Update + Pimping

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day! I received a ton of dA cards, and loved every single one of them. I also had way too much fun sending them out to other people. (That's the best part of any holiday, imo.) Thank you all!

Interviewed!

I was also interviewed by megturney for the Ticked Off interview series! Read it here:  fav.me/d4pnccx

General Updates

Real life has been a bit sketchy the last 10 days or so. We've run into a few major issues hiccups with our home purchase. It's looking okay, but it'll be many more weeks before it finally goes through.

That also means we're making arrangements for a place to stay, and been hopping from place to place while we find something we can rent for a month or two at a reasonable price.

I've been a little slow on the results for the Complaint Challenge Contest as a result of the moving fiascoes (yeah, that's plural). More than that, I'm also having trouble deciding which of the super awesome submissions are going to be the spotlight features. It's going to be super close call!

I intended to have the results tonight, but I'll have them tomorrow instead so I can sleep on my decision. Keep an eye out!

Word Wars Chat Tour, Sunday!

The Word Wars Chat Tour is making a stop at WritersInk Sunday at 1:00PM EST!

A Super Secret Prize was just added to the already awesome prize list, but you're only eligible for it if you play all four rounds. Which means you should show up on time if possible! (All other prizes are still based on the single round minimum, no worries if you're late.)

I'm sending out reminder notes tonight for it. I usually send them a week or two in advance, but I noticed a lot of advertisement when I first posted the announcement. I think most people who follow the Chat Tour have seen the announcement and think personal notes may be better suited closer to the date as a reminder. I'm testing it out anyway, we'll see how it goes.

If you'd like to receive notes about Chat Tour events, let me know and I'll add you to my spam reminder list! If at any time you'd like me to stop letting you know when the Chat Tour stops next, send me a note.

Check out the Schedule for links and future updates!

Ladies of Lit Chat Tomorrow!

linaket is a wonderful and talented literature community member! She was recently interviewed for LadyLincoln's Ladies of Lit series. The chat event, where you critique linaket's work, is tomorrow at 9:00PM EST! Ladies of Lit chatroom:  chat.deviantart.com/chat/TheLa…

Show your support and meet other wonderful, and friendly, writers!

Pimping

There are always loads of activities and announcements worth pimping. And I'm always forgetting a few, but here's what I have for you today!
:thumb284975704: Lit Fortnightly - 15 February 2012What you'll find in this article: Return of the Fortnightly! | Current Lit Going-Ons | General info on the Lit Community | The past week's lit DDs
What is this business?!
This is a small update on what's going on around the literature community, that's what this business is. The idea is to try and make the community more readily accessible for everyone, whether you're new or have been here for a while.
Please note: these updates will not be all-encompassing in terms of community happenings, as the community is quite frankly rather large. Instead, this article will focus specifically on things that are currently ongoing, or happened within the past fortnight. If you're looking for something more general and comprehensive, why not give HugQueen's Love dA Lit a read?
If there is something that is not included in an update that you would like to be included
Daily Deviations UpdateHappy Monday Morning 
I started this morning by signing something "Moonbam13" so either this typo means I need more coffee, or this week is going to be BAMTASTIC!
I'm rooting for the latter
I wanted to post a quick update on changes to Daily Deviations.  It is important to note that these changes have not been hard-coded so my team is manually following these new guidelines.  This means that errors can and likely will occur until the coding is complete, your patience and understanding is appreciated  
The following guideline changes are in effect:
The 3-month rule is now the 6-month rule, meaning that it must be at least 6-months since the last time an artist received a daily deviation. (This was an overwhelmingly popular suggestion from the community and I agree, it's a good one!)
  Daily deviation selectors may only select one daily deviation per day maximum. This has been put in place to focus on Quality vs Quantity. Race for Life 2012 Thank you so much for the support so far, I really appreciate it! TheSkaBoss really wants me to dress up as superwoman and therefore I need more donations to do it!
Huge love to: kingmancheng, moonbeam13, LadyLincoln, thorns, Kaz-D, TheSkaBoss & fyoot for donating
Please can you help spread the word and donate
Thank you x
Hello everyone!
It's that time of year (well bit more than a "time" this time!) where I need to ask a HUGE favour in the form of money. It's not money for me, it's money for a charity that I am very passionate about; Cancer Research UK.
Every year, Cancer Research runs a national "Race for Life", which is a 5k race that any female can walk, jog or run in order to raise money and awareness for Cancer. Events like Race for Life are vital in funding Cancer Research UK's life-saving work into preventing, diagnosing and treating cancer.
Although this is the 4th year in a row I have participated, this year
Site Update: Deviation Titles, Shopping, and More!In our continuous effort to improve the deviantART experience, we're publishing Site Updates to keep members informed and to gather feedback. Below is a list of recent changes that have been made, including new features and bug fixes. In the "Your Feedback" section, you'll find suggestions and known issues that were brought up by members in the last Site Update.
What's New
More Characters in Deviation Titles
By popular demand, the following characters are now allowed in titles of deviations: =~`@#%^*[]()/{}\|

Sleek, New Prints Pages
We've heard feedback that some members wanted a simpler and clearer interface when ordering prints. This week, we enhanced the modules on the Prints pages to simplify the process of configuring a Print and made the options more clear. These changes have been rolled out to a number of u :thumb285538064: Lit Up! Vol. V Have you heard about these contests?
(Ends Feb. 29) (Ongoing)
Apparently, thorns and inknalcohol's one-shot contest involved . Which of course meant that .

Better get going on these; time's running out.
(Ends Feb. 25) (Ends Feb. 29)
(Ends Feb. 29) (Ends Mar. 3)
(Ends Apr. 25)
The following contests are closed. Go read the entries, otherwise Matthew 7:1.
Winter 2011 Contest (clickable link)
Some excellent articles worth checking out.
Critique by angelStained Breaking in to Lit! by projecteducate
Would you consider joining these clubs?
:iconwritersink: :iconscreamprompts: :icontenderpassion: :thumb285204981: 30 Writers You Should Discover: Volume VIIIWhat's This?
Below you will find a new assortment of various writers on DeviantART who are worth getting to know. All of their respective galleries are packed full of tremendous works that I enjoy and hope that you will too. If there is a writer that may not be listed in this edition, you may wish to read the first seven articles in :thumb284093320: Spotlight on Lit, vol 1.2 Spotlight: Critique
A couple weeks ago, communityrelations' Project Educate had a Critique Week, posting a variety of good resources on the subject. (Mind you, there are plenty of guides to critique on the site, posted by other members like you and me.) One I found especially good was Do You Really Want Critique? In it, ikazon discussed when not to ask for critique, which is an especially good point for a lot of people on dA. So before I go on to discuss good critique, I'll remind everyone that critique is a tool. If you're not going to use the feedback, or you're going to object on whatever grounds (personal or otherwise), then don't ask for critique in the first place. It's quite okay to post something without checking off the 'Request Critique' button (for premium members), or saying 'What do you think?' in your artist's comments.
Good critiques are often overlooked, despite the option to +devwatch critiq Love dA Lit: Issue 65Welcome to the sixty-fifth issue of my weekly news article, Love dA Lit! Every Sunday this article will aim to promote volunteer opportunities, various resources, prompts, challenges, and workshops, as well as highlighting various contests, interviewing various members of the literature community and spotlighting a specific group every week. This is by no means a complete list of all the literature going-ons, merely a tool to help you get involved and stay informed.
This weeks group spotlight is writers-in-progress!
LITplease's Community Portal
Literature Links
An update from Unconventional-Story.
Lit Features Idea from :devfantasyauthor Daily Literature Deviations for Feb. 17th, 2012Guidelines | How to Suggest a DLD | Group Administrators | Affiliation | Chatroom | Current Staff Openings
Daily Lit Deviations for February 17th , 2012
We are proud to feature today's Daily Literature Deviations!
You can show your support by ing this News Article.
Please comment and the features and congratulate the artists!
For all of the featured artists: If you receive a DD for one
of your pieces featured by DLD please note damina.
We will include you and your piece in a special recog



Apologies for anything I forgot! I hope everyone is well,

thorny coconut