Jean and I would like to thank all of you for your support and generosity, because without them, this site would've been shut down long ago. Once again, thank you!

Also, with the both of us being so busy, and Jean being out of the fannish circles for a while, we need a new admin. If you cannot offer cash, but have time and skills, we're looking for you! Someone with more technical skills than I have to take over the technical aspect of things. While I can do basic HTML, PHP and database skills are beyond me and I just don't have the time to learn it. I'm actually having some trouble getting into the TPD FTP servers at the moment, but once that is sorted, I am actually thinking of finding another host once the term on this place expires. One that is easier to handle and offer a bit more space and bandwidth, and the new admin will have to be able to move the whole archive over to the new server and get things running. If anyone wishes to volunteer, please let me know!

So, that is for this issue of update. Hope everyone have a great Christmas and New Year!

So here it is, Fairy Tales. Retelling of a popular fairy tales in a Voy setting, fairy tale AUs, Tom's favourite fairy tale as a child, whatever you can think of! As long as it relates to Fairy Tales (and Tom Paris, but that's a given) in some form or another, it's good to go!

No min or max length, so be it a drabble or an epic, it's up to you! Deadline is 30 April 2007, whichever side of the world you're on.

Questions? No? The go forth and create tales of winged fairies with blonde hair! :D

Since Xmas is just around the corner, thought I'd issue a Christmas/shore leave challenge. Our favourite pilot on shore leave, the Paris clan celebrating Christmas, Delta aliens' take on the holiday! Whatever that tickles your fancy! As long as it's holiday, shore leave and or Christmas related! Deadline's Christmas day, which means you have up to 11:59PM on 25 December 2006.

So go forth and have fun!

Since X'mas is about a month away, thought I'd do a X'mas challenge. Rules are simple, pick 4 things from the list below and include in your X'mas themed story/snippet/novel etc. Like I said, simple. :D

1. Maple syrup
2. Vegemite
3. Big Ben (the clock tower in London, yes)
4. Penguins
5. Aladdin's lamp (with or without Jeannie, up to you)
6. Stonehenge
7. The phrase "Oh. My. God. It's an EGG!"
8. Llama
9. UFO
10. Santa
11. Zombies, and last of all
12. The phrase "Get that... that THING away from me!"

There's the list! Go forth and have fun!! And come on! More than 2 people this time! Please??

I'm taking a page out of the voyager_week LJ community old challenges that they use to have where a word is picked every week for people to respond to. The challenge today, boys and girls, is "lamp".

It can be about a lamp, it could simply feature a lamp in the story somewhere, like Tommy getting hit in the head with one (*wince*), it could be told from the lamp's POV, or it could be as simple as a lamp being mentioned somewhere in the fic.

Since it's a 2in1 challenge, those who wants to go for the Halloween one, it's due on Halloween, for those who think they can't finish it by then, deadline is 15 November. Post it here, post it on our own LJ community, as long as you post it somewhere in these 2 places.

So, go forth and write!

Wow, don't even know what to say...

When I paid for everything last year before moving to England, I had thought that everything would be okay with the TPD and I didn't have to worry about anything. I left Genie in charge of controlling everything but the one thing I was still in charge of was being the official owner of the domain and the web-hotel. So imagine to my surprise when I completely by coincidence checked out the TPD on the day it went down. Have to confess now that I probably check in on it once a month or so, have no internet at home sadly enough and hardly any time at work for it. Usually it wouldn't concern me much, would just check the IP location instead but everything just seemed to be gone - completely.

E-mailed the host quite quickly early that morning and was happy to see a swift reply, what I wasn't happy about was the reply they gave me. "You haven't responded to any of our mails nor paid the bills for the added charges." I had no idea about any mails of any kind or any extra bills, had I known we'd have sorted it out (most likely moved everything while there was time to somewhere cheaper) but as I had apparently (according to them) ignored paying the bills and then also ignored the reminders for the bills they had shut it all down. Now, back when I moved I informed them of my new address but apparently they have still been sending it to the old address but yet they weren't anymore lenient towards us. It was either pay the bill + the extra fees for late pay and then have the webhotel re-opened, or they would delete the back-up within 48 hours.

I must confess that I was very close to just saying "oh well, that's life" and let it be as I knew I was nowhere in any financial position to pay. I just finished my degree (did well btw) and while I have a job it doesn't pay that well yet as I currently only have a junior position and I am pretty much just making it due from one paycheck to another. At first we thought we had more time, thus the message was send out that it would be back up in due time when we had the money but as facts were that it would be COMPLETELY gone so it was either cough up or let so many years worth of work and so many stories disappear. While I might not use the TPD myself much, it is my baby, my pride and joy - and all of yours as well. I wouldn't have kept it running for so long if it hadn't been for all of you, authors as well as readers.

I made the decision to take half a day off to sort out some money, scrap it all together and five minutes after paying I did regret it slightly but I don't regret it all right now. It honestly makes me quite close to tears to realise how much you all want it and care for it as well, Genie can even testify that I jokingly first said that she was welcome to do a donation but that I didn't think anyone would participate. It embarrasses me how wrong I could be.

I don't even know how to say thank you enough times, and I now feel really stupid for even for a brief second having considered just to let it pass.

You should all thank Genie for running the TPD as well as she does. If Genie chooses not to take over the financial side of the site, are there anyone else willing to do it?

Thank you again so much for showing your appreciation of the TPD, it makes me unbelievably happy to know that while I can't sit around reading fanfic whenever I want or go on to the TPD, at least all of you are enjoying it.

Thank you again and again and again, can't say it enough. Wish I was a lot more articulate, don't think this thank you note brings enough justice to how greatful I really am.

Wish you all the best, may the TPD keep running forever!

Anyway, the community can be found here. Everyone's free to join, and while the main purpose is to act as a portal for news and updates of the TPD (especially in the event that the site does go missing again). I'm also thinking that authors could post their fic updates/links etc on it. If anyone feels like posting anything else there, run it by me and I'll probably say yes. (Yeah, I'm easy that way) ;)

So those of you on LJ, go sign up and join! I'm all by my lonesome self there!

Once again, thank you everyone for your support, this site wouldn't be here without it! ::HUGS::

Note: The reason I'm putting 'approximately' infront of all the sum is because we're dealing with quite a few different currencies. The site is hosted in Denmark, Jean's getting paid in UK Pounds, people are donating in US Dollars and Australian dollars, and my bank account deals in Australian dollars, which I will need to convert back to UK Pounds to send to Jean. So yeah, quite a bit of international funds trading going on here.

After much panic and self debate, Jean, our Uber-webmistress, finally decided in the last minute to pay the sum to save the site. Money she really can't afford to part with at this stage. She had to call up the server while at work to sort out everything, and her boss is taking the phone costs and time out of her pay, and she also had to take half a day off work in order to sort everything out with the server, which costs her more money she could use. Jean's pretty much broke at the moment, she hasn't had internet or phone connection at her place for months, and she basically used up her food money for the rest of the month to pay for the site.

There were still some money left from the previous donations that we received, but those were only enough to pay for less than half of what's required. Plus, they were in the paypal account, which Jean didn't have access to. (I have to transfer it to my bank account then draw up a bank cheque to mail it to her). Right now, I guess what I'm trying to do is to get as many donations as possible to cover the cost of the site. If anyone wants to send Jean some good wishes/cards, just to cheer her up, I'm all for it. Just email me and I'll give you the details.

For PayPal donations, please go here. You don't need to have an account to donate, as long as you have a valid credit card.

Also, if anyone can find any server with a better price, please do not hesistate to let us know! We're looking for at least 500MB space with possibly unlimited bandwidth.

Now, the only requirement is that the min word length is 500 words (no max, sky's the limit!) and the story is to be posted on this site by 30 July 2005. That's a bit more than 2 months away, I'm sure you guys can come up with something. *g*

Anyway, if anyone's taking up the challenge, drop me a line so I can get a rough idea on how sucessful this campaign is. Heh. Feel free to spread the word too!

Which is the best fic on this archive you've read? Which is your favorite fic? The fic you've read 10 times and still can't get enough of? Tell me! Gen, het, slash, short story, novella, snippet, whatever! As long as it's on this archive. Send me your fav, a whole list of them if you must, gimme something to work with. ;) Email them to me or leave a comment for this post, it's up to you, but send me something!!

Um... yeah, that's about it.