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June Challenge at tolkienshortfanworks posted

The tolkienshortfanworks prompts for June have been posted to the Dreamwidth community. 

The thematic challenge is unseasonable weather.

The formal challenge is a traditional saying, rhyme, or rule of thumb that attempts to predict the weather (and may be disproved by your narrative framework, if you want to combine the two challenges!).



For an example of such a prediction, compare this traditional rhyme about St Swithin's Day:



St Swithin’s day, if thou dost rain,

For forty days it will remain,

St Swithin’s day, if thou be fair,

For forty days ‘twill rain nae mare.



Is there a saying like that in Middle-earth about Durin's Day, maybe, or other dates in the calendar?

 

New participants to the challenges and community always welcome!

More detail on the challenges at the linked post.

Scribbles & Drabbles 2023

Scribbles & Drabbles is a two-part event that involves the creation of art, followed by writing stories based on the art.

During the first part, artists submit their art. All art submitted should be "finished" before it is submitted. Art is added to a super awesome presentation. At the end of the submission period, artists who also want to write get first dibs at making claims.

During the second part, authors choose art to write for. Each author can make up to three claims to start; as they finish pieces, they can return and make additional claims. Artwork can be claimed multiple times. Writing can be any format but must be at least a drabble (100 words).

Schedule

Artist sign-ups: June 1 - June 30

Author sign-ups: June 1 - July 31

Arts due: July 15

Gallery goes live: August 6

Art posting begins: August 11

Claims:

• Artist-Authors: August 11
• Returning Authors: August 12
• New Authors: August 13

Further claims: August 18 onwards

Drop-out deadline: November 10

Fics due: November 11

Reveals: November 25

Links

• Guidelines
• FAQs/Claims FAQ
• Sign-Up Forms
• Tumblr

Gen Work June 2023

Gen Work June is a Tumblr-based event that encourages sharing gen fanworks during the month of June. There's six prompts below, you could pick one (or more) and write or draw something. Or write or draw something completely different. Or share some of your old gen work again. Make a rec list. Just leave a nice comment on your favourite gen work. We'll count all of it.

Rules

The whole point is it's about gen work, it can be any kind as long as it's gen. Mentions of background relationship are fine as long as the romance isn't a focus

And then make a post, tag this blog if you want (remember to tag warnings and stick long fics at least partly below a read more if you're posting them on here), and that's it

Prompts

Families (born or made) or Best Friends Forever

First or Reunion or Comfort: One-word prompts you can interpret however you like. It could be two lifelong friends meeting for the first time. A sibling giving a hug after a bad day. Anything.

Flipping the Script: Take a trope that would usually be expected to be romantic and make it platonic. Or find another way to interpret the prompt, if you think it fits, then it fits.

Aspec Arda Week 2023

This is a week-long Tumblr event to celebrate the interaction of the asexual and aromantic-spectrums and Tolkien’s Legendarium of Arda. Though these experiences are not explicit within Tolkien’s work, many fans across the a-spectrum see themselves in Arda, and we are here to appreciate any and all interpretation of characters, relationships, and events through an aspec lens.

Any content about the a-spectrum in Arda is welcome! You can create edits, gifs, fanart, fanfic, fanmixes, and more! This event will run from May 22-28, 2023! Please tag your posts with #aspecardaweek AND @ mention this blog @aspecardaweek so they can be easily found. If your submission turns into a long post, please put what you can beneath a “Keep reading” divider.

Below are some prompts for each day of the week. They are not mandatory, but they are here to inspire you. This page will lead to an explanation for each prompt. The first prompt is the “main” prompt, but we are also providing more open-ended secondary prompts.

DAY ONE: Asexuality || Discovery, Confusion, Education
DAY TWO: Aromanticism || Acceptance, Loneliness, Pride
DAY THREE: Across the A-Spectrum || Hope, Complexity, Diversity
DAY FOUR: Worldbuilding || Community, Change, Family
DAY FIVE: Relationships || Companionship, Intimacy, Queerplatonic
DAY SIX: Intersectionality || Connection, Relief, Friendship
DAY SEVEN: Freeform || Love, Vulnerability, Identity

This event is being organized by @arofili. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to message the Aspec Arda Week blog or my main.

For further clarification, check out our about, FAQ, code of conduct, and prompts pages! Happy creating!!

Gondolin Week 2023

What the Book of Lost Tales tells us about Tarnin Austa is that a feast - so named the "Gates of Summer" took place on the eve of the first of Lairë. Following which a ceremony began at midnight, during with the Gondothlim spoke not a word until the rise of the Anor at daybreak.

At dawn, the people would burst into song, with choirs leading them from the eastern wall, as the sun shone brightly upon lamps and lights of colour which were hung on new-leaved trees.

Our intention with this year's Gondolin Week is to honour those roots. As such, our themes this year will consist of these and other festival activities.

Therefore, as always, each day of our event will include a list of prompts including: the ceremony/activity taking place, as well as a suggested location and character(s).

Theme List:
- Feast
- Ceremony
- Songs
- Dance
- Theatre
- Parade
- Undetermined

Gondolin Week will run 14-20 May 2023 on Tumblr, with an AO3 collection.

Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang: 2023 Schedule

The complete schedule with explanations of each schedule item can be found here.

May 8 – Artist Sign-up Deadline
May 12 – Discord Server Opens
May 14 – Art Draft Due
May 19 – Art Preview Opens
May 20-21 Discord Art Talks
May 21 – Author Signups Deadline
May 27 – CLAIMS – 17:00 UTC
June 2 – Post-Claims Check-in
June 11 – Free Rein Art Due
June 23 – Check-in #2
July 28 – Check-in #3
August 6 – Final Art Due
August 13 – Final Check-in (#4)
August 25 – Art Can Be Posted
TBA – Discord Art Reveals Event
September 1 – Final Fic Due In Collection
September 8 – REVEALS
September 11 – Staggered Tumblr Reblogs
September 20 – Gallery Submissions Open
September 30 – Discord Server Closes

May challenge at tolkienshortfanworks (Dreamwidth)

The May Challenge at the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth has been posted. 

The thematic challenge is: taxes, tolls, or similar charges.

The formal challenge is to include an extract from an account book of some sort (or even make the whole piece an extract from an account book).



If you don't want to deal with questions of currency in your setting, remember that payment can historically also be made in weight of precious metals, in kind (for example, specified amounts of grain, fish, meat, eggs, etc.), or in specified services (for example, one day's ploughing).



But we know coins were used in Gondor, in the Shire, and elsewhere, by the Third Age at the latest.

The Gondorian denominations were Castar (Sindarin mirian, plural miriain) and Tharni (Sindarin canath, plural cenaith), for a coin worth a quarter of a Castar.

More details on the tolkienshortfanworks monthly challenges at the linked post.

New participants are always welcome.

"Tolkien and Diversity" Tolkien Society Seminar Proceedings Available for Preorder

Welcoming over seven hundred delegates across the two-day event, the 2021 Tolkien Society summer seminar was the highest attended event in the Society's history. It invited scholars to consider the role that diversity plays in Middle-earth's linguistic and literary make-up: how does he explore race, gender, sexuality, disability, class, religion and faith, and age? How do different fandoms receive his works? How can varying perspectives enrich our understanding of Arda? Tolkien and Diversity was the second of three seminars that the Tolkien Society hosted online in 2021, reaching over 1,600 global delegates.

Published under the auspices of the Society's Peter Roe Memorial Fund, this proceedings features a collection of papers delivered at the Tolkien Society 2021 summer seminar. The volume will be available on May 16 but can be preordered on the Luna Press website.

Angbang Week 2023

Angbang Week 2023 will run May 1st - May 7th on Tumblr.

Similarly to last year, we will be accepting any and all original creations for the upcoming event - visual, written or auditory, which is including but not limited to fanfiction, poetry, art both traditional and digital, playlists, moodboards, etc. So long as they’re on topic, new, and created by you, we want to see, appreciate and feature them.

Every day has a couple of prompts to choose from, for which you could create a piece of content you see fit to associate with the prompt you chose. You can pick one, do both separately or simultaneously, or even skip both altogether if you don’t feel like those particular day’s prompts are for you. This year's prompts are as follows:

Day 1 - May 1st: Ainulindalë | The timeless Halls
Day 2 - May 2nd: The spring of Arda | The marring of Arda
Day 3 - May 3rd: Ice | Snow
Day 4 - May 4th: The Void | The flame imperishable
Day 5 - May 5th: Dagor Bragollach |  Nirnaeth Arnoediad
Day 6 - May 6th: Temples | Sacrifice
Day 7 - May 7th: Alternative Universe(s)

When posting your works, feel free to post them on the day the prompt is from or later, but refrain from posting earlier if possible. (For example, please avoid posting Day 7 content on Day 1.) There’s no time limit, so don’t stress out if you’re posting something a few days “too late”. We will be reblogging and featuring your content even after the 7th of May, so there is no need to worry.

When posting, please mention the day number and the prompt you chose for more convenient tagging. Tag any posts intended for the event with either #Angbangweek2023, #Angbang Week 2023, or tag us directly and we will feature as many works created for the event as we can find on Tumblr.

If you have any questions regarding the prompts, the event, or the tagging, don’t be afraid to ask us for clarification anytime! And finally, feel free to start planning and making your content early, if you feel like it.

Digital Tolkien Project Discord

The Digital Tolkien Project, in their own words, is "A scholarly project focused on Tolkien from both a corpus linguistic and digital humanities perspective." In other words, if you like using tech and spreadsheets and the like to gather information on Tolkien, this is probably a place you'd like to be.

The DTP has set up a Discord server for working on their various projects and issued an open invite. Click the link above to join.