A Holmesian Solstice

Every so often a participant is unable to complete their assignment and we have to scramble for someone to make a gift for the recipient. If you would enjoy being one of the people the mods turn to in our times of need, please leave us a comment! Include your email, and tell us what fanwork types, universes, pairings, and ratings you might be willing to create for. All comments are screened.

Volunteering on this post is not a commitment: you'll simply be among the people we turn to first when we need a pinch-hitter. If we need a pinch-hitter, we'll email you a request and a proposed due date; you're free to accept or reject. (We only ask that you respond promptly, as our deadlines are often tight!)

Thank you so much for volunteering!

With the exception of a couple pending mod questions, match emails have gone out from holmesticemods@gmail.com. Please check your inboxes, spam folders, junk mail, etc.

You MUST reply to your match email to confirm you received it, otherwise we will assume you've ghosted us and we will take appropriate measures (i.e., re-assign your match to one of our pinch-hitters). Please respond as soon as possible.

Your match email contains information about submission, but we will also post as we get close to the deadline. In the next few days we'll also put up posts asking for beta and pinch-hit volunteers -- please keep an eye out.

If you have any questions, for us or your recipient, please email us. In the meanwhile, happy creating, everyone! We look forward to seeing all the delicious things you'll make.

This is the last day! As long as it's still April 3rd somewhere in the world you're good to go, but don't miss out!

The sign-ups are now open!

Treats Policy: As of February 2022, AO3 has introduced a setting to let users opt out of receiving additional gifts outside of formal exchanges (in Holmestice terms, "treats"). Please indicate whether you are or are not open to receiving additional fan works based on your sign-up. Also be sure to check your AO3 account preferences, under "Collections, Challenges and Gifts". AO3 accounts made before February 2022 default to ALLOW gifts, whereas new accounts default not to. Because signups are not handled through AO3, you MUST turn on treat ability if you want your gift posted to AO3. More information regarding this setting is available on AO3.

If you have a Dreamwidth account, join the Dreamwidth community and create a new post using the template below with your offer and request. The template is designed to be used with the HTML editor (not the Rich Text editor).

If you do not want a Dreamwidth account, you can leave your sign-up as a comment on this post using the "Anonymous" option. If you choose to use the Anonymous option, please make sure you correctly fill in all the identifying info in the template, so we know who signed up and how to contact you.



The sign-up template below includes ratings for what you're willing to create and would like to receive. Sexual content is deliberately separated from violence and other mature themes, so if you are someone who enjoys PWP but not violence, you have an easy way of indicating that (or vice versa) for the mods and other Holmestice participants.

The template also includes a list of suggested Holmesian fandoms and iterations. This is not an exhaustive list -- if you have another fandom in mind, please include it in your sign up! Alternatively, if you're open to offering or receiving any Holmesian fandom, please feel free to say so. (Although do make clear what you mean by "any" -- very few people truly can offer every pastiche, film, television, radio, and graphic novel adaptation ever made!)

Please note when putting down relationships:

• "/" (e.g., "Holmes/Watson") indicates a romantic or sexual relationship
• "&" (e.g., "Holmes & Watson") indicates a friendship or other platonic/fraternal/non-sexual/non-romantic relationship

Do please make sure you're using / and & correctly in your sign-ups, as we use it to determine matches, and your match will use it to determine what sort of relationships to write for you.

Matches will be made on fandom, characters/pairings, categories, and ratings. All other details you include (besides any "do not wants") are optional; i.e., your gift-maker may take inspiration from any specific prompt you include, but they are not required to use them.

New this round: By popular request original music has been added to gift type! You can offer or request this along with fic, art, podfic, graphics, vids, etc.



( Sign-up Template )




You can edit your post until sign-ups close on April 3. Anything you add or delete after that will not be taken into account.

All stories must be a minimum of 1,000 words in length; icon posts must contain at least 10 icons; vids must be at least one minute in length. Any type of fanwork is required to go through some kind of beta process. All finished fanworks must be posted to AO3 and/or sent to the mods at holmesticemods(at)gmail(dot)com on or before May 25. Directions on how to post/submit your work will be posted to the community later in the round. If you don't submit your work by the due date and have not contacted us for an extension, we will automatically look for a pinch hitter.

If you need your recipient to clarify their prompt or if you want to ask whether they're all right with that one particular thing you'd like to include, please contact us at holmesticemods(at)gmail(dot)com, and we'll forward the question for you to preserve your anonymity.

Please remember that if you sign up to receive a gift, it'll only be fair if you create one as well. That said, if you have to drop out of the exchange for any reason, please contact one of the moderators as soon as possible by e-mailing us at holmesticemods(at)gmail(dot)com so we can find a pinch hitter to create a gift for your intended recipient.

If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to reach out!

Sorted by category and fandom, all the amazing fanworks created by this round's participants, for your perusal and entertainment and with names attached! Now comments can be answered and works reposted all over the web, and pimping shall commence far and wide! If you haven't added your fanwork to the AO3 collection, and you want to, you can add it here: Holmestice Exchange - Winter2023. If your work has been on AO3 all along and is in a fast-moving tag ("Sherlock (TV)" or "Sherlock Holmes/John Watson", for example), you might choose to update its publication date to today, so that your work has its turn at the top of the tag.

Please come back and join us for our spring round! Sign-ups will open in March. You can follow us at holmestice (twitter), holmestice (tumblr), or holmestice (dreamwidth) for updates!

And now, without further ado, the Grand Reveal!

( Art )
( Fiction )
( Podfic, Fanmixes, and Vids )

Due to some technical difficulties with the Dreamwidth website, we have decided rather than cram the works we were unable to post due to the site’s being down for a bit onto 12/15, to extend the last day to 12/16. Enjoy another day of Holmestice, folks!

Due to an error on the part of the mods, one recipient was matched to two different creators. Rather than decide one gift was “primary” and the other “secondary”, or reassign a gift to a person it was not specifically created for, we chose to leave both gifts in and assign a pinch hitter to the missing recipient.
That lucky double-gifted person is… Lilith/Inkfeathers!
We apologize. The mods are indeed human after all, and we hope all is well that ends well.
Please keep this unique circumstance in mind when formulating your guesses!

Reminder, works are due on Friday, November 24th! We run on "anywhere in the world" time, so as long as it's still November 24th somewhere in the world, you're on time. If you need an extension, please contact us at holmesticemods@gmail.com.

Meanwhile, here are some useful links as you finish your assignments:

• Submission guidelines
• Beta volunteer post
• Pinch-hit volunteer post

Remember, too, that we accept treats right through the anonymity period: if you finish your gift and feel like making a treat for someone, please do! Just use the usual submission guidelines above.

Happy creating, and please get in touch with us ASAP (holmesticemods@gmail.com) if you have any problems or questions!

Every so often a participant is unable to complete their assignment and we have to scramble for someone to make a gift for the recipient. If you would enjoy being one of the people the mods turn to in our times of need, please leave us a comment! Include your email, and tell us what fanwork types, universes, pairings, and ratings you might be willing to create for. All comments are screened.

Volunteering on this post is not a commitment: you'll simply be among the people we turn to first when we need a pinch-hitter. If we need a pinch-hitter, we'll email you a request and a proposed due date; you're free to accept or reject. (We only ask that you respond promptly, as our deadlines are often tight!)

Thank you so much for volunteering!

Sheepishly we must acknowledge the grit in a sensitive instrument.

We have a glitch with our email submission form, so if you haven't received your assignment yet, it's because you're one of the people whose email address we haven't been able to recover. There are four of you, by our count.

Please email the mods at holmesticemods@gmail.com and we'll get your match to you ASAP. We apologize for the inconvenience and delay!

EDIT: Everyone is now accounted for. Thank you for your patience. We still have a number of people who haven't responded to their assignment email, so please take a moment to do that.