Voting for the 2010 MEFAs ends on December 15, at 11:59 PM GMT. That's a little over a week away, and there's still time to get some reviewing in if you'd like. Feel free to join up and review any stories you would like.

Also, if you have entered draft reviews at our website, please remember that they will not be counted unless you change them over to Hidden or Final reviews. This must be done by that December 15 deadline as well.

For information on memberships at the MEFA website please see:

http://community.livejournal.com/mefas/249389.html

Marta
MEFA Admin.

If you participate in the "Create for Life" event next weekend, please feel free to pimp your projects in the comments for this post!

Create for Life is the idea and dream of Lady Roisin, a writer, artist, and costume designer who also happened to have cancer. Roisin wanted to provide a means for the creative community to promote cancer awareness and raise money for a cure. Although she didn't live to see her dream come fully to life, her husband Eli and her friend Dawn are going ahead with the event in her memory, in memory of all other loved ones lost to cancer, and in hope that we will one day see an end to the shadow this disease casts on our lives.

http://community.livejournal.com/create_for_life/profile

Create for Life is inspired by Relay for Life. During the weekend of November 12 through 14, participating artists, writers, musicians, and craftspeople will practice the crafts they love in support of a cancer awareness and research.

There are several ways to participate. Similar to how Relay for Life works, participants can seek sponsors for their projects, who agree to donate to the American Cancer Society or a similar charity for progress made on a CfL project. For example, an author might ask for a donation for every 1,000 words she writes over the weekend. A knitter might ask for a donation for every scarf she knits. Flat donations to ACS by sponsors are, of course, more than welcome as well. Artisans who sell their creations may wish to sell or auction work created that weekend with proceeds going to ACS, as another means to participate.

However, donations are not the only way to participate. Awareness is just as important, and CfL participants are encouraged to post about their projects on their blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and related sites to increase cancer awareness.

All types of artistic projects are welcome. You do not have to commit to any minimum time spent or donations made for the event. Simply set aside some time that weekend to spend doing what you love for a great cause!

Create for Life has a LiveJournal community with more information, a place to ask questions, and a forum for sharing your project ideas with fellow participants.

http://community.livejournal.com/create_for_life/profile

Whether you're able to participate this year or not, we greatly appreciate help passing the word about the event to other individuals and groups who may be interested in getting involved. We are just two people without any marketing specialists to help us get the word out! Please follow the rules on any groups you post to and remember that spam hurts--not helps--our cause.

If you are a member of LiveJournal, please do join the community and, if you are participating, come share your ideas with us!

Best regards,

Eli and Dawn

Every year, the Middle-earth Fanfiction Awards posts a "draft" version of our categories and subcategories (and the stories competing in each), which authors and other fandom members can look over before this information is displayed on our website. The purpose is to give people, especially authors, a chance to ask for their stories to be moved.

You can also read more about how checkballots work at

--- community.livejournal.com/mefas/197122.html

Check ballots will be posted at two places:

--- community.livejournal.com/mefas/
--- groups.yahoo.com/group/MEFAwards/

You can reply to any check ballot to request a piece be moved.

If you want a story move, please let us know by 11:59 PM, July 14, at the latest.

Marta
(MEFA Admin.)

Hey guys,

The Middle-earth Fanfiction Awards are currently accepting nominations for our 2010 awards. But not for long! Our nomination period will end on June 15, in just 10 days, so please get your nominations in now.

To nominate stories you must be a member of the MEFAwards Yahoo group. When you join this group you will be given a username and password at the awards website, where you can nominate stories. Please allow 24 hours for this information to be emailed to you; your Yahoo log-in information will not work.

If after 24 hours you haven't received a password please email mefasupport(.at.)mefawards(.dot.)net - I will look into the situation for you and send you your password ASAP.

Once you have your log-in information, you may nominate stories and vote for other peoples' nominations at:

http://mefawards.net/MEFA2010

In the meantime you can begin familiarizing yourself with the site by using the "log in as guest" option.

REMEMBER:
--- you may nominate a piece until 11:59 PM GMT on June 15.
--- authors must finalize a nomination by 11:59 PM GMT on June 21, or it will not be able to compete. We really appreciate it if you can finish your form a day or two early, in case anything needs correcting.

(For the official time go to any MEFA2010 webpage. The time that page was loaded at will be displayed in the lower left corner, beside "Page Served at:".

Thanks,

Marta (MEFA Admin.)

I was quite...inspired by the Back to Writing Month challenge. And since I'm a complete Shakespeare nerd, I pulled out some of my favorite quotes and wrote a couple more drabbles with them. Haha!

Author: Adonnen Estenniel
Rating: G
Fandom: Lord of the Rings
Word Count: 100 words each (as counted by MS Word)

--------------------

( Henry IV and Macbeth... )

Alright, so I found this community today, saw the Back to Writing challenge, and got to writing. I wrote for all fourteen prompts in one sitting, so I decided that I would post them all together, if that's all right. So here we go:




Author: Adonnen Estenniel
Rating: G
Word Count: 100 words each (as counted by MS Word)
Fandom: Lord of the Rings


( On to the drabbles... )

Title: The Fool
Word Count: 320
Rating: G
Challenge: b2wm 2010 #3
Fandom: The Hobbit
Characters: Radagast, Beorn
Summary: Radagast the Fool, they called him.

( Read more... )

Hmm, it's the 11th and I'm only prompt 2. Well, to quote A.A. Milne: "Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day."

Marching right along :-)...

Title: First Glance
Word Count: 662 + Notes
Rating: G
Challenge: b2wm 2010 #2, fanfic_100 table #01 - beginnings
Fandom: LOTR
Characters: Boromir, Theodred
Warnings: Contains theme of slash, but still very much G-rated.
Summary: How it all began - for one of them, at least.

( Read more... )

Since I’ve dumped a Crack!Fic! Challenge in your laps, I thought it might be interesting to have a discussion about crack!fic! and what makes it fun to read and write!

While crack!fic! is certainly ‘wild and crazy’, it's also (often) a form of humorous writing and is deserving of some thought. What makes a crack!fic! enjoyable for you (reading or writing)? The uninhibited humor? The “out there” absurdity? Something else? What does an enjoyable crack!fic! ‘get right’ for you?

If you’ve written crack!fic!, what were your motivations? An insane plot bunny that made you giggle and then wouldn’t leave you alone? A bit of ‘revenge’ on canon? Late night IM conversations? Do they come to you like other story ideas, or do they find you in other ways? How do you define crack!fic! (as opposed to simply parody)?

Have you ever read/written crack!fic that wasn't humorous? What genre was it and how did it work/not work for you? Do you think crack!fic can work in non-humorous genres?

Note: This is a discussion on reading/writing crack!fic, NOT a forum for complaining about how you don't like it.