My Yuletide story

I wrote "What the Cat Dragged In" for hhertzof, set in the universe of the Judy Bolton stories by Margaret Sutton. (Judy Bolton was a girl detective of the Nancy Drew ilk, but I liked those books more. The first one was written in 1932, and they continued for several decades. They were only ended, apparently, because the publisher didn't want them to compete with Nancy Drew.)

When I originally looked at the listings of what people requested versus what I'd offered, I was reasonably certain I'd end up matching on either Up the Down Staircase or Judy Bolton, and it turned out to be the latter. hhertzof also requested a Hilary Tamar story, and I thought about tackling that, since Yuletide rules allow you to choose any of the requester's fandoms, though you're only guaranteed to match on one. In the end, though, I pulled out the seven Judy Bolton novels I own, and did a quick reread. I had totally forgotten that one of the subsidiary characters came from an abusive family, and that gave me the inspiration to write a story where the mystery, such as it was, involved finding and helping an abused wife -- one who had sufficient agency to get away, but didn't know what to do from there. With cats.

I enjoyed writing it, and hhertzof burbled very satisfactorily about it, so I call that a success, even though it's decidedly obscure.

I'm also thankful to Pat Wrede WINOLJ for an excellent (and fast!) beta-read.