#hackearney fic exchange 2023

[hackearneyexchange]

Hello! The Hackearney Fic Exchange (2023) is an anonymous fic exchange for the Travis Hackett/Laura Kearney pairing from The Quarry. Sign-ups open on May 5, 2023 on the main AO3 page.

For some details about the changes made from last year, please see this summary. A sign-up guide is also available to help navigate the new form and general process.

about the exchange

Participants submit a request with their prompt ideas. These requests are then matched with another participant, who writes and fulfills the request to the best of their ability. Submitted works will be posted anonymously and appear as “Mystery Gifts” until all the stories have been posted. Reveals are done in two stages: story reveals and author reveals. Please see the event schedule, sign-up guide, rules, and FAQ for more information. Updates will be made here on Tumblr and will be tagged #hackearney fic exchange.

schedule

Sign-up period: May 5-May 19 Assignments released: May 26 Author check-ins:* July 9 (Week 6) and August 5 (Week 10) Assignment deadline: August 21 Story reveals: August 22 Authors revealed: August 27

*Author check-ins are done through Tumblr by default; please let me know if there’s a better way to reach you (e.g. email, discord, twitter, etc.)!

Feel free to send me a message for any questions or concerns!

[burning-peanut]

Me too, honey 🤍 Makes it even more special to me that u wrote it 🥰

Photo edit for my exchange, had a blast!

[tedrailmi]

in deathly bloom for @absenthearted

this was my small contribution for the Hackearney Fic Exchange 2023! it was pretty clear to me from the start that I had to choose this prompt - vampire Laura inspires me so much. it was also my first time participating in an exchange, and predictably, i was terribly bad with time management. my story has flaws for sure, but i'm still very happy i made it somehow on time o/

and because I'm always annoyingly extra when it comes to music, I made a playlist while writing this! feel free to give it a listen if you're interested ~

1. bela lugosi's dead (cover) / nouvelle vague ; 2. pain / boy harsher ; 3. written in blood / she wants revenge ; 4. destroying angel / sneaker pimps ; 5. casualty / snake river conspiracy ; 6. the taste of you / ritual howls ; 7. love crime / siouxsie ; 8. blood be fluid / julia romana ; 9. total depravity / the veils ; 10. bloodhail / have a nice life ; 11. funnel of love / sqürl, madeline follin ; 12. breed / snake river conspiracy ; 13. live forever / cat pierce ; 14. suspirium / thom yorke; 15. bela lugosi's dead / bauhaus

ao3 link | playlist link

[hackearneyexchange]

Story Reveals #4

Last day of story reveals! Authors will be revealed on August 27 by 5pm EDT. Any additional works will be posted as they come.

A Drink With Death for @burning-peanut

Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Laura, An aspiring nurse from the 1920's finds herself at the wrong place at the wrong time. She unwittingly stumbles upon the inner workings of a local mafia group as her life spirals. Stuck between her dreams and the underground life of illicit activities, she must carve her way out or be pulled more towards the depths of the Underworld.

In deathly bloom for @absentheart

Rating: Mature Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Her own blood fills her open mouth, dribbling down to her chin - but she knows that’s not what she’s craving for. She smells it in the air. Someone else’s blood.

Mangez Bien, Riez Souvent, Aimez Beaucoup for @pixie-mask

Rating: Teen Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Travis and Laura are in love! And they go on vacation! But mostly they support each other and overcome problems together. Living the dream.

Burdened Soul for @cellard0ors

Rating: Mature Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings

Everyone carries a soulmark but not everyone has a romantic soulmate. Sometimes its platonic, sometimes its a hobby or career that you'll spend the rest of your life in. Travis really thought that the six pointed star tattooed on his ribs meant something. Meant he would be a sheriff until he died. That was a lie. It had been her who had marked him. It had been Laura all along.

[hackearneyexchange]

Story Reveals #2

Each day until author reveals, I'll be featuring our wonderful stories in batches! For all recipients, please make sure that you show your appreciation for your writer by leaving a comment, and be kind!

I'm done being confused, it all leads back to you for @swimthroughthefires

Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Laura Kearney enters his life, and as swiftly as she arrives, she's gone. But never for long.

Taste the Bitter and the Sweet for @stolen-writer

Rating: Mature Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

For a witch, Laura Kearney should know how to pick'em better. Her latest venture in love has crashed and burned around her and she's had enough. Frustrated, she places her romantic fate in more magical hands, before heading to work at her aunts' coffeeshop in the little town of North Kill. But her arrival coincides with strange occurrences going on in the woods that surround the sleepy hamlet. Something wicked is drawing townsfolks into the dark forest and to their deaths. The local sheriff is suspicious and his dogged investigation is getting uncomfortably close to discovering her and her aunts' witchcraft. It doesn't help he's been haunting her dreams and every encounter makes it harder to keep away from him.

Have a Drink on Me for @book-pirate

Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings

Travis ends a miserable day at his favorite bar, hoping to grab a few beers and then head home. But a pretty little blonde eyeing him across the room has other plans.

Your person. for @teamhawkeye

Rating: Teen Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

What could go wrong, if you decided to organize a school road trip with your friend and colleague?

[hackearneyexchange]

Story Reveals #1

Each day until author reveals, I'll be featuring our wonderful stories in batches! For all recipients, please make sure that you show your appreciation for your writer by leaving a comment, and be kind!

a sight and a sound (i'm lost and i'm found) for @raineynight713

Rating: Mature Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Travis tells Laura the truth in the beginning. It changes everything. Including her career choice.

nothing else can save me for @qusochek

Rating: Mature Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Laura and Travis team up to take care of a supernatural threat on the other side of the country. What could go wrong?

In Regard to Love for @majestickoral

Rating: Teen Archive Warning: None

He built an image of not being interested in romantic love, of being devoted only to family. This only amplified when the curse struck them all – he had no time to be daydreaming… Not in front of others.

The one thing he wouldn't give her for @densofyarrow

Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Rape/Non-Con

Laura no longer recognizes herself. She doesn't know how many days she has been locked up by now, but she increasingly realizes that she is slowly going insane. And Max, the fool, has the impudence to just make everything even worse. Basically, it was his fault what happened- That she wanted to get what was so easy for him to achieve... Laura just wanted to feel something good before she ultimately lost the connection to her own body. Before she completely and finally lost her mind . She just needed her goddamn toothbrush.

[hackearneyexchange]

Bonus Story Reveal

This is the last submission for this round of the exchange! Another special shout-out to @ange-de-la-mort who also stepped in to pinch-hit for me and wrote the lovely story below!

(Falling) into You for @cellard0ors

Rating: Teen

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

In a world where soulmates share a mark on their body, Laura has to live with thinking she'll never find the one person that she can belong to, and Travis has to live with thinking it's better that way. They get over it.

[hackearneyexchange]

Story Reveals #3

Each day until author reveals, I'll be featuring our wonderful stories in batches! For all recipients, please make sure that you show your appreciation for your writer by leaving a comment, and be kind!

Taste of my (G)Love for @tedrailmi

Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

A sudden change of dentist leaves Laura feeling off kilter. Dr Hackett is way too handsome to pay any real attention to her and she already hated going to the dentist anyway so there's no possible way she could have left THAT humiliated! Story based on the Grape Flavored Gloves post on Reddit

As The Rain for @fortheloveofwii

Rating: Mature Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

5 times Laura and Travis coincidentally run into each other, and one where they stay together.

Joined Together for @falsemortal

Rating: Teen Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence

'Before she could put two and two together, the cop was pushing her down onto it with a stern “Have a seat.” Laura plopped down with a quiet ‘oof’. But as he grabbed her wrist, she realized what he was attempting to do. He was going to cuff her to the radiator! Was he out of his fricking mind?!' -- Travis and Laura tell their kids the story of how they fell in love. Or at least about the night that they stopped hating each other because of forced teamwork.

This Ain't The Summer Of Love for @blookitty

Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Due to some magical trickery, Travis Hackett finds himself transformed back into his younger self. Unfortunately, this isn't a good thing for a variety of reasons, and there's only one person who might be able to help him. Whether or not she will is another matter entirely.

We’re Not Talking About This for @neglected-houseplant

Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Trapped in an abandoned mine, Laura and Travis argue about Laura’s future.

[hackearneyexchange]

One week left to sign up for the Hackearney Fic Exchange (2023)!

Sign-ups close on Friday, May 19. Please refer to the exchange rules, sign-up guidelines, and FAQ for more information.

[hackearneyexchange]

Assignments have been sent!

You can find your assignment on the Assignments page on the exchange collection or on your AO3 profile.

A few reminders:

Do not contact your recipient directly with any questions about the request. The only limitations are whatever your recipient has requested! Anything beyond that is fair game.

Please respect the recipient’s DNWs and do not exceed the maximum rating they’ve set. While your participants may have chosen a range of ratings, AO3 automatically shows the maximum rating requested by your recipient. Unless specifically stated or prompted, you are not required to write to the maximum rating set.

Consider the scope of your story. Your story must be a minimum of 1000 words and complete. This means that once posted by the deadline, no further chapters should be added beyond that. There is no limitation to what you can write or if it should be a oneshot vs multichaptered story, but please carefully consider what you are capable of writing in the next 12 weeks.

Contact me ASAP if you have any issues with your assignment or feel that you cannot fulfill it for whatever reason.

Requests will be made public after a few weeks to allow for anyone (including non-participants) to write an extra gift or contribute to the exchange without the challenge commitment. If you are not a current participant but would like to do this, please let me know so I can walk you through the process.

Otherwise, have fun, and I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone writes!

[hackearneyexchange]

Authors have been revealed!

Thanks again to everyone who participated in the second round of this exchange! 😊 The collection will remain open to anyone wishing to submit extra stories if you get inspired by any of the prompts down the road, and there were a lot of really great and interesting ones! Feel free to tag #hackearney fic exchange for any of your own personal fic posts so I can reblog it here. There were a lot of new participants in this round which made me really happy! There may be one more submission coming, so I’ll post that when it does, but otherwise I hope everyone has fun reading through all the wonderful stories that came out of this event!

[hackearneyexchange]

Story reveals are live!

Two more submissions to come, please keep an eye out for them! Authors will be revealed on the 27th.

[hackearneyexchange]

Today is the deadline for story submissions!

If you haven’t already, please message me ASAP if you’re having any issues or delays with your submission, so that I may notify your recipient.

On your assignments page, click “fulfill” to upload your story to the collection. They will not appear on the AO3 page until story reveals. Please submit and post your story as normal otherwise, and not as a draft.

All submitted works will be revealed tomorrow by 5pm EST. Any delayed submissions will be posted as they come after that.

Reminder that authors will be anonymous until author reveals on August 27.

Thanks to everyone for all your hard work!

[hackearneyexchange]

Sign-Up Guide (2023)

This is a guide on how to navigate the sign-up form for this year’s fic exchange + recommendations on what to include in your request! Changes have been made to last year’s form, so this is the form that you’ll see when sign-ups open:

What should I include in my sign-up?

Your sign-up should at minimum include the highest rating that you’re comfortable with (for both request and offer, and these can be different), as well as 2 prompts at minimum in your request. The “Prompts and Story Preferences” section is the space on the form where you can provide extra information about the kind of story you want to receive. To borrow from Yuletide’s FAQ (and modified for the purposes of this exchange):

“Other helpful things to include are: why you chose the characters you did and what you like about them; whether you’re a fan of crossovers or AUs; favourite genres or tropes; what fictional aspects of a setting you’re most interested in.

An inappropriate use of the optional details space would be to demand a very specific story or relationship between the characters; to provide a prompt and declare or imply that this is the only story you want; to make a request for a story that does not match [the main pairing of the exchange]; and/or to demand a crossover/fusion with another fandom with no other options offered. As a writer, if you are assigned a prompt like this, you can contact the mod for help.

We encourage requesters to include a list of Do Not Wants (DNWs) in their sign-up if there are things that will ruin a gift for them or that they strongly dislike. However, these will not be enforced in cases where the mods feel a requester is being unreasonable to their writer. [...]

We ask writers to make note of the squicks, triggers, and other DNWs their recipient has put in the [request] fields and make a good-faith effort to avoid those. [...]

These are meant to allow a writer to understand some of their recipient’s favorite things so they can better craft a story for that person.”

Generally speaking, the more options your writer has, the easier it is to tackle your request! But for the purposes of this change, you are only required to provide two different prompts. Any extra details about preferences, likes, and dislikes are strongly recommended but not mandatory. Sometimes your request will be the only thing your writer knows about you, so any insight is helpful!

Where can I find some examples of a request or prompts?

If you’re stuck for ideas, it’s always fun to read the requests from different exchanges! Yuletide has years’ worth of requests you can explore, but this is the 2022 request summary. Alternately, the requests from the 2022 Hackearney Fic Exchange are public as well.

Some additional resources: this is a fun AU generator based on AO3′s common tags, and there’s also a fanfic trope generator that has some interesting prompts as well.

Otherwise, feel free to stick within canon realms as well--missing scenes, character POVs or character studies, anything goes as long as the focus is on the Travis/Laura pairing!

What does the sign-up form look like?

Requests:

Choose all ratings that you are comfortable with receiving. The highest rating will be shown to your writer as the maximum, and anything within that realm is fair game. If you are requesting only mature/explicit content, for example, I will do my best to match you up with the appropriate writer but cannot guarantee--so please allow for some flexibility and range with your prompts.

The first section is where you write your prompts and story preferences. Please also include your DNWs, if you have them, in this section.

Offers:

Again, please specify the ratings you are comfortable with writing, especially what your maximum rating is. This will always be honoured when matching you to your recipient.

The Archive Warnings are to identify if you are comfortable with writing certain sensitive content or darkfic. Please choose all that you are comfortable with writing. If none, please choose “No Archive Warnings Apply.”

If there is any content you are uncomfortable with writing, please let me know here. I will try to accommodate the best I can when it comes to matching. I will always honour DNWs when it comes to triggers, squicks, and explicit or sensitive content. These are boundaries that I will respect. Beyond that, I encourage participants to view this as a writing challenge or exercise to try new things and explore new stories and ideas you might not have tried before. That being said, please let me know if you truly feel that you cannot write your assignment and we can work something out together.

Hope this helps--let me know if there’s anything that’s still unclear!

[hackearneyexchange]

summary of changes for 2023

Here’s a list of changes that are being made for the second round + explanations for the changes for those who are curious. Not really necessary to read, mostly if you’re interested in behind-the-scenes thoughts... Maybe more interesting for those who participated in the first round, but if you read anything, please just read the updated Rules, FAQ, and Sign-Up Guide if you are thinking of signing up for the exchange, especially if you are new this round (and welcome if you are!).

Two author check-ins at Week 6 and Week 10.

These check-ins just help me get an idea of where participants are at and if they’re in any need of additional support, or a soundboard, or maybe thinking of dropping out. Life happens! But this also helps me prepare as much as possible, and I appreciate as much of a heads-up as you can give me.

What I will be asking:

Week 6: How far are you in your draft? If you haven’t started drafting, do you think you’ll be able to write a completed story in the remaining 6 weeks? Do you need to drop out?

Week 10: How close are you to completing your story? Do you need to drop out? Do you need an extension, and if so, how much of an extension? (see #2, and also the FAQ for the drop-out process)

Extensions are limited to days, not weeks. Participants who require more than a few days’ extension to submit their completed work will have their assignment defaulted to a pinch-hitter.

As I said, life happens and things come up. Nevertheless, I have to consider fulfilling my commitment as the event organizer to ensure each participant receives a completed story. Longer extensions will not be granted; however, those writers may still submit their work to the exchange collection as a gift to their original requester. I’m hoping that this will give our pinch-hitters more time.

Do-Not-Wants still aren’t required, but I strongly urge people to consider specifying your DNWs unless you are truly willing to give your writer carte blanche/you are willing to write anything.

DNWs are not just about triggers/squicks. This is also about the content that you’re not a fan of reading in general. This is an anonymous exchange; therefore, anything that you do not specify here will be fair game for your writer. Clarifications will be limited unless the request/offer involves sensitive content. Some examples of questions that have come up:

Are you okay with the inclusion of non-Hackearney ships? What about Travis and/or Laura paired with another character (whether that’s backstory, on-page, etc.)?

Are you okay with infidelity storylines? Pregnancy/kidfic?

Max: What role/characterization do you prefer him to have in the story, if present at all?

Are you okay with ”dead dove”/darkfic content? Please be as specific as possible if your request/offer involves anything involving archive warnings at minimum, and any general sensitive content. If you are unsure, please check in with me.

All requests and submitted works must be ship-centric; i.e. focused on relationship between Travis Hackett and Laura Kearney.

What does this mean? This is a shipping exchange; therefore, the main focus of the submitted story should be on those two characters. This was not previously included as a rule for the exchange, but it has been added now.

The sign-up form has been simplified. A sign-up and request guideline is available to help participants and clarify this process.

Based on feedback from last round, I’ve put together a guideline to help walk people through the sign-up process. Additionally, the form has been simplified to focus mainly on the description of the prompts & content preferences.

All requests still must include at least two separate prompts. General likes/dislikes are still non-mandatory but strongly encouraged. The more specific your requests, the more prompts I recommend you include. I may ask you to add or expand on your request. Similarly to the DNWs, including the things you generally like about a story are strongly recommended to help guide your writer. e.g. What are your characterization/relationship dynamic preferences for the ship? What genres of fic are you more drawn to (i.e. more fluffy stories, or angst)?

All works are revealed on the story reveal deadline. Delayed stories will be revealed as they are submitted.

I liked the batched releases, but this was a more time-consuming process for me to organize. This just simplifies the process for me, and feels more fair to the writers who will not have to wait longer than others for their works to be revealed.

And that’s it! If there are any concerns or questions about the changes I’ve made, please feel free to reach out! DMing me directly is probably the best way but feel free to send an ask as well.

[hackearneyexchange]

Three days until the deadline!

Gentle reminder that the story deadline is coming up! Assignments can be fulfilled on your assignment page on AO3. Submissions will go through moderation before being added to the collection, and everything will remain unrevealed until the 22nd, and remain anonymous for a week until author reveals. Let me know if you need any help submitting your story!