Interview with DT pick winner @HammerHips

I caught up with the DT blog pick author, HammerHips and talked a little bit about her love for dark and her amazing fic Erzsébet. 

Erzsébet

by 

HammerHips

Izzy:

Why did you decide to write for this contest?

HammerHips:

Well, I didn't actually write for the contest. I wrote the two pieces I did because I wanted to write them. I started DID before the contest even began, and it just fit. Then, I told my BBBF, givemesomevamp, that I had an idea for a supplemental piece for Decay and outlined it for her and she asked me to write it because she said it would be awesome. I can't resist her charm, so I did. It was just a fluke that y'all had the contest and Erzsébet seemed to fit in.

Izzy:

What inspired your fic?

HammerHips: 

 Well, Decay inspired it, to be honest.  It gives a little hint as to who you can expect to show up to help the Cullens with Bella.  Also, I love my history and I wanted to push myself to try and integrate history with the Twilight universe.  It was fun bringing Elizabeth Bathory, Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler), and Stefan Musat into the story.  Plus, I liked giving Carlisle a creator!

Izzy:

What's your fav pairing?  On the flipside, which character(s) do you lurrrve taking to the Darkside?

HammerHips: 

My favorite pairing will always be Jasper/Bella I think.  I've been hooked ever since I read Colliding Meteors by IdreamofEddy and Insecurities by JamesRamsey.  After those two, I devoured all of the J/B pairings I could get my hands on.  

I love taking ALL of them to the dark side.  I've done a dark Alice in UYS, Darkisle in DID, Dark Bella in Decay, but my favorite so far is Alistair.  Creating his tragic past and a romance with someone he truly loved..even though she was a barbaric and cruel women, was amazing.  He'll always hold a special place in my dark little heart now.

Izzy:

What Dark fic pwns your ass?

HammerHips: 

Love My Hate by JaspersIzzy.  Abso-fucking-lutely.  This fic owns me so hard that I can't even explain to you how much I'm in love with it.  I've been thinking about printing it out and making an origami peen out of it just so I can hump it properly. 

(inserts blush, thank you sweets)

Izzy:

 Are you planning to write more dark, and if so can we get a hint of the plot? Heh.

HammerHips: 

Well, I still have Decay to finish up.  I will probably add a few chapters to DID eventually, so look for that, and yes, I'm working on a dark collab with one of my favorite peeps in the fandom.  An AMAZING author by the name of JaspersIzzy.  You want to know the plot?  One word: Zombiesper. *laughs*

 (Izzy: It's going to be awesome!)

And there you have it, folks. Congratulations again on your win Mrs. Hips. You truly deserved it for such an amazing story. Bravo!

Interview with JNG Judges Pick Kisbydog

Over the next three days we're featuring the blog picks and public voting pick authors from our Nightmare Before Christmas Contest. I think many of us can appreciate just how hard it is to enter a contest. Not only are you writing within the confines of a very specific topic, but you're also putting yourself out there for public voting and judge's choices. So, I wanted to extend a huge THANK YOU to all of the authors who continue to inspire us with their creativity and talent.

Today we start with the JNG Judge's Pick.

Leave A Light On by Kisbydog

Why did you decide to write for this contest?

I've just started writing again after a long, long hiatus, and I've been entering contests like crazy, trying to find my voice. When I saw the scary looking Santa on the contest's banner, I was intrigued. I am incapable of writing fluff. Most everything I write begins to turn a little dark, no matter how hard I try, so I thought I'd stop fighting it and let it out. And what a better time than Christmas, the time of year that pisses me off more than any other? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for love and family - I just can't stand all the bloody commercialism and pressure. So, I figured I'd bring back the long lost Goddess of Vampires and set her loose in a mall on boxing day (that's a very minor part of my story, btw).

What inspired your fic?

This fic began percolating in my brain a couple of months ago when I started reading 'Spontaneous Combustion', by Gemmalisax. That is one seriously hot story - vampire firefighters? That is the epitome of hotness, right there. I wanted to write some multiple vamp lovin' for Bella, where they totally worshipped her (although, my vamps were naughty while I was writing them, and they refused to worship her while she was still a weak human. Brats. But they did show her a very good time!) Then, while I was outlining 'Leave a Light On', I was also reading the entries in the 'Dommella's Dungeon' contest, and the Bella that I was writing morphed into a vampire goddess, worshipped by all.

 What's your fav pairing? On the flipside, which character(s) do you lurrrve taking to the Darkside?

I'm Edward/Bella all the way. My fave characters to darken are Edward, Bella and Jasper. Yum.

 What Dark fic owns your ass?

Oh god. So many. Right now, I'm totally flipping out over 'This Buried Life' by Emmanuelle Nathan, The Monster and I by beautifulyes, Grasping Darkness by KiyaRaven, Last Rites by halojones, and I just started reading a new fic by luvrofink and MarchHare5 called 'My Greatest Masterpiece'. It's only 1 chapter in, but it's already juicy!

Are you planning to write more dark, and if so can we get a hint of the plot? Heh.

I have a few plot-gouls slithering around in my brain, but I'd hate to give too much away (I'm still plotting, and my characters are slippery little buggers). Just know that I loooove dark, dominant vampward, and E/B/J threeways. But who doesn't? Also, I've had some requests to continue 'Leave a Light On', so that may happen in the next few months.

Darkest Temptations Rec Leave a Light On

This was the Jasper's Naughty Girl judges pick in our Nightmare Before Christmas Contest.

Cullen818

Leave A Light On by Kisbydog

Summary - Bella is attending her office Christmas party when she is kidnapped by three strange men, who take her on a frightening journey of lust and violence. Jasper's Naughty Girl's pick in the Nightmare Before Christmas Contest.

This one probably isn't for the faint of heart, but let's face it, if your heart was so faint, you wouldn't be here reading this rec!

Bella has been taken by Edward, Jasper and Carlisle, and when I say "taken", I mean more than kidnapped. But, there's a reason, one they've been waiting a long time for. What happens when they succeed at their task? I found it to be very interesting. There is more to this fic than you initially may think and it's a really good premise.

Edward's Chipper:

Ah, yes. So I’m writing this without any knowledge of what my fellow blog-gals have written about this little treasure, but I’m preeeeety sure we all were thinking, no wishing, the same thing: that we were in Bella’s, um, shoes. The first time I read it, yeah I said the first time, one word kept repeating in my head as my eyes devoured more and more: damn. But it was more like:

Damn.

Damn.

DAAAAYUMMMM!

Three Cullen men? Bella…um…bound? I wish I knew how to say fuck me in three different languages. (Feel free to gmail me if you have said knowledge of German, Italian, or perhaps Swahili. That would be a laughriot in Swahili, I think.) This wunderkind from kisbydog is a lick-lipping, thigh-clenching, girlie bits-tingling, panty-changing good time. Of course, that is if you’re into that kinda thing. *smiles* But hells to the Bella, this is Darkest Temptations! Y’all ain’t coming here for candy sprinkles and garden fairies, right? Well, that depends I guess on your use of said terms. Give this one a ride, I mean read...at least once.

This is one of those OS's that might be a bit much for some. I don't think it's a deeply dark OS compared to some of the stuff I've read, but it's dark nonetheless.

And I floved it!

Hot! Yes, I know, I might be a bit disturbed, but the idea of being bound by three of the hottest Cullen men (Carlisle, Jasper, and Edward) just does some wicked shit to my lady bits. *insert very noticeable shiver* I'd take it any day.

After Bella is kidnapped, we can't help but wonder just WTF is going on, and why do they keep thinking Bella is something else. They are convinced that what they are doing is going to help Bella remember who she truly is, and damn do they have a way of showing it.

Um, tag team anyone? *raises hand* Yes, and it's smexy, dark, and delicious. What is truly fascinating is when their little.. ahem.. ritual *snickers* is complete. Bella is made to remember just who she is and something very dark and sinister is born. It has me wishing for more. I'd love to see this continued into a full blown story and see where she would take it, but this OS was beautiful, sexy and dark. Just the way we like them here. Please give it a try, and some love, because you won't be disappointed.

Darkest Temptations Rec Erzebet

Today we're rec'ing the Darkest Temptations Judges Pick!

Cullen818

Erzebet by hammerhips

Summary - Supplemental one shot for Decay. Alistair recounts his tragic love story.

Amazing! Really that's all that needs to be said about this one, but I suppose I can find something else. This was truly unique and you're just not going to find many authors in the Fandom who can spin a tale and nail it the way hammerhips does.

Hand to God!

This is an outtake to her awesome story Decay. The o/s is a period piece and it's pretty evident she thoroughly researched the era. I think what I liked most about this fic was how different it was. Alistair? I love the fact that she stepped outside the box and gave us a whole new perspective on Twilight! It was refreshing and let's face it, I don't use that word too often around here. lol

But, don't worry...it's still dark, tragic and creative. I was also a fan of the ever compassionate Carlisle. Who doesn't love him?

Edward's Chipper:

I knew this was going to be a doozaaay coming from HammerHips, but never in my wildest imagination did I expect what she did. Melding an underdeveloped Twi character with history, not to mention exposition in the language of the time, blew...me...away. I think many of us assume anything coming from her will be filled with catch phrases that will/do make us PMSL on not one, but numerous occasions.

Not this fic.

Bloody, gory, sick, twisted and everything Darkest Temptations is always searching for like Indiana Jones in the Temple of Fanfiction. It was my pick, and not because I want to hump HammerHips until she’s raw, but because it was a jump outside the box of my familiarity, not to mention her comfort zone, and that for me is the ultimate challenge for any writer – and one she did orgasmically with this little o/s.

Can I say.. HOLY FUCK? Why yes I can, and I do. HOLY FUCK!
I love anything and everything HammerHips does. She's brilliant and funny and just down right awesome in everything she does. That being said, I can put my friendship and love for her aside for a moment to talk about this entry.

I. Was. Blown. Away!

This fic was not what I was expecting AT ALL.

I have a not so secret love for era/period pieces. I'm a bit of a history nerd and love the darker side of it. (*snort*, surprise there) HammerHips took some of my favorite things and combined them into this fic. Dark, gore, blood (lots of it) and history. She took a very interesting time in our real life history and combined it in a brilliant way to make a whole new past for one of the back characters in the Twilight saga.

It was so breathtakingly written, and honestly, I'm having a hard time trying to find the words to describe it. It's one of those stories you have to read for yourself and experience. It is an experience. It has this whole believably real feel to it, that I could completely see this being the true tale of Countess Elizabeth Báthory.. It's that well done.  

The blood and gore and just down right deviousness of this fic took my breath away, but it wasn't just misplaced gore and darkness like a lot of fics try to just throw in for the hell of it. It was weaving a tale of how truly dark and evil our history could be.

Amazing, beautiful, inspiring, shit there are not enough descriptive adjectives to really tell you how wonderful this fic is. It's an outtake from her story Decay (also amazing) so read it, then read this OS, although it can be read separately, and give her some love for all her hard work on something so very truly original.

GemmaLisaX:

Erzsébet is simply awesome.  An awesome sundae, covered in awesomesauce and topped with many, many awesome cherries.  It is simply fantastic.  It is also a cautionary tale if ever there was one.  Beware of being mated to the crazy, psychopathic, homicidal maniac.  Not something that many of us have to worry about, but still it’s definitely something that should be kept in mind.  This was simply fantastic.  It grips you from the first word and holds you down by your throat till the last word is read.  It’s engaging, intriguing, fascinating, dark, dangerous and heart breaking.  

The darkness in this fic is brilliantly woven and even pervasive; it has you thinking about it after you read it, contemplating the different nuances, the plot and the message as it pertains to both this one shot and the multi-chapter story that it supplements. 

You don’t have to be reading Decay in order for this to make sense, though it certainly makes you want to be reading it.  HammerHips has an innate talent for the darker side of writing, making it compelling and almost addictive.  You want to read more, to read this over and over again.

Darkest Temptations Rec Ornamental Faith

All this week we'll be rec'ing the winning stories and featuring the winning author interviews from the Nightmare Before Christmas Contest.

We're starting off with the Public Voting Choice...

Cullen818

Ornamental Faith by TwiReaderAbi

Edward/Bella

Summary - Edward’s tortured soul hurts all that much more deeply on the most sacred of all holidays. Who will he take with him as he paves the road to Hell with the best intentions? Rated M for violent themes and sexual content. Entry for the Nightmare Before Christmas Contest.

This one was just plain brilliant and I certainly see why you all voted it as number one. The premise of the fic totally embraced the theme of this contest; dark, sad and morbid. We ask for it, and we got it.

But, not only was it what we wanted when throwing out this challenge, it was more than I could have hoped for. This fic was beautifully written and TwiReaderAbi captured th e whole essence of the story in her attention to detail.

I think this paragraph sums up the tortured vampire soul Edward, perfectly...

Now, every year he immersed himself in the decadence and waded through the throngs of unsuspecting shoppers. He had nothing to celebrate; For what purpose does one have to rejoice in the birth of the Savior if they themselves have no soul to be saved? Instead it became his ideal hunting ground. So easily they came to him among the hur ried and distracted mob of people scurrying in and out of stores looking for that perfect gift. They didn’t even realize they already had it and that very fact tormented him to no end.

Edward'sChipper:

There’s nothing that makes tingle more than a dark and dangerous Edward on the hunt. ZING! The fact that he’s in a shopping mall at the height of the holiday season? Well, I’m just saying I’d go shopping even more if…I digress. I like really like what TwireaderAbi did, her detailed description of what Edward sees and feels: his take on the shoppers: the “sinners” and children; his judgmental predisposition and Scrooge-esque reaction to it all. That is, until he sees…her, and his perception changes. Call it curiosity, call it sympathetic, call it almost an epiphany, but the ending. Yeah, the ending is what really got me.

GemmaLisaX:

I adored this story from beginning to end.  Edward’s thoughts, his opinions and musings regarding the Christmas season and how he perceives it through the minds of others; all of this was thoroughly intriguing and mesmerising.  I've read it at least three times, and each time it induces the same shiver of anticipation and delivers a chill all the way down your spine.  The authors writing is fantastic, TwireaderAbi’s descriptions bring about such amazing and vivid imagery.  You sail through this fic, not wanting to miss one word of it, and end up more or less nose to screen by the end of it. 

Edward is a dark and tortured soul, wandering through his eternity and subconsciously searching for someone or something that he belongs to or with.  He spends his time lost in not only his thoughts, but also those of others, using them to justify his feeding from them.  Some dark angel stalking the shadows.  Then he sees a woman, and we are dragged along with him as he follows her, yearning to learn more about her.  Caught between wanting to take her, wanting to kill her or trying to tear himself away.  This Darkward is Edward at his best, absolutely enthralling.

I truly love this story, it certainly deserved its win and I will be going back to read it again and again.

This OS took me off guard, quite literally. There is this whole dark, foreboding feeling that just looms right out of reach, just hovering, throughout the whole story. It's like watching your own death unfold in a beautifully written way. 

TwiReaderAbi weaves us a beautifully dark Christmas tale of the inner struggle of a vampire and an innocent girl. I couldn't help but wonder what might happen through the whole story. Usually I have a knack for knowing what is going to happen in a fic, but not here. I was completely clueless as to what might happen the entire time, and I absolutely loved that. 

The ending, while unbelievably heartbreaking, was so real and emotional that I just couldn't help but fall in love with this fic from the beginning. Darkward is top of my list when it comes to favorite things to read in fan fiction, and his inner struggles when it came to Bella and her demise was heart clenching and so very believable.  Congratulations darlin', because you went above and beyond when delivering us a dark twisted Christmas. If you haven't read this yet, please do so. It's so very, very worth it. 

Nightmare Before Christmas Winning Story Banners

Congratulations to all of our contestents!  We loved reading them all. Stop in next week when we rec the winners and feature author interviews.

Voters Choice

Ornamental Faith by TwiReaderAbi

Darkest Temptation Blog Pick

Erzsebet by hammerhips

Jasper's Naughty Girls Blog Pick

Leave A Light On by kisbydog

Honorable Mention

Ghosts in the Snow by latessitrice

And, because we couldn't resist...

We came up with a few holiday themed categories!

 

No Place Like Hell Award

"Best Use of A Dark Christmas Theme"

Visions of Sugar Plums by ThatIsRedic

Oh Bloody Night Award

"Best Use of Gore"

Christmas Things by BloodSoakedBombShells

Psycho Bells Award

"Best Crazy Fucker"

The Other Woman by Sneaky Snarky Subs

And the Winners Are...

Announcing the Winners of The Nightmare Before Christmas Contest!

Bless your dark, grinchy hearts!  We were blown away by the amount of entries we received for this thing!  SIXTEEN! That proves we're not the only sick, twisted chicks in the Fandom!  We were squeeing with joy and decking the dark halls!

You jingled our jugulars and replaced our visions of  sugar plums with nasty vamps! Your creativity knew no bounds. Thanks to all the brilliant and, quite frankly, scary authors who accepted our challenge!  We loved them all!

Our lovely elves are working diligently on your banners and we'll post them next week!

Public Voting Round Winner

Ornamental Faith by TwiReaderAbi


Darkest Temptations Judges Pick

Erzsebet by hammerhips


Jasper's Naughty Girls Judges Pick

Leave A Light On by kisbydog


Honorable Mention

Ghosts in the Snow by latessitrice


And, because we couldn't resist...
We came up with a few holiday themed categories!


No Place Like Hell Award
"Best Us of A Dark Christmas Theme"

 Visions of Sugar Plums by ThatIsRedic


Oh Bloody Night Award
"Best Use of Gore"

Christmas Things by BloodSoakedBombShells


Psycho Bells Award
"Best Crazy Fucker"

The Other Woman by Sneaky Snarky Subs

Happy Holidays from the Darkest Temptations!

Voting is now open for The Nightmare Before Christmas Contest!!!

Voting is now open for The Nightmare Before Christmas contest entries. Please visit the home page of TwiWrite.net (or click the banner above) and check the news section for details on how to vote. 

You are only allowed to vote once for your top two choices. You can find all the entries on the contest page on TwiWrite HERE. 

Good luck to all the entries and we'll announce the winners on Christmas Eve. 

We've Been Naughty...

Sooooooo....

Um, the DT staff found super sexy awesomeness, and has decided to run off for a few weeks so we can have our wicked way with him. 

I provided a little visual... stimulation so you wouldn't be to hard on us. Of course you'll understand, because let's face it... You'd do the same damn thing! No flaming us for being naughty. 

Now, we will be posted some here and there, but it will be sporadic at best since we're trying to find time for our families while being very, very bad and making Santa's Naughty list.

We have proof! 

We'll resume our normal posting schedule after the first of the year. So please bear with us as we have a little fun and enjoy the Christmas spirit. 

We still have the Nightmare Before Christmas contest going on, and that has our full attention. No worries there. You have until the 15th to get your entries in over on TwiWrite. If you have a Dark Christmas One Shot that you've done in the past or posted on another site, shoot us an email and we'll get our darklings into the holiday cheer by posting it here. 

Happy Holidays from the DT staff! We hope you've all been as naughty as we've been this year.

The Nightmare Before Christmas Contest is still accepting entries!

We have 8 awesome entries for the contest so far posted over on TwiWrite. We will be accepting entries for another week. Last day to get your OS's to us is Wednesday December 15th, so make sure to get them in by then. If you have any questions please contact us here on the blog or the Jasper's Naughty Girls. You can also contact us through the TwiWrite contests page at contests@twiwrite.net. 

We're excited about the entries so far and hope we have a few more out there waiting to be submitted. Run over and check the stories out when you get a chance. You can access them from clicking the banner above, or by going to the TwiWrite homepage and clicking contests in the browse menu. 

http://www.twiwrite.net/modules/challenges/challenges.php?chalid=3

Good luck to entries and we hope to read more soon. 

The Nightmare Before Christmas Contest

The Nightmare Before Christmas Contest

http://www.twiwrite.net/browse.php?type=challenges

From the wicked minds of the Darkest Temptations and Jasper's Naughty Girls blogs we bring you one seriously twisted contest. Ho, Ho, Ho…

Deck the Halls… Edward and Bella kissing under the mistletoe… Rose and Emmett sipping hot chocolate by the old Tannenbaum. Can’t you just smell the chestnuts roasting? No, well good, because you’re in the wrong place if that’s what you seek.

We want to explore the dark, nasty, grim side of the holiday season. We want your one shot to feature a Grinch-like Cullen. He should be sinister and evil; the darker the better. Oh, and let’s not forget the Femmes because we all know hell hath no fury like a woman scorned during the holiday season.

www.darksper.blogspot.com

www.jaspersnaughtygirls.blogspot.com

Please include the following header...

The Nightmare Before Christmas Contest

Penname:

Title:

Summary:

Disclaimer:

So, here's what we want:

1. A Twilight character must be included as the central character (human or vamp) and they should be dark. Absolutely no fluff in this one. Canon, non-canon pairings and slash are acceptable.

2. Length must be 2500+ words with no max limit.

3. Lemons are not mandatory, but encouraged. We'd also like to see a strong plot.

4. Collabs are welcome.

5. Enter as many times as you'd like.

6. 18 and up only - if you are under 18, you may not enter. Sorry!

7. Use your best grammar and punctuation; it will be screened for entry. We want your fic to have the best possible chance.

8. You may extend your story (and we'd love to see that), but please wait until the contest is over.

9. Fic must be a new o/s developed for this contest. Can be based off an existing fic, but must be able to stand alone.

10. Entries can only be posted to your account on twiwrite.net until after the contest is over.

Important Contest Dates:

Entries will be accepted starting October 20, 2010 with a deadline of December 15, 2010, 11:59 est.

Voting begins December 16 and ends December 23 with winners announced on December 24, 2010.

There will be two winning categories:

Public Voting Round

Blog Pick

Prizes:

Banner for contest winners

Author interview to be featured on both blogs (www.jaspersnaughtygirls.blogspot.com and www.darksper.blogspot.com) along with a review of your story.

How to submit your entry:

Post your story to your twiwrite.net account and then e-mail us the link at contests@twiwrite.net. We'll review your entry for grammar and punctuation. We'll provide constructive feedback if it does not meet requirements. You may resubmit your one shot after you make the corrections. We want you to have the best chance possible.

Once your o/s is accepted, it will be added to the TwiWrite Nightmare Before Christmas Contest page.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions. contests@twiwrite.net