Monday, May 31, 2010

HASA news - Challenges

Current and prospective Challenges, and the Nuzgûl of the Month: come and pet the plot bunnies...


Birthday Challenges

Is your birthday in June and would you like a drabble about your favourite character or topic? You can request it here.

The May Challenge is still going on, so why not take a few minutes to write a birthday drabble for one of the May birthday people?

Not sure what the birthday cards are about? Have a look at stories written for previous requests.


Current and closing Challenges

May 2010 Birthday Cards - closes May 31

May Treasure Hunt - closes June 06 (and don’t forget to keep an eye open for next month’s Treasure Hunt!)

June 2010 Birthday Cards - closes June 30

Prospective Challenges

Challenges are born from Prospective Challenges, and the Prospective Challenges Forum is where you’ll find out what other people would like to spring on unsuspecting authors... If you have any ideas you want to share, head over to the Challenges Forum, or take up an older idea instead.


Nuzgûl of the Month

Just as Challenges come from Prospective Challenges, Prospective Challenges come from Nuzgûl, and Nuzgûl need attention to grow from tiny ideas into all-dominating obsessive thoughts that keep you from your sleep and monopolise every waking minu^^^... erm... yes, well... Put on your mithril boots and step into the Nuzgûl hutch. Who knows what ideas you may come out with?

And to make that dive into the hutch that little bit(e) more attractive, have a taster of what is in there:

The Nuzgûl of the Month!
This month’s fanged beauty is Gimli the Well-Traveled.

Think you want to write it? Come on over to the forum, be inspired, see how many others you can inflict this idea on, and perhaps even turn it into a Challenge.

Thank you for reading at HASA. Have fun!

~-~

Nath

Friday, May 28, 2010

June site hosting donations

Thanks to your generous donations, we're only $18 short on June site hosting. With matching funds, that means we only need one $9 donation. Any further donations will give us a start on July. Our hosting costs are $150 US per month. HASA is an ad-free, fee-free Web site, run for the enjoyment of quality JRRT fanfiction. Because our Secret Admirer will match every dollar donated, even small donations quickly add up. The hosting fee pays for the dedicated server HASA needs to provide the features and fun visitors love - stories, comments, forums, alerts, challenges and more.

If you haven't donated yet to help support HASA, please consider doing so; any support will be greatly appreciated. If you're a little short on spare change at the moment, donate some time. There's an archive full of stories just waiting for comments, authors who would dearly love an email complimenting them on their work, challenges that need entries, playlists that need to be created, and forums begging for discussions. If you are a reviewer, check out a story today. If you aren't a reviewr, no better time than now to sign up. If you are an author, please consider donating a new story.

Thanks for enjoying HASA!

Julie

Saturday, May 15, 2010

HASA Reviewed Stories May 2010

Since the previous Bulletin 6 new stories have been reviewed and there are currently 9 stories in review. Reviews couldn’t exist without authors submitting stories and reviewers reviewing them. So a big Thank You for the work to all of you!

Stories in review
As I type this, there are 9 stories waiting for reviewers, so please head over and review! (Remember to log in before you follow the link.)

Of course, member participation is crucial for reviews. The more people are involved in reviewing, the more opinions are represented. Just as importantly, having more people involved means that stories pass through review more quickly - which is good for everyone.

If you are an active reviewer, why not go and check out a story? Or, if you are a writer, take the plunge and submit a story for review!

Becoming a reviewer
If you're not an active reviewer, but think you can spare a bit of time... – even if you just review one or two stories in a month, every review is welcome. If you are logged in, you can sign up here if you've been a member of HASA for thirty days or more.

Put one in, take one out
By submitting a story for review, you are asking nine other members to read and evaluate it. So why not do for the other authors who have a story in review what you'd like other reviewers to do for you: check out one of the stories already in review and give it a read. Or: put one in, take one out...

Reviewed story spotlight
These stories have passed through review since the previous bulletin. Congratulations to all authors; well done!

Beyond the Mountain Passes by Thundera Tiger
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: 3rd Age - Ring War
Summary: When a certain elf and dwarf first agreed to join the Fellowship, they only promised to go as far as the mountain passes. At what point did they decide to keep going? And perhaps more importantly, why? A Lothlórien gapfiller featuring Gimli and Legolas.

The Battle of the Kitchen by Raksha
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: 4th Age
Summary: Peace does not always extend below stairs, as Faramir learns one evening in the early Fourth Age.

Changing Views on Wisdom by Larner
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: 3rd Age - The Stewards
Summary: Once Bilbo thought his father's advice to be predictable was the height of wisdom. Time, however, came to temper his understanding of what wisdom is like. A series of true drabbles.

Orcs in Hobbiton by The Lauderdale
Rating: Adult
Genre: General
Era: 3rd Age - Post-Ring War
Summary: AU. Two years after Sauron won the war, his Orcs have come to a Shire under Saruman's dominion. The hobbits that are its proper inhabitants are caught in the middle. Told in drabbles and drabble-increments (200, 300, etc.)

A Choice of Life or Death by Larner
Rating: General
Genre: Drama
Era: 3rd Age - The Kings
Summary: Preceding the final Battle of Fornost, a soldier from Angmar finds himself at the point of death from starvation and thirst after being separated from his company in the wake of a rockfall. He is succored by individuals he'd never thought to meet, in a manner he'd never foreseen.

Promise and Sorrow by Virtuella
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: 3rd Age - Post-Ring War
Summary: Six unnamed people from different parts of Middle-earth tell the story of how the Ring War affected them.




*-**
Nath

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

HASA How-tos - May 2010

Keeping track of stories you read and really like is easy. Find out how to save them to your favorites and update the bookmark after you’ve read another chapter.

How do I...

...save a story to my favorites and update the bookmark?


Of course you can just bookmark a story in your browser, but there are also two ways to bookmark a story on HASA itself: Save to Favorites and AddThis.

AddThis is available to all readers, and lets you print a story, bookmark the page, email the URL, or link it to a service such as Facebook, Twitter etc.

On every story list and every Reader Toolbox, you will see a bright orange button with a plus sign on it. This is the AddThis button. How it works:

1. Hover your mouse over the button
2. A pop-up window appears with various options (print, bookmark, send to... etc.)
3. Click on the option you want

Save to Favorites is available when you are logged in, and saves the story to your Library on HASA. This means you can get your story list no matter what computer you are on because it is part of the site, not bookmarked on a particular computer. Your Favorites list is available on every page of the site in a drop-down list at the right hand end of the site header.
To save to favorites:

1. Go to the Stories section of HASA
2. Click on either the overview or any chapter of the story you want to add
3. In the Reader Toolbox that appears at the top and the foot of these pages, click the button that says "Add Story"
4. The page refreshes and the story is added to your list.
5. If you are on the Overview, the first chapter is bookmarked. If you are on a specific chapter, that chapter is bookmarked.

For multi-chapter stories that you have already Saved to Favorites, you can update your bookmark to set it to a new chapter by using the Set Bookmark button in the Toolbox in the chapter you are reading.

And that's all there is to it!


~*~Nath~*~

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Donations for May site hosting needed

HASA is an ad-free, fee-free Web site, run for the enjoyment of quality JRRT fanfiction. Currently, our monthly hosting costs are $150 US. Our balance is $82, which means we will need $68 more. Because our Secret Admirer will match every dollar donated, even small donations quickly add up: we only need 7 $5 donations and May is covered! The hosting fee pays for the dedicated server HASA needs to provide the features and fun visitors love - stories, comments, forums, alerts, challenges and more.

If you haven't donated yet to help support HASA, please consider doing so; any support will be greatly appreciated. If you're a little short on spare change at the moment, donate some time. There's an archive full of stories just waiting for comments, authors who would dearly love an email complimenting them on their work, challenges that need entries, playlists that need to be created, and forums begging for discussions. If you are a reviewer, check out a story today. If you aren't a reviewr, no better time than now to sign up.

And if you are an author, please consider donating a new story!

Thanks for enjoying HASA!

Julie

Sunday, May 2, 2010

HASA news - Birthdays and stories

May birthdays and links to the stories written or updated in April.

May Birthday Challenge

Is your birthday in May, and would you like a drabble about your favourite character or topic? You can request it here.

Not sure what the birthday cards are about? Have a look at stories written for previous requests.

April Stories

All of us writers love feedback. It is the lembas and miruvor that sustains us as we write our story, and leaving a few words about a story you read is always a nice thing to do, whether the story is new or old.

Every fifteen minutes HASA highlights a story chosen at random from the Reviewed and General stories in the archive. Read the currently featured story on our front page.

Many talented writers are publishing every day. In April:

--- 14 Reviewed Stories were published or updated.
--- 59 General Stories were published or updated.
--- 1 Beta Story was updated.
(Please note, you need to be logged in to view beta stories.)

Thank you for reading at HASA. Enjoy!

~Nath ~