EDIT 27/2: BANNER CLAIMING IS OPEN

________________

Hey everyone!

We’ve had a massive amount of art submitted for this event, way more than I anticipated (and I’d set my expectations pretty high). In fact, I’m still receiving banner and challenge submissions, and they will continue to be accepted and added to the Banner Master List right up until 11:59pm on the 26th of Feb.

A little reminder of the Event dates before we get down to business:
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: posting to begin between the 1st – 30th of April


Event details:
Firstly, by signing up for a banner, you are agreeing to comply with the rules and regs for the event, and write a fic with the following specifics:

• Length: Minimum length 1,500 words, maximum completely up to you!
• Characters: Buffy, Spike, any other characters shown in the banner or mentioned in the artists challenge details.
• Content Specifications: Must abide by the Must and Can’t Haves specified by the artist. Obviously the Can Haves is voluntary. All fic MUST follow the guidelines set by the banner artist, unless changes are agreed upon by both parties.
• Dates: no posting of the fic on the archive (or anywhere else) until the 1st of April. 
• Banner claims are for new fic only, not to be attached to an existing story. 
• The banner must accompany the fic when it is posted on the archive. Modification of the banner with fic title and author name should be discussed with artist once the first part/chapter is ready for publishing. Authors, I will put you in contact with the artist during the banner selection process.

What you need to know about claiming a banner:

• There will be no early requests. The banner claiming process opens at 12:00am 27th of February. This is firm – early requests will not be accepted. If you have your eye set on a particular pretty, please keep an eye on the site clock to ensure your request is valid. The site clock is on the Shoutbox on the main page of the archive for anyone looking for it.
• Each banner will ONLY be allocated once, and it will be first come, first serve. The confirmation process for the last time we ran this event went down to the second (in terms of determining who is allocated particular banners if there are multiple requests for one piece), so make sure you are ready to hit send on the email when sign ups commence.
• Authors will be allocated one banner for Round 1 signups. If you are interested in writing for more than one challenge (and claiming more than one banner) there will be secondary signup round(s) for unclaimed banners (dates to be confirmed in a news post after Round 1 claims are confirmed). 
• Authors, you are advised to ensure your signup email to claim a banner includes your top three preferences, in case your first or second is chosen. If you want to list more preferences than that, that’s perfectly fine. But understand you will only be allocated one banner to begin with, as mentioned above. 

To claim a banner:

Email me at angelic.amy.fic@gmail.com with the following information:

• Author penname:
• Email address you want shared with your artist: (so contact can be set up with the artist for text additions)
• Banner request: List your top 3 banner choice(s) by title (number) and artist name, in order of preference. 

And that’s it.


How do I know if my selection has been accepted?

• Between the 1st and 3rd of March confirmation emails will be sent to authors identifying which of your banner choices you have been successful in attaining. So please don't start writing until you receive your confirmation email. 
• Your Elysian Fields ID will also be linked with the banner on the master list page, which is why providing your penname is essential. 

Any questions? Comment here or shoot me an email.

And when the time comes... happy claiming!

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.

Hello again, darling EFers.

We have officially closed the book on 2020, a year that, despite being universally panned as just The Worst™, managed to be a pretty good one in terms of all things EF. If you missed it, be sure to check out the year-end wrap-up.

But 2020 is in the rearview, so we’re looking ahead. With this in mind, the EF Mod Team has brainstormed and implemented a few changes that we think, overall, you guys will like.

Bad News First

First, we’ll start with what we’re taking away. In order to continue providing excellent event-themed skins, we’re going to start phasing out some of the lesser-used and redundant skins. So, if your default is currently heaven, mobile, or mobile-night, we encourage you to search through the other available skins for an alternative.

However, when we take, we also give. The holiday skin, which has previously been unavailable for eleven months out of the year, is now available year-round.

New Categories! New Genres! New Warnings! New Everything!

One of the things that happens when you start a fanfic archive in 2006 and it’s still going strong 14 years later is…well, fandom changes. So we’re introducing a slew of genres, categories, and warnings for our authors to use going forward and, if they so choose, apply to any currently published work.

New Categories:

• Between Seasons (any) – For stories that are set, well, between seasons.
• Canon-Compliant – For those stories that maintain canon. Canon-Compliant is for the small subsect of fics that aren't canon divergences and don't change canon events (i.e., what we saw on-screen and/or read in comics). These may be missing scenes or stories that fill in gaps by telling the story that occurred off-screen/page but complements the established canon narrative without changing anything. Authors can choose at their own discretion whether or not canon includes the comics. If canon does include comics, then the fics in this category should be comic canon-compliant. 
• Vignettes – This isn’t new but it is in a new place. Previously, Vignettes was listed under Genre. We encourage everyone who had fics tagged with Vignette to edit these stories, as that tag was lost due to software limitations…in that we couldn’t “move” so much as “delete.” Sorry!
• Wishverse – For stories set in, you guessed it, the BtVS Wishverse.

New Genres:

• Slow-Burn – Typically applied to relationships that take time to develop, either romantically or sexually.
• Fix-It – Fixing something that went awry in canon.
• Kidnapping – Pretty sure this one needs no explanation.
• HEA/HFN – For authors who wish to assure readers that they aren’t torturing readers just to gut them in the end, stories can now be marked as HEA (Happy Ever After) or HFN (Happy For Now). Since so many readers prefer to read stories with an HEA, we thought readers might be encouraged to read more WIPs if they know that their pain and suffering will not be in vain.
• Tragedy – By the same token, if an author wishes to let readers know that there will be tears, and lots of them, fics can now be marked as Tragedy. Sometimes it’s better to know going in. It’s the way Shakespeare operated, after all!
• Mystery – For fics in which the Scooby Gang becomes the Scooby Gang.
• Prophecy – For fics in which a prophecy of some sort is prominently featured. This can range from Buffy’s death prophecies to end-of-the-world prophecies to the Shanshu Prophecy to create-your-own prophecy.
• Under Magical Influence – Our fancy way of classifying those Shag-or-Die fics; or conversely, Something Blue fics, or really any fic where magical hijinks play a prominent role in what a character does or says.
• Resurrection – Both Buffy and Spike like to die and come back. If your fic prominently features a Resurrection, this is the genre for you.

New Warnings:

• Underage Sex – It has been an EF Rule since the dawn of EF that stories with Underage Sex were strictly not allowed. Well, we were never good at enforcing this rule, and in terms of our fandom, it confuses things. Like, it’s canon that Buffy was sexually active before she was of legal age, so why shouldn’t those fics be included?

Thing is, when EF was founded, Underage Sex was a Big Fandom Concern™, thanks mostly to super popular fandoms like Harry Potter, which has a host of adult/child pairings that had parents in a moral panic over what their children were reading and what was being normalized. This is also one of the reasons that EF insisted on registered user accounts in which the user verified they were old enough to read explicit fiction. Believe it or not, that was not standard when we launched. But the year is 2021, and the world has changed. Since EF hasn’t really policed these fics and we really have no desire to do so, we added Underage Sex as a warning and removed the rule. We encourage authors to apply this warning on all fics where underage characters are described as being sexually active, regardless of whether or not the sex in question is explicit.

For the purposes of EF, we're defining Under Age as anything under 17, or when Buffy became canonically sexually active. However, authors are free to interpret Under Age as under 18 years old.

• Mental Health Issues – For stories that have a focus on a character’s mental health or wellness.
• Emotional/Psychological Torture – In recognition that torture doesn’t have to physically hurt to leave a scar.
• Physical Torture – What was the Torture warning has been amended to refer specifically to instances of Physical Torture.

Reminders

Just some things that you may not know or might have missed.

• New Award – In 2020, we launched a brand-new award to recognize authors who completed at least one of their fics within the year. We want to issue more of these awards at the end of 2021! (Hinty hint hint hint)
• EF Daily Backups – To be proactive in preserving site content, Holly will be performing daily backups of the EF Database, during which time the site will be inaccessible. These backups will occur between 10-11am site-time (EST/EDT) and result, typically, in no more than 10 minutes of site downtime. This reflects a change from the previously announced time, which was between 10:30-11pm.
• Site Probs – All technical/site issues should be emailed to ssolace@gmail.com rather than discussed in the ShoutBox or the Facebook group. 
• About Ratings – Fic ratings should be assigned based on the rating the fic warrants. While this isn’t a widespread issue, we have caught a few instances where a fic was given a rating that didn’t reflect the fic’s contents. We know NC-17 is the most popular rating, but fics with this rating should have content to match, and not just assigned this rating because of its popularity. Fics that are rated AO, NC-17, or R do not have to earn the rating in the first chapter, or even by the tenth chapter. The rating can be reflective of what the finished product’s rating would be, rather than what it has earned at the time of posting.

That’s all for now! Don’t hesitate to reach out to the mod team if you have any questions.

The holiday season is in full swing here at Elysian Fields! To celebrate the occasion, EF has again pulled our fabulous holiday banner from the vault for everyone to enjoy for the month of December. (Change your skin to our holiday theme by going to Account Info > Edit Preferences > Default skin: holiday)

A crew of Elysian Fields members is also hard at work helping Spuffy thwart Demon Santa’s evil scheming by participating in our very first Secret Santa event. We’ve had an incredible 51 members sign up to exchange fic gifts!!

What are the Secret Santa participation requirements again?

For those of you giving Secret Santa gifts (officially signed-up members only), you will be able to post your fics starting at 12:01am ET (site time) tomorrow December 1, and will be able to post until 11:59pm ET on December 31. All fics MUST be one-shots. That is, they must be one chapter composed of less than 15,000 words. Rest assured, your summary, story notes, chapter notes, and end notes do not count against your word count.

When publishing your gift, be sure to mark the checkbox shown below:

What event information do I need to include in my story?

You must include the following information in your summary or story notes: “This fic is an Elysian Fields 2020 Secret Santa gift for [giftee's name]"

It’s also recommended that you send your giftee a message once you’ve published the fic, so they don’t miss seeing it!

Banners: If you're including a custom banner with your fic, it must have "Designed for the Elysian Fields 2020 Secret Santa" legibly added to it.

Does a gift writer need to reveal their giftee’s preferences?

You do not! As with a standard Secret Santa, no preferences have to be mentioned publicly. However, if you want to attach your giftee's preferences to your story, please do so in your story end notes.

How do I find the stories that are being added to the Secret Santa?

All gift fics will be merrily marked with a Santa icon, which looks like the example below:

Additionally, all gift fics can be found on the 2020 Secret Santa event page. (You can also find this event page, as well as all of our other event pages by browsing for site events.)

What do I do if I realize I’m not going to be able to finish my gift fic by the deadline?

The last thing we want is for any member to end up giftless. While we have done our best to ensure that members are only participating with an understanding of their commitment, we know that life happens. So, if you find that you will be unable to write a fic for your giftee, you MUST reach out to OffYourBird (via ssolace@gmail.com or PM) by December 15 so that alternate arrangements can be made.

How can I help if someone ends up without a gift writer?

You can become a rescue writer! Rescue writers sign up by PM’ing or emailing OffYourBird. You do NOT have to be a signed-up Secret Santa participant to be a rescue writer. If you sign up to be a rescue writer, you will go on a list of writers available to rescue a gift, and you will be contacted by December 16 if someone is in need of your help.

We’re looking forward to much merriment at Elysian Fields this coming month --- Happy Holidays from the Mods!

Hey everyone,

Congratulations to everyone who participated in some way during the Trapped Challenge. We had record breaking event with 47 brand new fic created and shared. That's phenomenal! If you have yet to check out the new titles, you can FIND THEM ALL HERE. You’re welcome. 

Trapped Challenge stats:
(For challenge fic only, and accurate at the time of this news item being posted)

• New fic – 47
• Chapters added – 153
• Words added – 458,193
• Banners created – 38 (not including chapter art)
• Comments received – 2,091
• Likes received – 3,776

THANK YOU: to the artists, betas, commenters and authors who contributed to this challenge – it wouldn’t be the success it was without all of you.

If you participated during challenge month as an author, artist or commenter you should find some pretty awards as a thank you for your participation on your profiles. Betas, we haven’t forgotten about you – your awards will be distributing tomorrow - I just want to double check (okay, triple check) that I haven’t missed anyone before pushing them out to accounts.
Update 8/11 - Beta awards have now been distributed.  

Authors, please remember that for your betas and artists to be eligible to receive an award for their work they must be credited in either the Story Notes for the fic or the Summary itself.

Artists, another reminder, to be eligible to receive an award the banner(s) you have created must have the following line of text visible on the banner somewhere: Designed for the Elysian Fields ‘Trapped’ Challenge.

If you believe you should have an award(s) and you’ve been missed by mistake, please shoot a PM to me (angelic_amy) and I'll make sure it is added to your profile.

Our default site skin has changed from the one created for the event, but never fear, the Trapped skin is not disappearing for good. It can be found as an option for you to select as your permanent skin if you want - check out your account settings to do this.

Thank you again to everyone who participated in the 2020 Trapped Challenge event, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

And as always, happy reading!

Hey everyone,

The first lot of requests for art have come in, and this short message is to point you all towards them! If you're an artist in the Elysian Fields community and you're thinking of signing up to create one of the banners (or you're curious about the upcoming fic and just want to take a look), then you can find the banner requests HERE on the page our wonderful Holly has coded for us to display all the request info.

Artists, make sure you read over the info if you’re thinking of claiming one of the art requests. Banner claiming OPENS at midnight SITE TIME on the 12th of September. Early claims will not be accepted.

To claim a fic request, artists will need to email Amy with the following information:

     Artist penname/user ID:
     Permission to share your email with the author(s) you sign up for: 
     Banner request: List your banner request(s) by fic title and author penname name, in order of preference
     (first, second, third).
     Number of banners you are willing to create: (max 3)

Each fic will ONLY be allocated to one artist, and it will be in a first come, first serve 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. If we require a secondary sign up, that will happen later on.

Banner Requirements:
If you are successful in claiming a banner request, you'll be put in contact with your author via a confirmation email.
Please ensure you follow the request details as set by the author. 

Elysian Fields has two site requirements for the banner and they are:
     Dimensions: Width 900px x Height 250px (maximum). 
     Text: In a small clear font (approx 8 – 10 pt) along one of the edges:
     Designed for the Elysian Fields ‘Trapped’ Challenge.

Finally, to the participating authors. Even though the request claiming goes live on the 12th of September, you can still sign up to request art up to the 25th of September. So if you would like to add you request to the list, make sure you email me by the 25th. 

That's about it. Any questions? Comment here. And when the time comes... happy claiming!

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!

Challenge Month is just around the corner, and this post has all the deets you need to know. And what's a site challenge without an event skin? Some of you may recognise it from last year (we've brought it out of retirement) and it will be the featured site skin for the entire month. If you want to make it your default skin for the month, make sure to change it in your preferences page - it's called 'Challenge Month'.

In order to make sure everyone understands all that's going on, we'll try to cover everything here. If there's something you're not sure about, please let us know in the comments. There's a lot of information in this post, but please read the whole thing to be sure you know what's happening in April.

How and when do I post my story so that it's part of the event?
After midnight on April 1 (site time, which is Eastern US time-it's listed under the shoutbox), post your story as you normally would. Once you've added your story, find the challenge you're responding to on the challenges page or in your saved challenges list (if you've already saved it to your personal list) in your Account Info page. At the bottom of the challenge, you'll see a Respond to the challenge! link. Click the link, put a check in the box next to the story which is the challenge response and click submit.

Your fic does not need to be complete prior to posting. In fact, it doesn't even need to be completed during April. You have the whole month, during which you only need to BEGIN posting the story.

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.

How do I find the stories that are being added to the challenge?
Stories that are part of the event will be easy to spot because they'll have a little umbrella icon (That class protector umbrella comes in handy to avoid April showers):

Also, don't forget that we have a site events browse page where you can view all the stories from previous site events, as well as the ones from this event.

Will you be featuring regular stories while the challenge is going on?
There won't be any mod-chosen featured stories in April. For the first half of the month, the usual feature spot will showcase responses to challenges posted at Elysian Fields, no matter when they were published. Starting on the 15th, the featured area will display stories that were created specifically for this event.

Is there a comment aspect to this event as well?
Of course there is! If you write at least 20 comments in April that contain at least 5 words, you'll meet the requirements of the commenter challenge! You'll see a link to the comment challenge leaderboard on the homepage under the Members of the Month where the all star commenter list is usually located.

Besides an amazing sense of pride, do we get anything for participating in the event?
Of course you do! We have some amazing awards that will be given out after the end of April. Our angelic_amy created the following awards for participating authors, artists, commenters, and betas:

We’re also debuting a new award. If you are an author and you complete a site challenge, you will receive this new Challenge Complete award at the end of the year. This is not just for fic written for the 2020 Challenge Month, but any fic begun and completed for a previous site challenge. This award will also be backdated for fic previously completed for the different site events. Surprise! Expect to find these backdated awards on your profiles soon. 

That about covers it. Please let us know if there's any additional questions. Get ready for some amazing new stories!

I wanted to say farewell because I’m leaving my post as an EF mod. However, I realize that many of you are now wondering, “Um, who are you, and what did you even do at Elysian Fields?” I stay relatively behind the scenes, so they’re both valid questions.

Megan, Kathleen, and Amy brought me into the admin crew back in 2013 after a site crash that caused EF to go offline. I helped them get everything back in working order, and things blossomed from there. I don’t like to brag (who am I kidding, I love to brag), but in the years since:

I updated the site software, and gave the site a bit of a facelift by refreshing the site’s original skins, and creating multiple new ones.

I modified the site a number of ways, including things like giving stories on bookshelves the ability to remember the last chapter that was read, adding many new options for members to sort/search for stories, giving members the ability to save challenges and second others’ challenges, giving authors and readers the chance to communicate back and forth multiple times on story comments, displaying the number of likes that a story received, and giving members the ability to edit and search shouts.

I coded many features from scratch, such as the private messaging system, beta reader and banner artist listings, the member of the month system, the suggestion box, the awards sections in profiles, and the daily digest emails.

I worked to make the site more than just a general archive by adding Buffy-centric touches like the “lurking standing about” member count on the home page, and little Easter eggs hidden throughout the archive.

There are countless other little things I’ve done that no one will ever know about because they’re just odds and ends that help the site run more smoothly.

I’ve been the loudest voice on EF’s social media, so if you’ve seen a relevant (or not so relevant) gif announcing a site event, a silly post featuring a bad photoshop of Spike in an ugly Christmas sweater, or the scooby gang wearing goofy New Year’s Eve hats, that was probably me amusing myself.

Phew! When I write it all out like that, it feels like a lot. Even so, I think maybe the best way to show you how I’ve changed the site is to let you see what Elysian Fields looked like when I found it. If you’re curious, go here: http://dark-solace.org/oldEF and when a log in pop-up appears, enter username OldEF and password 2013Elysian (the site is password protected to keep search engines from finding it, but I’ve kept it as a time capsule all these years).

Anyway, now that I’ve rambled long enough, I want to thank my fellow mods, Kathleen, Megan, Amy, and Katie for their trust in me, and for the camaraderie we have, and will continue have even though I can now rejoice in my lack of responsibility. I leave you all in their capable hands. In addition, I’ll stay on call as an admin emeritus to help get EF’s new tech mod up to speed (more to come on that soon). I want to thank every member who’s ever provided a great site suggestion that sparked my imagination to create something new for the site, every member who’s ever stopped to say thank you when I’ve provided technical assistance, and every member who changed from a fandom friend to a real life one. I’ve put so much time, effort, and thought into this site for so many years, but I’m ready to let go. Thank you for letting me be part of your lives.

As we close out 2019 and head into 2020, it's time to look back at all the wonderful things that happened at Elysian Fields this past year. We held 2 site events, Challenge Month in April and the Big Bads Challenge in October. Combined, the events resulted in 74 brand new stories! 2019 also brought Elysian Fields our 20,000th registered member. The fact that we're still so active after over 13 years online, and almost 23 years after Buffy the Vampire Slayer first premiered continues to amaze us.

We celebrated the holidays with our lovely seasonal skin, but January means it's time to put the decorations away until next December. If you had the holiday skin as your site default, it will be changed to the standard site default, the time in between. However, if you'd prefer another skin for your default, you just need to set it on your preferences page.

We thought it would be nice to start the new decade with some new awards, and thanks to OffYourBird we have some amazing artwork to gift our most prolific members. We're thinking that competition will be fierce to get on the most prolific lists in 2020 since everyone will want these stunning creations displayed their profile pages:

We're so grateful to everyone who makes Elysian Fields such a special corner of the internet. Thank you to the authors, the commenters, the readers, the lurkers, and everyone in between. Here's to a fabulous 2019, and an even better 2020!

2019 by the numbers:
Total number of words added: 7,334,890
Total number of stories added: 262
Total number of chapters added: 1,985
Number of new members: 1,386
Number of active members: 5,936
Number of likes left: 68,671
Number of comments written: 40,079
Number of words written in comments: 1,991,060

Ten Most Prolific Authors of 2019:
1. sweetprincipale (547,864 words)
2. Axell (410,678 words)
3. Twinkles (389,594 words)
4. Cryptwarmer (357,272 words)
5. Holly (302,949 words)
6. Soulburnt (279,268 words)
7. Touchstoneaf (252,591 words)
8. Iamblichus (234,248 words)
9. All4Spike (225,545 words)
10. bewildered (215,506 words)  

Ten Most Prolific Commenters of 2019:
1. pfeifferpack (290,886 words)
2. magnus374 (180,792 words)
3. Chosenname (119,245 words)
4. OffYourBird (75,692 words)
5. All4Spike (53,790 words)
6. The Danish Bird (48,667 words)
7. Touchstoneaf (47,906 words)
8. MaggieLaFey (47,233 words)
9. thenewbuzwuzz (45,216 words)
10. Joyce (40,434 words)

Hello everyone,

Time is ticking down on October, which sadly means wrapping up the Big Bads Challenge. To allow last minute entries by struggling authors, we're extending the challenge deadline until the 7th of November. Until 11:59pm (site time) the little check box that allows you to contribute to the challenge will still be visible for new fic. Remember, you only have to post the first chapter of your fic within this timeframe for it to be included in the challenge.

Anyone looking to read the wonderful fic submitted already - you can find them ALL HERE.

Also, thanks to member requests, the new site skin we debuted for the challenge will be sticking around. The mods wish our authors co-operative muses on this All Hallow's Eve, and happy reading to any readers and lurkers about.

Hey everyone,

The first lot of requests for art for the Big Bads Challenge have come in and you can find the banner requests HERE. Artists, make sure you read over the info if you’re thinking of claiming one of the art requests. 

Susan, our resident tech guru extraordinaire, has the art request claim page set up to automatically switch to request claiming OPEN at midnight SITE TIME on the 12th of September. Early claims will not be accepted.

To claim a fic request, artists will need to email me with the following information:

     Artist penname/user ID:
     Permission to share your email with the author(s) you sign up for: 
     Banner request: List your banner request(s) by fic title and author penname name, in order of preference.
     Number of banners you are willing to create: (max 2)

Each fic will ONLY be allocated to one artist, and it will be in a first come, first serve basis. Artists may sign up to create multiple banners, however we will cap the number to two banners to begin with, to encourage involvement from a lot of people. If we require a secondary sign up, that will happen later on. 

Finally, to the participating authors. Even though the request claiming goes live on the 12th of September, you can still sign up to request art after that date. We will be imposing a cut off (most likely mid October—but this is to be confirmed), to ensure that artists have enough time to complete the requests before the end of challenge month. If you haven't signed up for the challenge but were thinking about doing so, it's not to late to jump on board. 

That's about it. Any questions? Comment here.

And when the time comes... happy claiming!

Hello everyone,

We've had a positive start to the Big Bads Challenge so far, judging by the number of author sign ups. I'm looking forward to reading what everyone comes up with--it's always a good thing to have new fic to read. 

Authors, if inspiration has already struck and you're looking to for some art to accompany your words for when you post the story in October, then here is the info you need to know regarding banner requests.

All you need to do is shoot me an email (address available at the bottom of this post) with a combination of the following information. The first three dot points are required, the rest are optional. So, if you are looking for something specific, give me as much information as you think the artist will need. Alternatively, if you are open to the artist experimenting, then just give me the required info.

Required information

• Fic title:
• Author penname:
• Story blurb (or a short summary if you're not at that point):

Optional extra requests

• Season/episode (so the artist knows the kinds of images to look for):
• Feature characters:
• Big Bad: 
• Colour theme:
• Mood/Style (dramatic, simple, lighthearted, happy, etc):
• Other (Special requests for objects, specific images, etc):

A master list of the banner requests will be created by our tech guru Susan for these requests to be listed on for artists to browse, and I'll announce when that goes live.

That is literally it. Authors, you can email me your requests at angelic.amy.fic@gmail.com

Happy writing!

Hello everyone,

The moderators of Elysian Fields would like to thank and congratulate everyone who participated in the 2019 Challenge Month. Authors, artists, betas, commenters, and lurkers – you all play an important role in making our archive the successful and wonderful place it is.

The 2019 Challenge Month has brought us 44 brand new fic. Yes, you read that number correctly, 44 brand new fic. That's huge! For anyone who has yet to read the wonderful contributions created by the talented authors on our site, you can FIND THEM ALL HERE. You’re welcome.

April Challenge Month stats:
(For challenge fic only, and accurate at the time of this news item being posted)

• New fic – 44
• Chapters added – 110
• Words added – 302,780
• Banners created – 22
• Comments received – 2,048
• Likes received – 2,994

To the artists of our community, thank you for gracing our site with your pretties.

To the betas, thank you for your help and comments to the authors you work with.

To the commenters, who leave the authors feedback—thank you for showing your appreciation.

And the to the participating authors, thank you for giving us all a list of future reading material. I can’t wait to dive into the fic I’ve yet to read.

If you participated during challenge month as an author, commenter, artist, or beta, check out the awards section on your member profiles – you should see some graphics waiting for you. If we missed you by mistake, please shoot a PM to one of the mods. For anyone who has been using the April skin (it's also been the site default over the last month) it is being retired, but only until next year when we hope to do this all over again.

Site events are awesome, and the challenges page has lots of ideas to spark inspiration. Just because this event has concluded, doesn’t mean the fic have to. Don't know if you've seen it yet, but I’m intrigued by a new challenge set by DarkVoid116 called 20,000 Members (click on the bolded text to see it), which was inspired by the membership milestone the archive reached this week.

Thank you again to everyone who participated in Challenge Month, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

And as always, happy reading!

So, for those of you who have been members (or lurkers) here at Elysian Fields for a while, you’d know it’s not exactly a secret that we love Challenges. And for anyone who was unaware, all you have to do is check out our Site Events page.

We went ‘live’ as an archive in October of 2006, and it’s become somewhat of a tradition over the last few years to celebrate that fact with a site wide event. And the response has always been phenomenal, from authors, artists and readers.

We look forward to these Challenges, and seeing and reading what our wonderful talented members come up each year is awesome. So awesome in fact, it made us mods ask the question, “Why can’t we do this more than once a year?”

Well, there isn’t a reason to not host a site challenge more than once a year. And as it happens, you lovelies--our members--have already planned it for us. Our site has a veritable treasure trove of inspiration in the form of member-written fic challenges, and they are just dying to be responded to.

And so the April Challenge Month was created.

Buffy didn’t get a choice in her calling, but your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to scan the Challenges page(s) of the archive and find something that sparks the muse to action. Any fledgelings to EF, the Challenges page can be found HERE. Word count doesn't matter--one-shots or epic-length, the responses for the challenge are not genre-specific, or tied to a given theme. So long as the fic meets the requirements as set by the original poster, you're golden.  

No sign-up necessary, just hold off on posting your new Challenge inspired creation(s) until the clock strikes midnight (EF site time) on April 1st. Any fic posted within the month that is a direct response to a Challenge from the list on the archive will be considered part of the April Challenge month, and will be marked with an icon to differentiate it and make it easily identifiable, as with the past site events. And as with previous events, participating members will receive an award on their profile page. Also, the fic do not need to be completed within the month of April. 

Any questions? Comment on this news post. We look forward to seeing your responses!