(Beauty is in) The Eye of the Beholder

Greetings, HP Beholder fans,

Here's the links round-up from the first nine days of fic and art posting. Our next posting will be Sunday afternoon, so take advantage of the short hiatus to catch up with your reading/viewing …and your feedback!

ART

* "Unspoken" (Severus Snape/Minerva McGonagall "Between Headmaster Snape and his Deputy Headmistress, what is essential remains unspoken" G. )
* "Brushing Her Cares Away" ( Minerva McGonagall/Poppy Pomfrey . "Before a mirror" PG. )
* "Collaborators" (Antonin Dolohov/Severus Snape, Abraxas Malfoy/Severus Snape. "Antonin bonds with Abraxas' protege over the birth of new Dark Magic." )

FIC

* "Escape Routes for a Stormy Night" (Amelia Bones/Poppy Pomfrey. "The checklist for dealing with Death Eater attacks has been drilled into every Ministry employee: wand; family; escape routes." R.)
* "Marriage Acts" (Abraxas/Percy, Lucius/Narcissa, implied Lucius/Severus and Severus/Krum "The passing of a marriage act gives Abraxas Malfoy the perfect opportunity to improve his family's name." NC-17 )
* "Far Beyond Pearls" (Millicent Bulstrode/Pansy Parkinson. "Pansy's thoughts on her lover." PG.)
* "Chronic Charm of the Grotesque" (John Dawlish/Alecto Carrow. "Dawlish finds himself compelled to renew an old acquaintanceship, and rediscovers the joy of knives." PG/PG-13.)
* "Come Back To Me" (Grey Lady/Bloody Baron, Nearly Headless Nick/Fat Friar. "After the Battle of Hogwarts, the castle ghosts are in terrible pain. Convalescing, Severus thinks he might be able to help. " R. )
* "The Glorious 10th of May" (Dudley Dursley/Piers Polkiss "Dudley is the Dark Lord of Romance. He'll kick seven shades of shit out of anyone who says otherwise." R.)
* "What the Butler Elf Saw" (Albus Dumbledore/Filius Flitwick. "Harry and Ron didn’t discover the Hogwarts house-elves until the fourth year, but of course the elves were there all along. And they’ve seen it all." G.)
* "By the Light of the Moon," (Arthur Weasley/Female Character. "When Arthur Weasley starts acting strangely after the death of his wife, his children become concerned and suspect dark magic." PG-13.)
* "Reap What You Sew." (Millicent Bulstrode/Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley/Pansy Parkinson, Severus Snape/Harry Potter "When an old school nemesis re-enters Millicent’s life it gives her the opportunity to prove herself that she never thought she’d receive." PG. )
* "Stargazing" ( Remus Lupin/Aurora Sinistra." Aurora and Remus stargaze amongst other things." NC-17. )
* "The Ministry's Man" ( John Dawlish/Rufus Scrimgeour. "John Dawlish has spent his career in the shadows of the Ministry's greatest men. One of the only things they all have in common is that they never stay for long." PG-13. )

***

Note: Please do me and your fellow community members a favor and leave a comment to this post with links to any hp_beholder ART or FIC recs you've made recently. No coding necessary: simple links to the posts in which you made the recs will do (and I'll sort out the recs later)

Thanks so much!

In little more than 24 hours, posting starts for the 2011 edition of HP Beholder!

Read, view, give the artists and authors your love (or at least your feedback)

***

Note: On days when stories of 6,000 words or greater are posted, there will only be one work posted. On other days, two works will be posted, sometime between 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., New York time.

Saturdays (apart from this first week) will be no-posting, catch up days.

If you're still interested in possibly helping out as a pinch hitter, please email me at beholder(dot)mod [at] gmail [dot] com, and I'll add you to the list.

And if you'd like to see the 61 amazing authors and artists who'll be participating in this year's exchange, just take a look ( under the cut )

Assignments will be going out by Monday at the latest!

This is the sign-up post for the 4th round of hp_beholder: the Harry Potter Fic & Art exchange featuring those characters who are generally overlooked when it comes to romantic/erotic relationships.

Sign-ups will remain open until noon (NYC time) on Friday, February 4 (as you can see on this schedule), and assignments will go out soon after.

( Please copy/paste the sign-up template hidden below the cut… )

Please read the updated community information here, which includes General Information, Deadlines, the List of Eligible Characters, the Sign-up Template, and a list of Frequently Asked Questions.

(For those of you who are interested in the background to the creation of this fest, click here.)

Hello!

The fourth round of hp_beholder will be getting underway soon. Sign-ups start Thursday, January 27, and I'd love to have as many of you participate as possible.

Feel free to share this information with your own f'lists. In fact, please do...the more, the merrier!

Note: For background information relating to the creation of this Fic/Art Exchange, please see the original general information post, but don't trust that post for dates and updated rules

This is NOT the sign-up post: Again...sign-ups begin Thursday, January 27, so you have plenty of time to read the instructions in this post and decide what you're going to request.

( General Information )

( Deadlines )

( The List of characters from which at least one member of your primary pairing must be selected )

( Sign-up Template )

( Sample Sign-up )

( Which Characters Can Be Excluded? )

( Questions and Answers )

And here we have it, all fifty-nine stories and works of art from this year's hp_beholder exchange, now with names attached. Authors and Artist: you're at liberty to post your work wherever you want!

( FIC )

( ART )

A few notes for the statistically inclined: ( ...here under the cut )

I'd like to close with a few thanks, first to the half dozen participants (and three watchers!) who volunteered to pinch hit. Your generous offers were much appreciated, even though for the second year in a row, not a single pinch hitter was needed! (woo-hoo!) There was a tiny bit of behind-the-scenes assignment re-shuffling when one participant had to withdraw, but due to the Beholder crowd's sheer coolness, that was an entirely stress-free process.

And for the third year, many thanks to all our wonderful participants and all the folks who read stories and admired art and left feedback and made recs in their journals and who were so positive and supportive about the uncommon pairings that are at the heart of hp_beholder.

---

NOTE: This year, stories that were too long for a single IJ post were hosted on the HP Beholder Dreamwidth Account (if anybody would like a Dreamwidth invite, email me at beholder.mod at gmail and let me know. Art, however, I still hosted on my own website, so Artists? Please let me know when you've posted your work on a site of your own and give me the new URL so I can update the coding. Merci!

With the posting of "Barfly"; "Sweet Dreams"; "Roll in the Hay" (ART, Aberforth Dumbledore/Severus Snape) and "Sod Off" Means "I Love You" (FIC, Severus Snape/Millicent Bulstrode/Dennis Creevey), Beholder participants and other community members/visitors have until Monday, May 24 (when the Authors and Artists names will be revealed) to catch up on reading, viewing, and commenting! (those of you who haven’t started commenting yet might consider checking out the stories and art from the most recently posted and working your way backwards)

( FIC )

( ART )

One more order of business: Back on February 5th, when thoughts of the catastrophic earthquake suffered by the Haitian people was fresh in everyone's mind, I pledged $1.00 (US) to Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières for each story and work of art posted in this year's HP Beholder Fest. With our last story and the trio of art pieces posted today, this year's Beholder total stands at 60, and I've just made my $60 donation to DWB/MSF.

A number of people stepped up to the plate and made variations on my pledge (yay!!), so to make things easier for those folks, I'm going to give some totals. Note: everybody's totally free to decide when they're going to contribute, how much (feel free to increase the amount you're giving *g*), and to which charitable organization.

* meri_oddities, who's matching my donation of $1.00 for each story/artwork completed and posted in this year's exchange. (60 x 1.00)
* r_grayjoy who's pledging .50 for every slash piece posted in this year's exchange. (21 x .50)
* venturous, who's pledging $1.00 for every work that includes Snape in this year's exchange (12 x 1.00)
* ragdoll, who's pledging .50 for every het or femslash piece posted in this year's exchange. (38 x .50) (*note: see below for the event ragdoll's donating to and consider lending it your support!)
* atdelphi, who's pledging $5.00 Canadian for each story that features Argus Filch in the main pairing. (3 x 5.00)
* torino10154, who's pledging $1.00 for anything with Eileen or Tobias and $.50 for anything with Severus. (3 x 1.00 and 12 x .50

(the numbers of het plus slash plus femslash don't equal the total number of stories and art because some work had multiple mixed-category pairings)

With today's posting - ""The Dog's Days of Summer" (...quite possibly the first story to contain Griphook the Goblin as part of the main pairing *g*) - we have now reached the midway point of the Fest, all the wonderful art and fiction has been submitted and awaits posting, and I . . . am going out of town.

"But how does this information affect me?" I hear you ask suspiciously

"Ah," I reply, backing slowly away from the grumbling mob. "The thing is that I'm going to have very little online time for posting (or anything else) over the next few days, so I thought this might be a good time to take a brief posting holiday and give everybody a chance to catch up on their reading/watching - and commenting."

And so I present to you the Midway Point Fic and Art Round-Up, located conveniently beneath the cut:

( Hey look! There's art and fic down here… )

Regular posting will resume Monday afternoon (U.S. Eastern Time).

See you then!

Hello, all!

In just two more days, art and fic posting will begin for the 2010 edition of HP Beholder. Each afternoon (U.S. east coast time) for the next month and a bit beyond, two gifts - or occasionally one, in the case of particularly long fiction - will be posted to the main IJ community and to the LJ mirror community, as we did last year.

The majority of the art and fic has already been submitted and the work features 41 of the 70 chararacters on the Beholder List of [Not Really] Undesirable Characters...and I can tell you right now there are at least a half dozen pairings never seen before on Beholder - and possibly never seen before anywhere! :)

Keep an eye on the community and support - with your comments - the talented artists and authors who believe, as most of you do, that all characters should be given a chance at romantic/sexual relationships, not just the young and the beautiful.

Hi folks!

A quick reminder that apart from a few exceptions (i.e., people who have already arranged for extensions due to extenuating circumstances) all submissions (stories and art) are due next Thursday, the 1st of April.

Please do your best to get your submissions in by that date. If some difficulty has arisen in your life (health, work, school, etc) that will require a brief extension, please email me as soon as possible so that we can discuss re-scheduling.

Hi, hp_beholder participants (and community fans)!

All the assignments have now been mailed out (Shhhh! Don't tell anybody what your assignment is...it's a secret!)

Please reply with a confirmation as soon as you receive your assignment. If you haven't received an assignment, email me (beholder.mod [at] gmail.com) as soon as possible so that I can re-send.

And for the early birds amongst you, ( the Fic/Art Submission Header Template is beneath the cut tag... )

( Complete HP Beholder Participant List )


***

Last week, I mentioned that for each person who signs up (...and who actually completes their hp_beholder fic or art so that I can post it), I'd be donating $1.00 to Doctors without Borders to aid in the relief efforts in Hait. I asked, at the time, if anybody was interested in matching the donation or pledging a variation on the donation theme, and a number of folks responded.

Many thanks to the following:

* meri_oddities, who's matching my donation of $1.00 for each story/artwork completed and posted in this year's exchange.
* r_grayjoy who's pledging .50 for every slash piece posted in this year's exchange.
* venturous, who's pledging $1.00 for every work that includes Snape in this year's exchange.
* ragdoll, who's pledging .50 for every het or femslash piece posted in this year's exchange.
* atdelphi, who's pledging $5.00 Canadian for each story that features Argus Filch in the main pairing.
* torino10154, who's pledging $1.00 for anything with Eileen or Tobias and $.50 for anything with Severus.

Tomorrow at 12:00 noon (Eastern Time) on Friday the 5th - fewer than 23 hours from now - is the sign-up deadline for hp_beholder

Come join your fellow artists and authors (...see the current list of participants here), and remember that this year, a number of people have pledged to make donations in support of the relief efforts in Haiti for each story or work of art that's completed and posted as part of the 2010 Beholder Fest.

Take a look at the general information, then fill out the sign up form, and paste the completed form in the sign up post...you'll be glad you did!

(It's January 28th where I live!)


This is the sign-up post for the 3rd round of hp_beholder, the Fic/Art exchange featuring those characters who are generally overlooked when it comes to romantic/erotic relationships.

Sign-ups will remain open until noon (Eastern time) on Friday, February 5 (as you can see on this schedule, and assignments will go out soon after.

Please read the updated community information (here), which includes General Information, Deadlines, the List of Eligible Characters, the Sign-up Template, and a list of Frequently Asked Questions. And remember...you're all encouraged to draft your friends to participate (if you recruit three new participants, you'll be eligible for a free [fake] toaster oven!)

*For those of you who are interested in the background to the creation of this fest, click here.

Hi all...

Just a quick heads up that the third round of hp_beholder is on the way. Sign-ups start Thursday, January 28, and I'd love to have as many of you participate as possible (including anybody who wasn't able to sign-up last year because they defaulted in 2008).

You're welcome to share this information with your own f'lists. In fact, please do...the more, the merrier!

Note: For background information relating to the creation of this Fic/Art Exchange, please see the original general information post, but don't trust that post for dates and updated rules

This is NOT the sign-up post: Again...sign-ups begin Thursday, January 28, so you have plenty of time to read the instructions and decide what you're going to request.

( General Information )

( Deadlines )

( The List of characters from which at least one member of your primary pairing must be selected )

( Sign-up Template )

( Sample Sign-up )

( Which Characters Can Be Excluded? )

( Questions and Answers )

Note for 2010: Because of the too-common downtime on IJ - like right this minute, which is why I'm cross-posting to my own journals from Dreamwidth instead of to the Beholder community - I've been considering moving the main posting venue for hp_beholder away from its original home base. Due to the nature of some of the art in this exchange, LiveJournal is not the best place for this Fest to take place, and while I'd like to use Dreamwidth, I'm concerned that there wouldn't be enough reader/viewer 'traffic.' If you have any thoughts, feel free to comment below (p.s., For anybody who's considering suggesting an Archive of Our Own, remember that they're not ready to host art yet) (thanks for your input!)

Today is a posting holiday here in hp_beholder land! This will give everybody a chance to catch up with the great art and fiction from the first ten days of the Exchange.

ART

"Interrogating Rookwood" (Rufus Scrimgeour/Augustus Rookwood. G.) for eeyore9990.

"The Years in Her Life and the Life in Her Years" (Minerva McGonagall/Alastar Moody. PG-13) for vivien529.

ART and FIC

"For the Sake of Argument" (Severus Snape/Minerva McGonagall. PG) for atdelphi.

FIC

"Frozen" (Poppy Pomfrey/Severus Snape. PG-13.) for shadowycat.

"A Murmur" (Minerva McGonagall / Sybil Trelawney. NC-17) for alwaysasnapefan.

"There Are Days I Wish I Lived in a Romance Novel (But This Isn't One of Them" (Neville Longbottom / Millicent Bulstrode. PG-13) for kaycee.

"To Die A Man" (Rufus Scrimgeour/Minerva McGonagall, Rufus Scrimgeour/Emmeline Vance. PG-13) for injustice_worth.

"Jigsaw Pieces" (Severus Snape/Filius Flitwick. R) for purplefluffycat.

"Road to Darkness" (Fenrir Greyback/Luna Lovegood. R) for carrot / vikingcarrot.

"By the Light of the Moon" (Phineas Nigellus Black/Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape/Minerva McGonagall. NC-17) for venturous / venturous1.

"The Good One, The Mad One, The Bad One" (Neville Longbottom/Madam Rosmerta. NC-17) for naughtysnail.

"Sixteen" (Minerva McGonagall/Sybill Trelawney. PG-13) for istalksnape.

"A Sort of Fairy Tale" (Severus Snape/Millicent Bulstrode. PG) for cat_goddess.

"Grownup Stories" (Eileen Prince/Tobias Snape, Severus Snape/???. PG-13) for chazpure.

"Breaking the Chains" (Fenrir Greyback/various. R) for curia_regis.

"Beautiful" (Arthur Weasley/Molly Prewett Weasley. PG-13) for rafflesiakerrii.

"Secret Admirer" (Irma Pince/Filius Flitwick. G) for hayseed / hayseed_42.

"Persuasion" (Barty Crouch Jr./Rabastan Lestrange. NC-17) for arcadian_dream.

"Apart" (Draco Malfoy/Rita Skeeter. NC-17) for ldymusyc.

See you on Monday when regular posting resumes!

Tags: admin

For a complete background to the hp_beholder exchange, click here, but if you're just interested in reading the [slightly updated] guidelines, read on...

Note: This is NOT the sign-up post: Sign-ups begin Thursday, January 29, so you have time to read the instructions and decide what you're going to request.

( General Information )

( 2009 Deadlines )

( The List of characters from which at least one member of your primary pairing must be selected )

( Sign-up Template )

( Sample Sign-up )

( Which Characters Can Be Excluded? )

( Questions and Answers )