HASA news - October 2009

Autumn is definitely here (or spring, for the southern hemisphere), and it's the perfect time to curl up somewhere warm to read or write some fanfic --- and if you’re reading, why not drop an author a comment?

The October news focuses on Birthdays, Challenges and Nuzgul, Reviews and Playlists.


Birthday Cards

It’s your birthday in October, and you would 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 the stories written for previous requests.


Challenges and Nuzgul

Click here for the Challenges homepage.

If you have an idea that you'd like at least five people take on, grab that nuzgul by the scruff of the neck (mind the teeth!) and see if you can get four others to make it a Challenge. Prospective Challenges can be found here

There are currently no open Challenges (except Birthdays), so if you have any spare Nuzgul lying around, don’t hesitate to see how many others it can bite!

In September the HASA Birthday Challenge '09* closed. Right now, there are two stories and two placeholders for the challenge, but you can always write an oliphaunt** entry for this or any other closed challenge.

* (please note, you need to be logged in for this link to work)
** What are oliphaunts? Click here to find the answer


Reviews

Reviews are now visible at the top of the members home page. If you are an active reviewer, log in to see the list of 8 new stories that are waiting for reviewers.

Or, if you are not yet a reviewer, why not sign up to become one? Reviewing is not nearly as daunting as you may think it is, and you're eligible if you've been a member of HASA for thirty days or more.

Member participation is crucial for reviews. The more people are involved in the review process, the more opinions will be represented. Just as importantly, having more people involved means that stories pass through review more quickly - which is good for everyone.

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


Playlists

Playlists are lists of HASA stories put together by authors and readers, just as music lovers put together lists of their favorite songs.

For example:
- An author uses playlists to put the stories in a series in reading order.
- A reader puts her ‘favourites’ in a playlist and explains why they are listed
- A reader makes a list of similarly themed stories, for instance Hobbit romance or critical essays on Men.
- ...

Anyone can create a playlist!

If you are a reader, you can collect your favorite stories by different authors together in one place. If you are an author, you can put one together of your own stories. Using the Workshop, a group of authors can put together joint playlists of their work.

If you are logged in, go to My Playlists for more information on creating your own lists.

Playlists are meant to be shared!

Once you publish your playlist, other HASA members can add your list to a playlist favorites collection. You can collect playlists by authors and other readers even if you don't have any of your own. On every playlist overview page is an "Add to My Collection" button. Click, and that list is added to your collection. If you don't see the button, check to see if you are logged in.


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:

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

Thank you for reading at HASA. Enjoy!