have April 4. I just found one on the list I like. I'm going with something original for this. M/F pairing.

[aralias]

cool. added you to the list!

[tielan]

12th April?

MCU het.

[aralias]

great. added you to the list.

[misslucyjane]

I would like to claim April 20th, and I will probably be writing Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes for this summary from the generator:

395) The Oldest Virgin In Oakdale - Wendy Warren
Sweet, shy Steve Rogers had had it! He now held the dubious title of oldest unmarried man in Oakdale — and a virgin, to boot. It was high time he shed his scholarly shell and unleashed the temptor within. Problem was, he didn't know the first thing about men, let alone seducing one….

Heartbreaker Bucky Banres had been away for twelve years, and boy, had things changed! The innocent boy who once had tutored him in math now was a man in need of his help… to snare a man! He'd always admired Steve, but his stunning transformation was too much for any man to resist — even a sworn bachelor like him...

[aralias]

aha. yes - that works great. added you to the list.

[abovetheruins]

Haven't got a summary picked out yet but I'd like to take April 20th, please!

[aralias]

great! added you to the list :D

[sapphire2309]

All the days have been taken at least one, I think, so I'm going to ask for April 23rd, if that's okay :D

I wasn't going to do this, romance isn't my genre, but I ended up flicking through Mills and Boon, and I found this summary, and then I saw my White Collar OTP in this one scene (not in the summary, but based off it), and that sort of sealed the deal. Here, edited a little because I'm like that:

The heart-stopping attraction’s still there, but today, Sara needs only one thing from old flame Neal Caffrey – the best legal counsel he can provide. The stakes are high – custody of Sara’s daughter Mackenzie hangs in the balance. And the rules are clear: Sara’s not giving Neal the chance to break her heart again.

Neal only came to town to sell his family house, but Mayor of New York Sara Ellis makes sticking around impossibly tempting. As the tension between them grows, so does the attraction. Sara won’t compromise, but Neal’s determined to prove his loyalty, and to show that he's worthy of being the love of her life.

[aralias]

sounds good to me - and you're right about the days. april 23rd it is.

[spikesgirl58]

I will take April 20, please and offer a Napoleon/Illya (Man from UNCLE) fic.


130) Ecstasy in the White Room -Portia Da Costa

"This is a gorgeous room. So white and tranquil and glamorous, like something from a thirties movie set. From his pocket, Napoleon retrieves a white plastic rectangle. It's an invitation to a very exclusive private function, extended only to certain guests. The white card was in our welcome basket, along with the sex toys, and neither of us was quite sure whether we'd accept tonight...until now. Napoleon and Illya are ready to heat things up with a stay at a luxurious hotel that provides very special services. The White Room comes complete with discreet bondage accessories and a vast array of hedonistic toys that perfectly suit their erotic games of dominance and submission. But are they ready to take advantage of everything the White Room has to offer?"

[aralias]

hooray! welcome back. adding you to the list.

[wendelah1]

Third times the charm? You're going to think I'm a crazy person but I'm signing up again. Same prompt, still gender-swapped. Can I share April 30 with rroselavy?

Just when Evie Cabrera Dr. David Duchovny thinks his blind date can't get any worse, his insipid dinner companion pulls out a gun. Suddenly Evie David is drawn into the middle of a terrorist plot. On the brink of a scientific breakthrough, Dr. Hannah Zachary Duchovny was now running on borrowed time. He had knowledge that dangerous men would kill to possess. His only protection is Jude Curran Gillian Anderson, an agent with Tactical Executive Security. He desperately needed to trust someone, and Agent Anderson was it. But David senses that Gillian is keeping more secrets than she's revealing. With his life in chaos, can he trust the secret agent?

I'd restarted writing this story--again--in January just on my own initiative. I'm getting it done this year, dammit. I have four and a half chapters written so far, 10,000+ words. Chapters 1-3 are back from beta number 2. At the very least, I should be able to post a chapter or two. I might also have a Pinterest and a playlist on YouTube devoted to this fic. I'm a wee bit obsessive.

[aralias]

not crazy :D really hope you finish it - i am just closing in on finishing (hopefully) something that i started for the last round as well...

and posting chapters is fine!

This is exciting 0.0

[forgotten_foretold]

Hello hello hello!

So, I'm entirely new on here (not that it really matters) but when I saw a promo for this I had to sign up right away!!! This is such a fun prompt, I can't pass it up.

Anyway, I'll be writing Dean/Cas, and if I could be added to April 15th that would be fabulous. I haven't picked a specific prompt just yet.

*Hugs* Have a good one. I can't wait to reed everyone's work!!

Re: This is exciting 0.0

[aralias]

being new is not a problem at all, no! welcome aboard. adding you to the list.

[tasbine]

Okay, I resisted long enough and I finally decided that I'm gonna do this!

April 5th, please. I've given it a lot of thought - and I'm still slightly unsure about which prompt I want to do exactly - but I think I'm going to go with this one:

Can't Get Enough

He's everything she despises--a babe magnet with more notches on his belt than a millipede has legs.

And he thinks his coworker is wound so tightly she irons her underwear at night.

Two people couldn't be further apart.

But when Jack Brook and Claire Marsden get stuck in a sweltering elevator one afternoon, it's a different story. By the time they're rescued, Jack and Claire have swapped confidences and oh, they've had the most spectacular sex of their lives!

Back in the office they're still butting heads over projects, but now there's a heightened awareness added to the mix. With this kind of tension in the air, how can they resist another round of sexy indulgence?

[aralias]

excellent - glad your willpower broke ;) added you to the list.

[aaronlisa]

Can I sign up for April 26th?

[aralias]

you can indeed! added to the list.

[wrabbit]

Hey! I'd like to sign up for April 10th. I'm going to write Will/Hannibal with a summary for a new book I found on Harlequin:

The Lost by Sarah Beth Durst

Award-winning author Sarah Beth Durst has been praised for her captivating novels that merge the darkly imagined with very real themes of self-discovery and destiny. In The Lost, we'll discover just what it means to lose one's way….

It was only meant to be a brief detour. But then Will finds himself trapped in a town called Lost on the edge of a desert, filled with things abandoned, broken and thrown away. And when he tries to escape, impassible dust storms and something unexplainable lead him back to Lost again and again. The residents he meets there tell him he's going to have to figure out just what he's missing—and what he's running from—before he can leave. So now Will's on a new search for a purpose and a destiny. And maybe, just maybe, he'll be found… 

Against the backdrop of this desolate and mystical town, Sarah Beth Durst writes an arresting, fantastical novel of one man's impossible journey…and his quest to find his fate.

http://www.harlequin.com/storeitem.html?iid=52410

[aralias]

great :D added you to the list!

[dangerousdame.livejournal.com]

Still deciding on a summary, but I'd like to post on April 14!

[aralias]

still plenty of time to decide :) will add you to the list!

[g_uava]

Please put me down for 13 April :)

Here's the prompt I've chosen:

113) The Taming of a Wild Child- Kimberly Lang

Waking up in a stranger's bed is not how socialite Mashin Chaser planned on spending the morning after the night before. From now on... a) No more secret hook-ups with Shijima Gou - he's the last man on earth he'd want to share a room with, never mind a king-size bed! b) Maintain a professional persona at all times. Gou is a hard-hitting journalist who's always on the lookout for the latest scoop...surely Chase is perfect tabloid fodder? c) Keep friends close but enemies closer. Gou may look like the ultimate poster-boy, but his intentions are anything but PG-rated...

[aralias]

will do :D

[sunspot]

Can I post something on 11 April?

[aralias]

you can! adding you to the list.

[meridian_rose]

I didn't sign up earlier in case I couldn't finish the fic but as I've just got a final edit to do, can I sign up to post on the 29 April ?

[aralias]

of course! good luck.

[katemacetak]

Umm, could I possibly post the 25th instead, since there are 2 people on the schedule today?

Note to self: Remember that you always have allergies and feel awful in April. I had to delay last year's posting too.

eta- as a teaser, here's the plot I'm working on for John/Sherlock.

67) HIGH-ALTITUDE DOCTOR
by SARAH MORGAN

Kathmandu, Nepal, 1300 meters above sea level

Dr Juliet Adams is an expert in her field of high-altitude medicine, and she’s about to take on the most dangerous, gruelling and emotionally testing challenge of all – Mount Everest!

Everest base Camp, 5400 meters above sea level

It is Juliet’s life ambition to reach the summit – her brother died climbing it – but one man stands in her way. Brooding Dr Finn McEwan is also on the expedition – and its their job to work together, trust each other and ensure everybody’s safety when every moment of the mountain could be fatal.

[aralias]

yes that's fine - and today! hope it worked out for you.

[flipflop_diva]

Ack! So I'm supposed to post today but of course my fic is not quite done, so is it possible to get a few more days? Maybe until like Monday?

I'm so sorry! Work kind of got insane and I just got behind on life.

[aralias]

no worries. post when you're ready!