Tuesday, May 28, 2013

May & April Donation Request

For over ten years HASA has been providing ad-free, fee-free JRRT fanfiction that is operated by fandom, not corporate interests. There are no tests to take to join, & HASA has all genres, characters, ratings & story lengths. depends on fan funding.

If you become a member, your contact information is not for sale to marketeers. We get hundreds of readers a day, which makes HASA a great place for readers and writers. To do this HASA depends on
donations from members and readers, both one-time gifts and subscriptions. Our balance now is -$110, which means we need donations to cover 3/4ths of April and all of May; the May hosting will be due in the next few days.

If only a small percentage of our members and readers donated every year or got a monthly subscription we would be in better shape. Our account is still negative; if we had more subscribers it would be easier to keep ahead.


Our
PayPal account has three ways to donate:
• Monthly subscriptions - set up a monthly recurring donation in amounts from $5 to $25 dollars.
• Yearly subscriptions - set up a recurring annual donation in amounts from $15 to $50 dollars.
• "Just because" donations of any amount.


If you're a little short on spare change at the moment, donations of time are always appreciated. There's an archive full of stories just waiting for comments, authors who would dearly love an email complimenting them on their work, challenges that need entries, playlists that need to be created, and forums begging for discussions. If you are a reviewer, check out a story today. If you aren't a reviewer, no better time than now to sign up. If you are an author, please consider
donating a new story.

Thanks for enjoying HASA!


Julie

Sunday, May 19, 2013

HASA How-to May 2013

How do I...

... post my stories?

This month we look at how to post your stories at HASA.

How to post your story at HASA

Every HASA member can post as many stories as she likes to the site.

First, check you're logged in. Then go to My Stuff and select My Stories. Choose Add New Story.

The next thing you have to do is create a story overview. In the story overview you put in the title, a summary, and some details like characters and the type of story it is.

Now you can add chapters to your story.

Please be sure to read the onscreen instructions (on the right hand side of the page) the first few times you create stories, or if you run into problems. They will help you avoid the most common errors.

When you're done, press Edit Story (at the bottom of the form).

You are returned to your story list. Now find the story you just added and directly select 'add chapter' in the story list. You can also click on the title of the story and add your chapter(s) from the Story Overview.

Once you're in the chapter dialogue, enter a title for your chapter under Chapter Title, and paste in your chapter text in the Chapter Text window (mind to use the 'paste from Word' option if you are pasting from Word).

Take a minute to read the notes about the editor toolbar on the right – there are useful hints there.

Select a chapter status: private or public

Private means your chapter won't be visible. Your default choice should be Public, unless you have specific reason to keep a chapter out of view for the time being.

Now 'add chapter'. You will now see what your chapter looks like. You can make edits if you need to ('edit this chapter'). Other options are 'add chapter', 'convert line breaks' (look at last month's how-to; however this is only relevant if you are editing an older story), copy chapter and 'return to story overview'.

Select 'return to story overview'. Now comes an important step in making sure your story can be read: Set chapter numbers. Your chapters do not appear to readers if the chapter number is '0'.

Select your chapter number. If you have more chapters listed already, select Reorder List.

Now you can add another chapter(s) if you like.

Done?

Check if all your chapters are set to public and have a number greater than '0'.

Done!

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

Sunday, May 12, 2013

HASA Reviewed Stories May 2013

Since the previous Bulletin, 3 stories passed through review while there are currently 9 stories waiting for reviewers. Make an author's day and review a story!

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

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

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

Becoming a reviewer

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

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

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

Reviewed story spotlight

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

The Chimes in the Wind by Vaysh
Rating:  General
Genre:  Other  
Era:  3rd Age – Post-Ring War
Summary: It's an old tradition with the Tooks to gift a new-born child with wind chimes made from coloured glass. Pippin sets out from the Great Smials to bring the Tooks' gift to Sam's newborn daughter Elanor.

Forsaken by Imhiriel
Rating: General
Era:
1st Age
Genre: Drama  
Summary: Finrod remembers. Drabble.

The Blue Wings of Butterflies by Certh
Rating:  General
Genre:  Drama
Era:  Multi Age
Summary: Tom Bombadil recalls glimpses of a blue brooch from years past.

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

Sunday, May 5, 2013

HASA News - Birthdays, Challenges, Stories

May Birthdays

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 some recent ones.

Challenges

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

The Nuzgûl of the Month!

The all-new May Nuzgûl, from Tauriel: Flowers – April Showers bring May Flowers; we just had weather, how about the effects? Flowers of love, flowers of mourning, flowers just because, flowers from a husband trying to get out of the dog house... Flowers being given, flowers being planted, flowers being trampled, eaten, painted, sung about...  Flower names perhaps? Literal flowers, imagined flowers, maybe jeweled flowers?

If you have ideas for Nuzgûl of the Month later this year, please post to the discussion thread as well. Ideas are always welcome!

April Stories

All writers love feedback. It is the lembas and miruvor that sustains us as we write our story, and leaving a few words about a story you read is always a nice thing to do, whether the story is new or old.

Every fifteen minutes HASA highlights a story chosen at random from the Reviewed and General stories in the archive. Read the currently featured story on our front page.

Many talented writers are publishing every day. In April:

--- 2 Reviewed Stories were published or updated.

--- 24 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!