This is something I didn't want to ever have to do, but the time has come to admit my limitations and my mistakes. The forum is going to close in November. Here's the main reasons why:
1) While writing is a tool I use to help with my mental health, it is not the only tool I use. At this point keeping the forum alive for the sake of my mental health will end up causing more problems than relieving them. I'm also going to teach at a much larger...
Hi all. I meant to include ways of staying in touch in my last announcement post, but forgot about it due to the craziness of real life.
I'm sure at some point down the road someone will try and revive this type of forum. Or maybe some other story websites exist that I or someone else doesn't know about. Either way, the biggest gripe I had about The Black Van shutting down was how the admin team told us then immediately disabled the website to...
Did you ever hear the stories about the Black Eyed Kids? The Hatman? Shadow people standing in the corner of your room at 3 AM? Urban legends are fascinating because even when they sound ridiculous, there’s always that tiny little part of your brain wondering:
“What if?”
For December’s Season Pass, and the 2026 Season Pass Finale, your story must involve an urban legend and a holiday. Any holiday and any legend will work for the contest. You...
The internet creates some truly baffling trends. One week people are stealing sinks from schools. The next week someone is screaming “BINGO” before falling backwards out of a chair for views. Then there’s whatever horrifying thing TikTok is doing this week that makes me want to uninstall my eyeballs.
Within this chaos exists a No Nut November challenge. For November’s Season Pass, your story must involve a character attempting the No Nut...
Gather some black cats, walk under a ladder, and open an umbrella indoors while breaking every mirror you can find. October’s Season Pass is dedicated to Friday the 13th. Unfortunately, October 13th in 2026 lands on a Tuesday, but we’re not going to let reality ruin a perfectly good horror theme. Somewhere out there, it’s Friday October 13th!
For this month’s challenge, your story must either:
History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme. Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. Those who do study history can only watch in horror as everyone else repeats it anyway.
For September’s Season Pass, your story must either:
take place at least 50 years in the past
or involve an event from 50 years ago directly influencing the present-day story
The Kristen's Board Memorial Contest was a huge success. While looking for ideas, I happened to notice that August is Romance Awareness Month. That sounded like the perfect reason to have another story contest with the consensual theme.
Romance Awareness Month
Theme: Consensual stories
Language: English
Length: Short (1,000 to 5,000 words)
Required Tags: Eng, Finished, Short, Con, RomanceAwareness (the tag will be available when the...
