Hello everyone,

In just over two months (on the 28th of October) Elysian Fields celebrates its 14th birthday. Reaching the milestone deserves a celebration, and as you all know, here at EF we love to celebrate our site anniversaries with a challenge. Welcome to your intro post for the Trapped Challenge.

The inspiration for the theme of this challenge comes from none other than the current world situation and changes to our daily lives wrought by Covid. For some of us, life has been turned completely upside down, and left us feeling... well, you get the picture.

The theme for this challenge, Trapped, can be utilised however your creative brains interpret.

Some ideas for those wanting a spark for the muse:

• Trapped in an epic battle with seemingly no way out
• Trapped in an un-happy relationship 
• Trapped in an elevator
• Trapped due to a freak weather event
• Trapped beneath the Hellmouth or in an alternate dimension
• Trapped in a fake relationship (for a Green Card, wedding date, or other scenario)
• Trapped by a virus or plague
• Trapped in a day that repeats over and over a la Groundhog Day or Mystery Spot 
• Trapped on a bad date without a vehicle or exit plan
• Trapped by the views or values of those closest 
• Trapped in an unwanted job
• Trapped in the future
• Trapped in the past

...and now I need to stop because I could keep going (and even just brainstorming these ideas is fun), but it's time to get to the nitty gritty.

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to use the theme of Trapped and use it for inspiration to write a brand new fic. Your use of the theme can be as small or as large as you want, so long as it's obvious enough for the readers to go "Oh, I see what you did there!" then your fic qualifies with this challenge. Whichever path you choose to take, we'd love to see what you come up with. 

Authors:
This news item serves as your sign-up post. By signing up to the challenge, you are agreeing to comply with the rules and regulations, and to write a fic with the following specifics:

• Length: Minimum of 1,500 word count, maximum is completely up to you.
• Characters: Buffy, Spike, and any other BtVS or AtS characters you see fit.
• Content Specifications: The fic MUST address the theme of Trapped. How you decide to incorporate this theme into a fic is entirely up to you, the writer. All theme interpretations, big or small, are welcome. 
• Timeline: The fic can be set any time during the BtVS timeline, post series, or pre-series.
• Dates: No posting of the fic onto the archive (or anywhere else) until the 1st of October. As soon as you receive a confirmation email from me regarding your sign-up, consider the writing process time open.
• The challenge is for new fic only, not to be attached to an existing story.
• The fic DOES NOT need to be complete prior to posting, nor does it need to finished during the month of October. We’d just like them to be started during that time.
• Authors are not limited to writing one story. So if you have more than one idea...great!
• When you post your fic, please ensure you credit the artist who made the banner in your fic summary. 
• If you have a banner artist or beta that you worked with as part of your event challenge response, you must credit them in your story notes in order for them to be counted as having participated in the event. If they aren't listed in your story notes, we have no way of identifying that they were part of the event. 
• Please note: authors must sign up for the challenge prior to submitting a request for a banner. A further news post with details for banner requests will be posted to the site in the coming days. 

Artists:
You guys are included in the challenge too. We’ll be connecting you with authors via a banner request list. Prior to the posting of fic on the 1st of October, authors can sign up to request a banner be made for their fic. Participating authors will email me a completed form, with their request for a banner to accompany their fic. The request may include things such as: Fic Title, Author Penname, the season the fic is set in, specific character image requests, colour, theme…etc.

This information will be added to a master list. Artists may then browse the page, and choose to sign up to fulfill a particular request. Each fic will ONLY be allocated to one artist, and it will be in a first come, first served basis. Artists may sign up to create multiple banners; however, we will cap the number to three banners to begin with, to encourage involvement from a lot of people. Secondary sign ups will also occur at some point. More details regarding the sign-up process for artists will come at a later date.

KEY DATES for the Challenge:

• Writing sign ups: from the 25th of August through to the 31st of October.
• Writing time: from email confirmation of sign-up until the challenge concludes.
• Author submissions of banner requests: from the 31st of August through to the 25th of September.
• Artist sign ups: 12th of September.
• Artists to provide banners to authors: by the 30th of September (unless otherwise negotiated with the author).
• Posting of fics to begin: from the 1st of October.
• NOTE: fics DO NOT need to be completed by the end of October, but the first part/chapter must be started prior to the end of the month to be included in the Challenge. 

Authors, if you decide to sign up, we are asking you to send me (Amy) an email at angelic.amy.fic@gmail.com with the following information:

          Author penname:
          I intend to participate in the Trapped Challenge.

And that’s it for now. Any questions? Comment on this news post or shoot me an email at the address above. I know I speak for the rest of The Mods when I say we are looking forward to seeing what the authors and artists of our community come up with!