B2MeM09: Day Thirty-One

[dawn_felagund]

Day Thirty-One

As a citizen of Middle-earth, one day you wake up with a choice: yesterday or tomorrow. Which would you pick and why?

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Well, today is the last day of B2MeM for this year! I want to thank again rhapsody11, heartofoshun, and angelica_ramses, whose prompt-creating and icon-making skills are the reason that we could have this challenge this month.

But I also want to thank everyone who has taken the time to write, draw, create, or read and review B2MeM entries this year. You all are the reason that B2MeM has been such an enormous success this year! I thank you for sharing your talents with us this month--I have so enjoyed (and am still enjoying, because I have not caught up on all of them yet!) the entries for the challenge this month.

But, while today is the last day of March and, therefore, the last official day for B2MeM, please remember that you can continue sending your links, and I will continue posting them. If you're aiming for all thirty-one prompts, please try to finish by mid-April just so that we can get the banners out, but if you liked the prompts and want to work with them at a later date, they will remain on the SWG site indefinitely, so have fun! :)

I will be sending emails as people reach the thirty-one mark. If you do not hear from me (or one of the SWG co-moderators) within a few days of sending your thirty-first entry, please drop me a line. I've handled about 300 links so far this month and so am sure that I've made some mistakes. And spam filters can be malicious too. :) I and my co-mods are always reachable through the SWG site at moderator AT silmarillionwritersguild DOT org, or you can contact me privately at DawnFelagund AT gmail DOT com.

Also, please remember that work does not have to be posted publicly to count. We do not want to penalize people who want to have work beta-read before publicly posting it or who just don't feel comfortable sharing. Just send us an email letting us know that you created an entry for that day (no, you do not have to send us what you did!), and we'll give you credit for that day.

Finally, one last time for the daily reminders for links: Now all thirty-one prompts and links to the entries written so far can be found here. (Forgive me, I did not get the list updated today! I will do so tomorrow!) And banners and icons for participants can be found here.

Thank you again for keeping the dream alive for another year! :) May the muses smile upon you!

Comments

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to say thank you for running this wonderful challenge.I've had great fun taking part,writing,reading and making new friends too, and hope you will run it again in future.

I've been amazed at some of the directions my Muses took me in!

I do hope to try for 31 prompts,but I've been offline for a week.I'm crossing my fingers that the Muses will give me something by mid April.

[f-ireworks.livejournal.com]

*pets Linda's muses to coerce them to work* I hope you'll be able to write all 31. I'm looking forward to being done so I can sit back and read all the entries ;-) It's been an awesome month!

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Another idea is brewing in my head,so fingers crossed!It has indeed been an amazing month!

[whitewave16.livejournal.com]

Go Linda!!! Shakes my pompoms.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Another idea is stirring,so keep shaking the pompoms,please that it will work!

[dawn_felagund]

I'm crossing my fingers too! :) I have really enjoyed your drabbles (and longer pieces) this month!

And I hope that I can speak for all of us who put this together in thanking you for your kind words. :) I'm not sure what we'll be doing next year ... but it will be something, and I already have ideas! ;)

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

That is great news! I will look forward to next time and stick with this Group! i've just sent another prompt to my beta reader and am counting how many more I need to write.

[dawn_felagund]

If it's any help in figuring out what's left, I have the website updated with everything that I've received except for yesterday and today. I don't recall that you had any links in yesterday's batch, but it was late when I looked them over, so I could be wrong in that. :) I don't feel like you have a lot left to do; you're certainly well ahead of me! I haven't even started Day 10! :D

Here's the link:

http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/b2mem2009.php

Best of luck to you! :)

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Does the fact I wrote a story featuring both prompts on Day 9, count as two?

I have 25 on my LJ + 1 Raksha is reading for me = 26 .Then if day 9 counts as 2,that makes 27.

I've an idea combining 2 that I'm currently working on which would only leave 3 more if my figures are correct!

Good luck with yours !

[dawn_felagund]

Yes, if you write for both Mercurial Monday prompts on any given day, then the second one can count in place of any other prompt during the challenge. It acts as a sort of wildcard. :)

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

That is very helpful. My story for Day9 was about both a good and a bad person.It was meant to be just about a good one,but a friend's suggestion and the Muses sort of took over!

In a Handful of Dust - Dwim

[(Anonymous)]

Yesterday, says the rage that would not spare a drop of treelight for a new day.

Yesterday, sings the sevenfold castrati chorus, that each day, for an Age, cuts a little more of life's weave down to one fatal thread.

Yesterday, recalls the miserable Night, that would swallow its own tail so as not to be born.

Yesterday, dream retentive elven hands that cast their Rings.

Yesterday, claims pride in its poverty, that has but torch and dagger left to give.

Tomorrow, demands love that heeds no loveless limit, not even death.

Tomorrow, trusts faith, and shakes diamonds from the soles of its shoes.

Tomorrow, prays repentance, and gladdens killing fields with a princely gift.

Tomorrow, vows loyalty that dares a door and dies raising a dawn.

Tomorrow, cries pity providential, for Shire and its Shadow, and all the world's creatures, who know not what they do...

Re: In a Handful of Dust - Dwim

[f-ireworks.livejournal.com]

Dwim, this was truly masterful. I have read it a few times already, and every time I read it, I glean more. It encapsullates perfectly the Fellowship's quest, the odds at stake, the sacrifices, and what became possible because of it all. Wonderful piece!

Re: In a Handful of Dust - Dwim

[dawn_felagund]

This is just beautiful. I keep rereading it, and I come away with different ideas on the different lines each time. (And, again, the poesy of it is incredible--I feel like this was an apt introduction to April, which is (Inter)national Poetry Month! :)

Re: In a Handful of Dust - Dwim

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Ledys and Dawn,

I'm really glad you enjoyed "In a Handful of Dust." I tried to get the scope of M-e jammed in there - some First Age, some Third Age, a spotty Second Age reference...

I didn't intend to write something that would fit International Poetry Month, but given that the title is straight out of Eliot, it's not wholly out of place!

Thanks for your comments, both of you!

Dwim

[binkaslibrary.livejournal.com]

Congrats and thanks to all involved and participating in this year's project :D

[dawn_felagund]

I can only echo this! :D A friend of mine who organizes events for the SCA wrote the other day that she could have the best staff in the world and the best planning ... and it matters not one bit if no one shows up to play. This is so true, and I think that I speak for all of us who had a hand in organizing this that we are so grateful for the incredible turn-out for this year's B2MeM! Thank you! :)

[whitewave16.livejournal.com]

I'll be posting the other prompts (about 4 to go) I owe you within this week. I'm so glad I joined this activity though I admit, my initial motivation was the shiny at the end of the tunnel. (My Feanorian muses have influenced me a lot on the "shiny fixation". ;-)

[f-ireworks.livejournal.com]

I have to go back and see all the ones I've missed, and I'll be looking forward to the new ones :-)

[whitewave16.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Hope you like them.

[dawn_felagund]

I'm glad that you did too! Your entries always brightened my day and were certainly among the most innovative ... and definitely the most fun! :D

And I'll be in touch very soon about those shinies ... ;) Feanorian ...

[whitewave16.livejournal.com]

Thanks Dawn. I forgot to mail your postcards again...I'll do it after Easter because next week, everything is at a stand-still here because of the Lenten season.

[f-ireworks.livejournal.com]

Here's my fic for
today's prompt

http://f-ireworks.livejournal.com/47466.html

I jusr wanted to thank all of you involved in making this month possible and those of you who have participated with so much of time and talents. Thank you! You do not know how much you have enriched me. Again, a heartfelt 'thanks'!

[dawn_felagund]

Wow, this is just beautiful! The first half is really intense, the second almost ... breathless. It's late and hard to find a word, but it certainly evokes, for me, the feeling of time spinning on and on. And that last line ... *stupid grin* I love it! :D

And I think I can speak for all who had a hand in this year's B2MeM in saying that you're most welcome and that it really was our pleasure. :) I know that I looked forward to reading the stories every day ... and I have a lot of catching up yet to do in April! :)

[a-wayfarer.livejournal.com]

This month really went by on burning wings, and even though I barely participated (*slaps wrist*) I'd just like to put out an enormous THANK YOU for going through with this project! ♥ Everyone who made it possible, you guys absolutely *rock*. I'm looking forward for a long space of free time in which to peruse all the wonderful prompt entries~ And major kudos to the people who managed to keep up with it all!

[dawn_felagund]

I have to agree with respect to those who managed all 31 prompts ... poor Pengolodh is still stuck back in Day Ten! ;) He'll catch up, eventually. :)

I think I'm safe in speaking for all of us that you're most welcome; the joy was certainly mutual! It was an amazing and really fun month! I'm still awed at the creativity and talent that lies in this group of people. I was picking my jaw up off the floor quite often at the stories and art people came up with, sometimes in less than a day. It really was an incredible experience.

And you know, those prompts will be up on the site forever ... ;)

[whitewave16.livejournal.com]

Yey! I'm done!

http://whitewave16.livejournal.com/34476.html

[dawn_felagund]

Huzzah! :D

I think what makes these so great is the little details: the "Let's hunt some orc!" and the continuous death tallies; Mahtan's beard; Celegorm's enthusiasm for killing and Caranthir's miserliness. I laughed out loud ... quietly, because it's late, and I did not want to wake Teh Husband. :^))))

[telperion-fic.livejournal.com]

Here you go. :-)

http://telperion-fic.livejournal.com/58714.html

[dawn_felagund]

This is excellent; I like how you've looked at both yesterday and tomorrow! (Extra kudos! ;) But that last line is just perfect, so haunting. I sometimes feel like the best drabbles end with amazing last lines, and this fits the bill!

[independence1776]

My thanks go out to all who worked behind the scenes to make B2MeM such a success!

Here's my final prompt: http://indy1776.livejournal.com/11889.html

[dawn_felagund]

Oh, you've given him some hope! Yay! This is just lovely, Indy. :)

And I think I speak for all of us behind that scenes that you are most welcome. :) It was a great month!

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

I've written a trio of drabbles in response to this prompt

http://lindahoyland.livejournal.com/146479.html

[lanyon.livejournal.com]

and i'm done! number 31 was always going to be glorfindel and ecthelion: smile (http://community.livejournal.com/100_indecisions/20769.html)

[dawn_felagund]

Yay! Congratulations! *confetti and such*

This is lovely; a simple scene, but the style is just gorgeous. I have so enjoyed your drabbles for this project--thanks so much! :)