machshefa | Various and Sundry Exciting Things

machshefa

Hello, lovely f-list!

What was going to be a post to talk about the wonder that is

portus_envyhas grown to a two-fold posting. What a week it has been!

When

bluestocking79and I set up

portus_envy as a way to offer a central place for authors and artists to post their prompts, offers, fics, ficlets, drabbles, icons and art, we figured that it would be a great distraction while much of the f-list was away at Portus. Distracting?

Um, well, if you call squeeing at regular intervals at the tidal-wave of momentum that the community generated over just a few days, fighting with IE and Rich Text in LJ until I wanted to rip my hair out, chatting until the wee hours with

bluestocking79 about all sorts of, erm, modly stuff, and writing my own drabble series, then I guess you could say that it was distracting!
I'm amazed and excited by what this community produced over a five day period. This turned into a broad-fandom effort and people joined in with gusto. There are still stories, drabbles, ficlets and other creative projects yet to post. We also will be keeping the community active between conventions and welcome Portus attendees to join -- post the fic and art that you generated at Portus, and share your experiences! Also, we invite the community to chime in regarding what you all would like in preparation for Terminus.

bluestocking79and I threw this together literally on a wing and a prayer, and the community created its own format. We love that and it will probably happen again with Terminus, but we can also include more planned events if you like. The best part of all of this has been getting to know

bluestocking79 -- what a treat! She is not only fun and funny and smart and warm and a wickedly good writer, but she weathered the horrors of Rich Text with me when it chomped my code again and again and yet again. What a way to start a friendship! *glomps

Finally, OWL has offered to host our

portus_envy productions (there's an icon in the works with that slogan!). When you archive on OWL, the "genre" box will have its own tag. I'm so proud of what we produced and I hope that you all will tag your work with the

portus_envyt ag to indicate that it was part of this wave of creativity.

If that weren't enough, I came home today to peruse LJ and discovered that The New Library Awards winners have been announced at

tnl_awards.

As a newbie author, it's always a nail-biting proposition to see how a story is received. Getting nominated and seconded was really cool but I honestly did not expect either story to win anything given the competition.

So, imagine the thrill and surprise when I discovered:

In Dreams, Winner, Best SS/HG, Hurt/Comfort

In Dreams, Judge's Choice, SS/HG, Hurt/Comfort

The Couch, Winner, SS/HG, Best Fluff

You could knock me over with a quill. Honestly.

Are you guys sure that you want to be encouraging this? :D

Thank you to those who voted, and to everybody who encouraged me throughout the ~~whining~~ writing process. A special award should go to

annietalbot who endures more than her share of that whining during the writing. Without her, there would be no stories from me. Not one. Also thanks to

ordinary_magic and

ariadne1 who lent a discerning eye and great advice throughout the writing of these stories. The best part of the whole writing process has been developing friendships with each of you. What a gift!

*glomps you all.

Congratulations to the other winners on my f-list :

ferporcel,

bluestocking79,

juniperus,

zeegrindylows,

lariope,

miamadwyn,

lulabelle72,

camillo,

mad_queen_mab,

angelmischa, and

juno_magic for their awards (some, multiply!). And thanks to

angelmischa for putting this all together and also for allowing me to participate as judge in some of the categories! Woot!