Marta's Mathoms

I've been volunteering with the Middle-earth Fanfiction Awards for longer than I've been on LJ. I've had to take a few breaks, for personal reasons, but for the most part it's been my online home more than anywhere else.

I used the past tense just now because that particular awards is ending. It's a bittersweet moment, to be sure, but today I'm focusing on the good memories of how much joy I got out of the awards. I really grew as a writer and as a person through that event, and I also made some of my best friends through those award. I know several people on my flist have been reacting to this news and I haven't commented, not because I don't care but because (as Legolas said) "for me the grief is too near." I really appreciate all of the email thank-yous I've received these last few days and will try to reply as soon as I can. I'm teaching summer school so I'm pretty busy in my offline life, and I'm also dealing with a hurt hand that makes it painful to type for too long at a stretch.

(It's actually quite bitter for me; but today I'm focusing on the sweet.)

A little while ago I made the last official MEFA announcements, thanking some of our volunteers and also talking about what the awards mean to me. It ended up being quite personal. I thought some of you might enjoy reading it:

http://mefas.livejournal.com/309993.html

Every year, I usually post stories that are MEFA-eligible which I invite people to nominate if they want to. I started this as a public service to people who read my work, since I don't always post my fiction in the same archives. And it kind of became a yearly tradition. Even though there's no MEFA this year, I'd still like to do a run-down of my recent work.

1. a biography of Sauron, written for the Silmarillion Writers Guild
2. Nor By Jerusalem: a vignette looking at Caranthir's thoughts on the journey to Middle-earth.
3. This Year, Next Year, Sometime, Never: Elanor Gamgee remembers her childhood, on the night before her wedding.
4. *With the Blood of Patriots: After Pelennor Fields, Faramir and Aragorn remember the fallen.
5. Profiles in Courage: An essay re-examining Lobelia Sackville-Baggins's actions during the Shire's occupation.
6. *But Have Not Love: Maedhros and Maglor, just after the sack of Doriath.
7. *Not Because We Are Angels: Life must have been quite grim for Ar-Zimraphel in the years before Numenor's fall.
8. We Still Remember, We Who Dwell: As penance for the previous piece (unusually angsty for me), I wrote something lighter. Maglor reunites with Elrond at Arwen's wedding.
9. Finding God(s) in Middle-earth: I examine several incidents from The Silmarillion and speculate about how they might have shaped Gondorians' views on religion and the supernatural.
10. *Like the Heathen Kings of Old: The aftermath of Denethor's pyre. Because when writing the previous essay, I was struck by a certain similarity between Denethor's pyre and the human sacrifice that occurred on Numenor.
11. Beginnings: A moment shared between Curunir [Saruman] and Feanor, before either came to Middle-earth.
12. The Point of the Sword: A Dunedain Ranger walks into a bar... (Swordspoint/LOTR crossover)

I also found a draft I'd written but never finished working with a beta on, with Bilbo learning about the Battle of Greenfields. I can't even remember who the beta was. Maybe it's time to polish that off?

Nearly all of these were written for Dawn's Back to Middle-earth Month. Thank you, dawn_felagund for organizing that!

(Stories with asterisks have graphic violence and themes that some people may find upsetting. Or attractive. In any case, you've been forewarned.)

(Edited to fix typo in Dawn's username.)