Harry Potter Halloween

Greetings, hp_halloween participants!

I hope you’ve all been writing hard! Please, remember that all of your drabbles are due in just two days, on Saturday October 28.

So far we’ve received less than half of the assigned drabbles! Your hard working Mods would be very grateful if those of you who haven’t submitted would do so as soon as possible so we aren’t utterly swamped come Saturday. If you’re having any problems or concerns, need a beta, help with the text or header, or anything else, just email us or comment here. Thanks so much!

HPH Mods

Halloween is coming up fast and so is the deadline for your hp_halloween drabbles! All drabbles are due by next Saturday October 28!

10 of you have submitted so far, and we thank you! We'd really like that number to rise quickly, however. Remember to read your assignment carefully, stick as close to 200 words as you can, and get your drabble beta read if possible. If you have any problems or concerns, need a beta, help with the text or header, or anything else just email us, and we'll do our best to help. Have fun and we hope to hear from you soon!

HPH Mods

Assignments have gone out for 2017! Please check your email and spam folders for your assignment and please reply back to us! A good portion of you have done so already, thank you!

If you have any questions, please contact us.

1) Please read over your assignment carefully, noting wants and squicks.

2) NO UNDERAGE SEX!

3) Please get a beta to read over your drabble before submission. If you need help finding one (or can't find one), let us know and we will be happy to beta for you.

4) If your recipient didn’t list more than one relationship type, feel free to assume that it’s Gen.

5) Submissions should be in txt format only. No rtf. No word docs. If in doubt, test post your drabble in your own journal before submitting it.

Submissions are due Saturday, October 28!

love,

lore, starduchess, and shadowycat

Sign-Ups are now open for hp_halloween 2017! While we still plan to post the finished drabbles on Insane Journal, we aren't taking sign-ups here. This year we're taking sign-ups only on Dreamwidth and Live Journal. You can find the sign-up post Here on LJ and Here on DW. We hope you'll join us for another year of spooky fun!

The ghouls and ghosts are getting restless, which means it's almost time for another round of hp_halloween! So watch this space! Details will be coming your way soon.

As you might have guessed, this mod had to take an emotional pause for the week. But after some deep breathing and friend-therapy, here we are to close the books on HP_Halloween 2016!

Housekeeping:
--->We're at 1900 comments on HPH drabbles so, far, which about where we were last year at this time. Remember, if you haven't left a comment on your gift, please do. When you write for a specific person, knowing the person at least saw your work is important.

--->Tags have been updated on both communities, so please send your friends over here to look around. If you feel your drabble doesn't have the correct tags on it, let us know in reply to this post. shadowycat and starduchess worked hard on tagging everything, so everyone should be able to find what they want easily.

--->Writers, to see all your comments, be sure to check both IJ and LJ's HP_Halloween. Also, remember that you can click the "track this" button at the start of each post (it looks like a thumbtack) if you would like to receive the comments on your drabbles in your inbox. If you haven't already done so, remember that you can re-post your drabble anywhere you like.

--->We had a total of 62 participants this year, 10 more than last year! Managing all of you fell primarily to starduchess and shadowycat, so be sure to give them lots of wrap-up love. While lore has been giving them many thanks and praises, hearing how you felt about the exchange in reply here would be wonderful for them to read.

( Walk of Shame )

Because lore usually writes this post, she asked her fellow mods if they had any personal comments to add:

Starduchess: This year, we had a bit of a hair-raising adventure near the end, there, but it worked itself out. Thanks to all our participants and everyone who left comments to make this a great turnout. Hope you had a thrilling good time, and we'll see you next year!

Shadowycat: Thanks to everyone who took part in this year's fest! Hopefully you all had as much fun as we did. We couldn't do it without you. See you next year! :D

And all I can say is that this exchange wouldn't work without Starduchess and Shadowycat, and I hope you all will leave comments with them in mind. Of course, this exchange also doesn't work without all of you, writers and readers, either. We're always so grateful for the enthusiastic response that you greet us with each year!.

So, thank you all again one last time for being here this year. And be sure to bring a friend next year when we return for more fantastic HP fun!

love, lore, Starduchess and Shadowycat

We hope you've had a crazy fun Halloween, and that HP_Halloween was at least a small part of it!

All gift drabbles have been posted. If you think yours is missing or there's something is wrong with it, please respond to THIS POST and tell us, so we can fix it.

All posts will be properly tagged on both LJ and IJ in short order, so you should be able to search by your favourite genre, author or pairing for this and all other years!

Special reminder: Please respond to your gift drabble. You'd be surprised at how hard it can be to write just 200 words, and yet it only takes a second to say "Thank you"! Also, don't feel shy about responding to previous years' gifts - better late than never!

Writers, you're free to respond to comments on the drabble you wrote (check both LJ and IJ!), but please refrain from reposting anywhere for one week - until November 7. In the meantime, feel free to link to your drabble, your gift, other gifts, and the exchange home! The more eyeballs on your work, the merrier!

We'll be back with a final wrap-up at the end of the week. May the rest of your Autumn bring all joys!

love, your HPH mods

Halloween is coming up fast and so is the deadline for your hp_halloween drabbles! All drabbles are due by next Friday October 28!

18 of you have submitted so far, and we thank you! We'd really like that number to rise quickly, however. Remember to read your assignment carefully, stick as close to 200 words as you can, and get your drabble beta read if possible. If you have any problems or concerns, need a beta, help with the text or header, or anything else just email us, and we'll do our best to help. Have fun and we hope to hear from you soon!

HPH Mods

Assignments have gone out for 2016! Please check your email and spam folders for your assignment and please reply back to us! About half of you have done so already, thank you!

If you have any questions, please contact us. "We are ready to believe you!"
*gives Ghostbusters poster pose*

1) Please read over your assignment carefully, noting wants and squicks.

2) NO UNDERAGE SEX!

3) Please get a beta to read over it before submission. If you need help finding one (or can't find one), let us know and we will be happy to beta for you.

Submissions due Friday, October 28!

love, lore, starduchess, and shadowycat

--

Here is the last call for sign-ups. You have about 24 hours to submit your comment on the sign-up post!

It's only 200 words for the exchange. DOOO IIIT!

--

We have a nice turn-out already this year, but there's always room for more! Sign-ups will close sometime on Sunday afternoon, probably whenever lore knuckles down to matching. ^_^

Don't wait all night in the pumpkin patch - sign up today!

After only two sign-ups here last year, we thought we'd do ourselves a favor and direct all the sign-ups to LiveJournal this year. Drabble entries will continue to be posted here.

So, sign-ups are open here until October 9!

There have been the usual updates and modifications to the rules and sign-up post, so be sure to read the community profile's rules and use the text in the box provided on LJ to create your sign-up reply.

You can log into LiveJournal any number of ways, but the community also accepts anonymous posts, which we will unscreen as we see them. The key to alternative sign-ups is to be sure to give us a valid email where you can be contacted and receive your assignment.

If you have any questions, please make use of the mod e-mail. Thanks, all!

love, HPHmods

Well, it appears that all the drabbles have been posted completely and correctly, so it's time to do some housekeeping and congratulate you all on another great year!

Housekeeping:
--->It's not too late to post a round of rec-ing! Give us your rec links by replying here - we'll never find them in the inbox. So far, this year's drabbles have received more than 1800 comments, up 700 from this time last year! If any one drabble gets three recs, we'd be happy to report it for inclusion in the Daily Snitch.

--->Tags have been updated on both communities, so please send your friends over here to look around. If you feel your drabble doesn't have the correct tags on it, let us know in reply to this post. shadowycat and starduchess worked hard on tagging everything, so everyone should be able to find what they want easily.

--->Writers, to see all your comments, be sure to check both IJ and LJ's HP_Halloween. Also, remember that you can click the "track this" button at the start of each post (it looks like a thumbtack) if you would like to receive the comments on your drabbles in your inbox. Also, you can re-post your drabble anywhere you like after today.

--->Final reminder, don't forget to thank who wrote for you in the exchange. If you only make one comment here this year, be sure it's to your writer. Also, it's never too late to make comments on past drabbles as well, so don't be shy, no matter what day it is. ^_^

--->We had a total of 52 participants this year, which is up one from last year! Managing all of you fell primarily to starduchess and shadowycat, so be sure to give them lots of wrap-up love. While lore has been slobbering all over them with thanks, hearing how you feel about the exchange would be added delight for them.

--->We're all especially pleased to report that, while it was a close call, there is yet again no walk of shame this year! Go you! We all appreciated the timely submissions and open lines of communication immensely.

Because lore usually writes this post, she asked her fellow mods if they had any personal comments to add:

Starduchess: Thanks, everyone, for making this another spooktacular year! We mods had a great time running this, as always. We appreciate your participation--all the great mix of genres and pairings--and your dedication to this fest. Thanks to my cohorts co-mods for fun behind the scenes. Hope you all continue to have a wonderful holiday season.

Shadowycat: Another successful fest! Everything went pretty smoothly, we had some terrific drabbles, and we all had a great time. What more could we ask? Thanks to everyone who participated!

And all I can say is that I couldn't run this exchange without Starduchess and Shadowycat, who have this work down to a science, which means we all have way more fun than headaches along the way. Also, this exchange doesn't work without all of you, writers and readers. I'm profoundly moved that comments are so far up this year when feedback comments are becoming an ever-rarer commodity.

So, thank you all again one last time for being here this year. And be sure to bring a friend next year when we return for more fantastic HP fun!

love, lore, Starduchess and Shadowycat

If you write up any recs, let us know by replying here with a link to your rec. If any one drabble gets 2 - 3 recs, we'd be happy to report it for inclusion in the Daily Snitch newsletter. If you'd like to know what counts as a rec there, check the Snitch profile and follow the guidelines in the Hot Art & Hot Rec section.

If you'd like to see an example of a rec post, Starduchess rec'ed some drabbles here.


Thanks, everyone! We hope to see some drabbles make the newsletter this year!

Your HPH Mods

As if that wasn't obvious. ^_^ Did you all have a good Halloween? We hope it was the best and that HP_Halloween was at least a small part of it!

All gift drabbles have been posted. If you think yours is missing or there's something is wrong with it, please respond to THIS POST and tell us, so we can fix it.

There might be a masterlist to come sometime in the next week, but all posts have been properly tagged on both LJ and IJ now, so you should be able to search by your favourite genre, author or pairing for this and all other years!

Special reminder: Please respond to your gift drabble. Everyone worked really hard to write these, and it only takes a second to say "Thank you"! We vetted every drabble to make sure it matched your requests, so the very least you can do is thank your writer for creating your request. We're emphasizing responding this year because we had someone discouraged from participating by a non-response last year. It's also never too late to respond; we saw new comments in the mail in-box from last year's exchange. Better late than never!

Also, you're free to respond to comments on the drabble you wrote (check both LJ and IJ!), but please refrain from reposting anywhere for one week - until November 7. In the meantime, please feel free to link to your drabble, your gift, and the exchange home! The more eyeballs on your work, the merrier!

We'll be back with a final wrap-up at the end of the week. Happy November, everyone!

love, your HPH mods

Greetings, hp_halloween participants!

I hope you’ve all been writing hard! Please, remember that all of your drabbles are due in just two days, on Wednesday October 28.

So far we’ve only received about half of the assigned drabbles! Your hard working Mods would be very grateful if the half of you who haven’t submitted would do so as soon as possible so we aren’t utterly swamped come Wednesday. If you’re having any problems or concerns, need a beta, help with the text or header, or anything else, just email us or comment here. Thanks so much!

HPH Mods

Actually, they've been out since Tuesday, but we have a few people left who haven't replied to acknowledge their assignment. So, just in case....

If you signed up and didn't receive an assignment email, please check your spam filters, and if you still don't have it, write us at the mod account, which is on the community profile.

Also, be sure to reply to your assignment email. We will write you if we don't hear from you this week.

Some other FYIs:

1. Matching, generally, was easier this year, and we very much appreciate everyone hanging in there with us through the sign-up change. We'd love to hear about your writing and gift experience after the fest is complete.

2. Remember when you're writing, you can pick and choose from the prompts and characters given. If your recipient stated a strong preference that you feel you can't meet, don't be afraid to play with the other choices. Everyone knew this was a possibility when they signed up.

3. If you need more direction from your assignee, feel free to make an anonymous reply to the person's sign-up link, or ask us mods to make inquiries for you. There were a few sign-ups without prompts, so don't hesitate to ask for more information. Just don't be shy or delay too long, either - time's ticking now! ~_^

4. Formatting, formatting, formatting. Your assignment email has the exact format in which to put your story. Please do use it or ask us how to use it. I know many of us have forgotten our old basic HTML skills in the age of Facebook and Tumblr, but you just have to get your parts in the right place - we did all the coding for you. Posting 100+ times in 24 hours (LJ & IJ) isn't easy, even for 3 people taking shifts, but drabbles turned in with proper formatting helps immensely. *nod nod*

We hope you all enjoy your assignments!

The Mods

Last call, sign ups end sometime tomorrow (Sunday). It will probably be sometime in the mid-afternoon by the time I pull myself together enough to start making print-outs.

So, if you forgot, if you have friends that you think might have fun with us, you have about 15 more hours to jump in. Sign-up here!

love, lore

hp_halloween sign-ups are closed for another year. is open once again! Sign-up between now and October 11!
Sign-ups remain open until a final reply by a mod is made. This usually works in latecomers' favour by a few hours to a day.

Hello, everyone! lore, starduchess, and shadowycat are back for another scaretastic exchange! Please read the full community profile page, because we made some rule modifications to this year's exchange. Shortlist: Characters instead of pairings and one-post sign-up. If this Character change is stressing you out, see this discussion, which makes the idea as clear as possible.

Be sure to spread the word that sign-ups are open to your flists and any newsletters or new pockets of HP fandom that you follow on other social media sites. This is a lightning-fast exchange, which means you'll have about two weeks to write - that's only 100 words a week, with drabbles due October 28! We also take all genres, thus the repeated call for flexibility in the community profile. Remember, this is a 200-word drabble exchange that will be posted with reveals on Halloween.

Guidelines for Joining
Sign up by adding a comment to this entry with all questions in the text box below answered. You're signing up to both request a Halloween-themed drabble and to pledge to write one for someone else. The "Halloween theme" can include the season (fall/harvest), related holidays (example: Samhain, All Saints Day), traditions, etc.

Clearly but concisely state what you would like to receive and what you're willing to give by answering the questions below in your reply. Use the "Any other comments" line for anything you think we didn't cover in the questions. You are only allowed one sign-up comment, as the point of this exchange is to be flexible. If you find your sign-up reply becoming a wall of text, this might not be the exchange for you.

Please use the full name of a character that isn't considered a "lead" in the HP books. This goes double for Next Gen because of all the repeated names. Also about Characters: Matching is tough when someone asks primarily for characters that received no real characterization in the books. This idea includes names shouted by the Sorting Hat and random Death Eaters. So, you must name 6 characters, no more or less, and they must be characters that are more than mentioned in the books. You can name your OTP if you desire, but your author is not required to write it. Again, read this if you need further clarification.

Requests may be made for up to three simple Halloween-themed prompts. Writers do not have to use all of those, but they do have to include at least one.

One last time, flexibility is key in this exchange. People who will accept any gift or write any genre will be our beloved stars!.

Your reply here should contain the following, copy and pasted into the reply:

<b>Username/name on LJ:</b> <b>Username/name on IJ:</b> <b>Email address you check regularly:</b> <b>Are you over 18?:</b> <b>Who have you written for here before, especially last year?:</b> <b>Would you be willing to pinch-hit on Oct 29 or Oct 30?</b> <b>Any other comments?:</b> <b>List up to 2 relationship types you want in your gift (gen, het, male slash, female slash, or ANY):</b> <b>List 6 characters (see notes above):</b> <b>List up to 2 genres you would like to see in your gift (drama, romance, adventure, horror, comedy, or ANY):</b> <b>List up to 3 squicks you DO NOT want in your gift:</b> <b>List up to 3 Halloween things as prompts for your gift:</b> <b>List which types of relationships you are willing to write (or ANY):</b> <b>List 2 genres you are willing to write (or ANY):</b> <b>List up to 3 characters you are not willing to write (or NONE):</b> <b>List up to 3 squicks you will not write (or NONE):</b>

Please remove the information in parenthesis () when you reply.
FYI: If you don't tell us who you've written for before (if you're returning to the exchange), you could up writing for that person again.

( The Rules )

Please friend the community for updates and to see the drabbles! No need to become a member, we don't post anything locked.

If you have questions, email us at hphmods @ gmail.com (no spaces). Sign-ups and entries will be mirrored on LJ, so please be sure to only sign up in one place.

Thanks, everyone! We can't wait to see how you all will get your spooky on this year!
Note to self: Add a line next year about sign-ups accepted from DW, anonymously, openID, etc.

love, HPH Mods

Is that a black cat crossing the path?

(coming soon!)

(OK, the sign-up info has been altered this year. If you see this, please read them over and reply with any questions you might have. Thank you!)