*Fan Fiction Information and Recommendations*

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Originally Posted by Mnemosyne

The 2010 Middle-earth Fan Fiction Awards are underway.

It's a fandom-run competition in which readers can "vote" for their favorite stories by leaving reviews (a longer review is worth more points), and contains some of the best fan fiction written in the past year--or previously.

I am posting this information here because I am trying to nominate exceptional examples of 'Downer fic. I've already made a few nominations, but if anyone has any other suggestions I am open (or they can join the awards and nominate them themselves!).

Additionally, should people be scrolling through the site, bored and in need of something to read, you are guaranteed to find at least one piece that you like on the archives (that's a very poor recommendation, because it's so vague, but it will have to suffice for now).

The website may be found here. I compete and review under the name "Celeritas".

Sincerely yours,
Mnemosyne

I'd like to remind all Downers that voting in this competition ends on December 15 - you still have almost two weeks to read, review and vote for your favourite stories! Hopefully, of course, they're by a fellow Barrow-Downer...

[Mnemosyne]

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

I'd like to remind all Downers that voting in this competition ends on December 15 - you still have almost two weeks to read, review and vote for your favourite stories!

I'd like to reiterate Esty here, and add that I've been really impressed with the number of reviews the 'Downer fics have gotten, considering that so few of the reviewers have heard of them. Since my real intent in nominating them was to try to open a lot of the fandom's eyes to fan fiction that they hadn't encountered before, I consider that a rousing success.

I'm planning on starting my reviews this weekend, so watch out!

[Mithadan]

Mnemosyne, thank you for nominating some of my stories. I am honored.

I would like to point out that some of our writers are listed under names other than their nicknames on the Barrowdowns.

Mnemosyne writes as Celeritas.

mark12_30 writes as Daffodil Furrow.

Ibrîniðilpathânezel writes as MJ.

Are any other Downers nominated other than we 4?

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Morthoron is nominated, under the same name.

[Mnemosyne]

And just to complete the set, Estelyn Telcontar and Mithadan are both competing under their Barrow-Downs names. That's it, as far as I'm aware--unless there's anyone here who has a secret fan-fic-writing alter ego that they don't want anyone to know about!

The MEFA website may be found here, if anyone who hasn't already done so is interested in checking the awards out. I encourage everyone who has an interest in this aspect of exploring Tolkien's creation to browse the whole site and leave some reviews for whatever fics they encounter that they enjoyed: there's an easy-to-use search function so that you can pick stories with those characters, settings, and points in time that they're most interested in. And with 600 stories running you're sure to find something that suits your fancy! So I encourage everyone to check out the whole website and not just those tales written by members of our august forum, because you don't know what you're missing!

[narfforc]

Esty I am going to attempt to put some of my story on the site you mention, however I am not very good with Tekromancy, so if I'm stuck canst thou helpeth me.

[Mnemosyne]

The full results for the MEFAs are in (voting ended on the 15th) and I thought I'd place up here, for all to see, how those 'Downers who competed this year did:

mark12_30's The Fairy Wife took second place in Drama: Aragorn or Hobbits.

Estelyn Telcontar's "To Everything... Time" took second place in Drama: Incomplete.

Morthoron's Monty Python's 'Fellowship of the Ring' received an Honorable Mention in Humor: Parody or Black Humor.

Ibrinidhilpathanezel's novel I Entulesse took third place in Longer Works: General, and her short story "The Awakening" took second place in Ring War: General.

My short stories "To Absent Friends," "Slipped Under the Door of the Master Bedroom, September 25, 1444," and "Undue Patience" each took first place in their respective categories: Hobbits: Family, Character Study: Vignettes, and Humor: Eriador or the Shire. "Sharing Sam" received second place in Hobbits: Post-Quest, and "One Breath of Air" received an honorable mention in Other Beings: General.

For those unfamiliar with the MEFA system, stories each compete in sub-categories, under larger category heads (which are usually genres, times, races, etc.). Categories contain 6-11 stories, and the mods usually try to make the categories as small as possible so that only 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place are given out. Stories in categories larger than 6 receive honorable mentions if they placed in the top half of their category.

If anyone's more interested, the full list of results can be found here.

Given that most of these fics were written by authors that a majority of reviewers had never heard of, I'm really impressed with the results (though I was a tad disappointed that Mithadan's stuff didn't place at all. I mean, AElfwine!).

Please join me in offering congratulations to everyone that competed, and I hope you all had fun. I already know of at least one Downer fic that I had forgotten about during nomination season that I'll try to nominate next year, and I'll probably go digging sometime next month for others!