The fic commentary post will be up shortly, but for now, here's the reveal!

Harmless Phantoms On Their Errands Glide (14346 words) by calliopes_pen
Chapters: 4/4
Fandom: Dracula - Bram Stoker (Novel 1897)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jonathan Harker/Mina Murray Harker
Characters: Jonathan Harker, Mina Murray Harker, Quincey Morris, Abraham Van Helsing, Arthur Holmwood, John Seward
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Journey to the Castle, Kissing in the Snow, Mina tackle hugs Jonathan, Jonathan's skills concern everyone, Quincey has a secret, Ghosts, Found Family, Friendship, Happy Ending, Sharing a Bed, Quincey Morris Lives, Seward's bed might be haunted
Summary:

In the wake of the Count’s final defeat, it has begun to snow in earnest. Having nowhere else to go, as night falls our crew is forced to head for the castle for sanctuary from the storm. During the course of the night, they will forge a new destiny for themselves.

...or I can just post this today, instead of a few days from now!

( Beneath the cut, you will find commentary on the writing of The Dread of Vanished Shadows for Yuletide 2021. )

The Yuletide tag set is open. I’ve been going through it see what things might interest me. Right now, here’s a list of what I’m pondering when it comes to either offering to write or requesting. There are a few others I have yet to watch or read that sound interesting, so I’m leaving them off the list for now. This is in order according to books, then movies, tv shows, etc…

I will add that I was amused to see WWII RPF, with a cast of Christopher Lee, Julia Child, Jon Pertwee, and Roald Dahl.

Dracula - Bram Stoker
Dracula the Undead - Freda Warrington
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
Bell Book and Candle (1958)
The Brides of Dracula (1960)
The Company of Wolves (1984)
Crimson Peak (2015)
The Devil Rides Out (1968)
Dracula (1931)
Frankenstein (Movies - Hammer)
Horror of Dracula (1958)
The Innocents (1961)
Mark of the Vampire (1935)
The Omen (Movies)
Rebecca (1940)
Stardust (2007)
The Uninvited (1944)
Warlock (1989)
White Zombie (1932)
The Wicker Man (1973)
Dracula (TV 1968)

Dracula (TV 2013) is one that I’ve never seen, but I have heard enough about it to be uncertain if I want to give it a shot.

Meanwhile, I found out yesterday that Comet TV will be doing a special showing of three silent films on Halloween night. They’re calling it Hushaween. At 9 PM it’s Nosferatu (1922); at 11 PM, it’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920); and at 1:30 AM, it’s The Phantom of the Opera (1925). Pretty sure I could only last through Nosferatu, but hey—glad they’re on at all.

As promised, here are the deleted scenes from The Book Of Night Was Opened Wide.

( Beneath the cut, you will find those scenes. )

And there you have it. That is all that was cut from the fanfic.

The time for reveals has come. I wrote The Book Of Night Was Opened Wide, which clocks in at 61,506 words. Given it was for Dracula, if they hadn't already guessed it was me behind it, nobody should be surprised.

The Book Of Night Was Opened Wide (61692 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 8/8
Fandom: Dracula - Bram Stoker
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Relationships: Mina Harker/Lucy Westenra, Jonathan Harker/Mina Harker, Count Dracula/Jonathan Harker, Jonathan Harker/Lucy Westenra
Characters: Mina Harker, Dracula, Lucy Westenra, Abraham Van Helsing, Jonathan Harker, John Seward, R.M. Renfield, Quincey Morris, Arthur Holmwood
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Blood, Fog, Vampires, Mind Control, Blood Drinking, Character Death, Vampire Turning, Stake through the heart, Friendship, Horror, Gothic, Suspense, Animal Transformation, Rats, Van Helsing Is Thwarted At Almost Every Turn, Possession, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Love, Bats
Summary:

What if Lucy didn’t return to her crypt when she was confronted with Van Helsing and crew? What if she went away with Dracula, and thus avoided the stake? What if Lucy targeted another to get closer to Mina, with Dracula’s assistance? Mina finds herself making a dark choice as her husband wanders into the night, and the ripples of those choices change everything.

The notes and deleted scenes will be posted later, and then linked back to the end notes over on Ao3. I don’t know if I need to cross-post this to hidden_passages, seeing as I was recced in the Yuletide related post over there.

This year, I received two stories for Yuletide, and I recommend reading both of them if you’re a fan of either Dracula (1968), or Horror of Dracula (1958)--or a Dracula fan, at all, really.

Served Cold (3402 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dracula (TV 1968), Dracula & Related Fandoms
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Jonathan Harker/Mina Harker
Characters: Jonathan Harker, Mina Harker, John Seward, Abraham Van Helsing
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Dark, Revenge, Vampires, Blood, Yuletide Treat, Crueltide, Major Character Undeath, Rocks Fall Everyone Dies, Mentions of Mina/Lucy
Summary:

Mina’s one remaining desire is simple: she wants revenge.

To the Crossroads (4581 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Horror of Dracula (1958), Dracula & Related Fandoms
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Jonathan Harker, Dracula, Van Helsing (Hammer)
Additional Tags: Vampires, Character Turned Into Vampire, Vampire Turning, hammer horror, Blood, Blood Drinking, Vampire Hunters, Religious Imagery & Symbolism
Summary:

Dracula discovers Jonathan Harker’s plot to destroy him and gives him a punishment worse than death. Harker races to get intelligence—and evidence identifying his accomplice—away from Dracula's castle, in the hope that his partner will still be able to defeat the Monarch of All Vampires. To succeed, Harker must stay ahead of Dracula’s suspicions and of his own unholy transformation.

Now to wade through the rest of the archive, and see if there are any other fandoms that I’m familiar with.