avanti_90 has written a really interesting Earthsea story for me for Help Japan. It's not something I've seen before, a set of thoughtful possible alternative futures for Tenar, which 'fix' the changes in UKLG's characterisation of her between Tombs & Tehanu.

Uneaten, by avanti_90
Four paths that Tenar did not take

It's her first story in the universe, so do let her know if you enjoy it!

All six Earthsea prompts from yuletide 2011 are now open for the New Year's Resolution Challenge 2012. This year, you can write stories of any length for both filled & unfilled prompts. Stories must contain all the selected characters; the remaining details are optional. They must be uploaded to Archive of Our Own before next year's Yuletide. The unfilled prompts are:

Firerose (espresso_addict)
Character(s): Thorion
Optional details: ( Under the cut )

Penintime (penintime)
Character(s): None
Optional details: ( Under the cut )

The prompts which already have stories are:

Ariana (estella_may)
Character(s): None
Optional details: ( Under the cut )

Miss M (miss_morland)
Character(s): Vetch, Jasper
Optional details: ( Under the cut )

Pene (pene)
Character(s): Irian, Ged, Kalessin, Tenar
Optional details: ( Under the cut )

Whetherwoman (whetherwoman)
Character(s): Tenar
Optional details: ( Under the cut )

There are four lovely stories in the Yuletide collection this year:

Calling to the Wind by Leaf Litter
After the wall of the dead falls in The Other Wind, names and summoning work differently in Earthsea.

Dark Sands by penintime
A girl from Oranéa must fulfill a prophecy on the island Sort.

Hoag by rumpleghost
Jasper, the otak, and the end of summer.

The Morning Wind Upon the Sea by elle_dritch
From the world's wind to the other wind, from the other wind to the world's wind: the dragons come home.

They're all nice meaty stories, with quite a mix of subjects & settings -- I thoroughly enjoyed all four!

Another couple of chapters from The Jade Dragon posted at AO3...

Summary: Havnor City, the largest city in the world... It's nearly 200 years since Lebannen came to the throne and his kingdom's on the brink of disaster. The king's mad, his heir's missing and when newly reinstated Officer Bittern investigates, he soon starts tripping over corpses

Author's note: This novel-in-progress owes almost as much of a debt to Raymond Chandler as it does to Ursula Le Guin. I thank Jay Tryfanstone, Miss Morland & Northland for advice & editing. All infelicities are my own.

Chapter 1: The Missing Prince
Chapter 2: The Ice Maiden

Chapter 3: The Big City
Havnor City, the largest city in the world. A million people were crammed into its six square miles, they said, though barely half appeared on the Ministry’s books.

Chapter 4: Too Many Princes
CHOP shared a place with CHOSS down by the Old Docks, five minutes from Half Moon Street and no more than half a mile from the university as the seagull flies across the bay. Lebannen the Great had obviously been hot on law enforcement because it was one of the biggest, grandest, most over-decorated buildings in a city full of big grand over-decorated buildings.

Summary: Havnor City, the largest city in the world... It's nearly 200 years since Lebannen came to the throne and his kingdom's on the brink of disaster. The king's mad, his heir's missing and when newly reinstated Officer Bittern investigates, he soon starts tripping over corpses

Author's note: This novel-in-progress owes almost as much of a debt to Raymond Chandler as it does to Ursula Le Guin. I thank Jay Tryfanstone, Miss Morland & Northland for advice & editing. All infelicities are my own.

Chapter 1: The Missing Prince
Chapter 2: The Ice Maiden
My new boss handed me a miniature of an olive-skinned kid with a long narrow nose and the solemn expression of a goat cornered in a flowerbed. ‘This is the best picture of the prince we’ve been able to find,’ he said. I’d never clapped eyes on the prince but his ugly mug had frowned up at me from countless plates of corn chips at the Crown & Anchor down the docks.

Sign-ups for yuletide are now open until Sunday 20 November. The available Earthsea characters are: Azver, Emer, Ged, Irian, Jasper, Kalessin, Ogion, Tenar, Thorion, Vetch & Yarrow, and there are sixtwo requests already! The full list of 2911 available fandoms is here & the sign-up form is linked here.

If anyone here is a Yuletide newbie... ( more details under the cut )

I've decided to start posting The Jade Dragon in instalments, even though it's incomplete. I have over 40,000 words, about half the projected novel, but revisions will be proceeding slowly. Herewith only a taster...

Summary: Havnor City, the largest city in the world... It's nearly 200 years since Lebannen came to the throne and his kingdom's on the brink of disaster. The king's mad, his heir's missing and when newly reinstated Officer Bittern investigates, he soon starts tripping over corpses

Author's note: This novel-in-progress owes almost as much of a debt to Raymond Chandler as it does to Ursula Le Guin. I thank Jay Tryfanstone, Miss Morland & Northland for advice & editing. All infelicities are my own.

Chapter 1: The Missing Prince
The first thing I noticed that night, the night this whole mess started, was that the chief looked exhausted, even more exhausted than I felt. ‘Bittern,’ he said. That’s my name all right. ‘Good,’ he said. And that’s where he went wrong. Nothing good ever started from being woken in the middle of the night by a couple of goons and dragged up to the palace for questioning. (ao3)

yuletide nominations are now open! As far as I can tell from this intentions post & spreadsheet, at the moment I'm the only person definitely intending to nominate Earthsea.

( Discussion under the cut for anyone who is planning to participate & request Earthsea )

A double drabble for The Other Wind, a sequel to the last one. Loosely in response to Challenge 19: The Future

( The lion of the east and the rowan of the north were wed )

There's been four great new stories at ff.net, which haven't been announced here...

Darkness Broken, by Elehal
Drabble. Tenar thinks about the first time she saw Ged.
Lovely little snippet

By the Wind's Name, by amechan87 (WiP)
I hate romance yet I'm here writing it. Arren X Saserakh A little spin off from The Other Wind
The beginning of Lebannen & Seserakh's story

The Humiliation of Cob, by Yunshui
Set between the events at the end of A Wizard of Earthsea and the beginning of The Tombs of Atuan, Sparrowhawk encounters Cob summoning the dead, and in a rage terrorizes and humiliates him, setting the stage for The Farthest Shore.
An interesting gapfiller

Ogion Smiled, by Yunshui
Ogion is encouraged by something small that Sparrowhawk does. Set during Sparrowhawk's apprenticeship with Ogion, before Sparrowhawk's time at Roke.
A sweet little vignette

As ever most authors appreciate feedback, if you enjoy their work!

Drabble for The Other Wind, excavated from my mausoleum for deceased stories.

( He’s well formed, for an accursed sorcerer )

Various people have reminded me that the yuletide nominations season is nearly upon us. The rules this year have changed so that one can only nominate 3 fandoms, and so it might be worth checking that at least one person is definitely intending to nominate Earthsea! (I'm having muse troubles so I'm unsure whether I'll be able to participate, sigh). Also, I believe nominators are restricted to requesting four characters, so more than one nominator might be needed to ensure there's a spread of characters.

There's a lovely little vignette recently posted to AO3, for which my icon is particularly apt :)

Lookfar, by Shimotsuki

I think this might be the author's first foray into Earthsea, so do comment there or leave kudos if you read & enjoy!

The matrithon prompt claiming phase has been extended until 18 April at this post. There are six Earthsea prompts featuring Akaren, Heru, Kossil, Moss, Tenar & any of the Women of the Hand.

The matrithon is running again this year. It's a multi-fandom ficathon focusing on female characters over 40, as defined in this post. There's a wealth of Earthsea women who might qualify; a few suggestions... ( under the cut... )

They are accepting prompts until 2 April; you don't need to write to suggest a prompt. Prompt claiming runs 2–9 April; you can claim your own prompts. Posting will be 9–31 May. Stories must be at least 500 words; you can also write poetry of any length. There is no restriction on rating or genre.

New challenge for March: The Future. The Other Wind left a lot of questions open... What is Lebannen & Seserakh's marriage like? How do the Archipelagans adapt to having a Kargish queen? What is it like for Tehanu on the other wind? Does Irian come back to the Grove? Or Tehanu to Gont? How do Ged & Tenar cope with Tehanu leaving? Does magic continue to work? ...Anything set after the end of The Other Wind.

The guidelines

If this doesn't inspire, then ten past challenges have no responses yet, and of course all past challenges remain open.

Response
The Lion & the Rowan, by Zeno

TITLE: Bait (on AO3)
AUTHOR: Gloria Mundi
FANDOM: Inception / Earthsea
RATING: PG13
PROMPT: Witches and wizards (au_bingo)
SUMMARY: It's common knowledge that mages are chaste.

The scifibigbang 2011 is open for sign-ups until 28 February. The idea is to write a minimum of 25,000 words with a rough draft due 1 July.

A series of linked stories would be eligible, as would completing an existing story as long as you wrote an additional 25k words or so during the challenge. Crossovers are allowed as long as at least one element has an sf&f element.

There are quite a lot of rules, so check out the community's FAQ with care if you're interested.

You can also suggest prompts for other writers to pick up here.

Being a not-too-serious crossover drabble. For Eledhwen.

( Penthe had grown good at lying. )

It fell to torn_eledhwen to suggest a prompt for drabbling to celebrate the 100th story milestone...

How did Penthe come from her village by the sea to the Tombs? And why?

Responses:
On Boxes, by Firerose

Link responses in comments or state '100th celebration' in your headers and I'll collate the responses here. And, of course, any work that celebrates the milestone is extremely welcome!