Story 1
Title: Blink of an Eye
Characters and Pairings: Neal, Peter, James, Elizabeth, Mozzie, Jones, June, Sara, Neal/Sara
Likely rating: PG-13
Summary: In the blink of an eye, life can change, and all your plans crumble to pieces. An alternate ending to S4 where Peter gets arrested but Neal saves the day, which is not without major consequences that everyone will have to learn how to deal with.

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Story 2
Title: The darker side
Characters and Pairings: Peter, Neal, Mozzie, OC
Likely rating: NC-13
Summary: Angels and demons fight a war on our world, a war we are not aware of. Peter is handed a prisoner of war but doesn´t realize who this creature is. As a POW Demon Neal ends up helping Angel Peter help solve a mystery, but can Peter save Neal? And does Neal want to be saved or does he have other plans for our world?

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Story 3
Title: Working title: Love is a many splendor thing
Characters and Pairings: Peter, Neal, Elizabeth, Mozzie, OC
Likely rating: NC-17
Summary: The FBI is up against a serial killer who tortures his victims before he leaves them to a slow and agonizing death. Will Peter and Neal be able to catch him before he takes his next victim? And what happens when the serial killer goes after one of them? Will the other be able to save him?

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Story 4
Title: The Fresco Kid
Characters and Pairings: Neal & Maria Fiametta
Likely rating: PG-13
Summary: AU. Neal joins forces with a new partner in order to steal an ancient fresco that may or may not exist

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Story 5
Title: Late Night Radio (working title)
Characters and Pairings:: Peter Burke, Neal Caffrey, Peter/Neal
Likely rating: R
Summary: Neal Caffrey hasn't left his apartment for 20 years. The only constants in his life are his work and his best friend, Mozzie. All that changes when he hears Peter Burke's voice on the late night radio show. Working as a late night DJ helps Peter to cope with the loss of his partner. But ever since the Super in his new building told him about "the crazy guy in 5-B", he can't get his neighbor of his mind. Through phone calls and friends, both men learn that healing begins with that first step.

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Story 6
Title: The Castaway
Characters and Pairings: Gen, Neal
Likely rating: PG-13 or R
Summary:Instead of going to prison, Neal is sent to spend his sentence in an island penal colony.

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Story 7
Title: (working title) Transfixed Hearts
Crossover Fandom: Supernatural
Characters and Pairings: Peter/Neal, Sam/Dean
Likely rating: R
Summary: Peter Burke and Neal Caffrey investigate the theft of an antique emerald ring. The case gets complicated when bodies start showing up around it. The unifying characteristic of the victims: they're all pierced through the heart. Sam and Dean Winchester catch wind of some peculiar murders, and head to New York City. Posing as Interpol agents, they work with the White Collar team...until things start hitting too close to home for Peter and Neal. (WC-Supernatural Crossover)

Got a few stragglers we need summaries and rough drafts for (in no particular order):

sandy79
firesign10 (I know you're working on it)
theatregirl7299 (and yes, I'm mod-shaming you)
wayward_dust
sinfulslasher (I'm aware of your computer woes, but I'm a completist, you know that. If I was overdue, my name would be here, too).

Thank you all! Sign Ups for Round Seven of the White Collar Big Bang are now closed.

So, we've heard from a bunch of writers and they are kind of freaking out. So we're doing the only thing possible, pushing the schedule a month to the right. What was due in August is now due in September, and so on. So here is the new schedule:

Sign Ups Open for Authors and Artists: May 1
Author Check In (not mandatory): July 1
Sign-Ups Closed: August September 1
Last Day for Author Drop-Out: August September 1
Author Rough Drafts Due (mandatory): August September 1
Author Summaries Due: August September 10
Summaries Posted for Artist Selection: August September 15
Artist Selection: August September 20, continues for ten days
Authors may claim their own unclaimed stories for art: August September 30
Posting Date Selection: September October 15
Challenge Closes, Finished Fics and Art Due: October November 1
Posting Starts: October November 15
Posting Ends: Depending on the number of stories to be posted, approximately the first week in December

Hopefully this won't mess anyone up. Feel free to yell at me if it does.

Based on the poll conducted back in February, the new round of the WCBB will being on May 1. Because of the high number of defaults last year, we're going to be requiring rough drafts (the 75% rule)

The schedule:

Sign Ups Open for Authors and Artists: May 1
Author Check In (not mandatory): July 1
Sign-Ups Closed: August 1
Last Day for Author Drop-Out: August 1
Author Rough Drafts Due (mandatory): August 1
Author Summaries Due: August 10
Summaries Posted for Artist Selection: August 15
Artist Selection: August 20, continues for ten days
Authors may claim their own unclaimed stories for art: August 30
Posting Date Selection: September 15
Challenge Closes, Finished Fics and Art Due: October 1
Posting Starts: October 15
Posting Ends: Depending on the number of stories to be posted, approximately the first week in November

If you have additional questions, please feel free to ask them in a PM or by email

Your mods:

elrhiarhodan - Email at elrhiarhodan1@gmail.com
theatregirl7299 - Email at theatregirl7299@gmail.com

You can email the comm at whitecollar.bb.mods@gmail.com, the emails will be forwarded to the mods. And of course, you can always reach out via PM on LJ.

I know it feels like Round Six just ended (and to me, it just did - as this post was created right after I put up the R6 master list), but we need to do some serious thinking about the next round.

For the sixth round, the mods made some changes to the rules, hoping that they would encourage greater participation by requiring less oversight, specifically, not requiring interim drafts that meet the 75% word count requirements, no mandatory check-ins. In two cases, this change resulted in stories that might not otherwise have been written, but that was balanced out by the high number of dropouts in the last weeks leading up to the posting period - well after artists had made their selections and started working. I think, for Round Seven, we're going to go back to the traditional requirements with mandatory check-ins and rough draft turn-ins at the mid-point. Yes, it's more work for us mods, but having so many authors drop out when theoretically, their stories should be complete is disheartening.

To accommodate the second round of the Reverse Big Bang, we pushed up the start of Round Six to June, but I think that it was also one of the reasons why we had so many late dropouts. For a lot of people, summer is an easier time to get the words out. Having a posting date in November means running up against NaNoWriMo and the start of the holiday season. So, we're seriously thinking about moving the start of Round Seven back to April 1. But we want your input on this. If writers and artist really preferred the later start date, we need to know.

Also, is there anything we, as mods, can do to help? In R5, we toyed with the idea of having a regular chat session to help people get over their humps, but for various reasons, it didn't get off the ground. Should we do a prompting post like other fandoms do? Some Big Bangs don't allow authors to pick their posting date - the mods assign them. Would this help writers stay on schedule?

So, therefore, a poll:

[Poll #2035394]