UPDATE: slight adjustment to event dates - scroll down to see.

Hey everyone!

I’m here to kick things off for the April Challenge Month. Amy, isn’t it a little early to be talking about Challenge Month I hear you say? Well, that might just be because this year’s Challenge Month has a little extra added spice.

A few years ago we ran a little ole site event called the Artistic Anniversary Challenge. With this event, we flipped the switch. Instead of Authors writing and then Artists creating we put the reins in the hands of the banner makers. And they graced us with 79 pieces of shiny awesomeness (of which you can still find all listed here) and 44 of these were accompanied by the words of our talented site authors.

This event was a lot of fun, so much in fact, that we the mods have decided we want to do Part Deux. And what better time to run such an event, than during Challenge Month?

Welcome to your intro post to the 2021 Artistic April Challenge Month.

Here’s the sitch:

Artists:
We’re asking you to create a banner with the following specs:
Dimensions: Width 900px x Height 250px (maximum).
Text: In a small clear font (approx. 8-10pt) the following tagline along one of the banner edges: Designed for the Elysian Fields ‘Artistic April Challenge Month’. The title of the fic will be left up to the author, however suggestions can be posted with the banner if you think you have something that fits the art.
Fic Specifications: In a similar style to what you can find under the Challenges page on Elysian Fields, a Must Have, Can Haves, Can’t Haves list. No more than three specifications per category. An example of the email contents can found further in this post under the rules section.

If you are an artist in our archive community, and would be interested in participating, PLEASE reply to this post so we can gauge interest in the challenge. This also counts as your sign up. As soon as you comment you can begin creating! Once said banner (or banners) are complete, your art and the fic specifications are to be emailed to me at the following address, so they can be added to a master list page for the event: angelic.amy.fic@gmail.com

Authors:
Once the art has been created there will be a sign up process, where banners will be up for grabs. Each banner will ONLY be allocated once, and it will be first come, first serve. So make sure you pay close attention to signup dates. Sign-ups will be for your top three banner choices, in case your first or second is chosen.

Once your banner/challenge has been confirmed, we’re asking you to write a fic with the following specs:
Fic length: Minimum of 1,500 words, maximum is complete up to you.
Characters: Buffy, Spike, and any other characters shown in the banner or specified as part of the challenge.
Content Specifications: Must abide by the Must Have and Can’t Have items specified by the artist. Obviously the Can Haves is voluntary.
The banner must accompany the fic when it is posted on the archive. Modification of the banner with the fic title and your author penname should be discussed with the artist once the first part/chapter is ready for publishing. Authors, you will be put in contact with the banner artist during the banner confirmation stage. 

EVENT RULES AND REGS:
1) All fic entries MUST include both Buffy and Spike.
2) All banner entries MUST comply with the size restrictions.
3) All fic entries MUST meet the minimum word count.
4) All art entrants MUST complete the following form with their artwork:

     Artist Penname:
     Characters:
     Rating:
     Season/Episode: (if specific)
     Must Have:
     1)
     2)
     3)
     Can Have:
     1)
     2)
     3)
     Can’t Have:
     1)
     2)
     3)
     Permission to share your email address with the author who claims this artwork: Yes / No

5) All banners and specifics must be emailed to the address provided in this post.
6) Banner claims are for new fic only, not to be attached to an existing or previously published story.
7) There is no limit to the amount of banners an artist can make, nor fics an author can write.

EVENT DATES:
Banner submission: 10th – 26th of February
Banner claims open: 27th of February
Banner claims confirmed: 1st – 3rd of March ** 
Writing time: from banner confirmation (beginning 1st of March) onwards. Please do not write for a banner until you receive email confirmation it is yours.
Fic submissions: 1st – 30th of April
**Late claims of banners will be accepted if there is unclaimed art after initial confirmation window

Finally, one last message to potential participating authors. As this challenge is being run during the month of April, if the idea of participating in the banner signup process is a little overwhelming to you, the usual April Challenge Month process still applies. If you have a bunch of saved challenges already you can write one of those. And if you’ve yet to explore the challenges page, you can scroll through the multitude of ideas found here, select a challenge that works for you, and write to those specs. Challenges on the site can be filtered to include or exclude by categories, characters, dates added, most recent, etc.

That’s about it. If there are any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!

Yours in Spuffy,
The Mods.