A couple of months ago, I heard about Hobbit Day. It's the "official" Tolkien celebration day, according to the American Tolkien Society and Wikipedia. Mark your calendars-- September 22nd, the birthday of Frodo and Bilbo Baggins!
"My dear Bagginses and Boffins, Tooks and Brandybucks, Grubbs, Chubbs, Hornblowers, Bolgers, Bracegirdles and Proudfoots. Today is my one hundred and eleventh birthday! Alas, eleventy-one years is far too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable hobbits. I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."
Plus, the new Hobbit movie is coming out this year! Words can't express my excitement.
Since I'm a big Tolkien fan I thought it would be a blast to do a Lord of the Rings/Tolkien-themed blog series! (oooooooooh, yeah!)
I hereby declare September 2012 to be Tolkien Month at Shealynn's Faerie Shoppe!
You know what will horrify you, though? I haven't actually read LotR in three years. Three whole, stinking years. I've read bits and pieces, of course, and recently read all of the poems aloud to my four year old brother (many, many times... many more times that I necessarily wanted to read them-- I think we've both got "Troll sat alone on his seat of throne" memorized!). I re-read the Hobbit last month and remembered why I thought it was funny but slow.
Why am I announcing this so early? To get you psyched, of course!
That is not the only reason, though. I need help! As I'm sure you've realized by now (considering the fact that I mention this almost every single week), I am a very busy highschooler. If I actually slow down and think through my grand plans properly, I know I will be able to finish only two or three of my big, Lord of the Rings projects and just few of the posts I'm planning. I know for sure that I would not be able to write the six-million essays worth of awesomeness that Tolkien has sent bouncing through my brain. This is where you come in!
If you love Tolkien, please consider helping me make this party a blast!
I'm mostly looking for guest bloggers. Just email me at shealynnsfaerieshoppe{at}gmail.com (remove {at} and replace with @). Unless your suggested post is not family friendly or anti-Christian, I will most likely say YES. I don't bite-- so please, feel free to email me no matter what your idea is!
Here's just a couple of ideas, but be creative!
- Why you love Tolkien/Lord of the Rings
- Tolkien-themed art, crafts, sewing, or cooking. Tutorials would be super awesome.
- Posts about anything inspired by Tolkien, his books, or the movies/music based on his books. This could include anything from Celtic knotwork to learning to play an obscure instrument to an analysis of the costumes to fancy hairstyles to an analysis of the cinematography styles used in the movies to favorite Norse myths to archery in movies! Whatever floats your boat, as long as you can tie it back to Tolkien in some way. :)
- Short stories, fun essays, poetry, artwork....
- Roundups of your favorite Tolkien things on the internet
(Please note that I will be busy enough with running Tolkien month and won't be able to reciprocate guest posts.)
I'd love to host a couple of giveaways. If you run a craft business, jewelry business, calligraphy business, etc, and would like to do a giveaway, let me know. I did a bunch of giveaways a little less than a year ago and heard that it brought a good deal of traffic to small Etsy and Artfire shops. If you do a giveaway, you also get a free ad on the blog during the month of September! The giveaways don't have to be handmade-- if you have a stash of Lord of the Rings toys or books or something that you want to get rid of... you know who to email. LOL!
I will also try to set up one of those linky lists starting on the first of September, so if you want to join in the party at your own blog (or Tumblr, Flickr, etc) during this time, you'll be able to share the link to your site where everyone can see it!
You can also help by getting the word out! Mention the party on your own blog, twitter, facebook, pinterest, etc, and see if any of your friends want to join in this celebration of all things Tolkien!
