Back to Middle-earth Month 2016: Memories

[independence1776]

I sit beside the fire and think
of all that I have seen,
of meadow-flowers and butterflies
in summers that have been;

[…]

I sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago,
and people who will see a world
that I shall never know.

But all the while I sit and think
of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.
Bilbo’s Song, The Fellowship of the Ring

As we begin our second decade of Back to Middle-earth Month, we're looking back and celebrating our first ten years.

Back to Middle-earth Month started in 2006 with an anonymous announcement in middleearthnews that encouraged people to pick a day of the week and post something Tolkien-related on it during March.

there_n_back jumped on board with prompts in both 2006 and 2007. The Silmarillion Writers’ Guild encouraged people to participate in 2006 and began holding events of its own in 2007. In 2009, Many Paths To Tread and SWG coordinated for the first time. In 2012, Arda Inspired on DeviantArt joined in and this LJ community was created. B2MeM has been hosted here ever since.

To celebrate our tenth anniversary, we’re using all of the prompts from all previous years. (The there_n_back mods have kindly given us permission to use theirs.) In other words: if there’s a prompt or event you wish you could have used or been a part of, here’s your chance!

This year is simple: if you see a prompt from a previous B2MeM event you like, you can create a fanwork with it. There are no sign-ups, no claims, and no deadlines.

B2MeM 2011 and 2012 involved volunteers stamping passports and bingo cards to mark participants' progress through the challenge. There will be no stamping of passports or bingo cards this year for participants using those challenges.

Banners and icons for this year’s event will be available shortly.

~ For those who wish to begin creating early, links to all of the prompts can be found at the end of this post.

~ For those who want a daily challenge, we will post daily the prompts from the years that had a daily prompt component (March 4 prompts on March 4, etc.).

Also as part of our celebration of the first ten years, we will have retrospective posts in March focusing on past B2MeM events.


( General Questions )

( Questions Specific to Previous Events )

( The Prompts )

If you have any questions or concerns that you do not feel comfortable leaving in a comment here, please email the mods at b2mem.mod@gmail.com. The email autoforwards to our individual inboxes and we will get back to your shortly.

2016 Collaboration Post

[independence1776]

If you wish to collaborate with someone or with multiple people, please comment below with what you are looking for. The more specific you are, the easier it will be to connect with potential collaborators; your comment should mention the characters, genre, and rating of your fanwork. Pairings and warnings are appreciated if they apply.

If you have more than one work you wish to collaborate on, please leave a comment for each work.

If you are already in a collaborative relationship, you do not need to post here; this post is solely for participants who want to match up with potential collaborators.

Please do not embed any files; link to fics, artworks, etc. if they’re already available.


( Examples )

Graphics makers needed

[independence1776]

We need several graphic makers to create graphics for us, both participant banners and icons. When you create them, please email all banners to b2mem.mod@gmail.com. Anyone is free to create these; no sign-ups are needed.

We also need volunteers to create a small banner and icon for each previous year of B2MeM.

Participant banners:

~ must have "Back to Middle-earth Month 2016," "B2MeM 2016," or "B2MeM '16" somewhere on them.

~ If you wish to work with them, our themes this year are “Memories” and “Celebrating Ten Years of B2MeM.”

~ Any size banner is acceptable. Icons should be 100 pixels by 100 pixels or smaller.

~ You must have permission to use any artwork or photography that you use on the banner/icon. This means that any artwork or photography used must satisfy at least one of the conditions below:

• The artwork/photography is your own work, or you own the rights to the work.


• The artwork/photography is in the public domain.


• You have written permission from the artist/photographer to use her or his work, including making modifications, such as cropping or adding text.


• The artwork/photography is clearly labeled with permission to use the work for nonprofit uses, including making modifications, such as cropping or adding text.


• Screen captures from the movies are acceptable.

~ Any artwork or photography used must be suitable for all audiences, i.e., it should not include nudity, blood/gore, or anything more than mild sexuality (hugging, kissing, etc.).

~ Files should be saved in .JPG, .PNG, or .GIF file formats. Please use the Save for Web feature (or its equivalent for your software), if available, to keep file sizes manageable.

Yearly prompt banners

These also need to follow the above permission rules for graphics. Each year needs both a banner and an icon. In order to prevent confusion with previous, they need to clearly show that they are for B2MeM 2016 and/or state "Remembering [year]." Whether or not you use images from that year is up to you.

Please either leave a comment here or email us at b2mem.mod@gmail.com if you are interested in creating these banners. So there is no duplication of effort, we will be assigning them. We have all the volunteers we need (thank you!); assignments have been sent.