Hey guys,

Here is your weekly admin post – this week focusing on stories that are either alternate universe or crossovers. Whether you particularly like these stories or just find yourself in a general mood for them on some given day, I hope this list helps you find stories you'd like to review.

( Read more... )

Want to re-live Elijah's journey to become Frodo? not_alone has posted the next part of her marvelous pictorial, here:

Part 17: "Tears on Mount Doom"
http://not-alone.livejournal.com/81191.html

Title: Welcome Home
Characters: Merry, Pippin
Rating: PG
Warnings: Slash (just hugging) and fluff.
Medium: Watercolor markers, colored pencils, ball-point pen.

( view )

Seen on several friends' LJs,slightly altered

1) Bake cupcakes for: No-one unless I wanted to poison them as I'm such a bad cook!

2) Trust with the keys to my house: Aragorn, Faramir,Arwen or Eowyn

3) Put thumbtacks on their chair: Denethor to cure him of using the palantir

4) Have a crush on: Aragorn

5) Pack up and leave if they moved next door: Gollum or Orcs

6) Vote for President: Aragorn

7) Pick as my partner in a buddy movie: Aragorn and Arwen

8) Pair up: Aragorn and Arwen, Faramir and Eowyn

9) Vote off the island and into the volcano: Sauraman

10) Wheedle into fixing my Computer: Faramir

Volume 48/Issue 3

Circulation: Seven-hundred and ninety-one. Welcome all!

Note from the Mods: Please encourage friends on your friends list to join and send their news. If you have an announcement you would like to make, a fic you'd like to promote, a question you'd like to ask, we invite you to simply format it according to the rules on the info page and email it to middle_earth_news@yahoo.com. You do not have to be a member to post but we are an open community and encourage everyone to join now. Only the mods may initiate new posts but comments are encouraged.

MEDIA NEWS:

From TORn:
Tolkien Flashback - July 27 - Aug 2
Ringer Diedye has posted another wonderful FLASHBACK in our forum detailing the events that took place in the Tolkien universe between July 27th and August 2nd. This is a weekly feature that Diedye posts in the forum, so if there is ever a time we don’t post it on the homepage of TORn, make sure to check the Main board in our forums. Click on the link below to transported in time!
Read the rest of this entry »

Pauline Baynes article at Guardian.co.uk
Thanks to Ringer Diedye for the heads up on this article in The Guardian:
It was by chance, in 1948, that samples from the portfolio of the designer and illustrator Pauline Baynes, who has died aged 85, came to the attention of JRR Tolkien. At that time Tolkien was famous for just one book, his children’s novel, The Hobbit, which had been published to great acclaim 11 years earlier. The medieval style of some of Baynes’s drawings were ideally suited for Tolkien’s Farmer Giles of Ham, which he had also written before the second war, but which was only to be published in 1949. Baynes produced pen and ink drawings and three coloured plates, which Tolkien humorously maintained reduced his text to a “commentary”.

Read the full article at the Guardian website. [Read More]

From lady_branwyn:
There is now an LJ feed for the production blog for the fan film The Hunt for Gollum. You can add it to your Friends list here.

COMMUNITY NEWS:

Note from the Mods: We would like to invite the moderators of other fandom communities to become 'reporters' or 'scouts' for middleearthnews. All we ask is that you send us formatted updates on your own communities for posting here.

Nothing? Your Wednesday mod is shocked!

CHALLENGES/WORKSHOPS/AWARDS:

* The current weekly challenge at tolkien_weekly is Barrel.

FIC/ART NEWS:

Links From Mews:
patchworkfamily posted a new story in which Farmer Cotton has something to discuss with Frodo and Sam. The Proposition

julchen11 posted a F/S ficlet. Sam has a secret. Garden of Dreams

angharad001 reposted her Waymeet Get Cracking challenge fic.Bilbo has left the Shirte, but Frodo has a merry Yule notwithstanding. Rating: PG. Another Party.

abby_normal posted a new interlude for her epic Counterpoint. On the day before his wedding, Pippin suffers a case of pre-wedding terror, and needs Merry's help to work through them. A look at the relationship of the two cousins, and a glimpse, in the Epilogue, of Pippin and Diamond. Resonance.

waymeet posted a new entry in the You Wear It Well challenge. One night before they reach Bree, the hobbits encounter a strange danger. Rating: PG-13. Below the Belt.

frodosweetstuff posted a fic. Merry gets an eyeful as Frodo and Sam explain why they're cooking naked. The Naked Chef.

igraine1419 posted a fic in which Frodo is awake first in Ithilien, and watches Sam sleeping. Waking In Ithlien

telstar109 posted a drabble wherein Frodo gets in some grammar practice. Rating: PG. Oh, Garderner!

shirebound posted a ficlet for Febobe. Untitled.

mews1945posted a post quest ficlet. When Frodo is taken ill, Arwen and Éowyn take care of him. Rating: G. Ladies In Waiting

Thanks, Mews!

DISCUSSIONS OF INTEREST:

Literacy amongst Hobbits
Starting with FotR, I was struck by the Gaffer's speech at the Ivy Bush. He talks about Bilbo teaching Sam to read: "learning him his letters". He also comments that Mr Bilbo was "meaning no harm, and I hope no harm will come of it". This seems to speak of a mistrust of the printed word by Hobbits in the Shire.
How literate are the inhabitants of the Shire?

Middle-earth Conspiracy Theories
Few people know that the Uruk-hai were a mistake. What was Saruman really trying to breed in the pits of Isengard?

CLASSIFIED:
Via lotrips_finders:
abalonedreams15 looking for Boromir/Legolas fics: I've gotten a yen for some Boromir/Legolas (but any well written pairing is fine)...so if anyone has any good recs, I would truly appreciate it. All ratings and lengths are fine, but please, I'm looking for strong characters and stories here (no childish/feminine Legolas)

RESEARCH AIDS:.
From estelanui:
Star map of Arda
The second setting of stars by Varda in Valian Years of the Trees 1000 – 1005.

TRIVIA:
Modays's BOOK question: Who did Gandalf meet on the road near Bree, on his way to Isengard?
Answer: Radagast.

serenenuit, namarielorien, tackerama, slightlytookish, belleferret and telstar109 answered correctly.

Today's MOVIE question contributed by empy: What was Gimli's beard made of?

All comments are screened so that only the mods can see the answers. Comments will be unscreened when the next edition is posted. Any comments on a different subject will be unscreened ASAP.

SEND MATHOMS:

HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY, channel42!

The mods would like to wish anyone having a special day the very best. Please send your special wishes to middle_earth_news@yahoo.com.

COMICS:
(Link contributions are welcome)

From grimnir1:


That's it for this edition. Please send your formatted post for Friday’s edition by 8:00 a.m. (Eastern time) to middle_earth_news@yahoo.com. Thanks for joining us and tell your friends!

Title: In the Garden of After: Bright Angel
Pairing: Zeke/Casey
Rating: PG13
Summary: AU (I guess…maybe). Ten years or so after high school, Zeke is a park Ranger at Yosemite National Park. Casey is a thrill seeker. (Neither of them remember aliens but are drawn together…)

This time, Zeke gets an invitation to a different national park...and faces a different brand of danger.

This is sort of part of a series in which each episode can stand on its own but they're all connected. Previous episodes:
Nevada Falls
El Capitan

( In the Garden of After: Bright Angel )

Some of you may remember me asking a similar question a couple of years ago, but I want to phrase it a little differently now. I really interested in how people picture their favorite book characters. I'm a "movie-firster" for several of my fandoms...LOTR definitely, and somewhat for Harry Potter - I saw the first two movies and then read the first five books, so I kind of had a movie-influenced idea of, say, the Weasleys, but not of Remus and Sirius. While reading I actually pictured Sirius as Johnny Depp only paler and with light eyes but now I'm not too sure...I find myself being influenced by fanart now!

So if anyone would like to share (and please do!!), how do you picture your favorite book characters? Did the movies (if movie versions exist) get it right? Do you think that a certain actor looks just like your favorite character (or close enough)? Feel free to discuss characters in any fandom, and I'll try to follow along if I'm not familiar :) Also feel free to name drop and/or picspam. I'd love to know what you think Pippin or Boromir or Dumbledore or Tonks or whoever looks like...

:D

Well, I have nothing new for the challenge (yet?), but here is a list of my stories featuring babies. All are rated G.



Dear Diary
Primula kept a diary during the time of her pregnancy and the first months with her newborn child. – Not only journal entries but also short experiences mostly written from her POV.


A Merry Beginning
The beginning of some healing for a wounded heart and a lasting friendship. Short and fluffy.


Joy of your Life
Children are the joy of your life - or aren't they? Baby Pippin causes not only his father to think about his children.


A Father's Reflection
Shortly before the birth of his first child Merimac ponders his new role as a father and husband. Adamanta unwittingly puts him to the test many years later.
This story, like 'Dear Diary' focuses on the pregnancy part, but there is a baby in the end... obvioulsy :)


Among Family
Frodo visits Brandy Hall where he meets his new baby-cousin, is encouraged to start a family, and finds out that he has one already.


Precious Bundle
A drabble featuring wee Pippin.


And my last two drabbles and a little something. The "babies" in these cases are old enough to chew and start talking.

Feeding A Cousin
Merimac involuntarily shares Frodo's meal.


Once Bitten, Twice Shy - Feeding a Cousin II
Ten years after the incident with Frodo Merimac faces a similar situation.

This month's wee_hobbits challenge is babies. What are baby hobbits like? How small are they? Do they need any special care? How does one entertain a baby hobbit? What sort of mischief do they get into? And just how much do they eat? Feel free to write about your favorite hobbit as a baby, or perhaps your favorite hobbit having to care for a baby - his or her own, or one belonging to another.

Please remember that the community challenges are always optional (and they're all tagged, in case you would ever like to go back and find inspiration from a past challenge), so be sure to continue posting your other wee!hobbit stories here as well. :)

Well, while I'm struggling to keep everything from falling apart I, at least find myself staring at my computer screen far longer than is good for me. I used the time well. Here it finally is, the epilogue of When Trouble Came. I'll miss this story. It was such a joy to write and update - the last time the muse has been active.

Another huge thank you to dreamflower02 for betaing the story ages ago. You have been a great help and support, dear!


Shortly after Frodo and his friends left the Shire Black Riders attacked Crickhollow, but that was only the beginning of the Saradoc’s worries. Before long the Master and all of Buckland face troubles far worse. MEFA 2008 - Nominee


When Trouble Came on SoA
When Trouble Came on TLS

These must be the healthiest -- and most confused -- cats on earth.

"Treadmill Cats"
http://www.sonnyradio.com/treadmillcats.html

We're home. We got in about an hour ago. Just wanted to let everyone know we made it safely.

Hi Connie, Ariel, Tracy, Eileen and Terry (Jeff and Don too)

I had such a great time last weekend!! :-)

I got home safe and as sound as I ever am. My hubby and kitties all missed me but were glad I had had a fun Moot. You are all some of the best people I've been around and we will definitely have to do this again sometime.

Terry, thanks so much for posting the photos!!

Hugs and love to all of you!
Pearl

When you feel the urge for a new condiment...

Edible Gold, $15,000 per pound
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fsb/0807/gallery.most_expensive_foods.fsb/index.html