Middle-earth News: Christopher Tolkien Resigned from Tolkien Estate, and More

Christopher Tolkien submitted his resignation as a director for the Tolkien Estate (established 2012) effective August 29. The news only came to light for the vast majority of us in the past 1-2 days. Tolkien Brasil was the first Website to publish the story, although the Middle-earth Blog at Xenite.Org is being credited by many sites with being the first. Well, we were the first English language blog to carry the news. I think the Tolkien Brasil folks may have learned about the news from a Reddit discussion, but I didn't think to check with them.

You Can Help Finance an Independent SciFi Film - And You Should

Benjamin Capps is an actor and independent film producer who is looking for help in financing his next project.  He needs to raise about $10,000 by the end of April.  The film is called "Civet" and it's a "sci-fi horror movie", according to Capps.  He has already produced a 9-minute film called "It Grows Dark" (see below) that has earned him some attention, so it's not like I'm suggesting you give a complete unknown producer a shot.

Happy Birthday to Xenite.org

It has been just a little over 20 years since I launched the Xenite.Org Network. I'd like to say "how time flies when you're having fun" but, damn, it feels like it's been twenty years since it all began. Technically, it has been longer. I can trace my "Web"-like experience back to the first days I uploaded files for sharing on CompuServe. And, in fact, it was CompuServe where I published my first Website in 1996. But Xenite.Org is where things really started happening and I hope people will appreciate the long retrospective article I wrote titled "20 Years of Science Fiction and Fantasy: The Many Faces of Xenite.Org". While it runs to 6,000 words, the 10th Anniversary special feature included many articles and took about half a day to get through. It was worth it.