Arctic Light

In other news, spook_me is back for another year!

I'm so glad they're still running it; this is one of my favorite seasonal events and I'll be truly sad if/when it ever stops running. (In spite of my perennial lack of ability to finish fic for it. But I have high hopes!)

Now I just need to pick my monster(s). HELP ME, FLIST HIVE MIND. I am SO TEMPTED by this year's special creatures (evil book/grimoire and pumpkinhead) but also not really convinced that they'd work all that well for Biggles. What should I inflict on them? I keep wanting to do "ghost" and then absolutely failing to manage to write it. Maybe I should request dinosaurs this year?

Signup post and list of creatures here.

spook_me is back! I just looked at their LJ account creation date and this fest first ran in 2006, which makes this their unbelievable SIXTEENTH YEAR, especially unbelievable given that I participated in the first year - it was the John and Rodney time-looping through the Stargate fic - and have signed up nearly every year since. (Not that I always managed to finish anything, or even manage to finish anything a majority of times, but it's a low-pressure fest in which not finishing anything is perfectly fine.) Other things I've written for it over the years include Ward being haunted by his dead dad's ghost; the Agent Carter lake monster fic which I still maintain had the best prompt pic I've ever gotten; and Ghost Stories in the Van for White Collar, which I literally creeped myself out writing. (One of the bookmark notes says "creepy as fuck and now im never sleeping again." Quality feedback.)

So I signed up.

Sign-up post and instructions here! Basically you sign up with a fandom (this can change later and can also be original fiction) and pick a horror monster/threat from the list, and after signups close, they email you two related pictures, one or both of which can be used as prompts in addition to the monsters.

It's an incredibly fun fest for me because it's just a little bit different from everything else that's out there, and even when I don't finish anything, which is frequently, I still get a lot of autumn/Halloween feelings and inspiration out of it.

SIXTEEN YEARS, YOU GUYS. I don't know if there's anything other than Yuletide that's been running so long.

The spook_me ficathon is running again! Signup post on LJ / Signup post on DW. This is a low-pressure ficathon in which you pick a creature/monster from their list (or they can send you a random one) and also get two creepy or surreal pictures to go with it as a prompt, and then write a story based on at least one of those three things. I really enjoy this one, and there's no penalty for dropping out. I think I've only finished a story for it the first year and whatever year I wrote Ghost Stories in the Van, but I decided to sign up and have them send me a random creature this year. (Two actually, because I decided to sign up for both Agent Carter and MCU -- you can sign up to write as many stories as you think you can manage. I figured that even if I got a completely unworkable prompt for one of them, the other would probably be okay ...) Signups close on Sept. 17.

Today I saw a regular jet airplane fly over with four fighter jets escorting it, which is not something you see every day. I wonder if it was something serious, or a practice maneuver (with an air force base nearby, we see them practicing a lot).

So I went a little wild adding new autumn icons from roxicons. I love autumn (even though it leads to winter), and I've been feeling the need for some new icons recently.

Please tell me I'm not the only person who goes to answer comments and bans/unfriends people by accidentally clicking on the pop-up. Hopefully not too many people have notifications turned on for that sort of thing, but, uh, if you ever get a notice that I've banned and then immediately unbanned you, or unfriended you and then friended you again, that's why.

*facepalm*

Anyway, spook_me is happening again! HOW IS IT THAT TIME ALREADY. This is a fun, super-low-pressure Halloween ficathon. I've only ever managed to finish my story one time (and the story I wrote was Ghost in the Machine, which is NOT short, so it took me a year to actually finish it). I've been wanting to write a White Collar ghost story, but in 2011 I was trying to finish the horse farm story in October, and last year I was having a set of emotional issues which included kinda dropping out of fandom somewhat. But this year, THIS year I will not only sign up, but I will write that ghost story! You can sign up for original fiction as well as fanfic -- you pick a creature from the list, and then receive prompts, which this year are based on Tarot cards -- and the deadline (Oct. 26) is a loose guideline only. Signups are here.

arduinna suggested an Idyll Challenge, described as "a story in which the characters are stuck in a peaceful, comfortable, well-stocked place, usually with some kind of swimming available". And then went and created an Idyll Challenge Collection on AO3. There are no signups or anything; just write a story in any fandom that fits the above description and upload it. The deadline is Sept. 22, but it's flexible. (Still trying to figure out how I can get the White Collar characters into a situation like that without the FBI being 5 minutes behind them ...)