Ad Astra :: Star Trek Fanfiction Archive ^{Beam me up, Scotty.}

Ad Astra -- in all of its extremely complicated glory -- is only the second archive on the open internet that isn't AO3 to use otw-archive software.  SquidgeWorld Archive is the only other.  On the entire open internet.  It's software that is complex and relies on a whole lot of running services.  Sometimes those services misbehave, and since we're not OTW, with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of servers co-locating everything everywhere, plus dedicated tech people, we mostly just do the best we can.  Which basically everyone knows.

Ad Astra is also largely a one-person show, behind the scenes.  I have help (hi Walter!) when things go wrong, but the vast bulk of the work of getting it up and running and then maintaining it has been and is-- well, mine.  And I'm happy to do it.  I'm not looking for anything out of it except to maintain a community I've been head of since 2009, though I do preen when I look around because hot damn, I'm proud of it.

The upshot is: I'm not a fast food employee who has no choice but to take abuse from whomever feels like dishing it.  And I'm not going to tolerate rude, entitled emails fired at me by perfect strangers on the internet who look at this thing I spent many, many hours getting up and running and think they're somehow entitled to be here, either.  So, before you decide to email me, please do consider your tone and check your entitlement at the door. Thanks.

We seem to be getting the occasional registration that looks suspicious.  So, if you're one of those fine folk who went and created an account with a lot of numbers in it, like auto348453564567@hush.com, you might be suspended.

If you're a legit person, though, you can e-mail me your username at slwalker @ adastrafanfic . com and I'll unsuspend you.

Everything's still there, a process just got upgraded and borked the search functions and dashboard.  We're working on it.

Welcome into October!  A most excellent time of the year, one of my favorites!  Ahead we have the new Review Hunt, but first, our winners from the last one were hoodwinked in first place and Gibraltar in second!  Congratulations, folks!

As for our October Review Hunt, you can sign up here or on Discord; just let me know you want to join and that's all you have to do!  And read and review!

And since I'm setting up flash challenges for the month, this month will be four and a half weeks of celebrating fics that the authors AND the readers love; everyone on Discord gets to nominate one of their own stories and one from someone else, and those will have double points!  The first run of it will end on October 8th, at 5:30PM Eastern, so spread the love!

I'm not dead, just insanely busy with work.  HOWEVER, despite that, we're having an Amnesty on all of the first twenty weekly challenges!  The prompts were:

#1: The Face Looking Back at You
#2: Sex, Lies and Videotape (or two out of three of those)
#3: Pets and Companion Animals
#4: History and Memorials
#5: Graduation
#6: New Homes
#7: IDIC - Infinite Diversity, Infinite Combinations
#8: Ideals
#9: Juneteenth
#10: Sensory Processing
#11: One Reality Over
#12: Missing Moments
#13: Altered States
#14: Wind and Water
#15: What's Left Behind
#16: Unexpected Appearances
#17: Heat
#18: Back to School
#19: Empathy
#20: Tea

Stories should be between 100 and 700 words.  The amnesty ends on 9/29/23 at 11:59PM, Eastern!  Then, after, all challenge entries will be voted on and the authors of the top three pieces by vote will get a prize!  So, go write some pieces, add them to the collection here on the archive and consider posting them to the appropriate thread on Discord!

State of the Archive

Growth remains steady and the September Review Hunt is underway!  First prize being a full-color portrait of a character of your choosing, second prize being a black and white portrait of the same, or you can bank wins for a bigger piece of art!  Or you can toss me a wishlist, too.  Any which way, don't be shy about signing up; it costs nothing and you only have to read and review to participate!  In the meantime--

Weekly Challenge #19: Empathy

Be it an actual psionic ability, or just the ability to feel as others do, go ahead and write between 100 and 700 words on empathy! Interpret as liberally or strictly as you like. When you post it to the archive, tag it with Weekly Challenge: Empathy.

Challenge ends September 8th at 11:59PM, Eastern.

State of the Archive

Still pretty chill!  Not a lot of stories added this week, but for a lot of people -- students, parents, etc. -- we're heading into the season where things start to get more hectic with school.  Which, speaking of:

Weekly Challenge #18: Back to School

So, in honor (or lament) of returning to classes, this challenge is all about that theme.  Continuing education for your faves?  Or maybe we step back to when they were wee and see what they were like in primary or secondary?  Whatever you do with the prompt, it's between 100 and 700 words.

Post it to the archive under Weekly Challenge: Back to School and don't forget to add it to the collection!

Challenge ends on September 1st at 11:59PM Eastern.

State of the Archive

Aside yours truly losing her mind due to work (and football season), all's going well!  Challenges are going good, review hunts are great and the archive is pretty stable.  Come on over and join us here or on our Discord!

Weekly Challenge #16: Heat

The dog days of an Earth Summer. Vulcan's Forge. Or maybe something less weatherly: Maybe the heat of battle. Or maybe the heat of sex. Write between 100 and 700 words based on some kind of heat and post it to the archive!

Add it to the Weekly Challenge collection and tag it: Weekly Challenge: Heat.

Challenge ends on August 25th at 11:59P Eastern!