The Dark Ones Forum Newsletter Archives

This is where I will archive all of the newsletters that are sent out every Monday. Please don't reply to this!

"The Dark Ones" Newsletter: vol 1 issue 1
March 15, 2007 2:05 PM


First and foremost, I want to thank and welcome every new member! As you all know, I just started this group, but I'm working really hard to give some life into it. And I'm extremely open to suggestions. Now, on to business and away from the cheesy introductions.

When this group reaches twenty members, we will have our first contest. However, no physical prizes will be awarded in this one, but later ones may. I only have so much money, though, so there may be more "honor" contests than "money" contests.

By Monday, at the latest, there will be a featured writer and work for the rest of the month. And, to immortalize the moment in our group, the winners will be added into the group forum as well. All congratulations and what knot can be said through there. :)

Also, I know you've noticed that the name of the group has changed from "Dark Emotions Fuel My Writing" to "The Dark Ones". The former was only a temporary name anyway. Sorry if this caused anyone any confusion.

The Brain Tree is up and running for this week. If you haven't seen this week's useless trivia contest yet, head on over to the forum titled, "The Brain Tree," and read about Animal Crackers. :P Monday will start the next exercise, so be on the lookout.

Likewise, in the upcoming months, there will be more goodies in the group, such as monthly discussions, an advice thread, and a word of the week, just to name a few things, and, as I said, I'm open to suggestions. After all, this is OUR group, not just mine!

And, finally, if you're itching for something to do, check out these amazing works by your fellow darklings.

Dark and Twisted 3:the Road Not Taken by Prudence
So Called "Dad" by Rachel Cowan

Goodnight!
Christina Harper

"The Dark Ones" Newsletter: vol 1 issue 2
March 19, 2007 3:30 PM

First, I want to welcome all the new group members who have joined since Thursday. I think there have been at least twelve to fourteen new members, which is great! I honestly didn't expect this much momentum in the frst five days. Well, actually, I didn't expect this much momentum in the first five months.

The first topic for today is the two contests that I have going right now. One of them is purely for our group, the other is open to everyone. I've put the links below.

The Darkest of Dark
Mar 18, 2007 - Apr 1, 2007



The Darker Side of Love
Mar 19, 2007 - Mar 26, 2007
Win The honor of knowing you were the best...


By the way, this newsletter will be sent out every Monday from now on, and all forums will be updated at this time as well.

Also, the latest Brain Tree edition is up in the forum. If you want to check it out, go HERE.

Likewise, there's a new forum with the group word of the week. Unlike The Brain Tree, this is a competition of sorts. A list of the complete rules is listed in the thread HERE.

Now, there are some new things I've been toying with in regards to the features in the group. I will select April's featured work and writer during the last week of March, but, to be eligible, there are some rules you must follow. This makes my life much easier, and it also makes it more rewarding for you all as well.
1. Anyone wishing to be a featured writer must be active within the group. This includes posting new work often, reviewing other group members' works, participating in both the WC forums and the group forums (more on that next week), participating in at least one of the Moderator's, that's me, contests per month, and posting at least one response to the word of the week. Likewise, I want our featured writers to represent our group as a whole, and I want us all to feel like one big family, so, the featured writers need to actively communicate with other group members, and the WC as a whole. Let me know if you all think this is a little much, or if you like the idea. I'm just trying to make our group experience the best it can be.
2. Anyone wishing to have their work featured must email one new work the 28th through 31st of every month. I'm looking for pieces that reflect our group as a whole, and that have mass appeal, and also make use of familiar literary techniques and with appropriate grammar. I'm a grammar nut. I think I should tell you all this now, before it's too late.

All of that being said, I'm always open to your input. So, please, send me your ideas, or your complaints. And if the pictures and links don't work, let me know, and I'll know better than to use that HTML code again. :)

COMING SOON:
"Open Mike"
"Picture Poetry"

Goodnight darklings!
Christina.

"The Dark Ones" Newsletter: vol 1 issue 3
March 26, 2007 6:57 AM

Hey everyone! It's Monday again, as you all know. So, it's newsletter time. I hope you guys are really reading these, because I say some important things in here. Anyway, I want to welcome all these new members into the group. I'm not sure how many have joined since last Monday, but I know there have been a lot.

Okay, so, the subject of the contests. As you all should know, "The Darkest of Dark" contest is still going. It ends April 1st, however, so time is running out. "The Darker Side of Love" contest ended today, and I'm busy reading and judging the 28 submissions I recieved. I've already rejected four great pieces. It hurt me to toss them aside, but I'm looking for the best four, you know. And we can't all be winners. :( After I finish judging this contest, though, I'll make another contest in no more than two weeks. I need to give myself a little break. :P

By the end of the day, there will be a new brain tree exercise. I hope everyone is utilizing the trivia I give you all, because I may make a new group contest from this. Brain Tree"

Likewise, the new word of the week will be posted sometime today as well. Last week's was "scabbard", and this week will more than likely be something much harder. And, if you want to be featured, remeber, you have to participate in at least one of the WOTW. If you have written something, please, send me the link again in a normal message, and tell me what it is about. I've got so much going on that sometimes it doesn't dawn on me when I read requests. :( Word of the Week

Some of you guys have already started making use of the new "Open Mike" thread, which is great. I want us all to feel like a family, and family's should always communicate with each other. That's the purpose of open mike. If you have a question, or just need to talk to someone, go there and just spill. Open Mike

Finally, the deadline for featured writer and work is coming up. I know a lot of you are new and didn't get the last newsletter, so I'm going to insert the rules for these features after I tell you all about what will happen if you don't send me anything. I won't pick a feature. That's what will happen. I'm not trying to be whiny or a b***h, but I have enough to do without having to scan through everyone's writing and profiles to see how active they are and if their work is good or not. Plus, this gets people more involved, and it makes it easier for everyone! That being said, here's the rules for features.

"1. Anyone wishing to be a featured writer must be active within the group. This includes posting new work often, reviewing other group members' works, participating in both the WC forums and the group forums (more on that next week), participating in at least one of the Moderator's, that's me, contests per month, and posting at least one response to the word of the week. Likewise, I want our featured writers to represent our group as a whole, and I want us all to feel like one big family, so, the featured writers need to actively communicate with other group members, and the WC as a whole. Let me know if you all think this is a little much, or if you like the idea. I'm just trying to make our group experience the best it can be.

2. Anyone wishing to have their work featured must email one new work the 28th through 31st of every month. I'm looking for pieces that reflect our group as a whole, and that have mass appeal, and also make use of familiar literary techniques and with appropriate grammar. I'm a grammar nut. I think I should tell you all this now, before it's too late. "

I know I talked about the group forums in that insert, and for good reason. If you don't participate and get active in the group, then you have no right being a featured writer in the group. Or at least that's what I think. You all may think differently, but remember, I'm the moderator. :P Just kidding.

Well, I'll leave you all with some selected readings from the "Darker Side of Love" contest. These are three of the rejects, but I think they are still worth reading and reviewing.

Night Life
Love on the Backseat
to many times

COMING SOON:
"Picture Poetry"
Anthology News

Goodnight,
Christina.

"The Dark Ones" Newsletter: vol 1 issue 4
April 2, 2007 3:04 PM

Okay, it's that time of the week again, the official group newsletter. We're now up to 55 members, but I really think this group can expand more, and that's the members' job now. If you read some great dark literature, invite them to the group. I'm pretty sure you can. If not, send them a message with a link or something, but I think we all need to make an concious effort to make this group great. Or maybe that's wishful thinking.

Anyway, we've got a sort of new mission statement of sorts. "Our job is to enlighten and educate fellow writers with the knowledge we have gained throughout our years, and, through that, seek a higher understanding of what it means to have a 'dark' view on life, and to undermine the steretypes of dark and gothic writers. Just because we write about bad people, doesn't mean we are bad people." Or something like that. I just came up with that off the top of my head, but you get the general impression.

Now... on to the business part of it. I'm proud to present the awards for The Darkest of Dark competition for this year. And, yes, I plan on this being an annual competition. Anyway, first place went to Annie Mac for her story, "Going Home". It's very creepy and very great. Of all the entries it really kept me involved the most. Not, of course, to say the other submissions were bad. Because I got some TERRIFIC pieces from you guys. It was actually really hard to choose the final four. Second place went to Richard McLin for his very intrguing story, "What The Night Air Brings". This has a very awesome cliffhanger ending. Third place went to Michael Carr for the story, "Lonely Ants". All of these stories were psychological or thrillers, not many horror pieces really grabbed me. By that I mean they weren't particularly unique, or, if the idea was unique, it just wasn't up to par with the other pieces that were submitted, but I encourage you all to try again in the next competition. It will be very different from this, I promise. Last but not least, our honorary mention is a poem by Sylvan Huntress entitled, "At the Brink of All Things". Congratulations you four!

As it is Monday, there is a new word of the week and brain tree exercise. Brain Tree
Word of the Week

The deadline for group features is coming up at the end of the week, people! So far, I've gotten only one WOTW submissions for the writer feature and NO featured work submissions. I understand that most of you don't have a lot of time, but it doesn't take long to send a person a message with a link stating the purpose of said link. Anyway, I know this sounds terrible, but if I don't start hearing from more of you, then you're going to be taken out of the group. I don't have time, either, to devote my ENTIRE life to reading everyone's work to make a decision for features and things> Besides, I want to be fair, and this is the only way I can think of. After all, one person can't possibly read hundreds upon hundreds of group literature! In fact, if push comes to shove, I may make literature request only. Let me hear your thoughts.

Next, the upcoming contests for April will be entitled "Picture Poetry". What it involves is taking a picture that I give you, on the contest page hopefully, and write a story or poem about it. The best and most creative wins. Simple enough? I think this one will be open to everyone, but we will have a group contest based on the Brain Tree. Yes, I know you all hate me for it. I'm not sure of the details about either of these contest yet, but I will by the end of the week!

I've also been bouncing around an idea about an anthology. Let me know your thoughts on how we should go about this. It would be self-published, of course, but I just want to know how many pieces you would all want to include. I do know there would at least be one piece from each of us, all proofread by myself, of course, and a committee of others that I will form shortly enough, but you can let me know if you're interested in being one of these five. :P

I think for this month that instead of using a submitted feature from you guys, I may just use the winning submission from "The Darkest of Dark" contest. If I can have a group contest up every month, it may work out better that way. Let me know how you all feel about this idea.

In addition, I will now be posting bi-weekly "bulletins". This involves everyone sending me information (contests, works, etc.) that you want the whole group to hear about. I'll send a message to the whole group with these combined messages, and this will get the news out every Tuesday and Thursday, and also clear up the forum for group related discussions. I've noticed two posts that weren't under "Open Mike", and while I do appreciate the connection you tried to make, it takes away from the other things in the forum, like our features thread, for example. So, if you could PLEASE delete these posts for me, and, from now on, send me your info for our new bulletins. Thank you so much!

Okay, I think that's all I had to say. It turned out longer than I anticipated, sorry!

Goodnight,
Christina

"The Dark Ones" Newsletter: vol 1 issue 5
April 9, 2007 1:58 PM

Hey everybody! I hope you all had a great weekend. For those of you who celebrate Easter, I hope yours was enjoyable. :) We've had a couple of new additions to the group who were sent the new terms of agreement "sheet". One has already said he didn't want to be in because he thought we were conformist or something. I'm still trying to make peace with that statement. :( Anyway, I want you all to know that the bug up my a*s has died, so I will be back to my normal, congenial self. Hallelujah, right?

Currently, there are two new contests you can participate in. One is, of course, to decide what May's featured writing will be! The other is for all of WC, and it's similar to the other one. All details are listed on the contest page. Anyway, please, write something for these contests and submit it. There's a month long running time for both of them, I think. I hope I gave you all enough time for these.

The Brain Tree
Apr 6, 2007 - Apr 27, 2007
Win First Place Gets The Featured Work in TDO for May!




Picture Personification: Raven Style
Apr 6, 2007 - May 6, 2007
Win First place gets added to my favorites and the others get added to my general reading list.


As always, there will be another addition to the word of the week and the brain tree after I finish posting this. I think I'm going to get a little gothic with both of these today, so prepare! And I just want to remind you all that if you write something for the word of the week, submit it to me in my mailbox under the name of the word, or something to where I will know what you're talking about.

We have April's featured writer and work, Mark Mihalko and Annie Mac's "Going Home". How about we go give 'em some love, huh? :P Anyway, I want to thank everyone who submitted a WOTW last week.

Okay, I know I've been teasing you all with news of an anthology and I haven't really given you an exact date or information or whatever, so, here it is- if no one is in touch with a publisher, the anthology is going to be published through LuLu.com. It's a really respectable self-publishing site from what I hear. I'll start taking submissions for the anthology starting today. Send me an email (subject: TDO Anthology) at [email protected] with the following:

*a short story (fairly long in length- more than 1000 words)
*two short stories (less than 1000 words for each)
*two poems (fairly long in length)
OR...
* four short poems (less than 150 words and in a tight format)

I will pick through the submissions and decide the best ones, probably around twenty or so people will actually get published in the anthology, so it wil be very competitive. I'll let everyone know when submissions end, but I can tell you it won't be for awhile. I want the most comprehensive list of works before we begin to make decisions. Also, anyone who wishes to help me proofread and decide the pieces that go in the anthology, I need five council members, so let me know!

Okay, I think I may have mentioned over the past week that from now on the featrued work will be decided by the contest I put up every month. Also, I'll decide the features around the fifth through the tenth of every month.

Also, this is an exclusively new feature: the inactive/frozen list. If you can't participate in the group for an extended period of time due to whatever, then send me a message with the word, "Inactive" and then tell me for how long. I'll put you on a list in the forum for future reference and when it comes within a week of the time you're supposed to become "unfrozen", I'll send you a letter, and we'll talk about your status. I think this is a much more effective way to deal with participation in the group. We'll start this list when I get some feedback!

The deadline for Tuesday afternoon's group bulletin is noon tomorrow. The bulletin will be sent sometime between two and four, unless things come up. But, I expect contest news, selected readings, or just general announcements. Even help topics will be entered in the bulletin. Just let me know what you want me to say, and I'll copy and paste, and it will spread to the whole group.

Now, I leave you all with a few selected readings:
Moon's Shine by Dillon Monroe

Novel Obsession by N. Williams

goodnight,
christina.

"The Dark Ones Newsletter": vol 1. issue 6

Okay, guys, I want to say welcome to all of you noobs, and happy Monday! I hope you all survived last Friday without nothing too dramatic happening. :) And I'm sorry it's so late before I'm sending this. My brother is out for Spring Break, so he's been on the internet ALL DAY LONG!

Okay, I want all of you, new members especially, to go to the following links and read about our group rules and our upcoming anthology. I'd appreciate if you all replied to the group rules so that I know you all understand them. Also, I've only gotten only a few submissions for the anthology, but I need quite a few more before I even consider going through with this anthology. You've all got until Mat 30th. After that, we're going to finalize everything and/or decide if we have enough works to provide a decent anthology.

Group Rules
Anthology News

Okay, we all know the drill on the Brain Tree and the Word of The Week, so check those out. Also, in honor of the contest, there will be TWO BT exercises for your use in the contest.

Speaking of those, I want to discuss our group contest with you all. I've gotten three submissions for it, and only one has fit the profile of what I'm looking for. The object is to use the trivia I give you and create a poem or story from that trivia. If you want, you can submit something from the WOTW, but I would prefer you didn't. And, if you don't submit for the contest, you'll have to wait until next month's contest to try to be featured. Also, I've only gotten one submission for Picture Personification. If you have the time, please, enter these contests. :( For me...

The Brain Tree
Apr 6, 2007 - Apr 27, 2007
Win First Place Gets The Featured Work in TDO for May!


Picture Personification: Raven Style
Apr 6, 2007 - May 6, 2007
Win First place gets added to my favorites and the others get added to my general reading list.


Okay, other than that, I've got a new topic I want to discuss with you all in the open mike. It's about reviews, and how you personally give reviews.

Likewise, I wrote two different guides to reviewing stories and poetry that I think are very informative, and may help you all give better, more enlightening reviews, so, please, read them if you want.

The Idiot's Guide To Poetry Reviews
A Story by The Carpal Tunnel Of Love: Christina Harper.


The Idiot's Guide To Story Reviews
A Story by The Carpal Tunnel Of Love: Christina Harper.


I've also been running through an idea for May. I'm thinking about dubbing it, "Adopt A Member". It will basically be a group mentoring program. There will be a lot involved, and I think it will really help us grow together as a group, and as friends. But, more on that next week.

Okay, I think that's all I needed to say for this week. So, here are some selected works:

Cherry Coke
A Poem by The Carpal Tunnel Of Love: Christina Harper.


Burnin' For You
A Poem by Brightside


Fight For My Life
A Poem by Jack Crowley


Goodnight,
Christina.

"The Dark Ones" Newsletter: vol 1 issue 7

Somebody needs to design us a new logo. :P

Anyway, I'm sorry it's so late, again, when I post this. I've been uber busy today, but I have a lot of things to say in this newsletter, so be prepared.

First of all, I've started building an accesory website with another, larger, more organized message board. I'll keep you up on the details on that. It shouldn't take more than a week or two to get it completed. I'll try to make room for it everyday. I've got finals coming up next week, though, so I'm stressing out. :(

Anyway, another interesting thing to note is an upcoming incorporation of a hierarchy system. I have a point evaluation already laid out, so, the more active you are, the higher you will get moved up, until you can finally have special commands in the group. This really involves the future site more than on here. Anyway, there will be more on this in the group forum, and I'll go ahead and start dividing up points to you all.

Other than that, the Brain Tree contest is running low on time! In fact, we've only got four days left! If you want to have a featured work for May, then, PLEASE, submit something in the contest. I promise next month's contest will be more fun. Anyway, my "lady raven" contest still only has one contestant. I mean, was it a bad idea, or are people on here just lazy? That wasn't meant to be mean, either. Anyway, here are the links, once again.

Writing Contest



Writing Contest



Okay, moving on: I want to tell you guys a little more about this "Adopt A Group member" thing. What will happen in the next month or so is that if you want someone to help you better your writing, etc, and so forth, then you can submit your reasons to me and I'll create a list of all adoptable members, and, if others have time in their schedule, they can adopt you and be sort of a mentor. I hope that made sense. The adoption will last for six months, and after this time is up, I hope every participant will have come from this arrangement having learned something new, and made a new friend. This is just a working idea, of course, and is subject to change, but I think it will be great for the group in terms of connecting with one another as writers.

Also, I want to remind everyone of teh GROUP RULES thread in the forum. Read, respond, blah blah blah. I know you all hate me. :)

Likewise, we've got the whole anthology thing going on, and I've gotten some really great submissions so far. You've got until the end of May to send me your submissions, then, we'll probably put it to a vote to figure out which set of submissions should go in the anthology. Well, actually, all of this is in the anthology stuff section in the forum. Check it out!

As it is Monday, there will be a new Brain Tree and Word of the Week. I promise it will be on time today.

Finally, there will be a poll by the end of the week in regards to the new site and hierarchy stuff.

Our selected readings today are helpful essays on how to give reviews. Yes, I know they were both written by me. :)

The Idiot's Guide To Story Reviews
A Story by The Carpal Tunnel Of Love: Christina Harper.


The Idiot's Guide To Poetry Reviews
A Story by The Carpal Tunnel Of Love: Christina Harper.


Good night,
Christina.