Calendar Announcement ❤️

Hey, folks. We have three days until the calendar would be due to start, which means this is probably the best time to make this call. We’ve held on in case there was a sudden rush of submissions, but it’s looking like the calendar is going to take a hiatus for 2018. 

We’ve fallen too far short of the necessary 24 submissions to feel safe going ahead. If we only needed a couple more pieces of content, we’d make a push and get those slots filled - but as it is, fewer than half the days have guaranteed content.

This means we’d run the risk of sad empty days with nothing to post (possibly a lot of them) or our organiser having a very stressful December struggling to fill thirteen slots at the last minute. It’s likely the calendar would collapse halfway the month - which would be far too tragic for Christmas.

We’re sorry to disappoint anyone who was looking forward to the calendar. As a silver lining, it means our Mystrade content creators don’t have to worry about deadlines or calendar slots anymore. Everyone will be free to post their content whenever, and we can still enjoy plenty of gorgeous Mystrade fics and art.

We’d like to say a huge thank you to all our participants and followers for your support, especially to those who submitted content. ❤️

Ten days to go! Need a prompt?

Don’t worry, panicking creators. Our Christmas Prompt Generator is ready to sweep in and save the day. Or why not steal one of these beauties? They’re free to a good home!

This story takes place shopping for gifts. You must mention Christmas presents, use the word 'carry', and include this line of dialogue: "We have to. It's tradition."

This story takes place at a party. You must mention mulled wine, use the word 'maybe', and include this line of dialogue: "Do you like it?"

This story takes place a week before Christmas. You must mention frost, use the word 'dip', and include this line of dialogue: "I don't bite."

This story takes place in a foreign country. You must mention a scarf, use the word 'busy', and include this line of dialogue: "Don't open it yet."

This story takes place on Christmas Eve. You must mention gingerbread, use the word 'undecided', and include this line of dialogue: "Guess what?"

Hi everybody! 

We’ve got two weeks to go until the advent calendar starts posting. Some of our participants have finished their fics already.

Whenever your submission for the calendar is finished, get in touch with us and we’ll guide you through the rest of the process.

Drabbles, ficlets and quick sketches are more than welcome. 

Hi folks - we’ve had a few queries about the maximum word count (5000 words). We’re sorry to be strict, but in the interests of fairness to other writers, we’ll need all participants to stick to it. 

We hope you understand that if we start allowing 5100, 5500, 6000 word stories because they’re ‘close’, it’s not fair on those people who have stuck to the rules.

We’ve introduced the maximum word count to give you a comfortable amount of space to write an enjoyable story, while not swamping our readers with a huge amount of new reading every day of December. If your story seems like it needs over 5000 words, it might be best to save that one and post it separately from the advent calendar. 

Bear in mind that your calendar story will be featured as one of up to 45 other works - you can see we need to keep a limit on the length of each one. 

If you’ve been nervous about getting involved because you only want to write a short ficlet, please don’t be put off - we’re actively encouraging shorter stories this year. It means we’re less likely to drown our readers in new content by the 15th. Ficlets and drabbles will provide a great balance to longer stories.

We know quite a few Mystradians enjoyed the recent @mystradepromptchallenge. 

As a result, we’ve put together a Christmas Prompt Generator.

There’s going to be a Christmas Prompt Challenge running alongside the calendar all the way through December, but the generator is available now for anyone drawing a blank on festive inspiration :)

We’d love your feedback on the generator, as well as any ideas for other things to include. Let us know here or you can contact us by private message.

Remember we’re asking you to stick to a 5000-word maximum word count this year.

Are you a Mystrade content creator? 

The countdown to Christmas has begun - and we’re looking for submissions to be included in this year’s advent calendar. Whether you write, draw or work in any other creative medium, we’d love to feature you.

The only conditions for submissions are these:

There’s no minimum word count for fiction, with a maximum of 5000 words. Works of any rating are warmly welcomed, as are new creators - whether you’re new to the calendar, new to Mystrade or new to writing, come and get involved.

To register your interest, send us an ask letting us know what sort of content you’d like to contribute (i.e., art or fiction). 

After that - get creating! You have until 30th November to produce your content and let us know. When you’ve finished your submission to the point where you’d be happy to post it, get in touch and we’ll guide you through the rest of the process.

You can also help us out with a signal boost. <3

Participants so far...

Let us know if you’re on this list by accident, guys - or if you’d like to be on it for real. (Apologies to all those whose tag isn’t working properly.)

Our thanks and love so far go to...

If you’d like to participate, we still have plenty of space left and we’d love to have you with us. There are FAQs available here and the place to send a message is @mystradeadventcalendar. 

We’ll be posting from December 1st, which gives you over a month to create something - and there’s no minimum word count. 

Thank you!

It’s not even November, but we already have fifteen participants in this year’s Mystrade Advent Calendar. Submissions will be open all the way through until the end of November, so there’s still plenty of time to decide if you’d like to be involved.

If you’re a writer, we’re welcoming anything from a sparkly festive drabble up to a 5000 word story. There’s no need to produce a masterpiece - so long as it’s Christmas-themed, it’s Mystrade, it’s complete and it’s new for the calendar, we’d be delighted to have you with us.

You can read more details on submissions here - or if you’re looking for some early inspiration, we’ve got something to help you out: take a look!

Pssst...

There are just over seven weeks to go until December 2018 begins. The Mystrade Advent Calendar will be running again this year - so we’re starting the early call for submissions.

If you’re thinking of getting involved, here's what you need to know...

1) We’re setting a maximum word count this year of 5000 words per story. This is to make sure our readers don’t end up feeling ‘swamped’ by mid-December, and to give later stories in the calendar as much chance of being read as early ones.

2) All kinds of creative works will be welcome, including art, fiction and more.

3) To be included in the calendar, your submission must be: 

Unless your submission clearly satisfies all four conditions, it won’t be eligible for the calendar.

4) Works of any rating will be warmly welcomed. (Huzzah for festive smut.)

5) The deadline to get involved is 30th November 2018. We won’t be accepting any new submissions after this point, and we hope most works will be ready to post.

6) There’s no minimum word count. New writers are very welcome. We want love to feature as many of our amazing Mystrade authors are possible, so please do get involved. The same goes for artists - even if you’ve never drawn any Mystrade before, come and join us! We’d love to have you on board. <3

If you’d like to contribute something to the calendar...

Let us know - @mystrade-advent-calendar - what kind of thing you’d like to contribute. (i.e., art or fiction). We don’t need details at this stage - it’s just so we can judge how much interest there is.

Mystrade is an amazing community, and Christmas is a fantastic time to celebrate that. You don’t need to produce a showstopper or a masterpiece: a soft and fluffy festive drabble will be just perfect. 

So have a think, let us know if you’d like to participate, and be sure to follow the blog for updates!

The Mystrade Advent Calendar: ~ Day 24 ~

It’s Day Twenty-Four of The Mystrade Advent Calendar - and that means...

Thank you all so, so much for your interest, your submissions and your support. We’ve had a wonderful time organising the calendar, and we’re delighted that you’ve enjoyed it too.

We have a few final pieces of content for you this year. 

Make sure you check out the collection on AO3 to catch up with any stories you missed - we’ve ended up with over fifty pieces of fiction: an astonishing achievement, we hope you’ll all agree.

So! Without further ado...

Couldn’t let you go off for Christmas without a present, guys.

It’s novella-length - get cosy somewhere with cocoa - a modern Mystrade retelling of the Dickens Christmas classic, with all the ghostly hauntings, festive memories, Mycroft Snark and existential dread you could ever dream of.

Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, for throwing yourselves behind the calendar. It’s been an absolute honour. 

Can’t wait for our next event. <3

Read ‘A Christmas Carol’ on AO3.

Next, we need to say a massive thank you to our gorgeous @bryntwedge - who has a very special gift for you all.

Bryn has created the beautiful artwork below - and has offered the original file size for download on Dropbox, for anyone who’d like to print at home and frame. 

You won’t need a Dropbox account to download. Cancel the log-in screen that might appear, and hit ‘Download’ in the top-right hand corner - then hit ‘Direct Download’.

Thanks to Bryn for this gorgeous winter scene. We’re so proud to feature it in the calendar.

For our final short story of the calendar, we’re delighted to present The Hand of Friendship by Topicabo - misunderstandings, mistakes and snowy weather make up this gorgeous friends-to-lovers tale. 

Many thanks to Topicabo for writing it - we hope you enjoy. <3

Read ‘The Hand of Friendship’ on AO3.

Last, but by no means least, we'd like to say thank you to the magnificent @smmr0829.

Summer has drawn this beautiful Christmas comic for your enjoyment: A Pocketful of Delights... and we know you’ll love it just as much as we do.

Make sure you read on under the cut. <3 

Thanks to Summer for her gorgeous art - and thanks again to everyone who has submitted, followed, reblogged and commented on the calendar. 

We couldn’t have done it without you!

The Mystrade Advent Calendar: ~ Day 23 ~

Somehow... somehow... it’s the second-to-last day of this year’s Mystrade Advent Calendar. Thank you all so much for joining us for this event. It’s been an absolute blast, and we really hope you had fun.

Today we have more fantastic fiction to add to your holiday reading list. (If you’re playing catch-up, don’t worry! The collection on AO3 will keep all this year’s stories safe and sound forever.)

Firstly, a big hand to @lavenderandvanilla for her brand new story In The Christmas Bakery - gorgeous festive fluff with baking, Bûche de Noël and counter-top-kissing. Awww. <3

Read ‘In The Christmas Bakery’ on AO3.

Secondly, thanks are also due to the legend of our pairing @eventhorizon451, who has given us a special double-bill of fiction today.

First up, I’ll Have A Blue Christmas: “Greg falls off of everyone's radar on Christmas Eve and it falls on Mycroft to solve this particular mystery...”

Read ‘I’ll Have A Blue Christmas’ on AO3.

Next, we’re proud to present Spikes and Watch Chains a Merry Christmas Make - teen Mystrade with punk Greg, prim Mycroft, and those Event Horizon one-liners we all adore so much. <3

Read ‘Spikes and Watch Chains a Merry Christmas Make’ on AO3.

Finally, thanks to the lovely @freebirdflyingforever for Home For The Holidays - “Mycroft and Greg have spent the past few weeks in a dreamy little world of their own, basking in the glow of their brand-new relationship. The time has come, however, to face the world (and more scarily, their families) again.”

Read ‘Home For The Holidays’ on AO3.

The Mystrade Advent Calendar: ~ Day 22 ~

Hi everybody! It’s day twenty-two, and we have a shower of gorgeous art and fantastic fiction for you as usual - two pieces of each. Thanks to all four of our contributors. We’re sure you’ll agree they’ve done an amazing job.

We’re starting out with Happy Birthday, Mr Holmes!, with enormous thanks to @iwritemystrade (known on AO3 as sona007) for her fantastic tale of festive birthday high jinks. <3

Read 'Happy Birthday, Mr Holmes!’ on AO3.

Next, make sure you leave some love for our fantastic @ngaijuuyan, who has drawn us this utterly gorgeous art. 

Thank you so much, Ngaijuuyan!

Next up, our thanks go to the lovely @misocrickette, who has written Oh Night Divine - part three of her Take Another Shot series. Thanks to Crickette for joining us for the calendar, and we hope you all enjoy reading!

Read ‘Oh Night Divine’ on AO3.

Finally for today, we’re finishing with this beautiful scene by @redlover411... there’s nothing like a festive kiss... 

The Mystrade Advent Calendar: ~ Day 21 ~

Happy Yule, everybody! It’s day twenty-one, and we have four fantastic pieces of new content to share with you today.

We’re starting out with our very own @theopoiesis​ (otherwise known on AO3 as the incomparable Mice). Mice has written for your festive reading pleasure The North Wind’s Lord - ‘a tale of an endless winter, the harsh north wind, and a somewhat cranky sorcerer’. <3 

It was May before the people in Greg's village began to understand that the winter wasn't ending. The snow refused to melt, the air would not warm...

Read ‘The North Wind’s Lord’ on AO3.

Next, please direct your heartfelt thanks and appreciation to @ohfuckmystrade, who has contributed the following utterly gorgeous artwork to this year’s calendar... beautiful, as we’re sure you’ll agree. <3

It’s time for some more fiction, and a few more Christmas Miracles. <3 Thanks go to @hiddlesandmarvel (known on AO3 as Loverandafool) for writing this short story, featuring Baker Street, Rosie Watson and top-notch festive fluff. 

Read ‘Christmas Miracles’ on AO3.

Due to a startling coincidence of titles and days, we also present More Christmas Miracles by @ylc1: a sequel to her previous calendar story. (’Tis a miraculous time of year, after all.)

Enjoy this tale of angst with a happy ending: because Christmas is the time for miracles, and for forgiveness too. <3

Read ‘More Christmas Miracles’ on AO3.

The Mystrade Advent Calendar: ~ Day 20 ~

Hi everybody! It’s day twenty! We’ve got three fantastic stories for you today, with some gorgeous accompanying art thrown into the mix as well.

Let’s get going. <3

First off, we’re bringing you another magnificent writer/artist combination. The wonderful @lmirandas and @alifetimeaheadtoprovethat have teamed up for A Christmas Story? Not Quite So... 

We hope you love this gorgeous ghostly tale. We won’t spoil anything for you, but tags include ‘Inspired by Groundhog Day’ - and Uncle Rudy must be played by Stephen Fry.

Read ‘A Christmas Story? Not Quite So...’ on AO3.

Here comes the beautiful accompanying artwork...

And, as we’ve gotten into the habit of seriously spoiling you, we have two more festive stories to enjoy.

Huge thanks go to the incomparable @green-violin-bow, who has written us this glorious piece of beautiful magic-realism - Gloves. 

Greg’s magical abilities only manifest each Christmas Eve, but they’re still very capable of causing him trouble - especially when the chance of a date with Mycroft has finally come around.

Read ‘Gloves’ on AO3.

Finally, we’d like to thank the lovely @penaltywaltz​ (known on AO3 as afteriwake) for this fab edition to the Never A Dull Holiday series: The Second Best/Worst Christmas. 

Family fluff, breakfast in bed and Mycroft feels. Enjoy. <3

Read ‘The Second Best/Worst Christmas’ on AO3.

The Mystrade Advent Calendar: ~ Day 19 ~

How is it day nineteen already? Three fantastic new pieces of fiction for you today, everyone. Our last day of the calendar will be December 24th, so we’re stocking you up with fiction to last all the way to New Year. <3

Our first thanks today go to the dream team: @acrushedrosestillwins and @daynaan, who together have written: The Warmest Winter (’the first warm winter of two collided souls’) <3

Read ‘The Warmest Winter’ on AO3.

Thanks also go to @phantomlove908, who has written us the gorgeous Did I Do That? Mycroft and Greg wake up together after a New Year’s Eve Party gone wrong...

Read ‘Did I Do That?’ on AO3.

Last but certainly not least, our love and thanks are due to our very own @redgreyandpurple, who writes as siriusblue on AO3. We’re proud to present A Christmas Tail, part of The King’s Harlot series, as Lord Gregory Lestrade returns to King Mycroft’s Yuletide court with a surprise...

Read ‘A Christmas Tail’ on AO3.

The Mystrade Advent Calendar: ~ Day 18 ~

Happy day eighteen, Mystraders! We have three new pieces of fiction for you to enjoy today. <3 Thanks as ever to our contributors, and we hope you enjoy.

Thanks today go firstly to @mystrade-lecroft (known otherwise as AO3′s hmg621), for the second of her two stories: La Ville Lumiere, La Ville l’Amour. Greg and Mycroft share a romantic Christmas in the world’s capital of romance...

Read ‘La Ville Lumiere, La Ville l’Amour’ on AO3.

Your second piece of fiction today comes from brand new writer @raybenriv (RayBen on AO3) who, to our absolute delight, has been inspired by the calendar to post her first ever fic - A Map of the World.

If you’d all be kind enough to drown RayBen’s gorgeously romantic story in comments and kudos, and welcome her to the fold, that would be magnificent. <3

Read ‘A Map of the World’ on AO3.

Finally, kudos and thanks go to our lovely @imaginedilestrade (EmImagines on AO3) for her new story I Know. This is the second of EmImagines’s pieces for the calendar, and we really hope you enjoy reading. <3

Read ‘I Know’ on AO3.

Thanks again for following along so far, everybody. See you tomorrow!

The Mystrade Advent Calendar: ~ Day 17 ~

Hi folks! It’s day seventeen (only one week left!) and today we’re bringing you both art and fiction - all on the unintended theme of ‘decorating’. <3 (Isn’t it nice how these things work out?)

Thanks go first to @eventhorizon451, for the fantastic and funny second of her three stories - Have A Holly Jolly Christmas. (We challenge you to pick a favourite line. Moth’s: ”You don’t know that. You don’t speak candle.”)

Read 'Have A Holly Jolly Christmas’ on AO3.

We’re also bringing you gorgeous art by @looking-for-a-goldfish today - festive rainbow mistletoe Mystrade kisses. N’yawwww. <3 

Finally, big thanks to @bigblueboxat221b, who has written the gorgeous Another Christmas Tradition. Enjoy reading, and make sure to leave a comment and christmassy kudos. <3 

(Mistletoe has become the official plant of Mystrade this December. Clearly it is a marvellous plant in all ways.)

Read ‘Another Christmas Tradition’ on AO3.

Thanks to all three of our contributors - and we’ll see you tomorrow for day eighteen!