Back to Middle-earth Month 2009

Back to Middle-earth Month 2009 (B2MeM 2009) was a creative challenge featuring a daily prompt that was initially developed by the SWG. This was the first year where, instead of assuming multiple groups would host their own events, the SWG invited other Tolkien fandom groups to join in the challenge they'd designed. It would mark a shift in the years to come toward B2MeM as a collaborative endeavor. The Tolkien genfic archive Many Paths to Tread (MPTT), which was affiliated with the Yahoo! Group and LiveJournal challenge community LotR Genfic Community, would join the event, posting the daily challenges on their Yahoo! Gorup.

The challenge was first presented on the SWG's LiveJournal on 27 February 2009, retaining the tendency of previous events to be announced last-minute, which would also change in the years to come. As noted for B2MeM 2008, the SWG was beginning to reconsider the purpose of B2MeM within the context of their own community: B2MeM was originally a fandom event for reliving the enthusiasm around the films, and activity in the Silmarillion fandom increased during the film years as well, being a strictly book-based fandom, the Silmarillion fandom was not as dramatically impacted as the Lord of the Rings fandom was. The 2009 event announcement furthers this shift toward ongoing celebration of Tolkien fanworks:

March is Back to Middle-earth Month and, in keeping with tradition, the SWG annually hosts an event for the month. B2MeM was originally designed to keep the momentum going after the release of the third movie and, while we're never short on enthusiasm in the SWG, we participate in B2MeM each year as an opportunity to create and share our work and discover the work of new writers and artists.

The B2MeM 2009 event was structured around prompts that drew on the creators' life experiences. The event was described as such:

Often, as creators of Tolkien-based writing and artwork, when we are asked to consider what influences us, we think first of favorite characters, favorite scenes, or the quote that--the first time we read it--made our hearts lurch and imaginations begin to whirl. Each day through the month of March, we will post a prompt on our homepage, LiveJournal community, and Yahoo! group--but we are changing directions a bit from the usual fiction and art challenge. This time, we will start with our lives and experiences as writers or artists and create a Tolkien-themed work based on these.

Each day featured a prompt that encouraged first a personal reflection, then creation of a fanwork based on that experience. Each prompt was accompanied by a small icon. On Monday's there was a "Mercurial Monday" prompt that allowed participants the choice of two prompts with the ability to use the second as a wildcard for any other prompt in the challenge. Prompts were posted on the SWG's Yahoo! Group and LiveJournal, and the Yahoo! Group of the LotR Genfic Community. There were several responses for each day of the challenge. B2MeM 2009 was also the first year that the event received its own tag on the SWG archive; fanworks created for the event can be read on the B2MeM 2009 challenge page. SWG moderators also rounded up all fanworks created for B2MeM and posted them under the prompts on the website.

View B2MeM 2009 here.

Links

Archivist's Notes

Progress: Restoration of B2MeM 2009 is still in its early stages. SWG links have not been updated. The formatting of the page was done with HTML tables, and images are different sizes, making the layout wonky. B2MeM 2009 also featured a wealth of participant banners and "marathon banners" for those who completed every day's prompt. While still stored in their original location on our web server, they are not yet readily viewable on the site itself. All of these things will be repaired/done as work progresses.