HASA news - October 2010 week 2 - advertisements

This week's news features an announcement by Anglachel about advertising on HASA.

HASA will start displaying advertisements in next few weeks. It was a hard decision to make. This post is to explain the reasoning for the change to the site's previously ad-free environment.

One of the reasons HASA was created was to provide a place to read Tolkien fanfiction that did not bombard the site visitors with obnoxious advertisements. In the early Naughties, web advertisements were hitting their stride with invasive, annoying, bad-mannered and downright offensive crud. Web browsers didn't have ad-blocking capabilities, so the only refuge was an ad-free site.

For seven years, I've been able to keep the site advertisement free. I've been able to rely on voluntary donations by site members and the reading public alike. [...]

Read the full announcement here on HASA. Of course, you can still donate if you prefer, but clicking an advert now and again helps to pay for the site hosting as well.

Thank you for reading at HASA!

HASA news - Birthdays and stories

October birthdays and links to the stories written or updated in September.

October Birthday Challenge

Is your birthday in October, 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.

September 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 September:

--- 6 Reviewed Stories were published or updated.
--- 33 General Stories were published or updated.
--- 3 Beta Stories were updated.
(Please note, you need to be logged in to view beta stories.)

Thank you for reading at HASA. Enjoy!

~Nath ~

Donations needed for September and October

After paying September fees, our account is at -$83.00. The $150 bill
for October will be due soon. HASA is a fee-free Web site, run for the
enjoyment of quality JRRT fanfiction & it depends on member & reader
donations to pay hosting fees.

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. Since funding is running behind we've begun looking
at advertisements to supplement donations.

If you haven't donated yet to help support HASA, please consider doing
so; any support will be timely and greatly appreciated. HASA gets a lot
of traffic and offers many great stories and features. We want to be
able to keep these stories and resources online and accessible.

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 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

HASA news - Challenges
Intro

In this week’s news: current and prospective Challenges, and the Nuzgûl of the Month.

Birthday Challenges

The September Birthday Challenge is still going on, so there is still a bit of time left to make a request or write a birthday drabble.

Not sure what the birthday cards are about? Have a look at the stories already written this year.


Current and closing Challenges

September 2010 Birthday Cards - closes September 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 be inspired by what is already there and pick 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 big stories. Step into the Nuzgûl hutch. The bunnies don’t bite (much). And 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!
October’s offering is from the Oliphaunt Pen, rather than the Nuzgûl Hutch: Show me feär.

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

There are still a few days left on the September bunny Elven Divorce, so feel free to join in the fun, even if it’s with no more than a drabble...


Thank you for reading at HASA. Have fun!


~*~

Nath

HASA How-tos - September 2010

This month’s HASA How-to tells you how to make a story out of your Birthday Challenge gift posts, and put the story into the Birthday Workshop.

How do I...
...put my Birthday Challenge forum posts in the Birthday Workshop?

Once you have made your birthday request and the first entries have been posted, it’s a good idea to already create your story in the Birthday Workshop so that gift writers can add a drabble there as well as in the Birthday Challenge Forum. Here you can read how to do this (please make sure you are logged in before you follow the links):

1. Create a story in the same way you normally would. (See the FAQ if you’re not sure how to do this). Give it a name like [Your_name]’s 2010 Birthday stories.
2. Create a chapter for each of the gift stories already in the forum. Use the title of the story as the title for the chapter. If there's room, add the author's name to the title, otherwise, make it the first line in the chapter. A chapter would end up with a name like [Title by Author].
3. Make sure that the status for each chapter is set to ‘publish’ and that the story itself is set to ‘General’.
4. Go to the Birthday workshop. If you are not yet a member of the Workshop, you will need to sign up to the Workshop to perform the final step below.
5. Add your story to the set of stories in the Workshop.

Now that the story is in the Birthday workshop, the authors of your gifts can add more chapters to your story as they like.

HASA Reviewed Stories September 2010

Since the previous Bulletin, 6 stories have been reviewed and there are currently also 8 stories in review. Reviews couldn’t exist without authors and reviewers. So Thank You all for your work. BUT... we always need reviewers!

As I type this, there are 8 stories waiting to be reviewed (remember to log in before you follow the link).

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 (and when you do, 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 worry, 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!


Falling Leaves by lindahoyland
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: Multi-Age
Summary: A series of drabbles concerning trees.

Eight Elven Cloaks by Virtuella
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: 3rd Age - Ring War
Summary: Galadriel has a special commission for her handmaidens. As eight Elven cloaks are sewn in a bower in Caras Galadhon, the members of the Fellowship are evoked in turn, and blessed.

A Treasure Restored by Larner
Rating: General
Genre: Drama
Era: 3rd Age - Post-Ring War
Summary: For some years Faramir of Gondor has had in his possession two books that had apparently come to Gondor from the far north, and now he believes they should go to the new King, perhaps as a wedding gift of sorts. Follows some elements from my story, Or Perchance, when the Last Little Star.... ...

Bibliophile by Imhiriel
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: 4th Age
Summary: Éowyn is reading about a tragedy of the First Age, until her husband provides a more pleasurable pastime. Drabble.

To the Sea by Mirefinwe
Rating: General
Genre: Poetry
Era: 1st Age
Summary: Fingolfin's lament for his wife. Should be conceived of as written in Sindarin.

Shoulder the Sky, My Lads by Marta
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: 3rd Age - Ring War
Summary: In Rivendell, Gimli and Boromir spend some time below stairs.

HASA news - Birthdays and stories

September birthdays and links to the stories written or updated in August.

September Birthday Challenge

Is your birthday in September, 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.

August 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 August:

--- 7 Reviewed Stories were published or updated.
--- 55 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 ~

Please Read, our account is negative

After paying August fees, our account is at -$48.00. The $150 bill for September will be due soon. HASA is an ad-free, fee-free Web site, run for the enjoyment of quality JRRT fanfiction & it depends on member & reader donations to pay hosting fees.

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 timely and greatly appreciated. HASA gets a lot of traffic and offers many great stories and features. If a fraction of our members and regular visitors can donate just $5 each we'll be able to keep this site accessible to all.

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

HASA news - Challenges

In this week’s news: funding; current and prospective Challenges, and the Nuzgûl of the Month .

Funding
HASA is an ad-free, fee-free Web site, run for the enjoyment of quality JRRT fanfiction.

Currently, we still need $48 for our August site hosting. Please consider donating a small amount, if you haven’t already done so. Every bit helps! And if you can’t afford to donate money, why not donate time? Review or comment on a story, start a Forum discussion, enter a Challenge...


Birthday Challenges

The August Birthday Challenge is still going on, so there is still a bit of time left to make a request or write a birthday drabble.

Not sure what the birthday cards are about? Have a look at the stories already written this year.


Current and closing Challenges

August 2010 Birthday Cards - closes August 31

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 be inspired by what is already there and pick 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 big stories. Step into the Nuzgûl hutch. The bunnies don’t bite (much). And 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 bunny is Elven Divorce.

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

There are still a few days left on the August bunny Royally Screwed, so feel free to join in the fun, even if it’s with no more than a drabble...


Thank you for reading at HASA. Have fun!

~*~
Nath

Please Read (August & September site hosting)

HASA is an ad-free, fee-free Web site, run for the enjoyment of quality JRRT fanfiction. Currently, the balance of our site hosting fund is negative. We need $103 US for August and it would be good if we could start on the $150 needed for September's hosting. 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

HASA Reviewed Stories Augusy 2010

Since the previous Bulletin, 6 stories have been reviewed and there are currently also 6 stories in review. Reviews couldn’t exist without authors and reviewers. So Thank You all for your work. BUT... we still need more reviewers!

As I type this, there are 6 stories waiting for reviewers (remember to log in before you follow the link).

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 (and when you do, 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 worry, 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.

Forum discussion
And for all (potential) reviewers, there is a forum thread about reviewing. Feel free to drop in and have your say if there’s anything you want to say or ask about being a reviewer.

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 Temptation of Hope by Raksha
Rating: General
Genre: Drama
Era: 3rd Age - The Stewards
Summary: Captain Thorongil must make a choice that could alter the path of two realms as well as his own destiny and the fates of Denethor, Finduilas and Arwen.

The Queen's Fool by Aruthir
Rating: General
Genre: Drama
Era: 2nd Age - Pre-Rings
Summary: Tar-Ancalimë was Númenor's first ruling queen- daughter of a love sundered by pride. Here is a tale from the dying days of her long, long reign- seen through the eyes of her Fool.

A Mother's Hope by lindahoyland
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: 3rd Age - The Stewards
Summary: Gilraen receives news that will change her life for ever.

A Race, To Be Like Me by Imhiriel
Rating: General
Genre: Drama
Era: Time of the Trees
Summary: Fëanor contemplates the reactions to his Oath. Drabble. MEFAwards 2008: Honorable Mention - Races: Elves: Drabbles

Worse Than The Witch King by Virtuella
Rating: General
Genre: Humor
Era: 3rd Age - Post-Ring War
Summary: As her wedding day approaches, Eowyn finds some old Gondorian customs not at all to her liking.

Choice of Heirs by Larner
Rating: General
Genre: Drama
Era: 3rd Age - The Stewards
Summary: The rumor is that Bilbo has brought his young cousin Frodo to Hobbiton to become his heir. Not everyone in the village is pleased with that idea, however.

HASA How-tos - August 2010

Every site will experience technical problems and downtime, and alas! HASA is no exception... Read on to find out how to report any problems you may run into.

How do I...
...report a site problem or outage?

For readers, problems with the site that are caused by technical problems fall into two broad categories: either you find you cannot reach one or more specific pages, or the whole site is inaccessible. Below, you can find what you as a reader can do in each situation.

First to remember: if we don’t know about it, it can’t be fixed!

So please, if you experience any of the following errors:
-A white page with a few characters
-An error message that has lots of technical code
notify Tech Support. It may be just a glitch, but it may also be something that we need to know about so it can be found and (hopefully) fixed.

When the site is unreachable and you can't see anything like a normal HASA page, that usually means there is something wrong on the server. That affects everyone, so it's better to be safe than sorry and just send in a warning that something significant seems wrong on the site. If you're not sure how big the problem is, try going to a few other places on the site. If you can browse the site normally except for one page or one form, then there probably is a smaller problem. You should still report it so that small problems don't become larger ones!

No matter how big or small the problem, if you get an error message of some kind, please either copy the text or make a screenshot of the page (Ctrl-Prt Scr) and send those along when you send in a report to Tech Support.

You can't go wrong sending in a message that something isn't quite right. To be able to do that, you can make note of the Tech Support email address. Also be sure to bookmark the HASA LJ, the HASA News Yahoo Group, or our Blogspot blog. If we already know about a longer outage, those are the places we will use to post about it. You can also post a message or leave a comment at any of those locations if you can't remember the email address for Tech Support.

HASA has visitors around the clock. Chances are someone will see a site error before Anglachel does. Don't be shy about sending an email that something may be misbehaving.

HASA news - Birthdays and stories

August birthdays and links to the stories written or updated in July.

August Birthday Challenge

Is your birthday in August, 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.

July 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 July:

--- 11 Reviewed Stories were published or updated.
--- 66 General Stories were published or updated.
--- no Beta Stories were updated.
(Please note, you need to be logged in to view beta stories.)

Thank you for reading at HASA. Enjoy!

~Nath ~

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 August and would you like a drabble about your favourite character or topic? You can request it here.

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

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


Current and closing Challenges

July 2010 Birthday Cards - closes July 31

August 2010 Birthday Cards - closes August 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 be inspired by what is already there and pick 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 bunny is Royally Screwed.

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

There are still a few days left on July’s bunny To Be a Ringwraith, so come to the Nuzgûl of the Month Workshop, and join in the fun...


Thank you for reading at HASA. Have fun!

*~*~*

Nath

Donations for August 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. For August we will need $148 more, that's about $5 each if 30 of our members & visitors can donate. 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. I didn't need to make an appeal last month because donations for May and June were enough for the whole quarter, thanks!

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

HASA Reviewed Stories July 2010

Since the previous Bulletin 12 stories have been reviewed and there are currently 10 stories in review. Reviews couldn’t exist without authors and reviewers. So Thank You all for your work. BUT... more reviewers are needed!

First, a technical note: HASA has been unstable the last few days. Tech support has been unable to identify the root cause so far, but is continuing to investigate. Until the cause can be uncovered and corrected, the site will need manual restarts after it hangs. We apologize for the inconvenience.

On to reviews:

As I type this, there are 10 stories waiting for reviewers (remember to log in before you follow the link).

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 (and when you do, 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 worry, 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.

Forum discussion
And for all (potential) reviewers, there is currently a forum thread about reviewing. Feel free to drop in and have your say if there’s anything you want to say or ask about being a reviewer.

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!


Portrait of a Queen by Aruthir
Rating: General
Genre: Drama
Era: 2nd Age - Pre-Rings
Summary: Tar-Telperien was the second Ruling Queen of Númenor, and never met her great-grandmother Tar-Ancalimë, the first such Queen... ...In life, at least.

A Trickle of Green Ribbon by Nieriel Raina
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: 4th Age
Summary: When Sam and Rosie visit Minas Tirith they also bring four-year-old Ruby. But Ruby disappears and it's up to a certain elf to find the child who has longed to meet him. Slightly AU.

When Boromir Met Théodred by oshun
Rating: General
Genre: Romance
Era: 3rd Age - The Stewards
Summary: Lord of the Rings slash (Boromir/Théodred). Two double drabbles. Young Boromer and Théodred experience one another's cities.

The Wizard and the Ranger by Gandalfs apprentice
Rating: General
Genre: Humor
Era: 3rd Age - The Stewards
Summary: Tolkien tells us in the Tale of Years that Aragorn and Gandalf met in 2956, when Aragorn was 25 years old, but he does not tell us how it happened. Maybe the real story was not solemn enough for the official annals of the history of Middle-earth.

Mrs Maggot Gives Directions by Virtuella
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: 3rd Age - Ring War
Summary: Frodo's flight to Crickhollow might have turned out differently, had it not been for the quick thinking of a farmer's wife.

A Gift for Faramir by lindahoyland
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: 4th Age
Summary: Faramir receives an unexpected gift. With grateful thanks to Raksha. Written on the occasion of her birthday.

Remember Me by Adonnen Estenniel
Rating: General
Genre: Drama
Era: 3rd Age - The Stewards
Summary: Throughout the course of his long life, Aragorn had the comfort of another to help him through the many trials and difficulties that arose. But in the end her memory fades, for Men are not mortal and their hearts are easily altered. An AU interpretation on what might have happened if Arwen had been at Imladris instead of Lothlórien when Gilraen brought Aragorn to Rivendell.

The Sins of the Fathers by Mirefinwe
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: Time of the Trees
Summary: My take on the Fall of the Noldor as family saga, focussing on Indis and her daughters.

Blue Book of Melleth: The Sky Wept Diamonds by Elen Kortirion
Rating: General
Genre: Drama
Era: 3rd Age - The Stewards
Summary: The birth of Boromir, as witnessed and reported by a bonds-woman of Lady Finduilas. Birth involves many customs and superstitions; a vernacular report of the events and omens that surrounded Boromir's birth. Inspired by Tay's suggestion that Boromir 'is the poster-boy for Leo' and by the song 'When I Go' by the late Dave Carter, whose birthday also coincided with the Persied meteor shower, around the 12th and 13th August.

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.) Warning: Deals with post-war occupation and the kind of subject matter that often entails. Coarse language, references to rape and other violence, but non-graphic.

Ten Thousand Years Will Not Suffice by Agape4Gondor
Rating: General
Genre: Drama
Era: 3rd Age - The Stewards
Summary: Denethor - from birth onward... How he became the Twenty-sixth Ruling Steward of Gondor and through to his untimely death (NOT movie based). DEEPEST THANKS TO LINAEWEN - who stuck by me the whole seven years that this took to write.... and to Russandol, my intrepid beta... Aeneid helped me when first I came to this website. Thank you.

Never Again by Nieriel Raina
Rating: General
Genre: Drama
Era: 4th Age
Summary: Undying Friendship Series. Post RotK. Legolas is struggling with sea longing and isolation. A trip to see Aragorn and Gimli is just what he needs. Will the reunited friends have a pleasant visit, or will disaster tear them apart?

The quickest way to get started with the Research Cabinet is to add a few items to it. It's as easy as finding an item to add and clicking a button!

How do I...

...add an item to the Research Cabinet?

1. Log in to HASA.


2. Go to the Resources section of the site.


3. Browse for a Research Library item you would like to add to your cabinet. The items you can add are:
   a.    Timeline Events
   b.    Character Bios
   c.    Places
   d.    Things
   e.    Full Text Searches (Note - you have to save a search before you can add it to your Cabinet)


4. Once you have found the Library item you want to add to you Research Cabinet, look for the right-hand menu box labeled "Research Cabinet".


5. In the Research Cabinet box, click the "Add this [item] to research cabinet".


6. The page refreshes and the item is added to your cabinet.

At this point, you can leave the item loose in the Cabinet, add it to a Notebook, and/or create a Research Note to go with it.

How to add a Notebook to the Cabinet
Notebooks are like folders inside your Cabinet where you can put items to keep them organized. Unlike real life folders and notebooks, HASA Notebooks let you add your cabinet items to multiple notebooks. For example, you might be writing a story with Elladan as a main character and Aragorn as a minor character, and another story with Aragorn as the major character, but no Elladan. You can create a Notebook for your Elladan story and another for your Aragorn story, and put the Aragorn research items in both notebooks, including Research Notes!

You can add a new notebook from any Research Library item, from the main Research Cabinet page, from an existing Notebook and from any Research Note page.

1. Log in to HASA.


2. Go to the Resources section of the site.


3. Be on any of the pages listed above.


4. On that page, look for an "Add Notebook" button.
   a.    On a Research Library item, it will be in the Research Cabinet box at the end of the Notebooks list.
   b.    In the Research Cabinet, it will be in the dark green header of your "My Notebooks" list on the cabinet main page, on a Notebook page and on a Research Note page.


5. Click the button.


6. You will see an Add Notebook form.


7. Provide a name and a brief description for your notebook. Short names display better on screen.


8. Click "Add Notebook".


9. The page will refresh and you will see your new notebook, ready for items to be added to it.


10. To return to where you started, locate the information box about this notebook in the right hand menu, located immediately under the folded up main menu.


11. Click the "Return to Browsing" button.

How to Add a Research Note to the Cabinet
Research notes are your comments, ideas, thoughts, and notes that you want to have accessible to you no matter where you are. Anywhere you have internet access, you have your story notes, organized how you need them. You can link them to any or all of your Notebooks, toss them "loose" into the Cabinet, and link any Cabinet item to them. You can have notes on characters, on plot ideas, on timelines, you name it, as many as you need holding whatever makes sense to you.
You can add a new Research Note from any Research Library item, from the main Research Cabinet page, from an existing Notebook and from any Research Note page.

1. Log in to HASA.


2. Go to the Resources section of the site.


3. Be on any of the pages listed above.


4. On that page, look for an "Add Note" button.
   a.    On a Research Library item, it will be in the Research Cabinet box at the end of the Research Notes list.
   b.    In the Research Cabinet, it will be in the dark green header of your "Research Notes" list on the cabinet main page and on a Notebook page.
   c.    On a Research Note page, it will be a button at the top of the displayed note, plus the button is repeated in the right-hand "Research Notes" box header.


5. Click the button.


6. You will see an Add Research Note form.


7. Provide a name for your research note. Short names display better on screen.


8. The text field is exactly like the one for story chapters. You can copy/paste text in, type new material, add hyperlinks, and so forth.


9. When you are done entering information, click 


10. The page will refresh:
    a.    If you added a new page from a Research Note page, you will immediately view your new note.
    b.    If you added the note from any other page, you will return to wherever you were when you clicked "Add Note". Your new note will be linked in the Research Notes list on that page.

You now can link any Cabinet item to the note or add the note to one or more Notebooks. Add more information to your Research Note as you do your research.

~*~
Nath

HASA news - Birthdays and stories

July birthdays and links to the stories written or updated in June. And... what are birthdays without presents?

July Birthdays

Is your birthday in July, 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.

One birthday in July is HASA’s own birthday on July 4th! Because a birthday wouldn’t be a birthday without a story request, we're asking authors to write a birthday story to entertain our readers. The theme is "giving" because that is what makes HASA run. People giving time, donations, ideas, stories, feedback - giving themselves.

Write about any aspect of giving that appeals to you, in any era of Middle-earth, with any characters. (Extra applause if you can work in the number 8.)

And of course a birthday wouldn’t be a birthday either without a present! So in proper Shire style, HASA has prepared a present for its members: head over to the Resources section and have a peek inside the shiny new cabinet (no, it does not lead to Narnia - at least, not unless you want it to...).

June 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 June:

--- 12 Reviewed Stories were published or updated.
--- 53 General Stories were published or updated.
--- 3 Beta Stories were updated.
(Please note, you need to be logged in to view beta stories.)

Thank you for reading at HASA. Enjoy!

~Nath ~

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 July and would you like a drabble about your favourite character or topic? You can request it here.

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

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


Current and closing Challenges

June 2010 Birthday Cards - closes June 30

July 2010 Birthday Cards - closes July 31

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 be inspired by what is already there and pick 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 slightly dark bunny is To Be a Ringwraith.

Think you want to write it? Come on over to the Nuzgûl of the Month Workshop, 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

HASA How-tos - June 2010

The news today is full of articles about Internet dangers, but few of them tell you how you can defend yourself from these threats. HASA now has a Research Article outlining how to make your computer safe for browsing.

Facebook spam. iPad breaches. Conficker worm. Botnet zombies. Phishing emails. Trojan payloads.
No, these are not names of new grunge bands. These are the kinds of dangers the ordinary Internet user faces when trying to visit sites. On any given day, you'll find an article about one or more of these exploits in your daily newspaper. The online version, of course.

While there are plenty of attention-grabbing headlines, there are not so many resources to tell you how to avoid becoming a victim of these malware attacks. The information is out there, but presumes too much professional computer knowledge to put all the pieces together. Even some IT professionals aren't entirely sure what to do. When you do get your hands on the information, it's often in "geek speak" and can't clearly explain why you need to do this or that to your system.
Anglachel has waded through the references, analyzed the security articles, and figured out the basic steps HASA visitors should take to secure their systems. It has been pulled together into the research article Safe Browsing which is available to all visitors. While aimed at Windows users running either IE or Firefox, the general information is applicable to any operating system and web browser.

HASA Reviewed Stories June 2010

Since the previous Bulletin 9 new stories have been reviewed and there are currently 10 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 10 stories waiting for reviewers (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. Put more simply: 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!


The Tower by Raksha
Rating: General
Genre:  Drama
Era: Multi-Age
Summary: Could a being of Sauron's might simply become dust in the wind when the One Ring was destroyed?  Find out, as Sauron experiences the fall of Barad-dûr and what came afterward.


Unrequited by Elfscribe
Rating: General
Genre:  Romance
Era: 1st Age
Summary: A lovesick Daeron crafts a new song to try to gain Lúthien's attention.  A triple drabble (300 words)


The King's Time by Larner
Rating: General
Genre:  Drama
Era: 4th Age
Summary: It is now the thirtieth of Rethe by the Shire's calendar, and the Lord King has determined that his birthday tomorrow shall be observed in a most solemn manner. This evening he thinks on the passing of time....


The Old that is Strong by Lindahoyland
Rating: General
Genre:  General
Era: 3rd Age - Ring War
Summary: Watching over the dying Faramir, Ioreth is shocked when Gandalf brings a stranger to tend him.


Freedom Is Never Free by Nieriel Raina
Rating: General
Genre:  Drama
Era: 3rd Age - Post-Ring War
Summary: Freedom is not free. Aragorn remembers how he has learned that painful lesson over the course of his life. 


Love Began Here by Adonnen Estenniel
Rating: General
Genre:  Romance
Era: 3rd Age - Ring War
Summary: Under the clear stars on Midsummers Day, Aragorn and Arwen pledge their troth. Years later, under the bright sun of January, Aragorn returns to the hill where he and the Evenstar promised themselves. It was an experience he never thought to repeat.


Portrait Of A Queen by Aruthir
Rating: General
Genre:  Drama
Era: 2nd Age - Pre-Rings
Summary: Tar-Telperien was the second Ruling Queen of Númenor, and never met her great-grandmother Tar-Ancalimë, the first such Queen... ...In life, at least.


Harvest Dreams by lindahoyland
Rating: General
Genre:  Drama
Era: Multi-Age
Summary: A series of drabbles depicting scenes in Faramir's life. Written for a challenge. Each drabble is 100 words as counted in MS Word.


Taking Stock by Virtuella
Rating: General
Genre:  General
Era: 3rd Age - Ring War
Summary: Gandalf reviews his possessions. 

HASA news - Birthdays and stories

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

June Birthday Challenge

Is your birthday in June, 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.

May 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 May:

--- 15 Reviewed Stories were published or updated.
--- 58 General Stories were published or updated.
--- 2 Beta Stories were updated.
(Please note, you need to be logged in to view beta stories.)

Thank you for reading at HASA. Enjoy!

~Nath ~

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

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

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

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~*~

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

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 ~

HASA news - Challenges

Current and prospective Challenges, and the Nuzgûl of the Month: because sleep is for those without inspiration...

Birthday Challenges

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

The April Challenge is still going on, so why not take a few minutes to write someone a birthday drabble?

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

Current and closing Challenges

April 2010 Birthday Cards - closes April 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...
Some recent suggestions in the Forum:
- What triggered the attack in Moria?
- Why didn’t the barrow-wight take the Ring?

Dive in and pick something you’d like to write, or drop a suggestion that you’d like others to write.

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 just 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 A Plague on Both your Houses:

Think you want to write it? Come on over to the forum, 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!

HASA Reviewed Stories April

HASA Reviewed Stories April 2010


Since the previous Bulletin 6 new stories have been reviewed and there are currently 7 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 7 stories waiting for reviewers (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. Put more simply: 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!



The Coimas War by Russandol
Rating: Adult
Genre: Humor
Era: 2nd Age - Pre-Rings
Summary: Several years after the War of Wrath the tension between Noldor and Teleri over the Exiles in Tol Eressëa provoked a most unexpected war in Valinor, of which later chronicles never spoke. Warnings for mild sexuality and blatant provocation!

Pride of Place by lindahoyland
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: 3rd Age - The Stewards
Summary: Newly returned from fighting the Easterlings, Denethor is taken abackto find a stranger at his father's table. Co written with Raksha. MEFA 2009- 3rd Place

Contrast by Larner
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: 3rd Age - Post-Ring War
Summary: The fathers of Meriadoc, Peregrin, and Samwise consider the changes they see in their sons and the companion they'd accompanied out of the Shire, recently returned from distant lands.

A Disgrace to Gondor by lindahoyland
Rating: General
Genre:  General
Era: 3rd Age - The Stewards
Summary: Even when the battle is over, there is no respite for old soldiers.

Eomer goes Fishing by Lady Bluejay
Rating: General
Genre:  General
Era: Multi-Age
Summary: A tall tale, aided and abetted by a trio of Dol Amroth princes.  Complete in two chapters.

Touch of a Vanished Hand by elfscribe
Rating: Adult
Genre:  Drama
Era: Akallabêth/Last Alliance
Summary: When Elendil and his group of Númenóreans wash up on Lindon's shores, Elrond's past comes back to haunt him. Adult (PG) due to mild swearing, coping with death, angst.


*~*Nath*~*

HASA How-tos - April 2010

Do you know about the Copy and Clone chapter commands on HASA? They are two cool tools to help you write your stories!

How do I...

...clone or copy a chapter?

Clone is only available in your Workshops. This allows any workshop member to make a clone of a chapter inside a workshop story and then perform edits or add comments while leaving the original chapter untouched. This is great for jointly written stories or for beta editing.

Copy is available in My Stories and in your Workshops. You can make a copy of your chapter and move it to another story, or just keep a copy of it in your current story. Use it as a fast way to move a work in progress chapter from an Off-List or Workshop story to a published story.

Use these tools to keep original chapters untouched while you do edits and try variations.

Cloning a chapter in a Workshop

1. Be sure you are logged in.
2. Go to the Workshop section and to your Workshop.
3. Go to the story you want to clone chapters in.
4. In the list of chapters, you see three options EditCloneDelete, and select Clone.
   Alternately, go to the chapter and click Clone Chapter, right next to Copy Chapter.
5. The cloned chapter is now created, and you are taken to it.
6. Remember to Return to Story Overview. The chapter number is still set at zero and to place it where you want in the list of chapters you must give it a number.

Now you and the other members of your Workshop can edit it like any other chapter.

Copying a chapter in My Stories or in a Workshop

1. Again, be sure you are logged in.
2. Find the story you want to copy from, either in your Workshop or through My Stories.
3. Go to the chapter you want to copy.
4. Click on the Copy Chapter button at the top of the chapter.
5. You are taken to another page to select a story from the drop-down list and click to add this chapter to that story.

Then: once you have copied the chapter to the other story (for instance from a beta or workshop version of a story you are working on), you leave the current story and go to the other story's overview. This lets you put some finishing touches on the chapter, for example to make it ready for publication.

Remember to set a chapter number on your new chapter and set it to "Public" so it can be viewed!

And that's all there is to it!

~*~Nath~*~

Donations for April and May site hosting needed

Thanks to your generous donations, we're only $8 short on April site hosting. With matching funds, that means we only need one $4 donation. Any further donations will give us a start on May. Our hosting costs are $150 US per month. This pays for the dedicated server HASA needs to provide the features and fun visitors love - stories, comments, forums, alerts, challenges and more.

HASA is an ad-free, fee-free Web site, run for the enjoyment of quality JRRT fanfiction. Our Secret Admirer will match every dollar donated, even small donations quickly add up. 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 visiting HASA!

Julie

HASA news - Birthdays and stories

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

April Birthday Challenge

Is your birthday in April, 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.

March 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 March:

--- 6 Reviewed Stories were published or updated.
--- 54 General Stories were published or updated.
--- 6 Beta Stories were published.
(Please note, you need to be logged in to view beta stories.)

Thank you for reading at HASA. Enjoy!

~Nath ~

HASA news - Challenges

Current and prospective Challenges, and the Nuzgûl of the Month: because sleep is for people without inspiration...

Birthday Challenges

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

The March Challenge is still going strong as well, and it’s not too late to write a drabble featuring geeks (Elena Tiriel) or Orcs (thelauderdale)...

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



Current and closing Challenges

March 2010 Birthday Cards - closes March 31
March 2010 Treasure Hunt - closes April 11
April 2010 Birthday Cards - closes April 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...
Some recent suggestions in the Forum:
- What triggered the attack in Moria?
- Why didn’t the barrow-wight take the Ring?

Dive in and pick something you’d like to write, or drop a suggestion that you’d like others to write.


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 (the boots don’t actually protect your ankles, but they might be shiny enough to blind the Nuzgûl long enough to let you escape again...). Who knows what ideas you may come out with?

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

The Nuzgûl of the Month!
This month’s fanged beauty is Let Meeee entertain you:

Think you want to write it? Come on over to the forum, 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~

HASA Reviewed Stories March 2010

Welcome to the March reviews bulletin.

There are 6 reviewed stories since the February bulletin, and 5 stories are currently in review.

Reviews are an important part of the site: there are the authors who sit waiting with bated breath and fraying nerves, and there are our intrepid reviewers to think of. So before looking at the stories: Thank you all for your work, authors and reviewers alike!

Stories in review
As I type this, there are 5 stories waiting for reviewers (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. Put more simply: 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!


Seasons of Gladness by Raksha
Rating: Adult
Genre:  General
Era: Multi-Age
Summary: Four drabbles dealing with different kinds of happiness experienced by Faramir over many years.  Originally written for, and loosely inspired by, the American Thanksgiving holiday. 

Bee-Elves by Darth Fingon
Rating: General
Genre:  General
Era: 1st Age
Summary: At the end of the First Age, Finarfin, political missionary, travels across Middle-earth and finds his way to Oropher's court.  Much to his dismay. Written as part of a story swap challenge, using the following prompts: Finarfin and Mirkwood.

Songs for the Seasons by losselen
Rating: General
Genre:  General
Era: Multi-Age
Summary: Prose-poems of loss, across a spectrum of emotions. They are as follows: 1. "The Kingfisher's Wing" - Aegnor for Andreth 2. "The Late November" - Elrond for Arwen 3. "The Tolling Bell" - Arwen for Aragorn 4. "Midwinter Spring" - Daeron for Lúthien

Balm by Armariel
Rating: General
Genre:  Drama
Era: 3rd Age - Ring War
Summary: Frodo remembers the escape from Cirith Ungol. Non-slash.

Leithian by Russandol
Rating: General
Genre:  Drama
Era: 2nd Age - Pre-Rings
Summary: Eärwen, wife of Finarfin, reads a book that was brought to Valinor from the Hither Lands after the War of Wrath. Written for the Probably AU Genfic Swap, following the prompts "Eärwen" and "Second Age". My thanks to JDE for the beta. ...

The Trees Were Burning by Nieriel Raina
Rating: General
Genre:  Drama
Era: 3rd Age - Ring War
Summary: Wishing to fight with his people and disappointed to be instead sent as a messenger to Mirkwood, young Blákári, a dwarf of Erebor, finds himself beneath the trees, forced to join in a battle that is not his and to fight alongside a race he has been taught to despise.

Flash news

Until April 8, the From the Research Library feature on the HASA home page will have daily updates from the Tale of Years, running all the way to Cormallen!

HASA How-tos

Do you need a place for your works in progress that aren't quite ready to be published? Do you co-write stories? Make the Workshop work for you!

How do I...
...set up a workshop?

While HASA has Beta status for works in progress, sometimes you need to show stories to a smaller set of readers before you unleash them on the general public. Or maybe you and a few others jointly write stories and need a place where you can all work at the same time. The Workshop is where you make this happen. It offers a private area where several members can work together on stories. This is in contrast to the My Stuff/My Stories area where you can only work on your own stories and no one else can get in there. It's also a way to avoid sending around email attachments and wondering if everyone can read the file format.

For answers to general questions, be sure to check out the Workshop FAQ.

1. Be sure you are logged in.


2. Go to the Workshop section


3. Look at the top of the right hand menu area for the button "Add a New Workshop".


4. Click the button.


5. When you see the form, enter a name for your shop. If you are working on a story, using the story name is a good idea. You can also use your own name or your writing group's name.


6. Add a brief description in the text box.  If you need some inspiration for names or descriptions, check out the Site owned workshops here.


7. Click the "Add" button.


8. The system creates your workshop and shows you the shop home page. By default, the shop is set to Private, meaning only you and invited members can see it.

Now you have to add some members to your shop, so you can work together.

1. Go to the home page of the shop if you aren't already there.


2. In the navigation column, locate the "Shop Info" section.


3. In that section, click on the "Edit Members" button.


4. You should now see the Manage Members page.


5. Scroll down the page until your see a multi-select box. It will display all the names of all active HASA members in alphabetical order.


6. Click on the name of the member you wish to add.


7. To select more than one person, hold down the CTRL key while you click.


8. When your list is complete, click "Add Members to Workshop".

OK, so you have a workshop, you have members and now you need a story (or
two or three)!

1. Go to the home page of the shop if you aren't already there.


2. Scroll down the main shop page until you can see the Stories section.


3. Click the button "Add Stories to Workshop".


4. On the Add Story page you have three options:
   a.      Add an existing story directly - pick a story from a drop-down list and click "Select". The story is linked into the shop.
   b.      Clone an existing story - pick a story from a drop-down list and click "Select". The system makes a copy of that story including all of its chapters and adds it to the shop.
   c.      Create a new story - Click the "Create New Story" button. You'll go to a standard story form. Fill it out and click "Add". This creates a new, empty story for you to work with.

You're set! You can now work in the shop just like you work in your my Stories section of My Stuff, except that as many people as necessary can work there, not just you.

--

Nath

HASA news - Last month’s stories

February 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 February:

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

Thank you for reading at HASA. Enjoy!

~Nath ~

HASA news - Challenges

The monthly Challenges bulletin, with current and prospective Challenges, and (new!) the Nuzgûl of the Month: because sleep is for people without inspiration...

March Birthday Challenge

Is your birthday in March, 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.


Current and closing Challenges

February 2010 Treasure Hunt - closes March 7
March 2010 Birthday Cards - closes March 31


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...
Some recent suggestions in the Forum:
- What triggered the attack in Moria?
- Why didn’t the barrow-wight take the Ring?

Dive in and pick something you’d like to write, or drop a suggestion that you’d like others to write.


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... Why not put on the mithril boots and step into the Nuzgûl hutch (the boots don’t actually protect your ankles, but they just might be shiny enough to blind the Nuzgûl long enough to let you escape again...). Who knows what ideas you may come out with?

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

The Nuzgûl of the Month!
This month’s fanged beauty is an oldie, but a goodie: Tom’s brooch.

Think you want to write it? Why not see how many others you can inflict this idea on, and make it into a Challenge?

Thank you for reading at HASA. Have fun!