Back to Middle-earth Month

We have reached the end of March and another Back to Middle-earth Month. This year's event was huge, involving 44 different authors, 14 different artists, and many, many more readers and reviewers. None of this would happen without our awesome team of volunteers.

First, I want to thank this year's moderators. For these people, B2MeM started months ago, as we began planning this year's event. These tasks range from fun (writing prompts!) to less fun (writing rules), and of course, once March rolls around, these are also the people managing things behind the scenes and continuing to offer advice as issues arrive during the event. I want to give a huge thank you to this year's mod team: angelica_ramses, dreamflower02, huinare, indy1776, marta_bee, mirach_ravaia, nelyo_russandol, rhapsody11, and tarion_anarore.

Many other people help in varying capacities throughout the month of March to keep the event running smoothly. Many, many thanks are in order for our volunteers, who give up their own time for writing, reading, and creating to make sure that B2MeM is enjoyable for all.

indy1776 and lignota have been handling the community tags for three years now. They always do a great job ... and a very important one. On a community that can produce more than 100 new entries during the month of March, their efforts keep things organized and make it possible to find writing and art for specific characters, genres, and formats from the over 1,000 pieces archived here.

dreamflower02 was our faithful volunteer who unlocked each day's stories and art, and indy1776 was her backup. Their job involved finding the right piece from sometimes dozens in the queue and making sure we had something new and wonderful to read and look at each day.

huinare and tarion_anarore compiled the weekly summaries of what was posted each week, the featured review challenge for the week, and any announcements (usually flung at them last-minute by me). In the midst of a busy month, their efforts helped to make sure that stories and art didn't get lost in the shuffle and made it easy to see what was new for each week.

huinare was also my partner in crime in scheduling. We ended up with 52 pieces of writing and 16 works of art to fit into 26 days for the compilation, a balancing act that required trying to simultaneously achieve a somewhat equal word count each day while presenting a balanced mix of characters, time periods, and genres.

Graphics are always a huge part of B2MeM. This year, we required graphics for participant banners, review awards, and grand prizes. heartofoshun, indy1776, lignota, tarion_anarore, and the_winterwitch all helped make the beautiful icons, banners, and other graphics that our participants can use to commemorate their participation this year.

This year's betas were on-call in the months leading up to B2MeM and during March, ready to lend assistance to any author or artist who needed help polishing a project. Thanks to these volunteers' generosity, not a single beta request this year went unfilled (and most were filled within a day). Thank you to aliana1, astris_eldalie, elvewen, hhimring, hrymfaxe, ladyelleth, lindahoyland, shirebound, tarion_anarore, and with_rainfall for offering your support and expertise to this year's participants.

B2MeM originated as a shared effort between the Silmarillion Writers' Guild and Many Paths to Tread. It has grown well beyond that, in a large part thanks to the people who talk up the event each year, pass on information about participating, and encourage their friends to join in. I can't possibly know everyone who has a hand in this, so thanks to each of you who helped us to get the word out this year.

Likewise, many, many people have supported our writers and artists this year through their comments. Since many of the B2MeM pieces are posted off-site, I can't know who all of you are, but speaking from my own experience as a writer and artist, I know your words and encouragement meant a lot to participants this month, and I thank you for taking your time to support this year's writers and artists. It was awesome seeing the comments roll into report reviews for the challenge and all the wonderful things you all had to say about each other's writing and art.

Finally, I want to thank and congratulate each of you who participated in B2MeM this year as a writer or an artist. Whether you created something for the compilation or shared your work on one of our open posting days, this year's collection was extraordinary, and the time and talent each of you put into your work is truly a gift to our community. I have worked as a fiction editor for literary magazines before, and the craft I have seen this month--not to mention everyone's patience, cooperation, and understanding with the mods as we put everything together--surpasses anything I've worked on before. Thank you all.

(If I happen to have left someone off the list, please know it was not intentional and please also let me know so that I can make the correction! You can email me directly at DawnFelagund@gmail.com or message me here on LiveJournal.)