Silmarillion Writers' Guild

For those of you who are participating in B2MeM this year but are not members of that community, swing on by b2mem or the B2MeM page on the SWG site; there have been two sizable releases of new BINGO cards this weekend!

With my BINGO card backlog cleared (for the moment, anyway!), I am back to working on my own cards. One I'd like to do is a Silmarillion Fanon card where the goal is to create a piece that thwarts that particular fanon. I *heart* fanon just as much as the next fanperson, but it's also cool to see an author brilliantly turn fanon on its head and smack it around a little bit. So what say you, fellow Silmfolk, to a collaborative BINGO card? What are your favorite fanons, the ones you couldn't live without? Which are the ones you can't stand? Let me know in a comment and I'll put them together into a card!

Over the past few weeks, my comods on the SWG and MPTT have been working hard to put together this year's Back to Middle-earth Month event, and we are ready to announce the event at last!

2012 is the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit, the book that introduced the world to Middle-earth and paved the way for The Lord of the Rings and, eventually, the posthumous publication of The Silmarillion, among other books. In honor of this milestone, Bilbo Baggins' uncle Bingo Baggins has decided to do what Hobbits do best: throw a party! And what else to do at such a party than play BINGO?

If you've never played BINGO, it's a straightforward game. Each player holds one or more cards containing 25 numbered squares. When a number on your card is called, you mark off that square. The first player to mark off five squares in a row (vertical, horizontal, or diagonal) wins the game. We will call a new number each day, throughout the month of March.

Of course, we've added an extra twist: Before you can mark off your number, you will have to complete a challenge. Each card will have a theme, and you can claim the cards with themes that intrigue you the most. (For example, of the cards I've created already, themes include poetic forms, the sons of Feanor, and review challenges.) You can claim as many or as few cards as you want.

B2MeM will begin in just over a month, and if it's going to be a fun challenge, then players will need a variety of cards to choose from. And this is where you can help us now. Anyone is invited to design BINGO cards for our game, so we hope many of you will challenge your fellow players by helping us to design cards!

For more information on this year's event and how to get started, please see (and join!) our shiny new b2mem community. Rules and more information for this year's event can be found here.

The SWG and MPTT--the groups hosting this year's event--also have B2MeM pages up on their site, where you can see the cards currently available, choose a participant banner, and learn more about how to get involved:

B2MeM on SWG
B2MeM on MPTT

As always, this is an event for the entire Tolkien fandom, not just members of the hosting groups. If you know other Tolkien fans or groups who might be interested in participating, please do pass the word along--all are welcome!