The June Challenge

The June Challenge will have the theme "White Tree". Stories should incorporate one of Arda's White Trees. Elements for the challenge will be a story starter.

The June challenge stories will be due the weekend of Friday, June 18, and will be revealed on Monday June 21. Please tag your story "white tree". Please remember to use the header template on the community profile page, and to put the name of your story and your name in the subject line.

To request your elements, please leave a comment to this post. If you have not participated before, please leave an email address so that I can send you your elements. Or you can email the mods at aelfwina@gmail.com or virginia_lee_redcat@yahoo.com

I hope we'll have lots of participants for our June challenge!

The May Challenge

We had eight stories posted to the May challenge; we may have some late stories added to the challenge as well. Thank you to all the authors who participated.

MPTT Anniversary

July will be the first anniversary of Many Paths to Tread, and we have some special things in mind to celebrate. Keep your eyes open for future announcements.

Shire Kitchen

 

The winner of the apron in the 2010 Shire Kitchen Recipe!Fic challenge was our own Pearl Took!

The MEFAs

 

The Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards are in full swing. Nominations are still being accepted until June 15, and nominated authors have until June 21 to fill out their information. We encourage folks to take part in these awards; they are a lot of fun, and it's a great place to find new fic!

Silmarillion Writers' Guild

The SWG shares a birthday with MPTT and will be turning five at the end of this July! We are gearing up for our birthday celebration and welcome ideas from members and friends about how we should celebrate. We'd love to hear your ideas on how to commemorate SWG's fifth birthday!

First Comment Challenge! 

Your mods have been hard at work trying to come up with a way to encourage more commenting on stories at Many Paths to Tread.

In addition to our nifty banner/icon sets, designed for us by the talented Rhapsody, for those who make the list of Top Ten Most Prolific Reviewers at the site, Dawn came up with the wonderful idea of a Commenting Challenge.

Here it is: we challenge everyone to make at least four comments over the next few weeks, through the month of February. Not just any four comments, but the following:

Something old
Something new
Something borrowed
Something true

Now you must be wondering what on earth that means!

Something old: One of the reasons, we believe, for fewer comments at MPTT is due to the fact that many of the stories are older ones which are being uploaded. You already read and commented on that story when it was new! So we challenge you to find one of your old favorites, and find something to say about it. Why is it still a favorite and why do you still enjoy it?

Something new: MPTT's membership is growing! Find a story by someone who is new to you, whose stories you have never read before. Give them a comment about one of their stories, and make a new acquaintance!

Something borrowed: Many folks are glad to rec their favorite stories! We'd like you to check out a story that was recced to you by someone-- whether in an official "rec" list, or just a story a friend has excitedly told you was good! Or perhaps you see a review by someone else at the archive, or saw a MEFA review that looked interesting.

Something true: Er, wait a minute, isn't that supposed to be "something blue"? No, not this time. In this case, "something true" means-- non-fiction! We have some non-fiction essays at the site; not as many as we'd like, and if you've already written any essays, we hope you'll take the time to get them posted between now and the time this comment challenge kicks in at the beginning of February. We know that in April we will be having a Non-fiction Challenge, so we are hoping to get up interest in this category among our readers ahead of time!

Now this does not mean you should stop commenting on new stories as they are posted, or only comment on stories that fit these guidelines-- but we'd like as many of you as can to do this in addition to your other comments.

When you've completed the challenge, post at the group, or reply to this post, telling which story you reviewed in each category. All those who participate in this challenge will get a nice banner/icon set that says: MPTT Comment Challenge #1.

We also have great ideas for future Comment Challenges, and other ideas that might inspire you to let your "voice" be heard whenever you read a story you like at the archive! We'd like to do these challenges about three or four times a year.

We hope many of you will find this challenge interesting-- but if you feel inclined, don't just stop at four!

Your mods,

Cathleen
Dreamflower
Pearl Took
Dawn Felagund

January 2010 Potluck Challenge

Since December is a very busy month for most of us, what with RL holiday obligations, and the many fic exchanges that take place (including the GFIC Yule Exchange), we are not having a December Challenge. Instead, we are giving you a head-start on January's Challenge!

Once again we are having Potluck for the New Year! Behind the cut are the themes and unclaimed elements for ten months of 2009. (January and December are not included, as January is always "potluck" and December is always the Exchange). If you would like to participate in the January Challenge, look through the elements posted, and choose one. Comment to   THIS POST  with the number of the prompt you have chosen, and I will strike it from the list. For June and July, you do not need to choose a prompt-- just follow the instructions for that month. This is your chance to take part in a challenge you missed. Also, if you claimed a prompt for any month last year and did not finish your story in time, you may enter that instead.  (Please comment at the post linked on LiveJournal, and NOT to this email post, as that way you will be able to see which prompts have already been claimed.)

Stories will be due the weekend of January 15th, and will be revealed on Monday January 17th. Please remember to put your story title and your name on the subject line, and to use the header provided on the community profile page. Tag your story "010 january potluck challenge".We look forward to seeing your stories!

Just in time for Christmas!

 Just in time for you to add to your Christmas wish list-- Dawn's designed a lovely logo, and we have MPTT T-shirts, mugs, mousepads and so forth for those who'd like to show off their affiliation with the archive!

Reminder:

To those participating in the LOTR_GFIC_Community's Yule Fic Exchange, remember that stories are due by December 14.  If you are going to be a bit late, please contact the mods.  Also, if you do not think you can finish your story at all, please contact us ASAP, so that we can line up a pinch hitter!

News from Other Groups

Archives of Excellence   One of our members WendWriter, has a multi-fandom archive, Archives of Excellence, where several of our authors have stories posted. The Archive is currently running an Awards poll, the Golden Quill Awards, for the best of stories in several genres and fandoms. Voting is open until December 12.

 Silmarillion Writers Guild  

Current challenge: Lost Letters
Your character is going through paperwork, an old trunk, or the dusty shelves in an forgotten part of the library when she or he discovers a letter from someone no longer present. What does the letter say? What does your character do (or not do) as a result of it    Back to Middle-earth Month 2010
This year's B2MeM event will be a team challenge in the form of a quest game. We are looking for volunteers who would like to help us plan and run the game, as well as looking for other Tolkien-related groups that would like to get involved. Please note that you do not need to be an SWG member in order to volunteer, and the event will welcome all Tolkien-related fiction and artwork, not just work that focuses on The Silmarillion. Please contact us for more information on how to volunteer or get your group involved.

SWG December 2009 Newsletter
All the news from in and around the SWG--plus new columns and comics--can be found in our newsletter!  

 The Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards

The 2009 MEFAwards (Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards) have only one month to go!  A number of our members are participants in the MEFAs, and many of them also have stories that have been nominated. It's not too late to join and add your own reviews! Here is a link to a post with all the information you will need: On MEFA membership. Voting closes on December 31, so you may well want to redouble your efforts to read and review!

From Teitho  

 Teitho  is an LOTR challenge site, offering monthly challenges on various themes. December is almost there and that means christmas is coming. This is the season when we spend more time with our families and friends and when we take a special joy in finding gifts for our loved ones. And surely, our heroes like gifts as well, therefore the theme for December is Giving Gifts, Receiving Gifts.

On which occasion would you get gifts in the different societies in Middle Earth? For your birthday? For solstice? Are there other special occasions? And what could you give the King of Gondor or Arnor? What present should you get an elf who has everything for his begetting day? Must a gift always be tangible? Besides the obvious book, swords or candlestick - what else could be considered a gift? What about love, friendship, loyalty, trust?

Choose this theme to explore different cultures and the contexts in which the give and receive gifts. Or choose this theme to write about families and friends!

You have one month to write a story for this challenge. The deadline is December 27th, by this date you should have sent your story to teitho.contest@gmail.com if you want to participate.

 News From Other Groups Welcome!

If you know of other writing groups in the LOTR fandom which have news or challenges, please send the information to the mods for inclusion on this page!

GeoCities Websites Now Closed

With the closing of GeoCities, many of the URLs to some of our favorite sites are no longer valid. This includes some sites on our Resource Page! If you should happen to know if any of those sites have been relocated, or of suitable substitutes for those sites, please let the mods know!