Around the World and Web

Gore Swap 2023

Gore Swap is an exchange for fanworks that include significant gore content, meaning described/pictured violence, injury and/or bloodshed. The minimum requirement is 500 words or a nice sketch on unlined paper. The 2023 schedule is as follows:

Nominations: Jan 15-22
Sign ups: Jan 24-31
Assignments out by: Feb 3
Assignments due: March 12
Work Reveals: March 24
Creator Reveals: March 31

You can find more at Gore Fest's AO3 Collection or the complete rules.

Teitho January/February Challenge: Starting Over

Teitho is a bimonthly Tolkien fanfiction contests. You can find full information and rules for Teitho here. Our challenge for January and February of this new year is Starting Over, a prompt that gives our creators options for both beginnings and endings.

Will you tell us a tale of the first Elves leaving Cuiviénen for Valinor, stories of the hosts of Fëanor and Fingolfin journeying to Beleriand, or Luthien and Beren’s time in Tol Galen?

Perhaps your story will follow Sauron after the War of Wrath. Or the Men who became the Nine.

Shall you tell us of the survivors of Erebor and their new dwellings? Or Samwise and Frodo, when they return to the Shire? Or cross the sea to the West?

Perhaps you will share the story of Gandalf's time in Lorien, after he defeated the balrog and became Gandalf with White? Or Glorfindel coming back to Middle-earth from Valinor in a new body?

“How do you pick up the threads of an old life?” Frodo asks, in Peter Jackson’s film version of The Return of the King. “How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand there is no going back.”

The start of a new year is a chance to start again. Where will you take us with this prompt? We can’t wait to see!

Please submit your stories before January 31, 2023, to teitho.contest@gmail.com

B2MeM 2023: Spies in the Shadows

Save the dates! Back to Middle-earth Month (B2MEM) returns this March for the 18th running of the annual event. This year’s main event is titled Spies in the Shadows: A Middle-earth Mystery (team event) and The Rogue Spy (solo event), and all events will culminate with a two-day mini virtual convention hosted by the Spring into Arda team in mid-April. (All events, with the exception of the classic prompt board, will use Discord as the main place of contact and communication. MellonCon (April 14-16, 2023) is currently seeking volunteers to help with traffic and host events. It also offers a unique ‘call for papers’ opportunity for residents of Arda.)

Info about Spies in the Shadows & Classic Prompt Board

Sign-up for Spies in the Shadows (now through February 15 for team/through March 31 for solo)

Info about MellonCon & Middle-earth Masquerade

The SWG's Discord server also hosts the #b2mem channel for discussion and questions related to B2MeM events.

Drawesome January Challenge: BIPOC Diversity in Fantasy

Drawesome is a Dreamwidth community of fan-artists who enjoy drawing. We hope to inspire and motivate each other to practice and hone our drawing skills in a stress-free, supportive environment. For January's challenge, create visuals of BIPOC as fantasy creatures, such as elves and other traditionally "fair" folk, fairies, mermaids, dwarves, etc.

Additional Notes:

For our challenge, the term 'POC' or People of Colour in the acronym 'BIPOC' refers to people who are non-White or not of European descent.

• Please note that BIPOC are often relegated to villainous roles in (Western) Fantasy settings, or are sometimes completely absent from these worlds. Therefore, the purpose of this challenge is for artists to go beyond the "default" standard of beauty as seen in the Fantasy genre, and expand to portraying BIPOC in more diverse roles. eg. a Black mermaid, a brown-skinned elf, a person of Asian descent as a wizard, etc.
• Since the focus is to feature BIPOC visually, please note that blue/green-skinned creatures would not qualify as "diversity of skin colour" for this particular challenge.
• You are welcome to create your own fantasy character, or select a character that is canonically BIPOC, as subject matter for your artwork. Racebending of a canonically white character would also be permitted.

A round-up post for submissions to this challenge will be done at the end of the month on Tuesday 31st January, 2023.

More information about participating in Drawesome can be found on the Introductory Post and Posting Guidelines.

Second Age Week 2023

For the second time we have decided to host this week to show our love and appreciation for the Second Age in all its facets. From proud Númenoreans to deep digging Dwarves, to the last High King of the Noldor, and the Dark Lord of Mordor—this week is dedicated to all of them and more! This event is hosted on Tumblr.

A list of non-mandatory prompts below:

Day 1 Elves - Gil-galad, Oropher, Celebrían and many others - Lindon and Belfalas, Imladris and Eregion, Lórinand and Greenwood. What were the elves doing in the Second Age?

Day 2 Men - On this day of Second Age Week, we explore the race of Men—from proud Númenoreans, through those who would come to be known as Dunlendings, to the Haradrim in the South.

Day 3 Dwarves - From Ered Luin through Khazad Dûm to the Eastern Realms, dwarves played an important role during the Second Age. On this day you can explore their history and culture, events they participated in, prominent characters such as Durin IV or Narvi and more!

Day 4 Sauron and his minions - With his lies and deceits, Sauron spent the Second Age weaving his way across Middle-earth and started a reign of terror from his fortress in Mordor. This day is dedicated to him and his many followers.

Day 5 Worldbuilding - Rings of Power and the White Tree, faraway lands, countless battles—Middle Earth has a rich history and stunning locations to explore.

Day 6 Original Characters - An unnamed wife of a king of Númenor, a guardsman from Lindon—who are they? What are they up to? On this day the spotlight is given to characters outside of the narrative focus.

Day 7 Freeform - Did we forget about something or is there a prompt you want to revisit? Feel free to use this day for any Second Age related content!

The week will run during 9th to 15th January 2023 and will be hosted by @tilions​ and @armenelols. ​ We will operate in a mixture of queued posts and direct reblogs.

To note:

• Tag your work #secondageweek in the first five tags of your post and tag us @secondageweek so we can find your post
• Should your post not be reblogged, feel free to send us an ask or a message
• The same goes with all problems and questions; the ask box is open!
• All kinds of content are allowed—fanfiction, fanart, headcanons, meta, edits, etc
• For NSFW content and such, please tag your work accordingly.

We are looking forward to your creations!

Screw Yule 2023

You are cordially invited to participate in this year's Screw Yule, a celebration of Elves, Smut, and a New Year's Resolution to toss Laws and Customs right out the window (or, at least, ignore whatever is necessary to appease your muses.)

Screw Yule is a way to kick off the new year with elf smut, and lots of it. There are a variety of challenge options, and infinite combinations between these different options. You can even completely disregard the challenges and just submit whatever elf smuttiness you like, as long as it hasn't been written previously for something else and there's an elf in it somewhere. The only rules are to have fun, and be dirty. [We used to only allow ratings of R or NC- 17/ Adult oriented fics, but if you want to only put one foot in the gutter and not jump in completely, go for it. We just really encourage being totally in the gutter!] This event was previously held in the magical place that was Little Balrog, but following the shutdown of Yahoo Groups in the form that allowed for that, stories will now be shared on AO3.

Participants earn points for writing, commenting, beta'ing, and creating art for the event. See the Screw Yule page on AO3 for full rules and details.

January challenge at tolkienshortfanworks on Dreamwidth

The prompts of the January challenge have been posted to the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth. The thematic prompt is "lantern or lamp" and the formal challenge is Lanterne (a poem of five lines with a syllable count of 1-2-3-4-1).  

The two prompts can be filled independently and the prompts can be freely combined with other challenges.

More details at the linked post.

New participants welcome!

2023 Fandom Snowflake Challenge

What is Fandom Snowflake Challenge? Well, I’ll tell you what it is not. It is not to do with winter, or snowflakes really. The snowflake in the title is a metaphor, an image of unique and beautiful, of swirling and bone-deep. A single snowflake is all of us individually; unique and beautiful. But as a group, a snowflake can blanket, can blind against the dark and ugly, can still the world of the mundane.

That’s what we’re going to do in January. We’re going to start the new year reflecting on what makes us rare and beautiful and what makes us as a community mighty and life-altering.

And that’s it for the metaphor. Now on to what is going to happen. On the odd days of January, we will be dropping challenges, some new, some old, some about creating, some about consuming, some about being a great big geek and others about being alive in the 21st century. You can do what you want, and don’t do what you don’t. There are no points, no keeping score, no way of doing this wrong. There is just you, doing this momentous thing, and us cheering you on.

Not doing fandom on LJ/DW anymore? That’s okay, we’re here too: Twitter | Tumblr

Thorin's Spring Forge: Sign-Ups Close February 2nd

Welcome all Thorin fans to the inaugural edition of Thorin’s Spring Forge. Here we share our love of the great and honourable Thorin Oakenshield. This minibang event seeks to unite writers and artists in creating fanworks centered around our favourite dwarf—Thorin Oakenshield!

You can read more about Thorin’s Spring Forge (TSF) on our profile and consult our FAQ and event schedule if you have any questions. 

You can participate in this event as a:

• Writer;
• Artist;
• Beta reader;
• Pinch hitter (writer);
• Pinch hitter (artist).

Explanations of what each of these roles is can be found in our FAQ. You may sign up for more than one role, but there is a maximum of two fanworks per participant (i.e. you may write two fics, or create two artworks, or do one of each).

Participating authors create a short summary/synopsis of a fic, which is posted anonymously for artists to view and claim. Artists will then create art based on the fic they chose, and authors will write a complete fic (minimum 2,500 words).

Sign up as a writer.

Sign up as an artist.

Sign up as a beta reader or pinch hitter.

Sign ups for authors and artists will be open until February 2nd midnight EST. 

Please be sure to familiarise yourself with our code of conduct and schedule before signing up!

Event Schedule

January 12th: Sign-ups open
February 2nd: Sign-ups close
February 9th: Summaries due
See FAQ for more information.
February 12th: Claims
February 15th: If there are still fics unclaimed, second claims will open on this date.
February 27th: Check-in #1
March 17th: Check-in #2
April 3rd: Check-in #3
April 18th: Completed fics and art due
April 25th: Reveals

December challenge at tolkienshortfanworks on Dreamwidth

The December challenge at tolkienshortfanworks on Dreamwidth is a prompt amnesty: fill any previous prompt or finish and post previous prompt fills. New participants always welcome. More details at the linked posts.