ON MY WESTEROS FICS

ON MY WESTEROS FICS (more specifically, the Jaimienne ones)

THE QUEEN BEYOND THE WALL
The Queen Beyond the Wall arose from a plot bunny I once had. So there was another Jaimienne Snow Queen fic, Heart by Coraleeveritas, but I wasn't fully pleased with it. I thought some characters should have been recast (for instance: Renly in Heart was cast as the Woman Who Could Conjure in the Third Story, while I cast him as the Clever Princess in the Fourth Story, with Loras for the Prince). The Snow Queen character was an estranged Targaryen instead of the Night's Queen, and I felt that they wasted a perfectly good character to be cast. So I think to myself: "I can do the same or even better." The Snow Queen story in Westeros with Jaime and Brienne in the lead roles. I wanted to finish it for Christmas, and to take cues from The World of Ice and Fire as well.
And of course there's my taste for references. Try to spot as many allusions as possible.
And the Lemony narrator from the Ringstetten Saga. I just have a knack for Lemony narration.
Like many other retellings of the old story, mine is secularized to the core. If you enjoyed the verses, they're from Goethe's Faust. The very first verses at the start and the very last ones at the end. I just like the retraux vibe of putting poetry fragments in a novel, à la Walter Scott.
The end, with the battle rather than the tears, is because I can't imagine Brienne crying over Jaime.
There's also a Nils Holgersson echo in having her cross the land from south to north encountering various people and their cultures. I love Nils Holgersson as a novel to learn it all about Sweden, and this is the same premise IN WESTEROS!
My favourite parts are the Fourth Story and the very coda.

COME UNDONE
Emilio Salgari's Captain Tempest is among my favourite novels. It starts as a pretty straightforward "heroine's quest for lost partner" like the Snow Queen or Duke of Norroway stories, but that's where it stops. The heroine is a female crossdressing, bifauxnen army officer. And not only a badass but a lovely person, as well. Both her lieutenant and the villainess fall for her, and the former's unrequited love leads to him betraying the heroine's true gender to the villainess. Add the fact that she's met the villainess's ex-crush in the enemy camp and both of them have become frenemies. So there is a love polyhedron, and the heroine doubting whether she should hook up with this unexpected Romeo or with the lordling in distress. Fortunately, the latter is killed (a punctured lung), allowing Eleonora to realize whom she loves, no matter how hard she tries to deny it, and hook up with her star-crossed lover of a rogue.
So I loved the unexpected final series of twists. My reaction went from "Go Eleonora! Save Le Hussière!" to "Oh no! Laczynski betrayed her" to "Seven Gods! Le Hussière is dying!" to "Go Muley! Save Eleonora!" to "Go Eleonora... you couldn't save your lordling in distress, but you will get over it with this star-crossed romance!"
I love Brienne, and I thought that she has the pluck and determination that characterized Eleonora/Captain Tempest. So I thought of a tribute starring the Maid of Tarth in the titular role, with Renly as Le Hussière, Loras as Laczynski, Jaime as Muley, and Cersei as Haradja.
The original tale was set on 15th-century Cyprus, like Othello, but what I had on my mind was rather updating Westeros to one of my favourite literary genres.
For I freaking love gaslamp fantasy. Before watching Cinderella 2015 this spring, I have watched Treasure Planet, Stardust, Howl's Moving Castle, Frozen, The League, Beauty and the Beast (the 90s Disney film), Dragon Hunters, Pandora Hearts... and I have read Monstrous Regiment and any original works by Chris Riddell worth noticing (the Ada Goth series, to mention only one).
The idea of a gaslamp fantasy Westeros AU attracted me as a potential setting for fiction. I freaking love Regency uniforms, and I have even drawn fanart of Renly and Loras in such attire (look on this blog!).
So that was on my mind for the Lemony-narrated rarity that is called Come Undone.