Another year has come and gone…and what a year it was.

There is a lot we could say on the subject of 2020—a lot we HAVE said either on the ShoutBox here or on the Elysian Fields Discussion Group. But for the sake of moving forward, we are choosing to focus on the good. And for our little fic archive, which turned 14, there is a lot of good.

Now the holidays are behind us, so we have retired the holiday skin as the site default. However, we did decide to make it available to users year-round for 2021, so if you like the falling snow, you can keep it.

We held three site events—Challenge Month in April, Trapped Challenge in October, and the first-ever Secret Santa Fic Exchange in December. The response was overwhelming, as the numbers will show.

But before we get to the numbers, we have some awards to issue.

First, we’re rolling out a brand-new award to all authors who COMPLETED stories in 2020. For a show that turned twenty-three last year, we have such a wonderful community of authors who routinely pour their time and creativity into giving us new stories and that seems like something worth celebrating, particularly with a lovely award designed by our own angelic_amy. Just how alive and well is Spuffy fandom? In 2020, 110 EF authors completed 332 fics (!!!!). Authors, seriously, take a freaking bow.

We are so grateful for all of you, and the amount of care and effort you put into your works. You’re the blood that keeps EF’s heart pumping. Thank you for the stories you give us and the time you volunteer to see them through to completion.

We look forward to awarding the FIC COMPLETE award to even more authors in 2021!

We also have the Challenge Complete Award (also designed by angelic_amy), which was awarded to site members who completed any site event challenge in 2020 (that is, the challenge events that are overseen by the EF mods and come with spiffy thematic skins and stuff). So if you participated in a site event challenge this year (or any year) and completed the fic in 2020, you have a shiny new award on your profile.

Next, OffYourBird spearheaded what is now a new EF holiday tradition with the first-ever Secret Santa Fic Exchange. This event was a rousing success, with 51 gifts making their way into the world, and ensuring that Demon Santa has been successfully sent fleeing from our snowy fields of solace... for this year. Thank you all so much for bringing this event to life with such enthusiasm, and special thanks to all the members who worked as and volunteered to be rescue writers to ensure that no one was left giftless. We hope everyone had a joyous and merry time participating. Participants: you will also find shiny new participation awards (designed by OffYourBird) on your profiles if you submitted your story by midnight 12/31.