Newletter--May 2006

[dawn_felagund]

May's Challenges

Canon with a Twist
Have you ever wondered, what if just one thing had been done differently in the canon? Maedhros had decided to hold off on meeting Morgoth? What if Oromë had taken a different road and hadn't discovered the Elves for another five centuries? What if Haleth had taken Caranthir's offer to stay in Thargelion? What would have changed?

This challenge asks you to think about just that. Choose a single moment in Tolkien's canon and have the character make a different choice. How does history change? Or how does fate fulfill itself? The response may be any length and format--poetry, drabble, or fiction--but should ask what might have happened if one thing had changed.

If you have ideas for compelling story hooks for this challenge or know of any good examples of stories that satisfy this challenge (either your own or someone else's), please feel free to share them in a comment or in a post to the group.

Thanks to Jenni (digdigil) for this month's challenge!

The Quote of the Month Challenge
The Quote of the Month challenge asks you to write based on the themes and thoughts the quote inspires or about the event in which the quote occurred. You may write in any format--poem, story, essay, or drabble--with any characters, genre, or rating.

"Now in Mithrim there dwelt Grey-elves, folk of Beleriand that had wandered north over the mountains, and the Noldor met them with gladness, as kinsfolk long sundered; but speech ata first was not easy between them, for in their long severance the tongues of the Calaquendi in Valinor and of the Moriquendi in Beleriand had drawn far apart."
-The Silmarillion, “Of the Return of the Noldor”

Do you have a favorite quote that you think might inspire other authors as well? Let me know! I am seeking quotes for future quote challenges; please email me at DawnFelagund@comcast.net with your ideas.

Other Ongoing Challenges
At SWG, challenges never die. You are welcome to write for a challenge at any time. All of our past challenges have been tagged and may be found here or on our website.

A Call for New Challenges!
The SWG does not have a committee or person devoted to challenges: The challenges are for members to create! If you have an idea for a challenge or would like to suggest a quote for the monthly quote challenge, please do not hesitate to suggest it on-list or email me privately at DawnFelagund@comcast.net.

As always, all Silmarillion writing, including challenge responses, is welcome in our LJ community.


Welcomes and Birthdays

I would like to extend warmest welcome wishes to kaizer_ken_ichijouji, lenajade9, ceana33003, and Dean, our new members who joined the Yahoo! portion of our group in April! Welcome also to those who have joined or are following our LiveJournal.

No members with birthdays in May have signed up for stories.

Do you want to get stories for your birthday and other special occasions? Sign up on our "Give Someone a Silmaril" database, located on our Yahoo! Groups homepage or post your request to the list or the LiveJournal.


News and Announcements

The Beta-Version of Our Website Is Online!
This month, I have completed the beta-version of our website and uploaded it on free Geocities webspace. I invite you to take a look at it and share your thoughts and feedback with me.



The SWG Website!

Please do not hesitate to report troubles or offer suggestions to me. I am very new at web design and appreciate all help folks are willing to give me.

I will be adding and updating the site on the free webspace throughout the month as I have time to do so. I am currently researching PHP/SQL in preparation for setting up our archives and forums, hopefully some time this summer. I will be taking a vacation in mid-June to Puerto Rico; upon my return, I will be purchasing a domain name for our group, at which point I can introduce more features to the site without fear of exceeding my (itsy-bitsy) bandwidth allotment.

Submit Your Group or Site to Our Yellow Pages!
As discussed on the Yahoo! group, one of the features of the Reference section of our website will be the Silmarillion Yellow Pages, a listing of groups and sites that have to do with The Silmarillion and writing.

If you have a group or site that you think fits the bill for our Yellow Pages, don't be shy: sign up! Hopefully, this will one day be a good way to connect Silmarillion groups with people who might otherwise have never found--or found only with difficulty--the group or site that fits their needs. No group is too large or too small, and everything from canon resources to fiction archives to RPGs are acceptable! Guidelines for submitting a group and the necessary forms can be found on our site.

LiveJournal Posting Tutorial
Because posting to LiveJournal can be tough for the uninitiated, I have replaced our old and no-longer-pertinent FAQs with a step-by-step illustrated tutorial for how to post in the silwritersguild community. All you need to post in our community using this tutorial is a free LiveJournal account; you do not need to be a member of or have silwritersguild friended in order to post.

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Not a member? Do you want to be?
The SWG consists of two components: a Yahoo! email group, for discussions, story promotions, and planning, and a LiveJournal community for sharing our Silmarillion writing. Members are welcome to belong to both or just one, depending on what best suits their needs.

Read more about the Silmarillion Writers' Guild at our LiveJournal Community Information page.

To join our Yahoo! group:

Subscribe to SilmarillionWritersGuild
Powered by groups.yahoo.com

At any time, I encourage people--both members and non-members--to contact me with inquiries. I may be reached at DawnFelagund@comcast.net or through either the Yahoo! or LiveJournal groups.

Comments

[dawn_felagund]

My chief concern with using frames is that--as far as I know (and I am faaaaar from an expert, so if I am wrong--anyone--please chime in!) they have been or are being removed from web standards in favor of layout with CSS. (Which is how I did this site.) I can see how having the navigation and title bar stationary might be advantageous, but layout outside of layout with CSS--given the size I hope this site will eventually become--I am hesitant to use HTML-based formatting that requires changing each individual page. Yes, I am lazy! ;)

As for the actual design, I chose to make it clean and simply versus very graphics-heavy to make the site easier to navigate and also to save on bandwidth. (Because in addition to being lazy, I'm cheap too! :^P) So I don't see myself introducing a whole lot more graphics to the site, as my aim is to create a site where people can get what they need as quickly and easily as possible.

I did want to ask you: I have been strongly considering the idea of having a gallery of Silmarillion artwork once I get the site launched under our actual domain name. (Versus this Geocities thing that has me tearing my hair on a regular basis!) However, I know next to nothing about the fantasy art community, how receptive artists would be to this, et cetera. So do you think that this would be feasible? I've considered the idea of doing--in addition to showcasing the works of individual artists--character galleries and illustrated chapter summaries as well. Any thoughts on this? :)

[sirielle.livejournal.com]

I know nothing on CMS, but as far as I know they work similar way, too. At least I've seen CMS sites with stable navigation. But I may be wrong in that. I don't want to overload the site with graphics, too. I was thinking of something neat, like HASA or SOA layouts - they are not heavy.

"However, I know next to nothing about the fantasy art community, how receptive artists would be to this, et cetera."

Take a look at RotN gallery I take care of (http://www.wladca.pl/Rivendell/galeria) - all these artists agreed to display their art at RotN site. You need to have the site ready to link them back so they can see what the place is. There art has to be copyrighted, not to be altered and credited, of course. It should be esier to get permissions with English language site.
Still I've got some pending images to put on and e-mails to send. Some people didn't answer, too. I have offered before - I can contact artists again, but the SWG site must be ready first. But I don't want to send similar e-mails to artists in so short period of time. They might feel it's something strange that I ask about another gallery again. But I can give you contact info to them and you can send e-mails yourself - this will look better for you're the site owner and you're better with words, too. I can contact the artists who I chat with first, so there will be something in the gallery for the start.

"I've considered the idea of doing--in addition to showcasing the works of individual artists--character galleries and illustrated chapter summaries as well. Any thoughts on this? :)"

Great idea, especially illustrated chapters summaries :) Some illustrations would fit with stories already, just again we would have artists to agree for that.

Just a small note - some, artists may disagree with displaying their art on a site containing slash fan fiction and slash fan art. I have opposite problem - RotN site is for general audience so I can't link back to some homepages artists do have...

[dawn_felagund]

*squees* Yes! This is all great information! Thanks so much. :)

I would love to pursue this once the actual site has been established. Aside from you and a few people who do artwork and stories, I know no artists, so contacts would be wonderful, as would getting a few artists on to the idea from the beginning.

Great idea, especially illustrated chapters summaries :)

I'm leading a Sil-reading over at the Henneth-Annun list, and it always seems so helpful to present chapter summaries with illustrations. The book can be hard to get through, but sometimes seeing how artists have visualized it helps, I think.

Just a small note - some, artists may disagree with displaying their art on a site containing slash fan fiction and slash fan art. I have opposite problem - RotN site is for general audience so I can't link back to some homepages artists do have...

Ai, well, it is inevitable that certain people should turn up their noses at what others wish to do. I expected this...and that certain writers wouldn't want to join a site that "allows" slash. Likewise, if I forbade slash, certain people wouldn't hold with that. There's no way to make 'em all happy, so live and let live, I say. :) I respect a person's right to share his/her work in a comfortable place, so that's okay, though I will miss these people's contributions.

[sirielle.livejournal.com]

I don't think you should forbid slash, we'll just miss some art, that's all. For example I don't know what with the Silmarillion art, but Jenny Dolfen doesn't allow her HP art to be displayed in HP slash pages. Maybe it's because HP characters are kids, I agree with her in that context. Peer at her FAQ here (http://www.goldseven.de/), she allows max 7 pieces (making the choice is really hard...). Kasiopea limited the amount for me, too. Ouch, that was hard to choose! Especially I had to include LotR art there, not only Fëanorians ;) Others had no restrictions like that so far. Amir has got a lot of slash art which I didn't include, but I guess there would be no problem to display it in the archive :) Amir is here - amir_lj. You might want to contact Maya, too - mathia. According to John Howe's FAQ you can display his art also. More later in em-mail.

[sirielle.livejournal.com]

In Jenny's FAQ: " - to give my name (Jenny Dolfen, not GoldSeven), well visible, near the pic and link back to my Elfwood gallery." - this is old info, the link should lead to her home page www.goldseven.de I see nothing on other fandoms, just Potter vs slash info, so all is clear :)

[sirielle.livejournal.com]

"There art has to be copyrighted, not to be altered and credited, of course."

LOL ;) What a logic! Sorry. Not to be altered, but to be credited.

[dawn_felagund]

No worries! I knew what you meant. :)