Back to Middle-earth Month

I am very pleased to announce that the Back to Middle-earth Month moderators have been working hard to finalize this year's event and theme! As discussed in an earlier post about the shape B2MeM 2014 will take, we will be taking a different approach to B2MeM this year.* Most people who participated in that discussion were in favor of the compilation idea, so we will be taking that approach this year.

That means that, for this year's event, authors and artists who wish to participate will be signing up ahead of time for a prompt or prompts that they want to create for. During the month of March, we will reveal one to a few of these pieces each day. At the end of the month, we will put together an e-book of these stories and art. (Inclusion in the e-book will be optional, and you are welcome to participate this year even if you don't want to be included in the e-book.) We will also help connect participants with beta readers, cheerleaders, research assistance, and any other help they need.

In the past, when we have done B2MeM events that require a sign-up ahead of time, we have allowed people who didn't want to participate in the main event to use the prompts to create and share their stories and art during the month of March. We will be setting aside special days each week for sharing stories and art that were created for B2MeM but not as part of the compilation, so even if signing up for a prompt doesn't work for you, rest assured that if a prompt grabs your muse during the month of March, you will still be able to share your story or art on the community.

In addition, there will be a review challenge that we hope will encourage our members to reach out to new authors, characters, and topics during the month of March!

Sign-ups for the compilation will open up this Sunday, January 12. Full guidelines will also be available then.

(We also need bannermakers, so if you're interested in helping us make a selection of participant banners, please comment here.)

* B2MeM events traditionally do not repeat. We've done everything from collecting story excerpts to playing games to daily prompt challenges. This will be our first compilation!