Xenite.Org and Michael Martinez news

[Michael Martinez]

Many of you know that Xenite.Org's network went down at the end of January. We restored part of the network in mid-February but email services have been a lower priority. My address is working again and I've almost caught up on old email.

We've also redesigned the Lord of the Rings movie news site. We had to drop the headlines from Moreover.com and they have now been replaced by headlines from WaroftheRing.Net. We now carry, in addition to our own original articles, news headlines from three other Tolkien sites: TheOneRing.Net, Tolkien Online, and WaroftheRing.Net.

http://www.xenite.org/faqs/lotr_movie/

The forums at SF-FANDOM have also been restored, but regrettably we lost the database with all registrations and past discussions. We had to start over from scratch. The forums were not recreated in the same order as before, so old bookmarks probably will not work. The root page for the forums is located at:

http://www.sf-fandom.com/vbulletin/

If any of you are subscribed to the Middle-earth mailing list and you've been wondering why you never see your messages, well, we're wondering, too. I finally moved the list to kandi.org. So, to subscribe/unsubscribe, just send the usual requests to majordomo@kandi.org. The mailing list address is now officially middle-earth@kandi.org.

My most recent article for Suite101 was "Love in the Trees", posted on January 31. It's located at:

http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/tolkien/

At this time, I don't believe I'll be writing any more articles for Suite101. I have not yet decided whether I'll continue the monthly column on another site.

I will also be appearing as a guest at the upcoming Galacticon in Chattanooga this March 22. The convention is being held March 21 - 23. Guest of Honor is the delightful Ms. Pauline Griffin, author of the STAR COMMANDOS series and co-author with Andre Norton of some of the TIME TRADER and SOLAR QUEEN books. She has also contributed to Andre's Witch World series.

Musical guests will be the Celtic folk music group Emerald Rose, whom I believe will also be performing at TheOneRing.Net's Los Angeles Oscars' party (but don't hold me to that -- I've been out of the loop for a few weeks).

Full information regarding the convention may be found at:

http://www.thewebfool.com/galacticon/

Memberships are available at the door.

Also, PARMA ENDORION: ESSAYS ON MIDDLE-EARTH, 3RD EDITION surpassed 200,000 downloads by the end of January. I don't yet have statistics for February. We published the eBook on January 5, 2002 and were only hoping (originally) for 50,000 downloads or so in the first year. So, thanks to everyone who helped to make PARMA ENDORION a huge success!

Finally, I have a new book coming out later this year (possibly in August). It's called UNDERSTANDING MIDDLE-EARTH and will be published by Vivisphere. It runs to about 500 pages and is better organized than VISUALIZING MIDDLE-EARTH. UME is, however, the long-awaited sequel to VME that many people have requested. It includes new material, including a previously unpublished essay, "How the Elves have changed".

I'll pass along more precise information when I have it.