Guild Weekly Newsletter 3

Greetings, all! We have much to cover in tonight's newsletter! So, let's get right to it!

First of all, challenges. The following is a list of challenges that are currently on going, their deadlines, and the rules of which can be found on previous posts.

• Challenge 5--The St. Patrick's Day Challenge will end at 12:01 a.m. on March 18, 2009. And kudos to Slinky for the cute kitty pic on the challenge!
• The Friday the 13th Challenge has been reopened and the rules of which have been reposted under the comments of that post. Deadline: March 13, 2009 at midnight
• Challenge 6-- The Urban Legend Challenge. Deadline: March 30, 2009 at midnight
• Challenge 7--The April Fools' Challenge. Deadline: April 1, 2009 at midnight. No foolin'.
• Challenge 8-- The Sue Slayer Challenge. Deadline: April 16, 2009 at midnight. Kudos to Hillary for contributing this challenge!

Now, I'd like to bring your attention to the upper left hand column of this blog (and if you're reading this on facebook, please visit the blog to find out what the heck I'm talking about). We have a new addition to our little group. The Word Prompt of the Month. This will be present until April 1, at which time the word will change. We encourage all our participants in their challenges to use this word in some way, shape, form, or fashion. It's just a fun way to get your mind flowin'!

Coming up next is a little something us GFQ people are calling The Quillies! It's a little nominate and award thing we're doing seasonally. More information on that when the categories are announced. Be looking for that post on Saturday, March 14. What we have now I can tell you. The nomination dates are from March 13 until March 20. Then, there will be a reading period. Following that, there will be the voting period which will last from March 29 until March 31. The results will be up by April 1.

On a similar note, on our facebook group's discussion board, we'll be posting a little game for all Guildmembers to partcipate in! You can expect it around the same time as the information on The Quillies is released. The game, for a shortened explaination, will consist of a list of quotes from books. The object: in one post, tell what book each quote from...or as many as you can. They won't be obscure quotes, and you definitely won't be expected to get all correct. For each quote correctly identified, you receive one point or Quill Mark. Also, if you're doing the St. Patty's Day Challenge and mention beer will get two Quill Marks. And what will you do with these Quill Marks? Look for the answer for that (and more) in the information on The Quillies!

And, on a final note, I'd just like to say a couple of things about our little group here. First of all, please don't limit yourself to only the challenges. We are a group that is here to read and helpfully respond (and by this I mean, critique) to any bit of writing you want us to look at. All you have to do is ask. The challenges are just to help for extra output and to get the muses flowing. Further on this...we are here to read each others works. If someone does a challenge and posts it...review it. If they email you something they want you to read, read it and email back. Otherwise, this group is pointless. We must work together, or we won't work at all. To this end, I invite all of you to start emailing each other work to be critiqued or to ask for reviews on any posted works.

Now, I hope we all have fun on these new and exciting things to come!

Until next time,

Patricia

Department of Backstory

Viva la Quill

Guild (Sometimes) Weekly Newsletter 2

February was Black History Month and March reflects on the female writer. In order to usher out the old and bring in the new, here's a quote by Alice Walker (The Color Purple):

Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book, If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for.

Over the past few weeks, Guild Members have been busy writing their fingers to the bones in order to finish challenges and expand their writing horizons. . .

Saturday Feb. 28th, Challenge Three (The Hate Challenge) closed its vengeful doors. Participants included Patricia, Ariyana, and Droo. Both Patricia and Ariyana posted both original fiction and fanfiction drabbles for this challenge. The floor is most definitely open to any members who would like to post challenges related to repressed feelings.

REMEMBER! Fanfiction writers, and other daringly experimental writers out there, Challenge Four (The Answer Challenge) still has another week left and will be closing for good on March 8th (Patricia's Birthday--be sure to send a card or an anonymous cookie). Keep in mind that this challenge is for short story fanfictions and has a specific list of guide lines. Patricia, Ariyana, and Kimmi have already responded to this challenge, but everyone is welcome to try their hand at a second short story, if the muses allow. Also, those not participating in this challenge may still want to take a look at the question portion of the guidelines for inspiration in their poetry and original fiction works.

Coming Up!

• The St. Patrick's Day Challenge
• The Mary Sue Challenge
  
• The Reading Challenge
  
• The Quillies (Fiction, Poetry, and Fanfiction Awards)
• A new Guild website address
• A new forum for the Guild at Fanfiction.net
  

More information on upcoming challenges and events to come.

Please keep in mind that the floor is open to any members who would like to set new challenges for the Guild. Also, all members are encouraged to participate in challenges and to review challenge responses, if at all possible.

Happy Writing! And Viva La Quill.

Guild Weekly Newsletter 1

For sake of loading down your inboxes, here's our newsletter! Mainly, just some recaps.

First, about our challenges. Actually, our first challenge was Ariyana's Image Challenge. We're calling this Challenge Zero. Technically, it's still up for grabs. You can ask her for a deadline, if you'd like.

Next, our Challenge One was our Valentine's Day challege, which ended yesterday at Midnight. Congrats to myself, Ariyana, and Kimmi, who all put forth a response. Let's keep it up!

Following that, we had Challenge Two, which was our Friday the 13th Challenge. It ended at midnight Friday, obviously. Congrats to myself and Ariyana for completing it.

Currently, we have two challenges going. We have Challenge Three, which is our Hate Challenge. See the post for specific details. However, note that the deadline is Feb. 28 at midnight. Myself and Ariyana have already completed responsed, both of the fanfiction and original fiction variety. I look forward to seeing more from our memebers!

Our second current challenge is Challenge Four, dubbed the Answer Challenge. Once again, see post for details, but the deadline is March 8, by midnight. Currently, no one has responded.

Now, I'd like to officially open the floor to all our members to set challenges. I only ask that you keep them numbered so we know what challenge we're responding to.

Now, we currently have a facebook group, started by Kimmi. The link is here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=49890924581
We also have a fictionpress forum, whose link is here: http://www.fictionpress.com/forum/The_Guild_of_the_Fantastic_Quill/210/
Soon, we'll also have a fanfiction.net forum, started by yours truly, but I haven't been able to get around to it right at the moment.

Well, that's all for this week's newsletter. Welcome to a few new members we have on our facebook group, by the way! Happy Writing!

~Patricia, of the Guild Department of Backstory