Silmarillion Writers' Guild

March is right around the corner, which means it is time for the Tolkien fandom's annual holiday, Back to Middle-earth Month! This year, B2MeM journeys to the Tharbad's Greenway Spring Faire, where creators of fanworks can sell and purchase prompts to inspire the stories, art, podfics, poetry, videos, meta, and any other fanworks you can dream up to post during the month of March!

The full B2MeM 2015 guidelines can be found here, but the concept is fairly straightforward. All participants begin with 15 farthings. All participants can "sell" prompts at one of the market stalls for other participants to use in creating fanworks, and all participants can "buy" those prompts they want to create fanworks for. It costs one farthing to sell a prompt at a stall, and one farthing to purchase a prompt in order to create a fanwork. More farthings can be earned by commenting on the fanworks created for B2MeM 2015 or through helping out around the faire (creating banners, volunteering, etc.). Fanworks can be posted to the b2mem community or anywhere else you please--we encourage cross-posting!

Want to see what's for sale so far at the faire? Have an idea for a prompt that you'd like to see handled by other creators? The master list of faire stalls (organized by location) can be found here.

And if you're dreadful at bookkeeping and want help keeping track of your coin, we have a bookkeeper on hand to help.

B2MeM is open to anyone who cares to participate. You do not need to be a member of b2mem, and our only restriction on what can be created is that it must have a basis in Tolkien. Crossover, AU, Silmfic, Hobbits, Dwarves, Ents, OCs, het, slash, gen, all ratings, themes, and interpretations--you are limited only by your imagination. We welcome one and all to the Faire and hope to see many of you stop by!

If you have any questions or need assistance of any kind, please comment on the guidelines post linked above, drop us an email at [email protected], or send a PM to the mistress of the marketplace mistress_tanwe.

Back to Middle-earth Month (b2mem) is an annual Tolkien fandom "holiday" that runs through the month of March. Every year, a group of volunteers from the Tolkien fandom get together to plan a month-long event celebrating the creativity in our fandom. We aim to encourage participants to stretch their wings creatively, enjoy writing and art outside their usual comfort zones, and meet new friends from around the fandom.

Every year's event is different, and this year, we will be putting together a compilation of stories and art based around the theme Seasons of Middle-earth. Participants will sign up to write or create art around one of the prompts, and during the month of March, we will reveal one or a few pieces each day. There will also be a review challenge to encourage our readers to show their love to those participating in this year's event! :)

I have recently posted the guidelines as well as this year's prompts. At this time, participants may claim one writing prompt and one art prompt. (Obviously, you don't have to claim both! :) The prompts were the collaborative effort of this year's B2MeM mods, and I can attest that they are pretty awesome. They are also going fast, so I suggest checking them out soon in order to get the pick of the litter! :)

If you'd like to sign-up to participate in this year's event, you can find the guidelines here:

http://b2mem.livejournal.com/247691.html

And you can see the prompts and pick the one you want here:

http://b2mem.livejournal.com/247842.html

If you have questions about this year's B2MeM event, please comment on the first link above, or you can email the B2MeM mods at [email protected].

This week was a busy one for our adventurers with not only their usual challenge to complete but also Sauron to defeat! They routed him with room to spare, which means that we progress to the Final Battle in the fifth and final week of B2MeM and we have many times more the stories, artwork, and poems to offer this week! For the final week, all of the challenges have been unlocked, for those of you who aren't playing but interested in writing for this year's B2MeM.

( Week Four Challenge Entries )

( Sauron Defeated Challenge Entries )

Our adventures continue into the second week of Back to Middle-earth Month as we seek everything from palantiri to Silmarilli to ancient books and ancient mariners. Yet as our adventurers prepare for the Final Battle, so do the Dark Foes, and Sauron has arisen once more in Eriador ...

This week, the participants in this year's B2MeM have put together an impressive collection of challenge stories from all eras and genres and about all races and characters. In addition, if you'd like to try writing your own story but aren't quite up for joining our quest, have a look at our unlocked challenges. Challenges newly unlocked for Week Two are posted at the bottom of this message.

May the Light guide you in your journeys,

Ornisso, loremaster of Fingolfin, Tavernkeeper, and occasional herald

(With thanks to angelica_ramses for data collection! :)

( B2MeM Week Two Challenge Entries )

( B2MeM Week Two Unlocked Challenges )

March is quickly approaching and, with it, Back to Middle-earth Month. This year, we are running a writing challenge embedded as part of a quest game. We have a few teams signed up that have indicated that they would like a few other players to join them. If you've been on the fence, not sure if you can commit to a whole month of challenges, this is a good chance to get involved! If you think you'd like to join an existing team, please email me off-list at dawnfelagund@gmail.com and I'll see if we can't work something out. :)

If you're reading this and wondering what the heck I'm talking about--what is Back to Middle-earth Month??--more details are available on our website, and please feel free to contact me with inquiries. :)

Anyone still putting teams together, please remember that 28 February is the last day to register. I will be posting a reminder announcement when there's a week left for sign-ups but the earlier you register the better!

March is Back to Middle-earth Month, and we are currently accepting registrations for this year's event!

This year's event is a writing/art challenge and quest game. When I tell people this, I usually get a puzzled look and, "A wha--?" In a nutshell, the event consists of two components:

The writing/art challenge. Like last year, the heart of the event is creating stories, poems, and artwork in response to challenges. There will be five challenges--one per week--across the course of the game. These will be a lot like last year's challenges in that they will be very open-ended and able to generate responses in any form and about any race and time period in Tolkien's legendarium.

The quest game. This year, the writing challenge will correspond a quest game. It is the Final Battle, and the people of Arda are organizing against Melkor. As you complete your writing challenges, you will earn items to aid in this battle. You will journey throughout Arda from week to week (where you stop depends on the challenge you will complete) as you try to earn the items that you need to defeat Melkor.

A more detailed description and the full rules of the game are available here.

A few additional important points to make ...

"Five challenges in one month? Wow, that's a lot! I don't know if I'll be able to keep up." If you'd like to participate but aren't sure whether you can complete five challenges in one month (which is, indeed, a lot), please note that teams of up to four people are perfectly acceptable. You are welcome to participate on your own, of course, but if you want to bring along a few friends to share responsibilities, please do!

"I write slash/het/adult-rated/fluff/comic strips/darkfic/MPREG/AU/crossover--is my work eligible?" At SWG, we have always had the policy of accepting all Silmarillion-based writing and do not make quality judgments based on genre, subject, rating, or interpretation. During Back to Middle-earth Month, we open that further to all Tolkien-based writing as well as artwork. Our Site Etiquette and Terms of Service have more information on the few items that we cannot or will not accept.

So, yes, again all Tolkien-based writing will be welcome for B2MeM on the B2MeM site. (We continue to allow Silm only on our archive and LiveJournal community.) So no matter what your tastes, we welcome your contributions!

"Is this an RPG?" We have nothing against role-playing games (RPGs) but this certainly is not one. There is a forum (the Tavern) for sharing information with other players, but you do not need to role-play in order to use it or to participate in the event. (Those of you who want to role-play in the Tavern are welcome to do so, but it is not required.)

If you are interested in participating, please check out our site and the game rules. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email us at b2mem@silmarillionwritersguild.org or leave a comment on this post. If you're interested in participating, you may register here.

You may register at any time during the month of February.

We will be posting stories periodically throughout the next few weeks that set the stage for the Final Battle--we hope to see many of you there! :)

(Please do share this post with any individuals or groups that might be interested in participating in this year's B2MeM! You do not need to be an SWG member or a Silmarillion writer to participate! :)