Monday, January 30, 2012

Donation request for January

Hi all! Thanks everyone for helping to get HASA into the black for December, we’d like to keep it that way. The January bill has been paid and we need $90 to get HASA back into the black.

Thanks to our seven monthly subscribers who pay for almost one third of our monthly costs, you’re much appreciated. Thanks also for individual donations.

HASA is in its tenth year of providing ad-free, fee-free JRRT fanfiction that is owned and operated by the fandom, not corporate interests. Your contact information is not for sale to marketeers. There are no tests to take to join, all genres, characters, ratings and story lengths are welcome, and we get hundreds of readers a day. If you are one of our regular visitors, please consider setting up a subscription. $5 = one day of hosting. Or, if you cannot commit to a regular donation, give an individual donation.

Economic times are tough, but every little bit helps. If you can't spare money, then please give something just as valuable – your time. There are stories that need reviews, a story comment can really make an author's day, we have forums for discussing any topic and of course you can post your own works for the enjoyment of everyone.

Thanks for enjoying HASA!

Julie

Saturday, January 21, 2012

HASA news - Challenges

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

Birthday Cards

There is more than a week to go in the January Birthday Cards, so there’s still plenty of time to write or request a drabble...

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

Prospective Challenges, Oliphaunts and Nuzgûl

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.

Older ideas can also be found in the Oliphaunt Pen and the Nuzgûl Hutch… Why not take on an Oliphaunt or let a Nuzgûl bite you?

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?

The Nuzgûl of the Month!

The January Nuzgûl, Alternate Perspectives, can be found here, and will run until the end of the month; the February 2012 Nuzgûl will be revealed close to February 1.

Come on over to the Nuzgûl of the Month Workshop and join in the fun. If you’ve written a story for any of the previous months, don’t forget to add it to the Playlist!

Thank you for reading at HASA. Have fun!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

HASA How-tos - January 2012

How do I...

... convert line breaks in older stories?

This month we look at how to convert line breaks in older stories where the paragraphs are 'broken'. If you are an author who posted stories on HASA in 2005 or earlier, this How-To may be just the fix for your stories.

What is converting line breaks?

Some older stories, specifically ones posted between April 2004 and June 2005, lost their paragraph formatting as a result of a site upgrade interfering with these older pages. Up to now, the only way to fix these stories was manually. Either the author had to find her old chapters in a word processing document and repost them, or else she had to open up the chapters online and insert line breaks one by one.

Now, however, you have a one-click fix for missing line breaks in any of your stories that are affected:

  1. Go to My Stuff/My Stories to find a story that is affected.
  2. Open a chapter in that story
  3. Click the “Convert Line Breaks” button

The conversion page will show you:

  • How your chapter should look with line breaks
  • How HASA readers currently see it (Ugly! Unreadable!)

This lets you review your changes on a chapter by chapter basis. Click the “Convert Chapter” button to fix the chapter. That’s it! You can do more editing on it with the regular editor afterwards in case it stuck in a few too many lines. Be sure to take advantage of the newest in-page editor to put in the special formatting that was too much trouble to do six (or more) years ago on the Web.

If there is any topic you'd like to see in the how-to, please let us know!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

HASA News - Reviews

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

Member participation is crucial for reviews. The more people are involved in reviewing, the more different opinions are represented. Having more people involved also means that stories pass through review more quickly – which is good for everyone. If you are an active reviewer, why not go and check out a story?

Or, if you are a writer, take the plunge and submit a story for review; and when you do, please remember: Put one in, take one out.

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

Becoming a reviewer

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

Daunted by the idea of reviewing? Don’t 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!

Western Duty, Eastern Desire by Adonnen Estenniel
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: 2nd Age - Pre-Rings
Summary: The impossible choice comes to all: a time when the balance of the scales depends upon whether or not one does the right thing. But the 'right thing' is often subjective, as two Istari must learn.

Where no Birds Sing by Linda Hoyland
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: 4th Age
Summary: When Roheryn goes lame, Aragorn and Faramir are stranded in a stormand forced to seek shelter. A story for Halloween.

Tales of the Steward by Itarille1
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: 4th Age
Summary: Short pieces concerning the seven-and-twentieth (Ruling) Steward of Gondor, as recorded by one of his grandson. Book-verse, late Third Age – early Fourth Age Gondor.

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

Sunday, January 1, 2012

HASA news - Birthdays, Challenges, Stories

First, before anything else: Happy New Year, and happy writing!

Second: Thank You! to everybody who helped HASA to meet our donations goal and end 2011 in the black.

January Birthday Challenge

Is your birthday in January, and would you like a drabble about your favourite character or topic? Keep an eye out for the January Birthday Challenge to appear!

Meanwhile, if you received any stories in 2011, remember to make a Birthday story for your gifts. Create a story, make each present into a chapter in your story (copy/paste), and then link the collection of stories to the 2011 Birthday Challenge; feel free to ask for help if you need a hand.

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

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?

The Nuzgûl of the Month!

The January Nuzgûl, Alternate Perspectives, can be found here, and will run until the end of the month.

Come on over to the Nuzgûl of the Month Workshop and join in the fun. If you’ve written a story for any of the previous months, don’t forget to add it to the Playlist!

December 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 December:

--- No 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!