Authors have been revealed for the 2008 stories.

Thank you, everybody, for participating, and we'll see you in October.

Hey, if anybody has any statistical analysis and wants to pop over and add it to Fanlore entry, that would be awesome. Alternately, if you could comment here with a link. I love to see the stats, which, I don't know if they're meaningful, but they're often interesting.

Sorry for not saying this earlier, I finished the posting in the middle of the night, as you gathered.

A) Authors, please do not respond to feedback as yourselves until after the author reveal. Otherwise, you break the anonymity. :(

I) The story written for you is listed under whatever name you signed up for the challenge as, as that is the name in my tracking spreadsheet.

II) *facepalm* I usually manage to do this before go-live, but half my brain seems to be missing this year. I sent a test e-mail via the direct feedback form to everybody. The subject line is "3 Ships: Title of Fic" and the body is something like

Below is the result of your feedback form.  It was submitted by
zvi ([REDACTED]) on Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 07:21:52
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

feedback: test feedback

Submit: Submit

Let me know if you haven't gotten the e-mail. Please check your spam folders, first, though. Gmail didn't like it when I tested the story I wrote, maybe because the headers make it clear it's coming from a form?

2008 stories are now posted. Authors will be revealed on January 15.

Thanks to 7iris, Alixtii, Angelia Sparrow, Ari, RubyNye, and Voleuse for pinch hitting when called upon. Thanks to Amy Fortuna, Ang Griffen, Ayla Pascal, belladonalin, Chokolattejedi, Darkrose, Dessert First, flame, Joanne, Kit Russell, misura, Netgirl_y2k, Penknife, pervyficgirl, Ruby, seriousfic, Settiai, Tacky Tramp, and Xtine for volunteering to do so if necessary.

Please, please let me know asap if you find any errors. And PLEASE remember to thank the person who wrote for you. Public commenting on other stories wouldn't go amiss, either.

Thanks you guys. We have 46 stories, and, out of 43 participants, only 5 people defaulted! Woot! Keep up the good work for next year.

Everyone who submitted a story on time (or has already sent in their pinch hit) has been sent an e-mail with a link to where they may review their story.

If you did not get such an e-mail, I do not have your story. Please contact me ASAP if you believe I missed the story you sent in on time. Also, if you are a defaulter who belatedly finished their story and wish it to appear on the website with the others, please go ahead and send it in.

Happily for all of us, a few people have received double stories. This occurred either because their prompts inspired two stories from their assigned writer or because a pinch hitter and the original assigned writer both turned in stories. As of this moment, I anticipate 45 stories to go live on January 6. :)

P.S. I'm sorry that it took so long for me to send the Check Your Story e-mails. There were more stories this year, and I used new software and it took me a while to figure out best practices. Next year, everyone will upload their own stories. I hope the Archive of Our Own Software will be available, but if not, I'll use a CMS.

I have responded to every story I have received to this point. If I did not respond to you, I either didn't get the story or it got filtered out of my inbox or I completely failed to recognize it as a story submission or something along those lines. RE-SEND to zvi at slashx-files dot com.

I'm not promising to respond to everyone's submission tomorrow, because I know I will be away from my computer tomorrow evening and do not know that I will return to it before 11:59 p.m. EST. However, if you are worried that your e-mail will go astray, you may, IN ADDITION TO E-MAILING, comment to this post with your story (comments are screened) or PM your story to me, as proof of time stamp. It only counts as proof of time stamp if you comment/pm the whole story.

Please include the following header information:

Title:
Recipient:
Author:
Author e-mail:
Fandom:
Threesome (with full names spelled out):
Requested element:

(Yes, I know, titles are very difficult for me, too, but the stories are listed by title, and, where possible, we want to avoid having duplicate titles. Untitled would have already appeared on the list twice if I didn't insist on a title. Take heart from the knowledge that that master of English literature, Shakespeare, sucked hardcore at titles. I mean, seriously, Measure for Measure? As You Will? All's Well That Ends Well? How did he expect anyone to keep those straight? And let's not forget that approximately 72.5456% of his plays were titled for the protagonist or romantic leads: Hamlet, Macbeth, Troilus & Cressida, etc.)

Over the next couple of days, I will be e-mailing everyone who turns in a story with a URL where they can preview the story they've submitted, and we can both make sure you've sent the right version and don't have any glaring and embarrassing errors before go-live.

Stories are due tomorrow at 11:59 p.m. EST (UTC -5) Roughly 27.5 hours from now.

Please note: THERE ARE NO EXTENSIONS. I will not listen to your pleadings. When it comes time to turn the story in, I am more unforgiving than the IRS (U.S. tax collection service), as I do not believe in late payments with exorbitant interest.

(On the other hand: if you missed the check-in and I told you that a pinch hitter was being obtained in your place, but you turn your story in on time, we will still be okay and you can participate in future Secret Santa rounds.)

Also, if your story is late, and the person assigned to write a story for you defaults, no pinch hitter will be assigned for you.

That means that if you turn your story in December 30, and the person assigned to write a story for you never turns their story in, you will not get a story. Everyone who turns their story in on time is guaranteed a story. Everyone who doesn't is at the mercy of the person originally given their request. It seems that there is always at least one person caught out in such a way every year. Don't let it be you!

If you've ever wondered about the song for which this challenge is named, Amazon is offering a a free MP3 download of Dan Fogelberg's version of I Saw Three Ships.

I just sent an e-mail to all the participants who have not yet submitted their stories. I need you to reply to my e-mail to assure me that you will be submitting your story on time.

THERE ARE NO EXTENSIONS!

Send me a private message if you do not receive the e-mail, as it means I have the wrong e-mail address for you (or that your spamfilter hates me.)

The e-mail has the subject line Check In and it has been sent from zvi at slashx hyphen files dot com to zvi at slashx hyphen files dot com. You have all been bcc'd.

You may post a link to a letter hosted elsewhere, or write a letter in the comments to this entry.

Please remember that anything written in these letters is optional, although writers who include many of the things their recipient specifically lists as squicks are bad people who may be mocked thoroughly throughout fandom.

The idea of the Dear Santa letter is to give a complete stranger a better idea of the sort of story you would be pleased by, and warn them of anything that would guarantee you didn't enjoy the story they wrote. It's not the place to outline that crackfic epic you've never quite gotten around to writing yourself.

If you need a copy of your signup, send me an e-mail or a private message. I'm not having replies to this post sent to me.

All assignments have been sent out.

bloodygem, please contact me with your correct e-mail address.

If you did not receive an assignment at all, please contact me ASAP and I will conjure one up for you and assign a pinch hitter to write a story for you.

If you do not believe that any of the recipient's requests match a fandom you volunteered to write, e-mail me right away. I'm doing this too late at night, and may have inadvertently mixed up people's assignments.

If you find that you overestimated your ability to write any character whatsoever in a fandom, and you are sure that you absolutely, positively, cannot write any of your recipient's requests, let me know ASAP. I will assign a pinchhitter to your recipient and put you at the head of the pinchhitting line. If you were to complete a pinch hit, you would still be eligible to participate next year.

ETA: Comments are screened on this entry, so you can comment here, send me a private message, or reply to the e-mail I sent out.

Sign ups are now closed. We have 41 registrants and three pinchhitters in a wide variety of fandoms.

Assignments will go out by Tuesday.

It's now or never time. Signup if you're going to.

We have 38 people signed up, of whom twenty-five of you are prepared to pinch hit. (Thanks so much!) And, four amazing people have signed up just for pinch hitting. You guys are the first people I'll call if someone defaults.

Fandoms requested include Psych, Angel, Lord of the Rings, Blood Ties, Deathnote, Numb3rs, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Fandoms offered include Avatar: The Last Airbender, Carnivale, Dexter, Fray, Life on Mars, and Red Dwarf.

If you've been dithering about whether or not to sign up, now's the time. Sign ups close on Saturday.

Someone sent in a signup where they requested Blood Ties, SGA RPF, SGA, and The State Within, but did not give a name and e-mail address. Please resubmit your request.

Also, two or three people have asked if they could amend their requests or their offers, but I have only heard from one person so far. Please send me a private message or an e-mail to zvi at slashx-files dot com.

We have one more week to go for signups. So far, 33 wonderful people have signed up as full participants, and another crazy, terrific, awesome 3 have signed up strictly as pinch hitters.

As some of you will no doubt guess from subject line, Torchwood (and Dr. Who) are once again very, very popular fandoms, both giving and receiving. (Sarah Jane Adventures has also totally been offered. If someone can cover that Australian K-9 series, we'd have the whole set.)

Some other fandoms which have been offered include Bandom, Pushing Daisies, SGA and SPN RPF,the 4400, Jekyll, The State Within, Merlin, Mary Stuart's Arthuriana, Blood Ties, Spiderman Movieverse, Boon Dock Saints, and Anita Blake.

Requests have been made in Deathnote, Empire Records, Kingdom Hearts, Sharpe, My Chemical Romance, the Used, Roswell, Numb3rs, Roswell, and Battlestar Galactica (2003).

Please, mention us in your LJs or comms, ask your friends to join up, and consider, if you don't know what to ask for, being a pinchhitter. Pinchhitters are life savers, seriously.

Just a reminder rules and signup are on the website. If you want to amend your request, drop me an e-mail instead of signing up repeatedly. zvi at slashx hyphen files period com. Feel free to ask questions in the comments. And be thinking about those request letters!

(xposting from emmademarais' post on seasonsficcings at http://community.livejournal.com/seasonsficcings/6638.html

Everyone wants holiday ficathons to go smoothly, for everyone to get their fic done on time. But defaults happen, people run late, disappointment taints the joy of giving.

To try to help, ficfinishing - a comm devoted to helping authors finish fic - is running a special End of Year Double Round through November and December.

We have a special track called Holiday Ficathons designed specifically to help ficathon authors make their end of year deadlines.

[snip]

We only accept sign ups for a limited number of fandoms (below), however anyone who joins the comm before end of year gets access to members only content including techniques, exercises and other suggestions that can make a difference in getting stories done.

[snip]

Fandoms: Numb3rs, Criminal Minds, Heroes, Blood Ties, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Bones, NCIS, Supernatural, Charmed, Blake's 7, Veronica Mars, Psych, Miracles, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, Firefly/Serenity, House, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis

So far we have twenty non-moderator participants, and the vast majority of you are willing to step up to the plate and pinch hit. Thank you so much!

We've got plenty of requests for the usual suspects (Whedonverse, the Stargates), but we've also got plenty of offers for people to write in unusual but interesting fandoms: Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog, Farscape, all of the Star Treks, both sets of Star Wars, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, Vorkosigan, Hercules and Xena, X Men Movieverse, and a lot of others beside.

Please, check out the rules and sign up! Encourage the rest of your flist to sign up. In fact, I'm going to make a special pleading. If you write for Hikaru No Go, Prince of Tennis, Yami No Matsuei or Nobuta Wa Produce, please, please, please sign up. If you belong to those fandoms, please pass the word about this challenge.

Thanks. Can't wait to start handing out assignments and contemplating the story I'll write for my giftee.

P.S. You guys start thinking about your Dear Santa letters. A post will be going up as soon as the assignments are sent out. TFV has some great advice on this subject.

So far, we have eight people signed up. Offered fandoms include Grey's Anatomy, all of the Star Treks, Numb3rs, Doctor Who, Firefly, Star Wars, and many more. Please post on your own LJ's about the challenge being open, and if you belong to any communities where it would be appropriate to spread the word, please do so.

If you know of a community you think it would be appropriate for me as challenge runner to contact, please comment or pm me and let me know.

Thanks.

Hello! Sorry for the lateness of the opening.

We will be having I Saw Three Ships this year. I hope some of you are interested.

This is the schedule:
* Tuesday, October 21: signups open
* Saturday, November 15: Last day of signups
* Monday, November 17: assignments sent out
* Monday, December 29: Stories due by 11:59 PM, Eastern Standard Time (UTC -5).
This is a hard and fast deadline, due to the seasonal nature of the project.
* Monday, January 6 (Three Kings Day): stories posted
* Monday, January 13: authors revealed

The rules are the same as last year. So, please, go sign up and ask your friends to join.

All authors have been revealed. If you haven't yet given feedback to your author, please do so now.