The now fully official Author’s Hangout Halloween 2025 competition support thread

[BryanRichardson]

In a little more than eight hours, the first Halloween 2025 stories will be published. I wonder what the eventual story count will be?

At least 4.

 

[WittyUserName]

If we're playing Price is Right, I'm gonna guess 177.

In that case I'll guess 178.

 

[StrangeLife]

92

 

[EmilyMiller]

Soixante-neuf

 

[EmilyMiller]

Just three hours to go!

 

[ChloeTzang]

 

[EmilyMiller]

Jenna is very talented. She can do physical comedy very well.

 

[StillStunned]

I just had a look at today's New Stories list, and it seems that a lot of authors are getting their Halloween stories out early!

 

[Not2Pervy]

I'm in (just submitted). At just over 5K words, this one from me is more of a snack than a meal. I don't expect to contend, but hopefully can offer a little treat tasty enough to help stimulate reader's appetites for the more substantial contenders. Best of luck, everyone!

 

[Jorunn]

I submitted on the evening on 29 September. At 10 AM (Eastern time US) today, the timestamp changed to “1 hour ago”. I did nothing to my story. It seems to have jumped queues, or become lost in the maze. Now I sit in Pending with “8 hours ago”. Not encouraging.

One day later now, I was not included in the opener. Still Pending. A number of long time authors submitted Dark Fairy Tales stories the last week of that challenge and are still stuck in Pending. They never made the anthology. Last minute Halloween stories may meet a similar gruesome fate if this issue is unresolved. Write early!

 

[StrangeLife]

I just had a look at today's New Stories list, and it seems that a lot of authors are getting their Halloween stories out early!

Yes, it does indeed seem like the stories are publishing even before the Halloween page is up. The moderators are working fast this year.

 

[UntoldDepths]

I’ve sent my next ‘normal’ story for moderation early, as I reckon it will be put on the back burner during the competition window.
I usually like to be half way through writing my next story, before sending the previous one in, to keep the implied pressure off myself. In the case, I actually want it to sit around a bit.

 

[Aoife_from_Ulster]

Well I am throwing my hat into the Halloween ring. It's a romantic love story. It is who i am at heart a romantic woman, however this is seasonal and event set. This one will rock the boat a tiny bit as I added the throuple theme to it. What can I say it's a fantasy of mine.

I do hope everyone enjoys, though it will not come close to winning, "When Lanterns Glow"

 

[TheRedLantern]

@Aoife_from_Ulster

I will 5-star any lantern themed story.

 

[TheRedLantern]

I submitted my story. This is my first writing contest ever.

Several longstanding, experienced Lit members have assured me that there's no reason to worry, that Lit contests are just stories that get more views than normal. However my brain continues to look like this:

 

[Actingup]

I'm leaning towards abandoning my story concept. I had been playing with the idea of a prequel to 'Dark Waters: Mothman vs the Bunyip', which was a joint effort with @PennyThompson. The story was going to be set near the beginning of the frontier wars between colonists and the Djab Wurrung people of SW Victoria in Australia, told from the Djab Wurrung perspective and with a significant supernatural element. But I just can't tell the story without making up a lot of cultural stuff (it's very hard even to find authentic personal names from the region - huge amounts of knowledge have been lost), and it feels very disrespectful to do that when there are living Djab Wurrung descendents trying to articulate and celebrate their real history without people appropriating bits for silly stories. So... I might think of another story... or not.

 

[EmilyMiller]

The page is up, just not the links as yet. And I seem to be missing for some reason. Always something

https://www.literotica.com/stories/contest.php/halloween-2025

 

[ElectricBlue]

The page is up, just not the links as yet. And I seem to be missing for some reason. Always something

https://www.literotica.com/stories/contest.php/halloween-2025

You seem to have got yourself into the promotional image...

 

[EmilyMiller]

View attachment 2568664

The page is up, just not the links as yet. And I seem to be missing for some reason. Always something

https://www.literotica.com/stories/contest.php/halloween-2025

My story is called Shining Valley High. Given the recent lack of responsiveness, it may never make the comp list, but I’ve at least tried to message @Laurel and @Manu

 

[Aoife_from_Ulster]

@Aoife_from_Ulster

I will 5-star any lantern themed story.

To be honest, I struggled with the title. I chose this title as I see lanterns not only as a source of light but of the warmth, of home, and of peaceful quiet. This story and Claire needs all of that, I hope it doesn't disappoint.

 

[EmilyMiller]

You seem to have got yourself into the promotional image...

Kinda - that’s Emma White, my she-demon protagonist. She (and her angel fiancée) both resemble the human they were allocated to as temptress demon / guardian angel (one on either shoulder). When they were banished for dereliction of duty, they got stuck in that form. And the human they used to look after was either a) Sister Emily (@Djmac1031’s version) or b) Emily Miller (my version). It’s one of our few in-universe inconsistencies.

 

[JWtts]

Hope I don't hijack the thread, but does anyone know if the Amorous Goods, s6 (2025) Challenge is happening?

Doing a search on the forum didn't yield many results, but I had already gone down the path of looking into the challenge, reading past submissions, and learning about it. While it helped give me some guardrails and direction for a story, if it's not happening I'd rather not be the only one at the party. As is, I could probably tweak my story/idea to remove the AG bits and make it a more generic Halloween story rather than one that fits within the AG setup.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Hope I don't hijack the thread, but does anyone know if the Amorous Goods, s6 (2025) Challenge is happening?

Doing a search on the forum didn't yield many results, but I had already gone down the path of looking into the challenge, reading past submissions, and learning about it. While it helped give me some guardrails and direction for a story, if it's not happening I'd rather not be the only one at the party. As is, I could probably tweak my story/idea to remove the AG bits and make it a more generic Halloween story rather than one that fits within the AG setup.

It’s on the list for November:

https://forum.literotica.com/thread...zed-challenge-schedule-updated-07-31.1624496/

 

[ElectricBlue]

Kinda - that’s Emma White, my she-demon protagonist. She (and her angel fiancée) both resemble the human they were allocated to as temptress demon / guardian angel (one on either shoulder). When they were banished for dereliction of duty, they got stuck in that form. And the human they used to look after was either a) Sister Emily (@Djmac1031’s version) or b) Emily Miller (my version). It’s one of our few in-universe inconsistencies.

Boobs, though

 

[Djmac1031]

Kinda - that’s Emma White, my she-demon protagonist. She (and her angel fiancée) both resemble the human they were allocated to as temptress demon / guardian angel (one on either shoulder). When they were banished for dereliction of duty, they got stuck in that form. And the human they used to look after was either a) Sister Emily (@Djmac1031’s version) or b) Emily Miller (my version). It’s one of our few in-universe inconsistencies.

I think our interwoven saga has managed to work quite well despite that internal contradiction. In fact I think most readers would never pick up on it unless someone consistently insisted on pointing it out...