damzel

Creators are revealed, but the collection is still open for new works, of which we've had several already! And, of course, you can continue to read and comment to your heart's content.

Find more to read here!

Thank you to everyone who participated this year, and especially to all the pinch hitters who got us across the finish line--I appreciate you very much.

I also have an announcement to make:

Next year will be the tenth round of Fandom5K, if you can believe that! I've also decided it will be the last.

I've had a great time running this exchange, I've met some amazing people, and I've been delighted to see millions and millions of words posted to make other fans happy. However, ten years is a long time to do anything, and I'm ready to focus on personal projects. The exchange scene is much busier now than it was when CBMod and I kicked this off--hopefully participants can find plenty of other options throughout the year.

My plan is to retire the exchange rather than handing it over to a new mod, but of course anyone is welcome to start up an exchange on a similar theme. If you are interested in doing so and have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

To make the tenth and final year something we can all look forward to, two sub-announcements:

First, I plan to announce the 2026 schedule by 1 February, 2026.

Hopefully that way everyone who wants to join can plan ahead more easily, and hopefully I can keep myself from letting the schedule creep later and later every year, as it has a habit of doing.

Second, I am issuing an amnesty to anyone who defaulted late in 2025 or previous years, as long as that default occurred before the works due deadline.

That is, if you forgot to contact me during check-in week, or you checked in but then hit the default button before the deadline because something came up, you no longer need to create a make-up assignment to participate in the final round.

If you didn't default before the works due deadline--maybe you simply didn't show up on that date and never turned a work in, or you defaulted with an extension--I will still ask you to turn in a makeup assignment before signing up next year. This also may apply if you turned in a placeholder or your gift otherwise didn't fulfill our rules.

If you have any questions about how this amnesty applies to you, please let me know! I may take a little time to get back to you during the offseason, so I'd suggest asking early if you need to plan ahead.