geeking out on shakespeare's histories

It's the MOST WONDERFUL TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME OF THE YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAR...

ANNOUNCING THE SIXTH ANNUAL thisengland HISTORIES FICATHON AND LOVEFEST

Can you believe we've been at this for six years? Because I can't.

This year there are a couple of special issues to take into account:

The first is that this is the first ficathon that's started since The Hollow Crown aired in the UK. It doesn't change anything about the ficathon rules, really, other than that we hope it will increase interest in histories fic.

The second, which is more substantial, is that we're going to start hosting the fics on the Archive of Our Own this year! Signups will still be done as in the past -- we thought about doing them on AO3 but I couldn't make heads or tails of the setup even with a tutorial, and this is still a small enough ficathon that it should be manageable -- but when it comes time to post your fics, you can do it yourself. This should make everyone's lives a little bit easier. All administrative business will take place here, and links to ficathon fics will still be posted to this community, so we're not going anywhere!

( Administrative things, how to sign up, rules, &c. PLEASE NOTE SIGNIFICANT CHANGES FOR 2013. )

To sign up:

Email all of this info to me at strangebrooch AT gmail DOT com, AND lareinenoire at lareinenoire AT gmail DOT com, by MONDAY JUNE 10. Don't forget to include your handle if it's not clear from your email and/or I don't know who you are. The final deadline for fics is tentatively set at THURSDAY AUGUST 15. (This is negotiable if it's a bad time for participants.) Once everyone's assignments are in, we will post all unwritten prompts at thisengland for anyone to write fic of any length (even if you weren't originally part of the exchange) and open the collection to all comers -- much like Yuletide Madness, in other words. All fics will then be made available onSATURDAY AUGUST 17. Authors will be revealed on SATURDAY AUGUST 24.

It is, once again, time for all authors to be revealed (we were going to give it a week and then we realized nobody comments much before the reveal because it's such a tiny ficathon it generally gives things away!) Here's a complete list of who wrote what in this year's ficathon. I'll also be updating the master histories fic list.

You're also free to post your fics at your own journals, at AO3, and wherever else you put fic.

Richard II

Strong Infection, by speak_me_fair for angevin2
And Villeins Ye Shall Remain, by angevin2 for highfantastical
Mine Earthly Joy, by speak_me_fair for lareinenoire
Kings of the Earth, by highfantastical for speak_me_fair

Henry IV

Unmasked, by gileonnen for gehayi
Fit You With Position, by likeadeuce for kerrypolka
Quot estis in convivio, by kerrypolka for likeadeuce
Is There Not Employment?, by gileonnen for likeadeuce

Richard III

Bestiary, by likeadeuce for gileonnen
Emeralds and Rubies, by the_alchemist for lareinenoire
This Keen Encounter, by lareinenoire for the_alchemist

Title: Mine Earthly Joy
Author: speak_me_fair
Play: Richard II
Recipient: lareinenoire
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Isabel, Richard.
Warnings: Thoughts of underage sex
Rating: R due to the above
Summary: Isabel knows what she wants, even if she cannot have it. And to know a thing is to make it true.

( Mine Earthly Joy )

Title: Unmasked
Author: gileonnen
Play: Richard II/1 Henry IV
Recipient: gehayi
Characters / Pairings: Falstaff, Hal, Poins, Francis, Mistress Quickly, Richard II, Henry IV
Warnings: Profanity, drunkenness, fat-shaming language, mentions of the Vietnam War, alternate universe/alternate reality with superheroes
Rating: T
Summary: Falstaff wants to be a superhero. Hal isn't so sure that's a good idea.

( Unmasked )

All ficathon participants have been accounted for, and this means it's TIME FOR A HISTORIES-FIC FREE-FOR-ALL. Unused prompts are listed below.

Histories Ficathon Madness is open to everyone, whether you are an official ficathon participant, someone hanging around because it's an interesting idea or because you liked The Hollow Crown, or if you signed up but had to default.

Here's how it works:

1. Pick one (or more) of the prompts below.

2. Write a fic of any length -- from drabble to big-bang-sized epic (if you can do that in three days, I will be incredibly impressed).

3. Send it to me at strangebrooch AT gmail DOT com AND/OR lareinenoire AT gmail DOT com by NOON CDT on SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 2 (if you are writing for one of us, just send it to the other one, because mods like surprises too). Use the ( official format for headers )

4. Profit!

These prompts are open to anyone, regardless of whether or not you originally signed up; instead of posting claims in the comments, just pick one and write. Also, ALL THE PROMPTS ARE LISTED BELOW EXCEPT PROMPTS ALREADY USED. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED FOR YOUR FIC, DO NOT CLICK THE CUT.

( THE MADNESS BEGINS HERE )

Thanks to the inability of your friendly mod to get her shit together, the deadline for this year's ficathon is being EXTENDED. The new due date for fics is THURSDAY, AUGUST 30 at MIDNIGHT CDT (i.e. midnight when it's turning into Friday, not midnight when it's turning into Thursday). Ficathon Madness prompts will go up after that, and fics will be posted on SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 2. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes.

I know a lot of people who are interested in The Histories Fandom but are kind of intimidated by the amount of stuff they don't know about either the plays or the period they're set in. So I thought, hey, we should have a resources post for things that might be helpful to histories fic writing -- stuff like, timelines, info about material culture, that kind of thing. Except that that's a ton of work and so I haven't done it yet. And then I was looking up some information about 14th-century underwear, because reasons, and I found this site, and that reminded me that I've been meaning to make this post, which I'll also make into a sticky to go along with the fic index. Eventually I am going to add the timeline that lareinenoire and I made that compares and contrasts the plots of the two tetralogies to what actually seems to have happened, just as soon as I finish the Henry V section.

Anyway, what kind of sites do you guys use when you need to look up in-period details? I'm especially hoping to get links on the 15th century, because my own collection, given my Richard II fixation, is slanted fairly heavily toward the 14th. I'll add anything you have in the comments to the main post.

Also, just a caveat: not all of these are hugely scholarly sites necessarily. Also some of the links on the del.icio.us pages no longer work; I'll clean them up later.

Stuff I have so far:

( general )

( people )

( places )

( court )

( church )

( letters )

( time and money )

( sex )

( family )

( clothes )

( food )