This is the general "get things off your chest" or "ask a question" post. If you stumbled onto this journal and want to say something, or if you want to contact the Tumble moderators, this is the post to do it in. Can't find your way around? Confused? Need to get in touch? Add a comment, and we'll get back to you! Comments are screened and thus not visible to others.

Seven months ago, we started on this journey called FanFic Tumble. A number of dedicated authors, with the help of a few invaluable pinch hitters, created no less than eight adventurous tales set in Tolkien's Middle-earth, in which they invented new characters, wrote evil cliffhangers and solved plot riddles. Now, for your reading pleasure, I am proud to be able to reveal the stories as well as the various authors who worked on them (note: if you've visited fanfictumble  before The Great Reveal, you may have to refresh your browser window to gain access to the stories).

Story 1:
The Rider - Finding Trouble

At the end of an otherwise uneventful patrol, Elladan ends up in dire straits. He is stuck in a river and the water level is rising... His brother Elrohir rides for help, but outlaws roam the land and Elrond is torn between his love for his son and his duty to the people.

Authors (in order of appearance): jay_of_lasgalen  , eveningrainfall  , lin4gondor  , nautika3  , lady_branwyn  , imaginigma   and jay_of_lasgalen  

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Story 2:
The Rider - Burdens Of Grief

The loss of loved ones is always hard, whether you be Man or Elf.

Authors (in order of appearance): eveningrainfall , jay_of_lasgalen , lady_branwyn , juno_magic , nautika3 , lin4gondor , nierielraina , tanaquilotr 

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Story 3:
The Rider - Mystery In Mirkwood

Orc bands have been capturing people -- Men, Elves and Halflings alike. And when they plan a larger attack to gain even more prisoners, Legolas and Aragorn come up with a dangerous plan. But when things go wrong, they find themselves in more trouble than they expected. And who is the mysterious Easterner that commands such fear in the Orcs? AU-ish.

Authors (in order of appearance): nautika3 , juno_magic , tanaquilotr , imaginigma , lady_branwyn , lin4gondor , nautika3 

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Story 4:
The Rider - Not All Those Who Wander
Years after Elros and Elrond each made their Choice, the brothers meet again.

Authors (in order of appearance): juno_magic, nautika3, imaginigma, lin4gondor, jay_of_lasgalen, lady_branwyn

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Story 5:
The Rider - Safekeeping Their Borders

The Nazgûl are loose, making for the Shire and Frodo Baggins; others ride out to try and warn the Ringbearer of the danger. During a mad race for who will reach the Shire first, the Black Riders spare none in their path, and anyone stricken by the Black Breath is doomed to die... Or can help be found in time?

Authors (in order of appearance): lin4gondor , leany75 , lady_branwyn , juno_magic , imaginigma , jay_of_lasgalen , lin4gondor 

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Story 6:
The Rider - Untitled

The Nine are abroad, and Lord Elrond cannot allow the Enemy to take back what he seeks. Glorfindel, sent to ride out in aid of the Ringbearer, learns more about the evils that now roam freely.

Authors (in order of appearance): levadegratchets , lin4gondor , juno_magic , imaginigma , jay_of_lasgalen , nierielraina , nautika3 , aranellaurelote 

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Story 7:
The Rider - Pestilence

Years before the Ring War, Rohan's horses have fallen ill with a strange disease. As the herds are thinned, Éomund seeks council in Isengard. But Saruman The Wise has his own schemes to set in motion. And for that, he needs someone who carries the blood of Númenor...

Authors (in order of appearance): lady_branwyn , imaginigma , nautika3 , jay_of_lasgalen , nierielraina , juno_magic , lin4gondor , lady_branwyn 

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Story 8:
The Rider - Black Horses for the Black Land

While in the service of Thengel King of Rohan, Captain Thorongil learns of Sauron's strange desire for black horses.

Authors (in order of appearance): imaginigma, lady_branwyn, jay_of_lasgalen, lin4gondor, tanaquilotr, nautika3, juno_magic, lin4gondor

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And the final Tumble story is up!

With thanks to lady_branwyn who offered to pinch hit the final section. Go read "Not All Those Who Wander"! And don't forget to leave our authors a comment after reading... :-)

Want to read all the Tumble stories? Use the tags on the left, or visit The Great Reveal-post for an overview.

All right! Seven down, one to go. Story number 8 of the fanfictumble is up now for your reading pleasure! Find details in the Great Reveal Post. And don't forget to leave feedback for our wonderful authors.

It's been far too long since I gave you an update on the Fanfic Tumble situation. I was waiting for the last two stories (#4 and #8) to be finished. I'm expecting story #8 shortly, but the author originally slated to finish #4 has since informed she is unable to do so.

Hence, #4 is up for ADOPTION! Let me know in a comment if you feel up to finishing a story that includes Elrond, Elros and even Maglor!

Also, I would like to remind the Tumble participants to join the Post-mortem discussion and leave your thoughts on the process. Topics include canonicity, the number of installments per story and word count, as well as what to do with orphaned stories.

Good news! Yet another story of the Tumble has been revealed today. All info on story #6 can be found in the Great Reveal post. Or go straight to the story. I'm still waiting for the title, and will add that as soon as it comes in.

Also, authors, do not forget to give your opinion on the Tumble's run in our post-mortem post.

ETA: oops, I forgot to set the story to Public. It should be fixed now...

It wasn't possible before, but according to LJ's latest news post, it is now possible to edit comments. LJ says:

Paid Members now have the ability to edit comments! Just click on the "edit" button in your comment to make changes. Of course, to be fair to others, only comments that have not yet been replied to may be edited.

(Note that is says "paid members".)

Since most if not all of the story parts haven't been commented to, it should be possible for those of you that have a paid account to amend any typos you happen to have made in your story parts, should you want to do so. It's not mandatory, but some of you have asked about it, so I thought I should alert you to this new option. It's probably not needed, but I want to say it nevertheless :-) : please refrain from making any other changes to your story parts.

P.S. I'll have a first post-mortem discussion post up some time tomorrow.

Now that the Tumble is almost over, it's time to discuss the experience and see where we can improve on the rules, regulations, or general run of the Tumble. I do have a few subjects myself I'd like to hear your opinions on, but also like to give you the opportunity bring your concerns and/or questions to the table as well.

Please, if there's anything you wish to discuss with me or your fellow Tumblers, leave a comment. It'd help if you also mention what you'd like the discussion to achieve. This could range from merely exchanging tips and tricks to amendments in the rules (for if we ever run another Tumble again).

In the meantime, there are three stories that still need to come in.

• juno_magic has indicated RL is keeping her so busy, she hopes to get around to it in December (story #4).
• imaginigma has regretfully informed me she sees no chance to finish her part in the foreseeable future and has asked me to find a pinch hitter (story #8). Anybody that feels like taking over for her, please leave a comment as well!
  
• And aranellaurelote, who's pinch hitting for story #6, has posted a partly resolution to the story; I'll try to contact her by e-mail to see what's up with the other part that she promised. She's been having trouble accessing the internet/LJ, so is going to e-mail me the part and have me post it. TBC soon!
  

I'm happy to announce that the fifth of the Tumble stories has now also been Revealed. More information on  The Rider - Safekeeping Their Borders (which also happens to be Story #5) can be found in The Great Reveal-post. Or go directly to the story here.

This means that we are now waiting on the last three stories to be finishes: #4, #6 and #8... Authors? How are you doing?

And a fourth story has been revealed. The story-formerly-known-as-#7 is now titled "Pestilence". For more information, check out The Great Reveal post.

Also, once all stories have been revealed, I plan to make announcements in several Tolkien communities, to direct people to all the stories.

In the mean time, some of you have started posting "your" stories to other archives, which is fine by me (if any of the authors has an objection to their work showing up in other archives, please let me know ASAP in a comment -- comments are screened). I would ask that 1) you provide the various authors' names along with their parts (not that there's any doubt you guys wouldn't do that!) and 2) provide a link back to this journal's profile page (http://fanfictumble.livejournal.com/profile) so that anyone wondering what madness this is can find the explanation right there.

Lastly, an author post-mortem is being planned, but I want to wait with discussing the Tumble experience until all authors have turned in their work and won't have their attention divided.

Alas, I have no new stories to reveal today...

But this is perhaps a good moment to remind you of LiveJournal's Tracking function. If you want to be notified when readers leave a comment to one of the Tumble stories without having to check out the individual stories, use the Track this-link at the bottom of each story's original teaser post. You can then choose to receive comments by e-mail, or read them at the web after you sign in to LiveJournal.

The third of the Tumble stories (well, technically speaking it's story # 2 :-)) is now also available in The Great Reveal-post...

Not all stories have returned to the pool yet, so I'll announce new revelations when they go live. In the meantime, remember to feed our authors!

As the Tumblers will have noticed, I handed out the final assignments earlier this week. Evil as I am, I re-assigned each story to the author that had started off that particular story... ;-)

I'm hoping that we can start the Great Reveal, when the stories are made public and the authors of each part are announced, around mid-October, so watch this space!

I've also found two people willing to finalize the two orphaned stories, so it's all good.

I, for one, am getting very excited that we are nearly ready to share the authors' hard work with the rest of the world!

Don't forget, the deadline for your penultimate Tumble assignment is today!

Alrighty, I just sent out the next assignments to our regular Tumblers. You should have it in your mail box by now. Deadline is Saturday, September 15.

This section is the penultimate, or next-to-last installment of the Tumble stories. That means there's only one more left after this one. At the current rate, we should be done by mid- to late October. Exciting, eh?

As always, we have two orphaned stories looking for pinch hitters. If any of our regulars (or new writers who want to try their hand at a Tumble section) wants to step forward and adopt, please leave a comment with an e-mail address, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can (note: comments are screened).

Please note, though, that because this is the penultimate installment, you won't have as much freedom to write as you please as with a section in the middle of the Tumble. It's time to start tying off plot threads and bring things to a conclusion.

All except one of the Tumblers have returned their stories. I'm hoping to see the last one soon, so I can send out the new assignments tomorrow (= Monday where I am, to forestall time zone confusion :-)).

(I will be mailing all Tumble authors separately as well)

Okay, the deadline has passed. I have seen two installments come in. Two Tumblers have asked for an extension, and I'm still missing three (it's a good thing I've seen you guys around elsewhere, or I'd be real worried ;-)).

So, I decided to give you all a deadline extension, hoping that that'll give everyone the chance to finish and return their stories.

New deadline is Saturday, 11 August

If, for some reason, you believe you can't make that deadline either, please do let me know. I plan on sending out the next assignments on Sunday.

ETA: I should have mentioned this but... the deadlines for the next (and last) two sections have also been moved due to the extension. Preliminary deadlines for the penultimate and final section are 14 September and 14 October. I don't think this will create a problem for anyone, right? You can always check the upcoming deadlines here, or via the link on the left.

Remember, the deadline for your next installment is in three days: August 7.

The assignments for the sixth installment of the current Tumble have just been sent out (due to Tumblers going MIA, this may mean you are actually writing the fifth segment to your assigned story, not the sixth). The deadline is August 7.

Also, we again have two orphaned stories that could do with a pinch hitter adding a segment. More information on what it means to pinch hit for the Tumble can be found in this post. Please comment here or there if you feel up to the challenge! Make sure you leave your e-mail address so I can contact you with the details. Comments are screened.

(Note: if you have pinch hit before, you can of course apply again if you like!)

The new assignments have just been mailed to the Tumblers. If you offered to pinch-hit, you should also receive a mail shortly with a link to the story assigned to you as well as some more instructions.

Remember, if you're having trouble accessing your story, you may have to shut down your browser, empty its cache or delete old cookies before LJ allows you in.

Deadline for this installment is July 15 (I added one day to the old deadline, because the stories went out a little later than planned).

Also, if all goes well, I'll be away from the computer from July 5-13, so any comments or mails may not be answered quickly during that period.