Sunday, March 28, 2010

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~

Sunday, March 21, 2010

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.

Monday, March 15, 2010

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

Sunday, March 7, 2010

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 ~

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

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!