silwritersguild | May. 2nd, 2015

May. 2nd, 2015

The SWG will be celebrating its tenth birthday at the end of July, and the mod team is already planning how to celebrate. In true Tolkien tradition of giving rather than receiving gifts on one's birthday, we plan to offer the opportunity for fandom participants to send birthday cards to the SWG members who make the Tolkien fandom a brighter place for them. Like paper greeting cards, the card will contain a standard image/message, and you will be able to add a customized message as well, if you choose.

This post is a call for volunteers who want to help with the birthday cards and a place to share ideas on what birthday cards you'd like to see created. There are a few ways to get involved:

Artists and photographers can grant permission for our graphics designers to use their work to create birthday cards. We are able to offer credit and/or a copyright notice on your work. You can also specify how your work can and cannot be used. If you'd like to donate use of your work to our birthday card project, please email us at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org with links to the work that you're willing to allow us to use, how you'd like to be credited, and any additional terms you are placing on the use of your work.

Graphics artists are needed to create birthday cards. If you're interested or would like to learn more, email us at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org to be added to future emails about the project.

And finally, we need ideas on what birthday cards our members would like to see. Feel free to be creative and think outside the box! In addition to cards for specific fandom roles, you might have a poem, quote, or concept that would make a great card. Comment here with your ideas, as this post will be the go-to resource for our graphics designers as they look for inspiration on what cards to create.

(Examples: "I would like to see a birthday card that I can send to the people who always leave me comments that brighten my day." "I would like to see a card using some or all of the poem Achievements by Ella Wheeler Wilcox." "I am requesting something funny, done in a comic book style, for the people who keep fandom fun and humorous.")

Please share your ideas and, of course, ask any questions you may have here!

dawn_felagund

The newsletter for May 2015 has been posted on our site:

http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/news/may2015.php

We have some SWG news to report. First, we have made some additions to our archive character list to better serve authors who include non-Tolkien characters in their stories. Until this point, authors have only had the Original Character label, which didn't serve well for stories that included characters from history, myth, and other works of fiction. Authors can continue to choose the Original Character(s) label but can now also select Historical Character(s), Legendary/Mythical Character(s), Original Female Character(s), Original Male Character(s), Other Fictional Character(s), and Real Person(s). If you are an author who uses non-Tolkien characters in your work (and most of us do!), I recommend checking out the News section to learn more about this change.

Our 10th birthday approaches, and we are are beginning to work on our first birthday project: birthday cards. We hope to offer a selection of digital greeting cards that can be sent to the SWG members you want to recognize and appreciate as making the fandom a better place. We need volunteers at this point to help make the cards, artists/photographers to allow use of their work, and ideas from our members on what cards to make so that they can brighten someone's day. There is also a post on our LJ where you can learn more and share ideas: http://silwritersguild.livejournal.com/257826.html

Finally, Oshun and I will be presenting at the New York Tolkien Conference at Baruch College on June 13. The conference is free; however, they are limited to 150 spots and are approaching that number, so if you are in the area and want to attend, make sure you register soon. Even though the conference is free, you must register in order for campus security to allow you access to the building. The newsletter and our site sidebar have all the links you'll need. And, if you're attending, please let me know so that we can arrange an SWG member meet-up!

Onto the fun stuff ... our character of the month is Beregar of Numenor. As Oshun notes, this is one of the few instances where we see a reversal of the common and irritating tendency for women in history (and Tolkien, by extension) to be known as "the mother of" or "the wife of" some important guy: Beregar is "the father of" an important woman in Numenorean history, Erendis. Although Beregar is a minor character, Oshun has applied her usual insight to take the few details we know about him to flesh out the character of Erendis and draw hints about Numenorean culture in general. It's a short read this month and well worth it.

If you're looking for something to read, we had over 50 works added or updated on the archive this month. I've been watching tantalizing summaries march across the Most Recent page all month, mired in grad school work and unable to read any, so I hope some of you will check them out and consider leaving the author a comment if you like what you read. Around the World and Web also has a selection of articles this month on Elves, oral tradition, politics in Middle-earth, fanfic, and illustrations inspired by Tolkien, as well as challenges, courses, surveys, calls for papers, and other fun stuff going on beyond our borders.

Our challenges this month continue Crime and Punishment, which ask you to write on issues of justice, crime, and punishment among the peoples of Middle-earth, and we also revisit the Circle of Life challenge, for stories that tackle the big existential issues from Tolkien on death, afterlife, and reembodiment.

Many thanks to Oshun and Rhapsody this month for their help creating the newsletter content, and thanks to co-mods Angelica, Elleth, and Russandol for their support in developing some of the ideas you see this month.

dawn_felagund

The newsletter for May 2015 has been posted on our site:

http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/news/may2015.php

We have some SWG news to report. First, we have made some additions to our archive character list to better serve authors who include non-Tolkien characters in their stories. Until this point, authors have only had the Original Character label, which didn't serve well for stories that included characters from history, myth, and other works of fiction. Authors can continue to choose the Original Character(s) label but can now also select Historical Character(s), Legendary/Mythical Character(s), Original Female Character(s), Original Male Character(s), Other Fictional Character(s), and Real Person(s). If you are an author who uses non-Tolkien characters in your work (and most of us do!), I recommend checking out the News section to learn more about this change.

Our 10th birthday approaches, and we are are beginning to work on our first birthday project: birthday cards. We hope to offer a selection of digital greeting cards that can be sent to the SWG members you want to recognize and appreciate as making the fandom a better place. We need volunteers at this point to help make the cards, artists/photographers to allow use of their work, and ideas from our members on what cards to make so that they can brighten someone's day. There is also a post on our LJ where you can learn more and share ideas: http://silwritersguild.livejournal.com/257826.html

(And here on DW: http://silwritersguild.dreamwidth.org/13161.html)

Finally, Oshun and I will be presenting at the New York Tolkien Conference at Baruch College on June 13. The conference is free; however, they are limited to 150 spots and are approaching that number, so if you are in the area and want to attend, make sure you register soon. Even though the conference is free, you must register in order for campus security to allow you access to the building. The newsletter and our site sidebar have all the links you'll need. And, if you're attending, please let me know so that we can arrange an SWG member meet-up!

Onto the fun stuff ... our character of the month is Beregar of Numenor. As Oshun notes, this is one of the few instances where we see a reversal of the common and irritating tendency for women in history (and Tolkien, by extension) to be known as "the mother of" or "the wife of" some important guy: Beregar is "the father of" an important woman in Numenorean history, Erendis. Although Beregar is a minor character, Oshun has applied her usual insight to take the few details we know about him to flesh out the character of Erendis and draw hints about Numenorean culture in general. It's a short read this month and well worth it.

If you're looking for something to read, we had over 50 works added or updated on the archive this month. I've been watching tantalizing summaries march across the Most Recent page all month, mired in grad school work and unable to read any, so I hope some of you will check them out and consider leaving the author a comment if you like what you read. Around the World and Web also has a selection of articles this month on Elves, oral tradition, politics in Middle-earth, fanfic, and illustrations inspired by Tolkien, as well as challenges, courses, surveys, calls for papers, and other fun stuff going on beyond our borders.

Our challenges this month continue Crime and Punishment, which ask you to write on issues of justice, crime, and punishment among the peoples of Middle-earth, and we also revisit the Circle of Life challenge, for stories that tackle the big existential issues from Tolkien on death, afterlife, and reembodiment.

Many thanks to Oshun and Rhapsody this month for their help creating the newsletter content, and thanks to co-mods Angelica, Elleth, and Russandol for their support in developing some of the ideas you see this month.