Sunday, January 27, 2013

HASA News - Challenges

In this week’s news: Birthdays and Challenges

Birthday Cards

January Birthday babies, there is still some days to go in the January Birthday Cards, so there's still time to write or request a drabble!

Not sure what the birthday cards are about? Have a look at some older stories written as birthday cards.

January Story Pledge Challenge

The Story Pledge Challenge is still open! Find out more, enter the Challenge or pledge an amount to donate, and if you do, post to the Forum to tell people about it.

Don't forget: any The Hobbit-related story that you have posted at HASA this month can be entered. All we ask is that you don't post it anywhere else until February. Enter the Challenge and help keep HASA going.

Nuzgûl of the Month

Keep an eye out for the February Nuzgûl next weekend!

 

Thank you for reading at HASA. Have fun!

Monday, January 21, 2013

Hobbit Story Pledge Challenge

For more than ten years, HASA has been providing ad-free, fee-free JRRT fanfiction that is owned and operated by the fandom, not corporate interests. Please support the site! There's a great Challenge going, see the website, http://www.henneth-annun.net/

Both authors and readers can participants in the challenge by writing stories related to the Hobbit (book or film) or pledging donations for stories written. Non-challenge donations or subscriptions are also welcome.

HASA is a great place for Tolkien fanfiction. Your contact information is not for sale to marketeers. There are no tests to take to join, all genres, characters, ratings and story lengths are welcome, and we get hundreds of readers a day.

Our current challenge is all about The Hobbit, but If you are more a Ring War or Silmarillion fan, there are plenty of opportunities to participate with those topics as well. Post your Tolkien story or use the drop down searches to locate stories about your favorite era or character.

If you're a little short on spare change at the moment, donations of time are always appreciated. 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 reviewer, no better time than now to sign up. If you are an author, please consider donating a new story.

Thanks for enjoying HASA!
Julie

Sunday, January 13, 2013

HASA News January 2013

Hobbit Story Pledge Challenge

The Hobbit Story Pledge Challenge is almost midway, so there is still plenty of time to make a pledge or read the entries so far. Come and join us in the forum. You can find the rules for the Challenge and enter a story here.

Reviewed Stories January 2013

Since the previous Bulletin, 2 stories passed through review while there are currently 10 stories waiting for reviewers. Make an author's day and review a story!

Member participation is crucial for reviews. The more people are involved in reviewing, the more different opinions are represented. Having more people involved also 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; and when you do, please remember: 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.

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.

Daunted by the idea of reviewing? Don't be, reviewing at its simplest comes down to asking yourself: "Would I recommend this story to someone?" Then, whether the answer is 'yes' or 'no', you can make a choice from the capsule reasons to clarify your decision. If you want to, you can add a few more words to convey what you (dis)liked about the story, but just the capsule reason is perfectly fine as well.

And remember: even if you think you're too critical or not critical enough: your review is only one of nine, and all points of view are welcome. Not every reviewer has to review every story and in the end it does all level out to a balanced judgement.

Reviewed story spotlight

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

The Celeblas by Archeress
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: 3rd Age - Post-Ring War
Summary: Two people, One meeting, leads to finding… an heir hidden away.

In need of a wife by Linda Hoyland
Rating: General
Genre: Romance
Era: 3rd Age – The Steward
Summary: Aragorn walks beneath the Birches.

Make an author's day, review a story or post a comment.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

HASA news - Birthdays, Challenges, Stories

January Birthdays

Is your birthday in January, 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.

Challenges

Just as Challenges come from Prospective Challenges, Prospective Challenges come from Nuzgûl, and Nuzgûl need attention to grow from tiny ideas into big stories. Step into the Nuzgûl hutch. The bunnies don't bite (much). And who knows what ideas you may come out with?

Story Pledge Challenge

The Story Pledge Challenge is live!  

A reminder of how the Pledge Challenge works:

Authors write original works, enter them in the Challenge, and promise to not post the stories anywhere except HASA for the month of January. For each story entered, readers pledge to donate a certain dollar amount, anything from $1 per story to however generous they are feeling, to HASA at the end of January. They can put a cap on the total donations they will give so they don't break the bank.

If you'd like to give a total of $100, you can say "However many stories there are, I will donate $100 and divide that amount evenly," or "I'll give $1/$5/$10/etc. per story, up to a maximum of $100."

--(Correction)

These are the rules for pledging:

  • The pledge is per completed story posted to the Challenge - you can't specify that you'll only donate for an Elf story or one with Gollum in it, for example)
  • A minimum of $1.00 per story
  • No minimum on the total amount you're willing to pledge

--

The Story Pledge Challenge in the Forums:

Entries

Pledges

General discussion

The Nuzgûl of the Month!

The January Nuzgûl: write something for the Story Pledge Challenge!

December Stories

All 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 December:

--- 1 Reviewed Story was published or updated.

--- 27 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!