Image Description: A digital drawing of Fleur and Tonks sleeping peacefully in their bed. Fleur is wearing a lightblue sleeveless shirt, her long blond hair is fanned out on the pillow behind her. Tonks has a short pink buzzcut and is wearing a white tanktop. Fleur is spooning Tonks: her lips are pressed against Tonks’s left shoulder and her left arm is wrapped securely around Tonks’s middle. Their left hands are intertwined. Tonks’s other hand is pushed under the pillow. They’re covered by a darkblue bedspread that has a colourful pattern of icecream cones, fruits, chocolate and cake slices. A thick Sudoku book and a pencil lie at the head of the bed. The afternoon sun bathes the scene in warm light. A sliver of sunlight falls across the couple, illuminating their joined hands. Art by celilasart. End description.
This was a spur of the moment “what your fic doesn’t have art?” creation, and I’m so happy I got the chance to create art for this beautiful fic (and to get to read it almost before everybody else ;D). I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! The story illustrates so wonderfully what it means to support your partner, not just in small things, but also in big life decisions.
Go check it out and please have a look at all the other amazing works of @hpwlwbigbang
Summary: Countdown (n.) a game show broadcast by Channel 4, where two contestants try to make nine letter words from randomly selected letters and solve maths puzzles using the four basic functions with the greatest accuracy.
Pointless (n.) a BBC quiz show where four pairs of contestants try to provide the lowest scoring answers on general knowledge questions to advance to the next round(s).
On the consequences of the Delacour-Tonks Quit Pact of 2009. Or, Fleur hates working and only wants to do trivia and solve puzzles.
Words:29930
Author’s Notes: Huge thanks to violetclarity for modding this fest with me for another year, for beta reading this, for increasing the cheekiness of my summary, and for kindly assuring me that I had, in fact, written a thing. Massive thanks also to aibidil for the beta, for adding extra layers of humour to a couple scenes, for pointing out what wasn’t working, and–most of all–for photoshopping Daniel Radcliffe’s face onto Macaulay Culkin’s from the Home Alone cover and DMing it to me. Many more thanks to Tami for generously offering to create something for this and for creating a magnificently cozy piece of art incredibly quickly!
Artist’s Notes @celiasart: This was a spur of the moment “what your fic doesn’t have art?” creation, and I’m so happy I got the chance to create art for this beautiful fic (and to get to read it -almost- before everybody else ;D). I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! The story illustrates so wonderfully what it means to support your partner, not just in small things, but also in big life decisions.
Image Description: A digital drawing of a polaroid photo in sepia colours with the words “The Gateways 1960” scribbled underneath the picture. The polaroid shows Minnie and Poppy on their first date slow-dancing at the Gateways Club. Minnie is wearing a sleeveless jumpsuit with white polka dots and a deep V neckline, Poppy is wearing a white blouse with short sleeves and a high collar as well as a dark maxi skirt. Minnie and Poppy have their hair in artfully arranged updos, they are smiling widely and only have eyes for each other. They don’t even notice the women dancing in the background or sitting at the small tables next to them. Art by celilasart. End description.
The fic, this fic, I was allowed to create art for, is absolutely phenomenal. Whether Minnie & Poppy are your OTP or you’ve never read a single fic for this pairing, this fic is for you! It’s just beautiful how we follow these two through the decades :))
Go check it out and please have a look at all the other amazing works of @hpwlwbigbang
Warnings/Content Notes: minor character death, mentions of illness, mentions of depression, mention of death eater attacks (see full tagset on AO3)
Summary: When Minerva, Minnie, decides to leave the ministry to teach at Hogwarts, she soon gets more than what she bargained for.
She finds a friend, a lover, a partner that lasts throughout the years, through the good and the bad.
Word Count:25096
Author’s Notes: What a journey this has been!
When I started thinking of writing for the WLW Big Bang, I knew I wanted to write an established love story. A couple that goes through the good and the bad together, show how they do it, how love prevails over all. Minnie and Poppy were absolutely perfect for it.
When the sign-ups were originally open for the fest, I was swamped with work and didn’t pay much attention to fandom life. I only came back out of my nest right when the artist sign-ups had already closed. When I saw that the lovely mods were looking for pinch-hitters, I jumped on the opportunity. And I’m sooo happy I did. The fic, this fic, I was allowed to create art for, is absolutely phenomenal. Whether Minnie & Poppy are your OTP or you’ve never read a single fic for this pairing, this fic is for you! It’s just beautiful how we follow these two through the decades :)) Thank you, oh talented author, for creating this gem and answering all my questions! And thank you, lovely mods, for organizing this fest and giving me the opportunity to be a part of it in the final hour ;D I hope you like what I’ve created.
Reading the scene my art piece is inspired by gave me so many feels! Thank you for creating such a tender fic, and for letting me snag this particular scene to draw. It was a joy to read and to illustrate, and listening to “Somewhere beyond the sea” while drawing and thinking about that moment was beautifully bittersweet.
As this year’s marvellous authors are working hard on writing more wlw fic for this fandom, we share the stunning 2022 banner by @showknight with you all!
Please share it far and wide–just because author sign-ups have closed doesn’t mean your chance to participate is gone! Those of you hoping to sign up as artists or Hype Readers will get your chance in the coming months!
All stories must feature a romantic/partnership relationship between two or more characters who are not canonically men. The primary ship should comprise characters from the original seven books. We welcome ace characters, poly ships, and trans or nonbinary interpretations of characters, but the intention of this fest is to celebrate wlw pairings, and to encourage the creation of longer, richer stories that these ships don’t often get. If you have a question or concern about this rule, you are welcome to contact the mods, but please respect the intentions of the fest.
The format we are using has changed slightly this year; we’ll still be doing writer sign-ups first, but this year artists will sign up a little later, once authors have fully completed their fics. Moderators will be pairing up artists with writers, however if an artist and a writer know they want to work together and would like to sign up as a team, that is fine.
And yes, we will have Hype Readers again this year! We know that wlw ships tend to get less attention than other ships. In an effort to provide a way for people to participate without writing or making art, and to make sure that our lovely creators get a good response, we are creating the position of Hype Readers – if you are interested in being a Hype Reader, you can sign up in August, and pledge to read and comment on at least two stories from the fest.
For writers: The word length requirement for this fest is minimum 25,000 words.
Writer timeline
26 March-9 April: writer sign-ups
7 May: 25% check-in
4 June: 50% check-in
25 June: 80% check-in and summary due
9 July: deadline for submitting fic
16 July: writer and artist matches will be sent out by this date
1 September: posting begins
For artists: Minimum art requirement is 2 pieces of art that are more developed than a sketch.
Artist timeline:
25 June-8 July: artist sign-ups (based on writers’ 80% check-in and summary)
16 July: writer and artist matches will be sent out by this date
30 July: 50% check in
20 August: deadline for submitting art
1 September: posting begins
Check-ins:
The check-in dates listed in the timeline are the date by which you MUST have sent us your work in progress/completed piece. We will send out reminder emails a week in advance of the check-in date, and if we have not heard from you by midnight EST on the date of the check-in, we will assume you are dropping the fest. Please note that we are always happy to work with creators to sort out extensions provided creators get in touch to request them BEFORE deadlines have passed. Because this is a matching fest, and the nature of a Big Bang results in the mod workload getting heavier closer to posting, it is imperative that all participants follow the check-in schedule. If we don’t hear from you by a check-in or extension date, especially for final submissions, we will have to make alternate plans, which are very time sensitive — we will not have time to follow up with you or hound you via email.
Collaboration and communication:
Because the purpose of this fest is to create written works that are minimum 25k, accompanied by 2 pieces of art, communication is extremely important. We don’t want any writers or artists to be left in a lurch, without a story or art to go with their creation. Moderators will communicate with participants via email, and if we require a response, that will be clearly indicated in the subject header. If you do not reply to one of these emails within three days you will be assumed to be dropping the fest. Please note that though we do our best to stay on top of communication Monday–Friday, all emails will be answered by the following weekend at the latest. If a weekend goes by and you don’t get a response, please reach out on discord, tumblr, or by follow up email–we are but human and may have missed it!
Please remember that artist/author matches will be sent out by 16 July. Once you have received your match, you will be expected to get in touch with your collaborator within three days. Please also be respectful of your collaborator by responding to their messages in a timely manner.
If you know you’re going to have unreliable internet access etc. at some point during the fest, please let mods and your collaborators know IN ADVANCE so that we can plan accordingly.
Fest eligibility:
The mods are very understanding that, especially during these times, unexpected life events can throw a wrench into our fandom plans. However, if in a past year, you have signed up as an author or artist and then ghosted (failed to reply to mod emails and dropped out without communicating), you are not eligible to sign up for the HP WLW Big Bang this year. If you ghost this year, you will not be eligible to sign up for the fest in 2023.
Please note that this DOES NOT apply to authors or artists who communicated that they were dropping out in a previous year. We always do our best to accommodate creators who stay in touch with us about changes to their schedules and there’s never hard feelings toward any creator who has to drop. This rule ONLY applies to folks who stopped communicating without letting the mods know that they were dropping the fest in a previous year.
You must be 18+ to sign up as a writer or artist for HP WLW Big Bang. This does not mean your fic/art needs to be E rated, only that artists and authors must be 18 or older to sign up. Hype readers of all ages are welcome, provided they engage only with fics and art rated T or lower.
A final note:
Please communicate with moderators if you encounter any issues, think you will need an extension, are having trouble finding an alpha or beta reader, etc. We want to help support you and make sure you are successful, but we can’t do that if we don’t know what’s going on.
Postscript: Want to squee with other HP WLW enthusiasts about the fest and our favourite women of the HP verse in general? Come hang out with us on the discord server.
