Well, if you're clueless about all this, I've sent you here. The skinny of the whole thing is this: Summer Detour is a two-part challenge, for both writers and illustrators, who are interested in (hopefully) contributing to a greater overall diversity of fan-created material within the Saiyuki fandom. All fans of all leanings are welcome to create and submit works, as well as engage in any other group-related activities that may take place as the project progresses.

Whew. I felt... loud... typing that in bold. Oh, well. Moving on.

The two parts of the challenge are as follows.

The Theme

The theme is, most appropriately, summer. Those of you not experiencing summer (as you wouldn't be if you live in the Southern Hemisphere) are still welcome to participate, of course. Do what you can! Most of you aren't too cold there yet anyway... right? I hope not. O_O

Theme, Part II *NEW INFORMATION*

This part of the challenge started out as "try something new", and that hasn't changed. However, for those of you who plan to write more than one story (I myself am going to try for as many as I can), I've decided that it doesn't seem feasible or necessary for EVERY story everyone writes to have an element you've never explored before. The same goes for artwork. Instead, I propose this: Try something new, at LEAST once. More would be great, but I won't force it. And, as said before, it can be just about anything. A genre you've never written, a pairing you've never considered, whatever.

(... note from Webmistress: I'm STILL trying to draw something as an adherence to this part of the challenge. The picture looks terrible... It's not as easy as it seems... but it's worthwhile. New things are good. ^_^)


Please observe these rules and regulations.

• The challenge will run through summer, with the slated ending date being September 20. If interest is lost before then, it will close at an earlier time. However, the site and LJ community will most likely remain functional, though they will not be updated.

• NO fighting. At least, not where I can control it. I won't tolerate crap behavior. This includes flame wars, trolling, and other such incendiary behavior. I don't forsee this being a problem, but I'm putting it here as a fair warning.

• For writers: NO Mary Sues. If you aren't sure what a Mary Sue is, please educate yourself. No one likes them. No one wants them. Also, no original characters, unless they are an essential part of the plot and not joined with the main cast. If you are posting stories to the LiveJournal, the work MUST be placed behind an LJ-cut (use the story title as the description of the cut), and this format must be used:

                             Rating: (think movie ratings; G, PG, PG-13,R, NC-17)
                             Description:

             NOTE: The name of the challenge does NOT have to be mentioned as part          of the title.
             
        If you are mailing me your story, please supply the same information, 
        as well as anything else you think I need to display when I post your             work. Apply the same principle to artwork, as well.

• All pairings are welcome. This includes yaoi, shounen-ai, yuri, shoujo-ai, het, hentai (not tentacles though, please)... etc. ^_^ We realize some people don't like any of that... so adhere to the LJ-cut and rating system, please, if you're on the LJ site.
  

• Have some fun, already! Scribble a few sketches and show 'em to us, even if you suck at drawing like I do. Gather a group together and do a tag-team story if you want. Write a silly comedy about Sanzo's hair frazzling. Just aim for high quality if you would, however. Good spelling and grammar are worth more than gold.
  

More will be added as time progresses. That's all for now, however.