That's right, you heard me. We're back in full swing and ready to
issue some challenges. Because of all that has been going on at the
site, including the ever-growing endeavor, our online ezine eMuse, we
had taken a break from challenges. Now that eMuse is under way and
spring is just around the corner, it's time to shed those heavy winter
excuses and get back to writing.

While there may not be prize giveaways at this time (though you never
know what might pop out of our sleeves since you know we love to give
out prizes...), all challenge submissions will receive priority
attention. This means you will be featured on the front page of our
archives so that everyone knows you braved the challenge.

So without further ado, here are the current challenges, which will be
open until the end of April. That means you have a little over 7
weeks to complete and submit your challenges.

Our theme this time around will be Dreams.

Poetry: Compose at least one poem consisting of at least 12 lines and
the following five words must appear somewhere in the poem:
allusion, desire, ambition, imagine, succumb. You may follow a
structure or pattern, or you can simply free write it. It's your
choice, as long as you stay within two rules. 12 lines and those five
words must appear.


Fiction: Write a short story (500-10,000 words) that makes dreams and
the dream world central to the plot. There is only one catch. You
cannot write a story that turns out to be a dream in the end. Because
dreams are such an enigma, you have a lot of freedom, so explore the
insane, run the gamut of bizarre, just don't wake us up at the end and
say, "just kidding!"


Art: We want to see your dreams,that's right, bring a dream to life
visually through artwork and share it with us here. All forms of art
are acceptable, so get creative!!

We are very much looking forward to your participation, and to seeing
your smiling, writerly pennames onsite, so join us and brave the
challenge! The creator within will thank you!

Cheers,
Llewellyn McEllis

The year is fast approaching its end and the Christmas festivities are starting, our very own Secret Santa is well underway with many wonderful gifts being posted in Winter Wonderland for every one to enjoy.

November was a relatively quiet month on Circle of Crones with many of our favourite authors taking part in NaNoWriMo, where the authors involved attempt to write 50,000 words in a single month. If you haven’t come across NaNoWriMo before you can read all about it in the latest addition of eMuse, along with stories, articles, poems, art and reviews. They’ve also collected some outstanding fiction including powerful and emotional pieces about life’s harder moments and a lighter memoir that will make you chuckle.

October turned out to be a very exciting month; our very own Alpha3760 was published and she has several others in the pipeline. Alpha has always been one of my favourite authors and her story Access Denied takes us to a world where ‘the Committee’ controls everything; food, healthcare, housing, information and even love. This story has everything – mystery, intrigue, tragedy, passion and romance. This is a real page turner that I highly recommend. You can also read an interview with Alpha and a review of Access denied at eMuse.

October also saw the end of our last review-a-rama. Congratulations to RainLady and Pip who posted the most eligible reviews during the contest. Reviews are really the lifeblood of an archive site like this and their value to the authors that receive them can be incalculable, so if you haven’t posted any reviews lately or you are just looking for another good read, where better to start than RainLady and Pip who are not just wonderful reviewers but wonderful story tellers. An honourable mention must go to steve34 and Lady Grey who also posted many many wonderful reviews during review-a-rama and of course are very own review queen – Llewellyn McEllis, who has posted well over a thousand reviews and encouraged so many authors over the years. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. From all the Staff at Crones.

Hi everyone,

I hope your summer went well, and that you are all looking forward to the cool weather that comes with fall, unless of course you're in the southern hemisphere and Spring is coming your way. Much has been going on at CoC behind the scenes this last month, and to get everyone geared up for the exciting new edition about to be unveiled, we thought we'd kick off our next challenge period with a little contest.

Once again it's Review-o-Rama time. That's right, the more reviews you give over the next 6 weeks the closer you'll be to our prizes.

That's right, we're going to go all out this time and have a first and
second prize, so two lucky people will be receiving:

Pretec USB2.0 i-Disk Bullet:
Pretec i-Disk Bulletproof USB 2.0 flash drive is constructed of a rounded, re-enforced double layer of metal for the ultimate protection. I-Disk Bulletproof was built to be tough, constructed to be water, fire and heavy impact resistant, so it's the perfect way to back-up your stories & it looks cool too.

We have a 1GB as our first prize and the runner up will get 512MB version.

 

 

So get out there and review, review, review your fellow writers, artists and poets. Summer was a slow time for reviews, so there are tons of stories waiting for your feedback! The contest starts today and will carry on through October 31st.

We will be announcing the winner of our Summer Camp project very soon. Our camp director has been a little on the busy side, but we will tally up the participants and reveal the winner in the next couple of weeks.


Now, on to the challenges:

Our fiction challenge is going to gear us up for the oncoming spooky season. That's right, Halloween at Crones is starting now. We want your horror stories. Vampires, werewolves, weremonkeys, heartbeats under the floorboards, whatever skeletons you've got in your closet, we want to be horrified by them.

The poetry challenge has become a bit of a tradition over the last two years, so why mess with a good thing. We want to see your brand new spooky sonnets. You are free to use the original Italian format, the more traditional Shakespearean format, or a more modern approach.

The art challenge is going to be fun, at least I hope so. We want to see your jack-o-lantern photos. If you live in a place where people don't decorate jack-o-lanterns, maybe you could make one yourself. If not, chill us with the creepiest photos you can find.

We're looking forward to your contributions. :)

Now, for the big news, CoC has been working very hard these two months putting together our very own literary art journal. eMuse will premier this Saturday, September 15th, 2007. We will send a more detailed newsletter then with instructions on how to sign up for the free eMuse newsletter so you never miss an issue. We are all very excited about this premier, as it will feature some fantastic work, fun book reviews and an interview with writer Anny Cook. Be ready for the big unveil!!

Looking forward to growing with you all again