[KhazarKhum]

Yes, folks, it's that time again! Come join the forum and help us in any way you can.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LotR-FF-awards/

We are looking for ideas, help, input, help, judges and--yes--help.

Khazar

[Viv]

I just wanted to chime in here. I joined up, and it's kind of fun to actually be part of the process this time. Sort of de-mystifies the whole shibang.

[KhazarKhum]

Hello all!


Wanted: keen, critical, enthusiastic lovers of Tolkien
fanfiction.

Nominations will open in April for the second year of
the Mithril Awards for Tolkien Fanfiction.

We ran these awards for the first time in 2003 and
they proved a huge success, attracting nearly 600
nominations over more than twenty categories. This
year, we hope to better that, but we need your help.
We are looking for volunteers to screen and judge this
year's Awards.

Screeners will help in narrowing down the public
nominations into shorter lists of semi-finalists and
finalists. You need to be a quick and accurate reader
with excellent English skills, and preferably with
broad knowledge of Tolkien's works. The screening
process will take place in mid-April and early May.

Judges will be expected to read and evaluate between
five and eight pieces of fiction, poetry or critical
writing in one or two categories. Please bear in mind
these could range from poems and vignettes to
novel-length stories. An ideal judge will have very
good English skills as well as excellent knowledge of
one or more of Tolkien's works - we particularly need
judges who specialise in "The Silmarillion" and "The
Hobbit". You should be able to put aside personal
preferences to criticise works on their own merits.
Being a fanfiction author or beta reader is an
advantage but not a necessity.

Judges will not be allowed to have works entered for
consideration in the categories they are judging, but
can enter the Awards in other categories. Judging will
take place in late May and early June.

If you are interested in being either a screener or a
judge for the Mithril Awards, please write to
mithrilawards@yahoo.com with the following
information:
- a brief summary of your experiences in the realms of
Tolkien and fanfiction;
- any other skills that might make you a good judge;
- what genre of Tolkien fanfiction you prefer;
- whether or not you are happy reading slash or het
(including adult-rated works);
- whether or not you are an adult.

The closing date for applications is February 28 2004.
Judges will be selected and assigned to categories
during March.

We look forward to hearing from you!

The Awards Committee: Eledhwen, Janet Elizabeth,
Khazar and Tavia.

[The Mithril Awards honour excellence in fiction,
poetry and critical essays relating to the Lord of the
Rings, the Silmarillion, the Hobbit, and other works
by JRR Tolkien. All material freely available on the
web and published between April 2003 and April 2004
will be eligible, regardless of rating, genre, subject
matter, category and source (book or movies), with the
exception of actor fics/RPS. Nominations for the
second awards will open in early April 2004.
The Mithril Awards are independent of any fiction
archive, list or online community, although we welcome
affiliation with other Tolkien sites to promote the
awards.

Please visit our website at:
http://www.viragene.com/tolkien
If you have any questions, visit our Live Journal:
http://www.livejournal.com/community/mithrilawards/ or
email mithrilawards@yahoo.com.
Awards announcements will be posted to
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mithril_awards.]

[KhazarKhum]

Everyone

It's just about That Time.

The Mithril Awards will open for nominations in early April.

If you expressed an interest in judging, take heart. The Judge Admin had to go out of town for a few days, but the assignments are done. When she returns she will email everyone, and let them know what their tasks are.

If you are selected as a judge or a screener, you may not nominate or enter anything in the category you have been assigned. Period.

If you plan on entering, there are ways to help your story. Nothing illegal, immoral or fattening here--just some common-sense tips to avoid the Lever of Doom. ™

1. Spellcheck your story. Please.

2. Have someone you trust beta it again. Get all the grammatical errors out.

3. Format it in a nice, user-friendly manner. Ie, easy-to-read font, no bizarre color combinations, regular paragraph breaks, URLs that work, and so on.

4. Your story must be finished. No WIPs. At all.

These are all easy, simple rules, an amazing number of which were not followed last year. Horrific spelling and grammatical errors will eliminate a story immediately. Last year there were some stories that were wonderful reads, but were so badly written that they could not be considered. Don't let that happen to you.

Give your stories a quick check-up, and submit away. We want to see your work!

On behalf of the Admin staff,

Khazar

[Andreth]

And if you don't follow all these suggestions, Khazar will send the Witch-King to your house for some personal instruction. But, then again...if it's Khazar's Witch-king that might actually be a good thing.

[KhazarKhum]

Probably not...he's monogamous.

[BittenBuggy]

Where's the fun in that?

[boz4PM]

Do authors wait to be invited to submit a fic? Do other people (readers) nominate a fic to be considered? Or does anyone who wants to just send in their work?

Apologies if these are daft questions, but I am new to all this.

[Viv]

Thanks for the update, Khazar!

[KhazarKhum]

Submitting is easy.

You can submit your own work or someone else's. We've adjusted the categories this year--there are now 25 for you to enter.

All you must do is pick the category, submit the name, author, and URL of the story, and you are done.

However--you can only nominate one story per category.

It doesn't matter if a story gets 1 nomination, or 78, 963. The number of nominations has nothing to do with how the story will be judged. There will be a Voter's Choice where the public can vote for favorites in certain categories.

Remember--basic quality & neatness count. Loads of spelling and grammatical errors will pretty much knock a story out of contention.

[Andreth]

Hey Khazar,

Will we know which categories each judge is assigned to before the nominations start? Is it still going to be set up that you can't judge a category that you've nominated a story for? I've got a few stories of other people's that I'd like to nominate but wasn't sure how that would work if I ended up being a judge, and I've been shamefully lax recently about reading the posts from the awards group.

[KhazarKhum]

The judges will know in advance what they have been assigned.

And no, you may not nominate a story in a category you are judging. Nor may a story of your own be entered in any category you are judging.


There hasn't been much talk lately--we're all getting ready mentally, I think!

[KhazarKhum]

Hello All

Due to Technical Difficulties, we've been forced to move the open nominations date back a bit. 2 of our 4 admin computers died, taking with them the main nominations database & the judges' database.



It will be a few days before we will be open, so take the extra time to get the list of stories you want to nominate ready.

[Culaelin]

Do you send a nomination to mithrilawards@yahoo.com?

[Zimraphel]

Oh dear! You mean the date's been moved back from April 8? My stomach's already in knots over seeing who the finalists will be, I can't stand this waiting!