With one pinch hit squared away, I've told AO3 to send everyone their assignments, so you should be seeing those shortly. If you don't get one in the next hour or so. If you don't, check your spam box. If you still don't have it, comment here or e-mail the mod account and we'll try to sort out what went wrong.

Assignments have been sent, and that means it is time for the long creative stretch to begin, but, as always, this need not be a road you walk alone. There is always room for a beta, and that means it is time to put up a post where would-be betas can volunteer their services.

To join the beta list, copy-paste the following form, then fill it out.

<strong>AO3 Name:</strong> <strong>E-Mail Address:</strong> (Or any alternative means of contacting you.) <strong>Fandom(s):</strong> <strong>Maximum Rating:</strong> <strong>What You Will Not Read:</strong> <strong>Anything Else:</strong> (For example, are you willing to read for unfamiliar fandoms to check for spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc.?)

So hopefully by now you all have your assignments. The archive is now open! Assignments are due between now and 5pm (PDT) 18 October 2014. Art and stories will be revealed 5pm (PDT) 24 October 2014, or whenever it occurs that everyone has a gift.

While you're plotting and drafting, take a moment to read over these notes. Just a few logistical things I want to cover.

Dear Creator Letters
Hopefully you have already finished your letter. Hopefully you have already unlocked your letter. I'm giving everyone a couple of days, but after that people in search of prompts from their recipients may e-mail me, and then I in turn may e-mail you.

You are not required to write a letter, but if you didn't get a chance to put at least your likes and squicks into the optional details section, I'd strongly encourage you to write one. Your author or artist would doubtless like to make the perfect gift for you, but that's difficult to do without any idea of what you want.

Speaking of artists, if you requested art as well as fic, it's a nice idea to include a few words as to what you'd like in art, and maybe some art-friendly prompts. "Sex pollen that causes amnesia!" does not lend itself to all artistic styles.

Please, in your letters, do not rank pairings or fandoms. That looks like: "Susan/Ravi is my favourite, and I really want fic for them! If you can't write that, I guess Ravi/Ming would be okay." Or something of that kind. It's a good way to make whoever signed up for Ravi/Ming feel like shit. It's also against the rules. We all have preferences, but try to be considerate, eh?

We have a spreadsheet tracking letters. Please consider adding yours to it if you haven't already, especially if you didn't have time to link to your letter in your sign up. Artists and authors: check that list before e-mailing me about letters. It should be alphabetical by AO3 user name. Even if you have included your letter in your sign up, it's good to post it there, as some people read letters when they're looking for people for whom to make treats.


Treats
The archive is open. I'm not making a second collection for treats, as I find less people read them when that happens, and everyone should read all the treats! Please post your treats to the main archive.

However, if you're just drawing a quick sketch or writing a treat under 1000 words, please wait to post it until after sign ups are due. (18 October). Any and all polished art and fic treats over 1k are wonderful at any time.

For your treat-writing pleasure, we will be making all requests visible three weeks before main assignments are due (27 September).

Please finish your main assignment before working on treats.


Beta List, Defaulting, Pinch Hit List
The beta list is here. Consider adding your name to it. Also, use it to find a beta. Everyone should have included their AO3 names, so it'll be easy to make sure you're not asking your recipient to beta read their own fic.

No one has defaulted yet, but they will. Most fests have a 10-25% default rate, which is just the way it goes, death of muses and the revenge of real life happen. If you're going to default, please do it early to that your pinch hitter will have lots of time to create the gift your recip deserves (and especially do it before 8 October, which is the no penalty default date, but earlier is better). Unfortunately, if you default and then your author also defaults, I will not find a pinch hitter for you, and you might not get a story.

If you're interested in pinch hitting (which is what we need to happen when someone defaults), please join the pinch hit group. You have to have a gmail account, and need to change your group settings to e-mail you whenever a post is made. If you don't have a gmail account, you can still check the group for updates and claim pinch hits; I'll try to post notice here when they go out.