Happy "It's December Tenth" to all who observe it.

I have not written my Dark Outside pieces yet, far less addressed and sent the mail, so I will send cards When I Get To It.

I am still going to write for people; it'll just be in your email inbox come Solstice, not your physical mailbox come whenever. People who just wanted cards will get cards at some date TBD.

Back in the day, the 213 things Skippy is no longer allowed to do in the U.S. Army made the rounds of the internet.

The one that stuck with me hardest:

87. If the thought of something makes me giggle for longer than 15 seconds, I am to assume that I am not allowed to do it.

This came to mind because I thought of a great tag that will baffle the good wranglers at the AO3, but which I will apply to the story forthwith, despite its having made me giggle for longer than 15 seconds.

Then I started wondering.

These are the fanworks on AO3 tagged with Skippy's List. Happily, various people have written Clone Wars versions so I don't have to.

This Tumblr post has Salman Rushdie's account of meeting Umberto Eco and Mario Vargas Llosa after each of them had trashed the other two in the press, and discovering that they got along extremely well in person.

OT3!

Having read none of them save a little Vargas Llosa en español, I can't begin to write it, but I can Want it.

*puts it in the Maybe Someday Yuletide tag*

Also open to people for whom it is Not Dark Outside in the Southern Hemisphere.

Let me know if you'd like a holiday card, with or without short verse or prose, or a short piece of fiction in your inbox.

Even if you know I have your address, if you want a physical card, I would appreciate your leaving it in a comment on this post -- all comments are screened -- so I don't have to hunt for it. I'm in the US and have a pile of domestic and international stamps just waiting to come see you.

Please format your request like so:

I would like [a physical card/just a physical card, no fiction/just a piece of fiction or verse sent digitally], please.

If you want a physical card:
Envelope Name
Address formatted the way your country likes them done

Card Name (if different from envelope name):

If you want some words:
Please write me a [drabble or poem], [silly or serious or smutty or author's choice], for [one or more of these fandoms (the fandoms I know)] on the theme of [my favorite trope(s)]. Please avoid mentioning [winter holidays I don't celebrate].

Optional if you want to reciprocate:
I'm planning on sending holiday cards and don't have your address. Please provide it [at this link or in a reply comment].

It is definitely time for the ceremonial Watching of the Comfort Movie.

RIP, Tom Stoppard. And may you not have to do it all over again and again and again, because life is neither a rehearsal nor a play.