Next Time (The Toby Daye Contest)

Fae Awareness Month is winding down, with only  a few days left. We hope everyone’s had a good time, and that we’ve done our job of raising awareness. We’ll have a rundown of the many and varied gorgeous articles and reviews we’ve featured at the end of the month, and Sam Kelly’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell reading club will go on after. (Because let’s be real: that book requires more than a month, particularly with so much else going on, to be appreciated in all its glory.)

But we will be back next June, and we need your help. If there’s a movie we’ve missed, a topic we haven’t covered, a poem you love, a book we really ought to have mentioned, an artist you adore, an academic paper people need — whatever you feel needs awareness raised, tell us!

Why should you? Well, for one thing, it means you get the early update as we’re prepping next May, and that means dibs on the movie and/or topic of your choice. It also means you’re helping your fellow hapless humans to become more aware of the dangers (and occasionally the pleasures) presented by the fae. Reward enough itself, right?

No?

Well, that’s all right. As part of our effort to raise awareness, we want to give out a prize that we think provides cautioning aplenty. (Yeah, I just said “aplenty”.) So if you put a Fae Awareness topic suggestion in the comments to this post between now and July 10th, you will be entered in a drawing to win the first three books in Seanan McGuire’s fabulous October Daye series!  So that’s Rosemary and Rue (#1), A Local Habitation (#2), and An Artificial Night (#3)– yes, all three, just for you.

What, you have the first one? Okay, how about #s 2, 3, and 4 (Late Eclipses)? Sorry, you gotta wait til September for One Salt Sea, or we might offer you 4, 5, and 6.

Wait, you have them all? Smart choice! Well, you have to admit, the early warning of next year’s event and the warm fuzzy feeling you get from helping hapless humanity is pretty good in itself, right?

… right.

So hit us up with ideas, y’all, and be sure and leave a valid email address in either the email field or the comment itself so we can find you if you win. We won’t be able to do all movies or all ideas, but we’ll try and strike a good balance, so don’t be shy. The drawing will be random after midnight on July 10, once the contest closes.

And an extra thank you to Seanan McGuire, who was cool with the idea of a Fae Awareness Toby giveaway. She rocks — and here’s your chance to find out why, if you don’t already know!

Litha Celebration and Chapbook Giveaway!

Tomorrow’s a big day for the fae, in both worlds. It’s Midsummer, the Soltstice, Litha. In celebration, we have a great line up for you. Our movie is a modern riff on A Midsummer Night’s Dream called Were The World Mine–trailer incoming tomorrow on the usual schedule, of course. If you haven’t seen it, definitely check out the dropbox tomorrow, because it’s lovely. If you don’t have dropbox, signing up here will get you the link. It’s worth it for awareness month purposes–fae, vampire, monster, we use it for all and sundry.

Responsibly. Of course.

We’ll get Sam Kelly’s review of the wonderful 1968 Peter Hall Midsummer Night’s Dream to compare with it. That one, we couldn’t get for the dropbox–but Americans with Netflix can watch it streaming. I did on the 1st and it really is the best version I’ve ever seen. Sam will be better able to pinpoint why, of course, so be sure and come back for that.

And to top things off, we’ll have a great Litha post from Jodi Lee–and a bonus! She and her daughters have been working on a series of chapbooks called Creating New Pagan Family Traditions, and they’ve kindly given a pdf copy of the Litha book to Fae Awareness Month, so anyone can win it! It includes general information, a ritual sample, a menu, crafts, activities, and stories to help celebrate. Good for those who already observe Litha, for those who might like to, or for the merely interested. (And Jodi’s post tomorrow expands on the content, giving us a little insight into how we might please the fae on Litha, too. I don’t recommend irritating them, anyhow, that’s for sure.)

To win the chapbook, all you have to do is tweet, facebook, blog, or otherwise mention Fae Awareness Month to your friends on the net, and then let us know about it by commenting here with the link. Any aspect of Fae Awareness–your favorite review so far, the films, the Jonathan Strange… reading, the Litha posts throughout the day tomorrow. Everyone who does so in the next 24 hours and posts here will be entered to win. We’ll draw the winners at 10pm EST tomorrow… which is, of course, after sundown even on the longest day of the year, for most of the world. Alas that this blog is run from the East Coast of the US, so we lag a little. 😉

See you on the flip side!