HP_Psych Anniversary Fic Challenge

[blpurdom]

On June 8 the HP_Psych Yahoo group will be one year old! The 
anniversary of when I first posted Psychic Serpent on the net 
is actually sooner (May 19, just one week away!) but celebrating the 
anniversary of the list instead gives folks more time to write a 
challenge fic.

That's right! Write a one-shot fic set in the Psychic Serpent 
Universe. It can be rated G-R and can be from anyone's POV, first 
person, third person, whatever. Angst, humor, romance, 
action/adventure, you choose. Submit your work by June 1; the fics 
will be judged during the following week and the winner (or winners 
if there's more than one) will be announced on the anniversary. 
I'll be making a poll on the HP_Psych Yahoo group for voting for 
the submissions, which will close the day before the anniversary.

There will be a link on the HP_Psych home page to reach the 
challenge fics, and folks are welcome to review the works. Although 
it should use the Psychic Serpent Universe at least as a departure, 
your fic doesn't have to fit seamlessly into the PS universe; this 
could be your chance to do that slashed version of a PS or ToGI 
scene you've been thinking about. <g> (Just bear in mind that it has 
to be rated R or below.)  And you are, of course, welcome to submit 
your fic to any archive (such as FictionAlley, hint hint) after the 
competition.  (Please wait until after June 8.)

Here are the detailed rules for the fic challenge:

1. SUBMITTING A FIC

The fics must be submitted to me by email. Send .htm or .txt files 
as attachments to blpurdom at ... . I am willing to put html 
into txt files; do not send me Word (doc) files or files formatted 
to be read by any word processor. I will be adding posting links 
from the fic files to the HP_Psych group so that folks can review 
the fics. I will not be identifying the authors of the fics until 
after the competition, so knowing the identity of the author will 
not affect the voting (people voting for their friends or 
specifically NOT voting for folks who ship differently, etc.).  This 
is why I would prefer for folks to wait until after the competition 
to send the fic to an archive.

2. PROOFREADING IS A MUST

Fics must be proofread for grammar, spelling and punctuation. Fics 
with overwhelming problems with any of these things will be sent 
back for correction. (Some mistakes are to be anticipated; a half-
dozen typos will not get your file sent back.)

3. STAY ON-TOPIC and NO INSTALLMENTS

The fic must clearly have something to do with the Psychic Serpent 
Universe. General HP fanfiction will not be accepted for the 
competition. This is a one-shot thing; do not do a chaptered fic. 
Recommended length: no less than 8K (text only) and probably no more 
than 100K (rough figures--101K isn't the end of the world, for 
instance, nor is 7K). If you want to make this the basis for a 
longer fic, of course, that's no problem, but the competition is for 
shorter works.

4. RATINGS/LANGUAGE

The fic must be rated R or below. Just because you say it is R 
doesn't necessarily mean it IS. I reserve the right to send back a 
submission that needs to have language or other things toned down. 
I will probably have helpful suggestions for how to change the fic 
to meet the guidelines.

5. DEADLINE

The fics must be submitted by May 31. Please do not wait for the 
last minute, if possible. I hope to have all of the fics coded and 
on the HP_Psych website by the end of the day on June 1. I will 
put up the poll first, actually, so I can link to the poll at the 
end of the fic files as well. I will be making the poll multiple 
answer, so if you like more than one fic, you can vote for all of 
the ones you like. The fic with the most votes will win. The poll 
will close at the end of the day on June 7, and I will announce 
the closing before I do it.

Again, do NOT send a submission to the the HP_Psych Yahoo group. 
It will be deleted and you will be placed on moderated status. The 
fics will be loaded in a special directory in the files section and 
a link will be created on the home page; I'll also put a link in the 
footer that goes on the email posts during the competition time. 
(Right now the footer has a link to the home page, among other 
things.)

Thank you.

--Barb
(Go on! Get writing now!)