[MOD POST] 2012 SWEETHEARTS WEEK!
Hello everyone! It's time to announce our project for Valentine's Day this year. Yep, for the third year in a row, we'll be celebrating Sweethearts Week, a week long celebration of USxUK love, complete with prizes and the works. We hope that as many people as possible participate! It starts on Wednesday, February 8th and ends the next Tuesday, February 14th.
The object of the project is for members to collect 'Valentines.' Valentines will be passed out by mods in reply to posts that have earned them. There are several ways in which to earn Valentines, and there's no limit to the amount of Valentines you can collect. Members who collect the most Valentines will be awarded prizes.
How do I earn Valentines?
One Valentine Per:
1. Doujinshi scanned- less than thirty-five pages
2. Doujinshi scanlated- less than twenty pages
3. Fan Video (Your creation. Linking to MAD videos does not count.)
4. Significant sized icon/graphics batch (Twenty-five plus icons, Five plus headers/wallpapers/banners, Three plus manga colors)
5. Fanfic of less than one thousand words completed on day’s theme. Fic must be at least five hundred words to qualify for a Valentine.
6. Fanart, black and white or monochromatic, completed on day's theme. Obvious work should be put into this. Please no quick doodles, like mochi in the margin of your notebooks or something you threw together in five minutes in MSPaint.
7. FST (fan soundtrack)
8. Something else? Ask in reply here, and we'll let you know if it qualifies or not.
Two Valentines Per:
1. Doujinshi scanned- more than thirty-five pages
2. Doujinshi scanlated- more than twenty pages
3. Fan Video (Your creation. Linking to MAD videos does not count. This is at moderator discretion. A slideshow will not get you two Valentines, but a personally illustrated or created MAD video will, for example.)
4. Significant sized icon/graphics batch (Fifty plus icons, ten plus wallpapers/banners/headers, six plus manga colors)
5. Fanfic of more than one thousand words completed on day’s theme.
6. Fanart, full color, or fancomic (does not need to be colored) of more than one page, completed on day's theme. Obvious work should be put into these.
Is there anything that can earn more Valentines than that? There's always room for exceptions. If someone writes a 10k fic for a theme, does a lengthy inked comic, personally illustrates an elaborate MAD video, etc., you just may get an extra Valentine or few. It will be at mod discretion, but we promise we'll be fair with this.
Everything posted must be NEW. It cannot be a fan video you made two months ago, or a doujinshi you posted to hetalia, but have yet to post here. It needs to be unposted material. There is no limit to how much you can post.
For fic writers and artists, we've compiled a list of seven fairly broad themes to challenge yourselves with! Completing a fanwork for one of these themes will earn you Valentine(s). The catch is that the fanwork must be posted on the day of the theme; i.e. if you write a fic for the 'close to you' theme, it has to be posted by the end of Tuesday. You can post it on a later day, but it won't earn you any Valentines. We're showing you the themes in advance so you can get started now! We're not going to be stringent on time zones. As long as it is posted before GMT -11 hours hits midnight, it's good. That's the last time zone to pass into the next day. Here's a world clock to keep track of that.
You may do AS MANY pieces of fic or art for each theme as you wish. Each one will earn one or two Valentines (or more), depending on the above stipulations. Other Valentine-earners (i.e. doujinshi scans) outside of fic and art do not need to fit the theme.
I'll be posting at the beginning of each day to remind you what the daily theme is.
Fic/Art Daily Themes:
8th: Close to You
Fic or art must feature physical contact of any sort between our two boys- hugging, kissing, intimacy, hand-holding, you name it. We wanted to start out with something simple for you all.
9th: Once Upon a Time
Fic or art must feature aspects of fairy tales, legends, mythology, folklore, etc. Whether it's an AU storyline based on a legend, fairytale, or featuring magic, a canonverse piece featuring mythological creatures or England's magical friends, or whatever. Go wild!
10th: Taking Care of Business
It's time for work! America and England in a work setting or participating in your occupation of choice for them. It can be canonverse with them at world meetings, on the battlefield, etc., or it can be AU with them doing... whatever you wish. Both of them do not need to be working (i.e. America as a vet and England as someone bringing his pet in), and they're welcome to be off the clock as well, as long as their occupation is made clear in the piece.
11th: Holidaymaking
Because no one wants all work and no play, how about some rest and leisure. Anything that the boys might do in their off time is welcome here. Whether it's something big like an international vacation, or something small like sharing popcorn while watching tv on the couch, this is for what the boys do in their free time.
12th: Music of My Heart
Because what's finer than music? Music or dance of any sort is the tentpole of this theme. Whether someone is in a band, they're singing or dancing together, or they're just listening to music, anything is fine! Just as long as music or dance is somehow involved.
13th: Worlds Beyond
Fic or art must be alternate universe, alternate reality, or crossover. Gakuen and Fantasia, despite being canon AUs, do qualify for this theme. Alternate reality refers to exploring a deviation from canon. In Hetalia, this may also be called alternate history. Crossovers are pretty self-explanatory; it just needs to feature characters or settings from another canon. Fusion fic/art (i.e. drawing the characters in clothing from another canon) is welcome here as well.
14th: Valentine’s Day
This is pretty basic. Your fic or art just needs to be about Valentine's Day. It does not need to take place on the holiday, but Valentine's Day should at least be an element of the story.
Pieces can be any genre, any rating, etc. Except for Worlds Beyond (au only), fic and art can be either canon or alternate universe for all the themes. Character variants such as Nekotalia or Nyotalia are allowed.
Now as for the prizes!
Obviously, the members who earn the MOST Valentines are the winners here. We will be awarding at least the top three (last year we awarded more). If there is a tie, we will draw for the winner.
There will be a selection of prizes to pick from. First place winner gets to pick a prize first, then second, then third.
THERE WILL ALSO BE A RAFFLE DRAWING.
ANYONE can enter this. I'll be setting up a post, and you must comment if you wish to be a part of it. A name will be picked at random (of course), and that person will be allowed to choose a prize. We may award more than one raffle prize like we did last year.
Prizes will be the following:
1- USxUK Doujinshi (these will not all be R-18, so don't worry if you don't want porn)
2- Yesasia and CDJapan gift certificates
3- LJ Paid Accounts
4- Other misc. ideas we may come up with.
We've designed the prizes to hopefully appeal to everyone. We know that some people may not be able to receive prizes in the mail, and that's why we're offering up the gift certificates as well.
Reply here if you have any questions!
We hope you're all excited for this project, and that a lot of you decide to participate in helping our favorite special relationship celebrate the holiday of romance together. This project is all about spreading USxUK love, so regardless of whether you win a prize or not, you're a winner just for participating and doing that! ♥
-haro
P.S.- We do welcome prize donations if you have anything you'd like to donate. Recently, we had an amazing anonymous benefactor donate a substantial chunk of money to our community, which we will be able to use to help provide prizes and goodies for our projects. I can't thank her enough for her donation (as well, I can't be thankful enough for donations from ANY member)!