The Announcement

Hi,

On November 10, 2000, we'll be observing the first anniversary of the return of ASSM from limbo. An anniversary deserves a celebration, and ASSTR has planned a good one. Or maybe it's two.

On the big day, ASSM will host a pair of special collections of new stories:

ASSTR's "Flash Festival" is a challenge to any writer willing to take it on--it's to be a group of scintillating stories each of which contains 500 words or less. Judging from the results of a preliminary survey, at least a dozen distinguished authors are eager to show that they're up to the challenge. We're hoping many others will join them-- this Festival is open to anyone who'd like to contribute.

"The Party" is open to any author who would like to post a longer story to help celebrate the anniversary. We have reason to believe a group of great fiction writers will be represented in this celebratory collection as well, and it's open, too, to poets and to writers of reviews and essays on erotica.

Instructions for contributors will be posted soon. We hope every writer reading this will join in the celebration.

And, yes, ASSTR will be asking for money. You don't think anything is free, do you? :-) Think of it as a cash bar where you can always get free drinks if you want, but there's a cup on the counter into which you can put generous donations.

ASSTR needs your donations to keep doing what it already does so well, and to improve its service. Right now ASSTR moderates ASSM--a big job-- with the help of a group of skilled and dedicated volunteers. It hosts an enormous Web and FTP site from which you can find your way to the works of thousands of writers in the ASSM archive, several important FAQs, the ASS Hall of Fame, and a lot of other useful information. It also hosts more than three hundred web pages for writers.

Currently, donations are just about even with expenditures--that is, each month they cover the $500 cost of one server working that month. That's a little scary; ASSTR needs a repair fund and a little cushion for a rainy day.

And ASSTR has big plans for expansion. How would you like a much more comprehensive, and faster, search engine, with links to every free erotic story on the Net? How about a "my.asstr-mirror.org" server that would let readers customize their ASSTR experience--make it possible to inform them when their favorite authors post new stories and to suggest others they might enjoy? ASSTR is even talking of a chat setup, with discussion groups on various topics that would augment ASSD for people who have never heard of newsgroups. Those are just some of the things ASSTR could do with more equipment, which costs more money.

So, yes, we're hoping to generate donations, and we hope you'll join us in this celebration.

The committee for the celebration consists of Rui Jorge, chair; Rey del Sexo of ASSTR, Denny Wheeler, and Jane Urquhart. If you have any suggestions for ways to make the celebration even more fun, please write to Rui Jorge at rjnp@my-deja.com.