[Rhapsody]

Voting for the Middle-earth Fanfiction Awards is well underway, but it is not too late to start. Voting is open through November 20. Write a review for your favourite nominated story or author; the longer the review, the more points you give to that story or author. You can vote for as many or as few as you like, and the competition can be quite close so every vote really could make a difference.

In order to vote you will need to either be a nominated author or a member of the [MEFAwards] Yahoo group. If you are not yet a member you can join by clicking the blue button in the top of the page at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MEFAwards/. If you do not have a Yahoo account please contact mefasupport(at)gmail(dot)com and I will help you get signed up.

If you have previously logged in to either http://gabrielle.sytes.net/MEFA2005/ or http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2006/ but have forgotten your password please email mefasupport(at)gmail(dot)com.

Now, for some quick announcements of interest to MEFA voters and authors. Remember, these dates are based on GMT.

If you are the author of a work-in-progress competing in the MEFAs, please remember to contact mefasupport(at)gmail(dot)com if it is completed before the end of voting on November 20. For a list of the nominations we have listed as works-in-progress as of 8/12 please see

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MEFAwards/message/7360

(Some of these authors have already contacted us regarding their WIP.)

Reviewers, please take note that if you have labelled one or more of your reviews as "final", you will be unable to edit it yourself beginning September 1. If you think you will want to edit your review please change it to "draft" or "hidden" before then. For more information please see

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MEFAwards/message/7364

The MEFAs recognizes both stories and authors. The process for reviewing authors is similar to that for reading stories, but it is one that many people struggle with. I have posted an explanation of author reviews at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MEFAwards/message/7368

And last but certainly not least, we are discussing how to improve our nomination form at our [mefa-discussion] Yahoo group. If you are not a member and would like to participate, please join by clicking the blue button in the top-right corner of

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mefa-discussion/

The discussion of the first part of our nomination form begins at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mefa-discussion/message/92

and I would appreciate any and all suggestions that people have.

If you have any questions or need help participating in the award, please do not hesitate to post at our [Mefawards] Yahoo group or by emailing me at mefasupport(at)gmail(dot)com .

At your service (and your family's),
Marta

[Rhapsody]

At this very moment, all participating readers and reviewers of the MEFA's are writing the gifts every author will receive in November: reviews. But for the award winners we do need many banners to hand out at the end of this year's MEFA's.

So far, we have received lovely banners made by Thevina Finduilas, Nienor Niniel, and myself. But we are still looking for more banners in the following categories, which are:

Times: First Age and Earlier, Early Third Age, Late Third Age, The Great Years, The Fourth Age and Beyond and Multi-Age

Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe, Drama, Humour, Nonfiction and Romance

Races: Cross-cultural, Dwarves, Elves, Hobbits, Men and Villains

Now you might think, I'd like to make a banner. What do I need to know? You can read all about it here in the FAQ:
http://www.mefawards.net/faq/viewtopic.php?t=72

There is no need to sign up for the fanart section of the MEFA awards, all banners can be sent to the following address: banners@mefawards.net .

You should receive an email when the banner is received by the fanart admin. If you have not heard from us in a week, please email us to make sure everything is okay. The fanart admin will take care of placing the banner at right spot on the site, giving it the correct title and filling out the details. If you do have additional questions, your fanart admin Rhapsody will gladly answer them.

But before that, if you have more questions regarding which images to use and such, please read the FAQ first: http://www.mefawards.net/faq/viewforum.php?f=7

We hope before the 20th of November to have a banner or banners for every category. Between the 21st and 24th of November 2006 members of the MEFA community can vote for the banners at the MEFA-awards site and not through the yahoo groups as it happened the previous years. But we will notify all participants in time.