everything but the girl

The forums and review boards have been restored. Visit us in the Park at http://forums.fictionalley.org

The fic management page isn't working yet. Once this error is resolved, we expect to be able to begin processing new content. Also, when we went down, we lost a small amount of Park posts, and a few dozen new pieces of art in ArtisticAlley. We are going to try and recover them, but we're at least a week - possibly three - away from that happening. If you have art that you uploaded before the crash that you can't find on AA now, you can re-upload it.

In better news, over the next month, we're going to have some new projects, contests, challenges, group re-reads and more, in the lead-up to the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part Two. Stay tuned as we start to launch those this weekend...

We've set up a thread in Suggestions & Questions for bug reports. You can also email the help desk at help [at] fictionalley.org (without the spaces and with an @ instead of the word "[at]").

Thank you so much for your patience and support through this frustrating and transitional time. We could not have done it without all of you - authors, readers, artists, Parkies, donors and anonymous visitors. We're looking forward to a wonderful 2011 on FictionAlley with you!

As some of you may know, FictionAlley has been struggling for a few months with a sudden change in our financial circumstances. We're working on ways to help defray the costs to keep the site running, and we're always on the lookout for new opportunities.

Well, this morning, iGive sent out an email about a video contest:

Create a short, fun video (2 minutes or less) about FictionAlley/FAWC, and how iGive helps support it. Get the kids and pets involved! Think Halloween, Thanksgiving, and holiday themes. The top 18 videos (by votes) win cash prizes for their causes!

The prize for the winning video is $1000 - that's five months of our website hosting fees! There are smaller cash prizes, too, and our video is one of the first 100 uploaded, and we get ten votes (easy peasy!) we get $50 for FictionAlley automatically.

We'd love to do this, but we need your help! Have someone film you (solo, or with family and friends, outside or at your computer or anywhere magical) wearing a Potter-inspired costume, or your favorite FictionAlley or self-created t-shirt and say, shout, spell or sing "Creativity is Magic!", then send it to VidChallenge@FictionAlley.org. If you'd rather draw something, or use puppets or animation, that's fantastic, too!

We'll include as many as we can in our two-minute video. We have 120 seconds, and it takes about three to four seconds to say it (maybe five if you're singing) so we can include somewhere between 25 and 35 at a minimum - but we can also put two or four on the screen at once if we get enough submissions.

The thing is, to upload it at midnight (CDT) on November 1, we need your video in hand by 9 PM Eastern time on Sunday, October 31, so we can get it edited and uploaded. And really, the sooner you can film it and send it, the better. Keep it short and clever (and nonviolent and nonpr0n0graphic per the contest rules) and let us know if we can put your name on the screen - it's totally up to you.

Thanks in advance for your help with this! Together, we can make magic!

FictionAlley has been a longtime member of iGive, a program that gives a percentage of purchases from stores like VistaPrint, The Gap and more to FictionAlley.

They just made a nifty offer for us - but there's only six hours left for us to take advantage of it.

For each person who joins iGive using the special link below and does just one qualified web search on our site between now and noon. Thursday, September 30, 2010 (Chicago time), we'll give FA a dollar.

No purchase necessary.

If these new members search more (or buy something at an iGive store) they'll earn even more money for FAWC. Right now, we're donating a $.01 per search and a bonus $5 for that first purchase plus the usual percentage.

LINK: http://www.igive.com/welcome/warm_reg_promo.cfm?m=476021

As you know, FictionAlley has server expenses this year for the first time in over five years, and they came out of the blue - there's more info at http://tinyurl.com/FAServer - so if you could do this today, that dollar would be merged with the other dollars from other FA users, and could be a massive amount of support for the site.

Thanks in advance for your time and your help!
(Please, crosspost if you can.)

I am writing this post on an airplane at about 32,000 feet en route from NYC to South Florida, and I can't believe almost exactly 120 hours from now, I will be landing in San Francisco for azkatraz! Keep your eye on the LJ Spotlight next week, btw, and don't be surprised to find random mentions of Azkatraz in various magazines, papers and blogs over the next week or so.

yourlibrarian reports that fanfiction is now a dictionary term! Hurrah!

To celebrate (no, not really, but it works!) FictionAlley is hosting a dinner at the Tonga Room a week from Sunday (July 19) in San Francisco. You don't have to have you fic or art or meta hosted on FictionAlley to attend, and you don't have to be registered for Azkatraz - you just have to enjoy Harry Potter and have some interest in a Polynesian-esque dinner in a very kitschy restaurant with extremenly kitschy drinks.

Cost is $25 per person, plus whatever you drink that isn't water or coffee, and you need to RSVP to me by Monday afternoon by commenting on this post or emailing me at heidi @ fictionalley.org (without the spaces). Payable that night, or via paypal beforehand. Spread the word!

I'll be making a post this evening or tomorrow on the Az website about a new addition to the MPA schedule at ZEUM on Monday - one of the creators of the Bertie Botts flavours of Jelly Bellys will be talking about the creation process, and hosting a bit of a tasting at the MPA luncheon, which you can only attend with an MPA registration. We're even going to get to hear about some of the flavors that WB rejected, which I think will be incredibly amusing.

There's a smattering of photos from last night's HBP premiere on my twitter so this was either a very good time or a very bad time for loudtwitter to stop crossposting. Not sure if I am going to move to that new site or not, at least not until after ComicCon, because I'm going to be twittering a lot about panels and interviews, etc. And the headbands I got in NYC today, which I'll be wearing in California - only one of them is pink. But it is very, very pink.

Have not seen Torchwood, but I have willingly spoiled myself - hope to catch up on all of it when I fly out to SF on Wednesday. I watched the first part while flying to NC on Tuesday but the download I did on Tuesday night didn't work, so I'm stockpiling. And on LJ I am at skip=650, which brings me back to about Tuesday. Am saving full reaction posts to read once I've seen it all.

When is Leverage back with S2, btw? Will I miss a lot of it while I'm traveling? And why are *they* not at Comic Con? It's definitely geeky enough!

Oh! Does anyone want a pair of tickets to HBP at Azkatraz? Since I saw it last night, I don't need to go again so soon. 25 bucks for the pair if you want them (since everyone is going to get $5 back when they pick up their tickets, since the sums paid were more than the tickets ended up costing). To avoid giving Sandy the Registrar more annoyance, I'll pick up the tickets and have them to give to whoever takes them off my hands on Thursday afternoon.evening.

Working on the FictionAlley front page for April Fool's, and there are two (well, maybe three) gaps that we would love to fill. I don't want to say the fandoms publicly, but two should be easily guess-able.

Anyone able to do some art in the next five days? Comment here or email me, and I'll let you know the fandoms we are looking for.

I know Friday nights aren't the best time to post fancontent, but if I don't, I'm going to have a backlog before I head out of town over the weekend on a minibreak with the family, so this is head's-up that I''ve posted a vid over on pear_vodka - it's pure crack, so be warned.

Click here for an Ocean's 11 vid set to Seize the Day from Newsies. Danny Ocean & his crew don't want Terry Benedict to take their rights away! What are they going to do? They're going to seize the day!

I'm going to be in Orlando next weekend (Fri - Sun) at spn_eyecon, the Supernatural con - it's my first con that has actors in attendence (other than TWH, but I was sort of hosting Chris Rankin that weekend, and he wasn't presenting at the con, so it was a little different), so I'm a little nervous, but in a good way.

Anyone in Orlando interested in coming by at 11-ish on Saturday night for some Doctor Who S4 viewing? I set up a poll for RSVP-ing here; since it isn't an official part of the con, you don't have to be officially attending to come for the Who-watching.

Don't forget to keep your eye on FictionAlley on April 1 (Kiwi-time)! It's going to be fantastic, and a little old fashioned. :D

Last few minutes, btw, to bid in Sweet Charity... Get us while we're hot!

SpellCast's OotP Episode, OOTP IMAX at Prophecy, HPEF's 2010 Conference in Orlando (Incorporating The World of Harry Potter @ Universal), posting fics & essays on FictionAlley and more!

SpellCast

After some technical issues and most of our staff members running for the hills to get away from Deathly Hallows' spoilers or hibernating over the weekend to read the book, we finally release our special OotP episode!

However, this new episode is totally worth the wait and here's why:

- Greg Foster, president of IMAX, sits down with Gwen to talk about about the 3D conversion process of the last twenty minutes of the Order of the Phoenix movie.

- Josh finally gets his opportunity to chat with composer Nicholas Hooper about the music score of Order of the Phoenix.

- Sidney talks with Duff Goldman, host of Ace of Cakes on the Food Network, about the Hogwarts castle cake he made for the Order of the Phoenix premiere's after-party.

- Finally to wrap everything up, a group of SpellCasters sit down to discuss their thoughts and feelings on the Order of the Phoenix movie.

This podcast is spoiler free, so there's no need to worry if you haven't finished reading Deathly Hallows. For those of you have finished, be sure to check back soon for another special podcast covering Deathly Hallows. Download the episode here.

Prophecy & IMAX

And speaking of IMAX, Prophecy has announced a special screening of Order of the Phoenix in IMAX format; the showing will be introduced by Lorne Orleans, Senior Vice President of Film Production for IMAX Corporation. Registrants can order tickets here this week, or if there's any left, buy them on-site.

Also, since the event is close to capacity, there will be no walk-up registrations for the conference. You need to register this week if you want to go.

HPEF 2010 in Orlando

While millions of readers worldwide are about to read the final chapters of Harry Potter’s epic story, HP Education Fanon, Inc. (HPEF) is looking to his—and our—next adventure.

The end of the Harry Potter series is only the beginning of an infinite number of possibilities for the fandom.

Therefore, HPEF is proud to announce “Infinitus 2010,” a Harry Potter conference to take place July 15-18 2010 in Orlando, Florida – home to the all-new “World of Harry Potter” attraction at Universal Orlando Resort.(  The rest is behind the cut... )

FictionAlley Open to New Fic/Art/Essay Submissions
You can start submitting your post-DH fics and essays (including book analysis) here, or upload art here! There's already some really fantastic (and spoilery!) DH-inspired fanart, including some that's based on the epilogue, and some from the Deaprtment of Backstory.

Hi all.

Bad timing, isn't it?

Our main hard drive - the one that hosts all the fics and the "static" informational pages - has become physically damaged at our ISP's hosting location.

We're in the process of doing a major data recovery, but it might take a day or three more.

We'd planned to close submissions next week in the lead-up to the release of Deathly Hallows, but it looks like we need to do that now - we'll try to reopen for a few days pre-release but since it's all hardware-dependent, we can't guarantee when or for how long.

The forums are still working, and if you know exact urls of stories, you should be able to read them via Archive.org - you can even find urls (if you know the author or title) via our Chapter Owls Yahoogroup (or the link from there to the current Google Group).

Email us at help@fictionalley.org or post a comment here if you have any questions.

Just a reminder - the deadline for applications for the Katie O'Brien Scholarship is coming up soon!

( Crossposted info behind the cut )

Happy April, SpellCast listeners! Spring has sprung, and SpellCast's own re-birth debuts with an all-new episode. You won't want to miss the excitement!

In this episode:

* The hosts bring a new spin to SpellCast, and things take a turn for the dark side.

* News from all over the internet - in other words, other fandoms - directly to your earbuds.

* The Writer's Corner examines Draco Malfoy's characterization.

* Our new Fan Fiction Review hosts look at two fics: A Match Made in Heaven, and Harry Potter is Dead Because of Me.

As always, you can download it at our website or through iTunes. We hope you enjoy the episode! Let us know what you think about the revamped podcast by emailing spellcast@fictionalley.org leaving feedback at our website, or commenting on LiveJournal, MySpace, or FictionAlley Park.

---

Producer Josh from SC has also asked me to pass on this question (newsletters, please mention separate from the announcement about the new ep, please?):

Coming soon to SpellCast, we'll be interviewing Nicholas Hooper - composer for the up-coming Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie. Before we give him a ring, however, we are really keen to see if you guys have any questions you'd like answered, so post 'em here and we'll make a selection of the best ones.

Click here to share your question or email spellcast@fictionalley.org.