For those that are curious, the Archive isn't abandoned or anything so dramatic as that. I just haven't had any submissions lately. As for the community aspect, most of that seems to be happening at Thorn Valley and NIMHmuck. I'm very seriously considering merging this site with Thorn Valley so that all the community can be in one place...

On that note, have a NIMH fanfic you're sitting on? Send it to me. I'd more than likely love to put it up.

For those of you who are keen observers, Robin's site has a new look. This is part of the upgrade to Drupal 4.7. The old theme would've broken with the new version of Drupal, and it was showing its age anyway, so I figured I'd use the same basic theme that I use for NIMHmuck.org. It's simpler to maintain in many ways, and I think it looks better than the old template. Lighter, I guess. Anyway, enjoy. And let me know if you find anything that's broken.

Oh, one of the nifty things that came with the update is the all new Story Search. It should be much quicker and easier to use than the search engine for browsing for or looking up specific stories.

Finally, the long-awaited conclusion to Procyon's The Secret of the Stone has been posted. Check it out!

by Sonja Koene

Wendy Elizabeth, a young first-generation rat, goes on a journey to London, the place of her birth, to find out about her mysterious past... and finds adventure, intrigue and love.

A short story i wrote a year ago and never got posted. This is a dual storyline that follows Jonathan and Mrs. Brisby's first Christmas together, and the first Christmas after his death, when a most unlikely visitor comes to spread holiday cheer. Anyhow, I give you: A Brisby Christmas

‘Twas the before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring…
…Except, for a mouse.

Gerard Andrews fanfic Out of Range has been completed. Something else to add to my reading list, heh. n.n;

I've added new forums (which are accessible via the Forum link along the side of the page). There you can discuss fanfiction and get writing help in the Writer's Workshop, among other things. I've also enabled BBCode for all posts, so those of you who don't like HTML, or are just used to BBCode for posts and such, now you can use it.

I rediscovered this little piece I wrote a while back for a creative writing class I took in college. While the story isn't strictly NIMH-based as written, it was originally conceived as being a potential scene in that Return to NIMH fanfic I've been writing off and on for a while now. Unfortunately, I had to make enough adjustments to my story idea that this scene probably wouldn't work in the story anymore. Still, I consider it as taking place inside the story's universe.

Basically, Brendan was conceived as the son of Timothy Frisby, and has inherited his fathers curiousity for the world, although it is also combined with a slightly rebellious attitude, which gets him into trouble in this story when he meets up with some humans...

Okay, here's a bit of an experiment for the site... To help get things going here, we're going to try to do some story contests. The theme for this contest is: Life in the Rosebush. Submissions based on other themes are welcome, however. The (tenative) deadline for entries is June 20 (my birthday ;).

Now, entries of any length (from short stories to multi-chaptered novels) are permitted, but keep in mind that they should be rated PG-13 or less and should follow the submission guidelines. However, as a slight change, you are encouraged to create an account and post the stories to your own personal blog. Just post a comment to this thread linking to your submission. This makes it easier for me to handle submissions. Email submissions are still okay, but please keep in mind that right now things are pretty busy IRL. Submissions must be finished to be considered. You can, of course, go back and expand upon the story and such as you desire.

After the deadline, we'll put up a page with links to all of the stories submitted along with a poll to determine the best story. If there are a lot of submissions, we might do a few sub-category polls as well. Winners will receive a permanent place in Robin's Fanfiction Archive, and possibly other prizes, depending on what I can wrangle up.

A special thanks to Megan, Robin and the other posters on the forum for the idea. Have fun and good luck!

EDIT: Deadline has been extended to allow more people to enter.

Lately, I've noticed that Robin's site has been rather static; while we have a rather vibrant community on Thorn Valley's forum and on the Fan Art gallery, this site hasn't changed much in the past few months. I've started a thread on the forum, if anyone would like to share their thoughts on this. I'll very likely be implementing a few of these ideas soon. forum thread