10th Birthday Celebration

Happy 10th Birthday, SWG!

It is our 10th birthday, and we are pleased to announce a few gifts we've put together in true Tolkienian style for the fandom!

Send a Birthday Card!

Much of fandom is collective and collaborative. Whether working with a beta or coauthor, commenting on the work of a favorite author or artist, or collaborating to run fandom websites or events, few of us act alone in the fannish sphere. Our birthday card project is a way, during the month of our 10th birthday, to show your appreciation for the people who make your fannish experience enjoyable. Choose from over 100 beautiful digital cards to send to the SWG member of your choice with a customized message. We are compiling albums of cards that we will send to recipients on August 1.

Silmfic Prompt Generator

Have you ever been in the mood to write, but you're not sure what to work on? Are you an author or artist who delights in challenges or swaps to push your boundaries? Do you want to try something new but aren't quite sure what?

The moderators of the SWG have collaborated to create a random Silmfic prompt generator. Containing ten different categories--one for each year of the group's existence--the generator allows you to roll one or roll them all. (Trust us: rolling them all gets pretty wild pretty fast!) You can reroll as many times as you would like, so if you get one of our scarily obscure options (and they are in there!) or an impossible combination, you can keep rolling until you produce a combination that screams, "WRITE ME!!"

Writing Contest and Prize Drawing

Now we can hardly unveil this new gizmo without encouraging people to use it. During the month of July, we encourage our members to play with the prompt generator and create fanworks based on it. On August 16, we will be holding a drawing for anyone who participates to win some Silmarillion-themed prizes.

10th Birthday Prize Drawing Rules

1. All stories written using the Silmfic prompt generator between July 1 and August 15, 2015, are eligible for the drawing.
2. In order to be eligible, stories created for the contest must
   • be posted to the SWG archive at silmarillionwritersguild.org. Stories posted to our LiveJournal, Dreamwidth, Yahoo! or Tumblr groups are not eligible.
   • select 10th Birthday Celebration Contest from the Challenges list. Please note that there is also a 10th Birthday Celebration NO CONTEST option for those who wish to write using the generator in honor of our birthday but don't want to be entered in the drawing; make sure you select the correct challenge.
   • list the prompts you used to create the story in the Story Notes or Chapter Notes.
3. You can roll for just one category or all ten. You can reroll in a category if you want to, so if you end up with an impossible prompt or something you're just not comfortable writing, feel free to try again. And again and again. (Seriously, we have no idea if and how many times you reroll! Have fun with it!)
4. Each story posted will result in one entry into the drawing. (So if you post five stories, you will have five entries into the drawing.)
5. Each participant is eligible to win only once.
6. If you win, you must be willing to provide a mailing address for us to send your prize to you.
7. If you post an entry as part of an existing collection, please make sure to select 10th Birthday Celebration Contest from the challenges list and identify the prompts you used in the chapter notes for the piece or pieces that you are entering. This is how our mods will know from the table of contents of your collection which pieces in the collection are being entered, so it is important to place the prompts in the correct location.
8. You can add a chapter to an existing work-in-progress using the prompt generator. Again, make sure to select the correct challenge and include your prompts in the chapter notes for the chapter(s) you are entering.
9. The contest begins July 1 and ends on August 15 at midnight Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). We will draw winners on August 16. Winners will be notified at the email address they have listed on the SWG archive, so please make sure this is correct if you are participating. If we do not hear back within a week, we will re-draw a new winner. If you expect to be offline during the week after the drawing, please let us know ahead of time so that we do not give away your prize if you win and cannot respond within a week.

Prizes

There are three prizes as follows:

• A book set, including a 1st edition copy of The Silmarillion, Perilous and Fair: Women in the Works and Life of J. R. R. Tolkien (essay collection, edited by Janet Brennan Croft), and The Road to Middle-earth by Tom Shippey.
• Your choice of a print by Tolkien fan artist and professional illustrator Jenny Dolfen, signed by the artist.
• A vintage, hard-to-find jigsaw puzzle (500 pieces) featuring an illustration from Tolkien's Father Christmas Letters.

Artwork and banner by Lyra and used with permission.

This challenge opened in July 2015 .