Look, I'm still alive! And have so many things to catch up on

[brigdh]

New challenges you should consider joining:

smallfandomfest: for all small fandoms- movies, books, TV shows, etc. They are currently accepting submissions here until the 21st. Even if you don't want to write a story, feel free to go and submit some prompts, and get a story written for you.

yuri_challenge: the list of prompts is open for claiming until June 23. Go make the pretty anime girls have sex, people.

sprinkkink: is taking prompts for a new round! I really need to go add some myself; I got such lovely stories last time. Any fandom, het, slash or femslash, it's all good. You have until the 11th.

summersteam: The Summer Steam Harlequin Challenge, a new challenge. Claim a plot taken from a Harlequin romance novel and write something with it that's actually good; both fanfiction and original works are accepted. You have until the 31st to claim one.

31_days list of May prompts is up, and they're very nice. I'm so upset that I'll be gone before the 26th, because dude, how perfect is 'blood and love without the rhetoric' for Alec and Richard?

Real post later.

Comments

[kessie.livejournal.com]

Dude, I was beginning to worry about you! :x

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Aw! That's so sweet. I'm really touched that you'd notice I hadn't posted in a while.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

Those Harlequin plots are terrifying. Do you think they're real? Are the italicised bits cover copy?

I would never go so far as to say that a gifted writer couldn't make something good out of one of them. But I will say that they're too frightening for me to be entirely confident of the results of this challenge. I'll grant that I'm jumpier than usual just at the moment -- but no, I don't think it's my nerves. I think there's a sound, objective basis for being afraid.

[losyark.livejournal.com]

Those are indeed all actual plots - I know, I spent two days rooting them all out from Amazon and publishing houses and RomanceOnline sites!

Some of the italisized sentences are the taglines from the covers, some I made up. I also pretty much intentially chose some of the weirdest, cheesiest, most awful ones I could in the hopes of triggering something different and interesting in authors. I wanted to try to emphasize teh bad so the good would come out better.

And yeah, some of the quality won't be fantastic, but it's meant to be fun and smutty and steamy and a laugh!

I'm looking forward to everything, the good and the bad!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

They are real, which seems a bit horrifying, doesn't it? I mean, who knew that NASCAR was apparently so popular among the Harlequin audience?

I suppose I shouldn't make fun of it, because I'm sure someone searching through the dregs of, say, fantasy pulp novels could find an equally terrible set of plots. I do wonder how these sorts of books get published in such numbers, when plenty of much more talented writers haven't been.

[redshoeson.livejournal.com]

Thank you for always posting these ficathon roundups. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by all the ficathons out there, but your list brings together a nice sampling. I know I'll be joining at least one... ^^

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

No worries! I'm glad you like them; I always enjoy having more stories to read.