So it doesn't matter who you upset, just as long as you get what you want? You know, that sound journalistic technique. You really are something. We don't do that at this forum. If you'd taken the time to discover that before upsetting people, and acting like you owned the place, you would know that. You received a pm from Alex earlier, which you've ignored. I think it's time I tried a little moderating technique.

Hm, even after all I and Stargelman have said in this thread, and after the time I took to explain it further in the pm's we exchanged you would post a thing such as this.

Unfortunately some people can't take a hint very good, not even when it's right there for everyone to see. Just so everyone knows, Raggidman has been suspended for a short period of time for failing to comply with what was made very clear in here. There is a line, and you do not cross the line without repercussions.

I hope this will serve as an example for others. Look up my earlier posts, that's the line, please don't cross it.
Thank you.

First of all; Congrats to all the winners! And trey, I didn't know you were in! But of course when Trey enters a competition....times will be hard for all the others!



Now I know why I'm generally not so very fond of discussions! why is it that every time there is some kind of competition, there also just has to be a lot of discussions, all of them not entirely nice..

Gah....I'm so tired of it, and I must say I'm almost glad I didn't perticipate!

The meaning of this should be to have fun! So please do not put so much prestige in it, just write, compete and accept the results, how hard can it be?

While I understand some of the concerns people have expressed over the competition (though note I don't support the personal digs at the judges) it's a great shame this thread had to kick off so much. I hope there are future competitions, and that they're less controversial.

Alex was kind enough to send me some feedback, and said I could share it if I wanted to. Well I do. And to my pleasure, Alex presented alot of his critique as questions. Question that I could answer. I probably should put up a spoiler warning, but to be honest, I'd rather have someone read this before my story, for preemptive clarification. Also, I'll give away as little as possible in my answers:

- Why did Nathaniel wait until the very end to show his true colors when he had far better moments for it before, like in the minotaur attack?

I decided to do this story in limited third person naration, and it seems I took the "limited" part too seriously. I didn't want the reader to know things that Sturm himself didn't know, or be more aware than he was. In retrospect I should've done it from first person, but I'm not fond of that form of writing, and I'm not very good at it (I always end up subconsiously switching back to third

- What's the connection between the Dark Brotherhood and lord Rajah? If any?

This one pains me the most. It seems I got so far into my own made up world, and was so used to relying on the fact that everyone here (mostly) have played Oblivion. There is no connection, though I didn't specifically say that, and I did compare the two, so I see how people got lost. Shameful...

- Early in the story it's mentioned Sturm doesn't want to join factions, and then the thing with the Dark Brotherhood is mentioned.

Sturm just didn't want to be tied to one class, like warrior or thief. This is the affiliation he hopes to avoid, and he'll stop his travel to join any group (such as with the infiltration group) if they pay well enough

- Why did they travel around from city to city after Cheydinhall and not pick up any new recruits until Bruma? Gives me the impression the travel was just to fill some time.

Time constraint. I planned on having the travel more detailed (including Fred being abducted by goblins, and Sturm leading the rescue, thereby earning his respect). Also, I wanted the travel to be more realistic (I increased the size of Cyrodiil drastically) and again with the (severely) limited third person thing: Sturm travels alot, and since I made Cyrodiil bigger, there was less interference along the way (I also made animals more docile). I kinda thought of it like when survivorman travels: A occasional shot of a bird or the sky, but otherwise nothing unless he runs into an animal. Kinda like a time lapse, or going in fast-forward. Also, some of the cities Erin and Stan already tried, and they acctually did stop to recruit like Chorrol, but were unsuccessful.

- What's the story with the daughter of Ocato and how she got at Rajah's place?

For the third time: I didn't want people to know about things Sturm himself didn't (so the surprise would be, you know, a surprise). And to answer: She was somewhat willingly abducted, Ocato doesn't pay much attention to her.

- Why the burning or even theft of the Elder Scroll?

As a display of being more powerful/capable than the Empire, and to piss them off, kinda like a Martyr, if the legion storms down there and kills the Heretics (deluded citizens of the IL, but citizens none the less) people wouldn't be too happy about it, and the Empire would lose even more support. They also wanted to bring the legion down there, for home-field advantage, hence the infiltrators mapping and gathering of info.

- Why is Sturm mistaken for a Teenager, even though he looks "deceptively young"?

I never outrightly tell how old Sturm is, cuz' again, he doesn't know himself. I acctually set him as about 19, but he's only around 5' 7-9" and has a kinda rounder, younger face. Due to the variety of races present, and the amount and variations of half-breeds, height isn't usually used to gauge age, instead facial features (scars, worry lines) are used, at least in my version of TES.

While I'm at it; back when I was saying it seemed like people weren't reading my story, it was because of the lack of varied feedback (or feedback in general). I had more proof that someone had read my story when they mentioned something they could only glean form reading it themselves. So when everyone else kept bringing my grammar errors into the fray (really annoying) they could get that by just looking back a few posts; without ever reading my story. I am an extreme internet skeptic: If you give me no proof, I can only logically assume that you're lying. Anyone can look back and see that I spelt Daedra wrong the five or six times I used it. So when people keep bringing up a pretty moot point, without addressing any of the more important and obvious points (like Alex's post shows) it shows either that A.) They didn't read my stroy. Or B.) They care more about grammar than a good story or any other part of the story, so if I'd gone through and and wrote:
"I will not spell Daedra wrong." a few thousand times, people would have liked it better than what I submitted.

"If you only tell me things that don't help me; I can only assume you don't want to help me."

Given; you could've thought that bringing up the grammar thing was helpful, but when someone (I forget who) said: "It'd have been better with a little polish" That was sufficient. Maybe you didn't see the many preceeding posts about my very small grammar problem, which again, I was aware of in the first place. But I also believe you should read the entire thread before posting. Which is kinda alot, but if you really don't care enough, then why are you here? You wouldn't jump into a conversation midway with absolutely no clue of what's going on, would you?

I just wanted to take the opportunity to congratulate the winners, as well as all those who entered. Great job everyone!

A big thank you to the judges for taking the time to run this competition. I'm impressed y'all managed to read through so many entries so quickly!

If there's anything I'd like to see in future competitions, it would be an automated email or two. One to notify receipt of the submission(s), and one to alert those who entered the results had been announced.

Some particular criticisms:



If it's unclear enough that the reader doesn't realize that Sturm himself doesn't know something (especially if the reader has already become aware of whatever that something is), then you need to either obscure the fact more (so that it's a surprise to the reader, too) or go more into detail with the character's journey to self-realization (so that the reader understands that it's a surprise to the character, too).



This may be my single greatest pet peeve in fantasy fiction. In real life, there are no such things as "classes". You can have someone identify himself as an archer or swordsman by what weapon he prefers, or have someone repulsed by the idea of being labeled a thief due to his innate sense of right and wrong, and in Tamriel, like many other worlds, "mage" is a full-time profession, too, but storytelling focus on character "class" archetypes is wince-worthy in fic.



If time constraints didn't permit you to pursue a plot thread, you should have cut them out. The story would probably have had much more cohesive pacing without these rather obvious loose ends.




Right, but if readers are still wondering after they've finished reading, you didn't do a good enough job explaining it. There's a difference between keeping limited third person believable and simply not fleshing out characters' backgrounds.



Not to speak for Alex here, but I think the question (mine, anyway) was more pointed at the relative sanctity of the Scrolls themselves in TES lore. As a fanfiction author, it's often a little... hm, what's the right word? Presumptuous? to step on an area of lore that the official writers clearly consider sacred.

More to the point, it's off-putting to the fans, some of whom were your judges. Something to consider for next time.




Okay, I've been quiet on this so far. However, enough is enough:

Mechanical errors (spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar) are the single worst part about reading fanfiction. Seriously, you don't even have to be good at English anymore to have a flawless paper. How hard is it to use a spell-checker? Find+Replace "Deadra" with "Daedra", Microsoft Word has searched the document and made 17 replacements, bada-bing-bada-boom. At the absolute least, beg/cajole/pay someone with a better grasp of grammar to proofread it for you. Refusing to do this is like telling your judge, "[censored] you, I don't care enough about my work to bother cleaning it up for you.

Alex and the other judges were magnanimous enough to discount spelling and grammar errors completely (probably more for the sake of our international friends than people who just can't be arsed), but I guarantee you: it has an impact on what people think of your writing, and of you. It's like showing up to a job interview wearing ripped jeans or a stained shirt - it turns people off immediately, and causes the reader to make an instantaneous (negative) personal judgment call.

Just to make sure this hits home: You think people bringing up your mechanical errors is "really annoying"? I've been writing and critiquing fanfiction in various fandoms for almost ten years, now, and (internationals aside) I haven't found one yet where "This sucks, I'm five paragraphs in and the author has already made five spelling errors, I'm not going to read this" is considered an inappropriate response. I've seen fanfics - good fanfics, with great plots and believable characters - straight-up disqualified from competitions due to sloppy mechanical problems.

Count your lucky stars that the judges were kind enough to bother, and maybe consider an apology and/or a thank-you to those who actually did trudge through the whole thing, errors and all, and who were kind enough to point out your biggest problem so that you could correct it.

The sooner you get off this "it's JUST SPELLING, people, gooosh" cloud of misguided martyrdom, the better for you, and the better for us all.




I do hope (against all reason and evidence) that you'll take these firm words and learn from them, rather than just turn around and complain in your next post. Someone just stood up and told you straight about what you're doing wrong - be thankful; it may be the biggest favor anyone gives you for a long time.

Wow... chill, people. Take it easy. Stay cool.

Peace. The above is not an attack; it is criticism.

Firm, yes, but not unduly harsh. This fellow has spent the last three pages of this thread begging for honest, open criticism, and here he has it. If criticism is truly what he wanted (as opposed to simply a higher score), there shouldn't be any problem.

Perhaps you misunderstood me at this point. It wasn't aimed at this being in third person, or at the reader not knowing about it, it was aimed at timing.

Please allow me to explain further;
you're Nathaniel, some fairly powerful mage, joined up in a party of adventurers for the sole, unbeknownst to anyone else, reason to kill Sturm. Suddenly you're attacked by a party of Minotaurs, confusion all around, everyone running everywhere, no one knows where to attack first because danger is all around them.
Had I been Nathaniel, I'd have used a simply levitate spell to get into a tree, night eye (can't remember if it was night or day during the attack) to locate Sturm, and kill him by shooting a lightning bolt into his back while a Minotaur is attacking his front.

That's what I meant with "better moments for it" Perhaps I should have said better opportunity's for it.





It's actually not so much the idea of going into them, I wouldn't have any problem with it itself. I just thought there was so little meaning behind it, so little value. I mean if you're going to steal an Elder Scroll to read what is going to happen in the future (as I believe that's what they're supposed to hold) then ok. Taking an Elder scroll and changing the text on it to change the future, or some such plot, I'd probably have "digged" that. But stealing it and then burning it, only in a show for your own followers, seems to be underusing it a bit.

I guess that's what my question boiled down to, a feeling that such an important and hollowed artifact was underused.

I was actually referring to the concept of destroying an Elder Scroll, not reading, manipulating, or even stealing one. They're just a little... like you said, important and hallowed, to be used to make a point about how EEEEVIL your character is. There are plenty of nameless NPCs for that.

Hehe, true that

Sorry, Nathaniel isn't all that powerful, in fact, almost all his little magic skill is only because he's an Altmer. And wasn't there some kinda of made-up reason for levitation (not that Nathan could manage it anyway) not being present in Oblivion? Also, Nathaniel was requried to NOT kill Sturm when he was sleeping, which is what he was doing well into the attack, also, as Stan said; they were chased off by a large group of minotaurs. Nathaniel is a great assassin, and a mediocre mage, but he's not too good in an all out fight. I'm not going to apologize for a lack of understanding microsoft word. I can't be expected to repair a car with no, or little prior experience. Every school report/essay I've ever done in my life was by hand, cuz I like my handwriting and can put more into it that way. As I said, I don't like typing, and in my comp lit classes, all we do is type-to-learn all year. I only learned of edit; replace, a week after I submitted, and I had to figure that out by myself. Think about it; in all my posts I've used both excellent vocabulary, grammar, and spelling. So if I put so much work into a post I really don't care about, what makes you think I'd purposely negelect something I poured my life into?
It has been said that since alot of people are ripping on the judges (perhaps myself to a small extent) that a competition might not be held again. Could it not be so for the writers as well? It's also been said that the judges were not professionals, and that they were judging an AMETUER competition. This is the first writing I've ever submitted to anyone, except a close friend of mine in RL, and I followed all the rules to the letter.

As for the elder scroll, I don't think I overstepped my grounds, and used only things the TES writers provided: I knew that an elder scroll could in fact be stolen and possessed; I knew that it looked like an ordinary scroll; I never stated what it did, or its purpose; heck, maybe elder scrolls CAN'T be destroyed.

I also don't think it's really needed for me to apologize to anyone, as I never harmed anyone to my knowledge. Again, if the judges really didn't enjoy my story for shallow reasons such as grammar, which was again, stated as not being a factor, then I feel I need to do the opposite of apologize. If it had been asked, it would have been delivered with great OCD zeal, flawless, and again again, I wished I hadn't submitted and worked on it some more, skipping the competition. I knew more people would read my great story if it was an entrant as opposed to another piece on the fanfic forum; Look at Lord Veneficus: He posted a story a while back, and has now posted five or more chapters, and all he got for his work was about four comments, some from the same person. I tried to avoid a similar fate, and enter my baby to get attention. If I owe anyone an apology it's myself, as I'm the only victim in the end as a cause of the spelling.

Other people liked my story, even a favourite to some. People requested me to redo it and repost it outside the competition, or post the sequel I'm working on. The judges restated that they judged on preference, and I can deal with that. But again; with so many people ONLY critizing my spelling issue, I can't help but think that maybe that's the only problem.
This is also why I'll thank the judges again; thank you for helping me with your help (looking forward to what BSD has to say).

I ask the use of logic: People still are insisting that I left my story unrefined out of laziness; even though I stated that this is not the case. You have ABSOLUTELY no proof of this skewed conclusion. If I say:
"I was physically barred from editting my story. Furthermore, given the requirement (or even if it was only asked of me) I'd have gone to extreme measures, going more out of my way than I should have to; just to appease the critics and readers"
But it was not asked or required. Again; this was an ametuer competition: If it'd been like a job interview; where I knew what was expected of me; and when something as important as a career was on the line, I'd have given my story 200%, instead of the 111% I put in. Saying my grammar was lax, and giving me helpful advice: like telling me how to use edit; replace, as opposed to just saying that I'm lazy and didn't try hard enough, It CAN ONLY BE SEEN AS AN UNNECISSARY PERSONAL ATTACK. Saying the errors would be better out, and calling me lazy are two whole separate actions, warranting an unequal reaction. I could've/should've reciprocated with an equally insulting post, but in my world chivalry exists, so alas; I cannot change the minds of those unwilling to accept. So if you want to believe that I put all my work into 49 pages for nothing, or to win yet another copy of Oblivion, go ahead. Swear words arn't needed to be insulting.
"If you arn't part of the solution, you're part of the problem."
"You can't handle the truth!" Lol, this last one's just for fun. How I can be so calm about this? I amaze myself even sometimes

That right there is your problem, Orimus. Just because you do think your story is great, doesn't mean everyone else is going to think that way. It is natural for one to like their own writing, and treat it with extreme delicacy. But you are taking that too far. To say what you said in the above quote is actually very cocky.

Perhaps the judges didn't think your story was that great. And just forget about the grammer matter for a second, will you? Did you ever stop and think that maybe the judges just didn't like your story? Holy hell, what do ya' know? That's called life, Orimus. Not everybody is going to think the same as you do. The sooner you learn that the better. I hope you take my words seriously, because in all honesty I'm trying to help you out here.

I do. I didn't expect everyone to read my rant thouroughly, but I said very clearly that I lost because the judges didn't like it. Also, self-appraisal isn't against any rules, and if I can't agree with what someone else told me; then what has the world come to? I would've let the grammar drop, but it kept getting thrown into my face. As I said, this should've ended with Chiglets post a long time ago.

"I'm guessing this was a typo, but you'll want to replace it with either laid down or the older-but-more-universally-correct lay down."

"Thanks. Microsoft Word wasn't working real well with its grammar corrections."

I like this.

"Your story sucks. I couldn't even follow the plot."-hypothetical.

Even this is okay, though rude with the first part, but at least it tells me something. I do apologize for saying I liked my own story. I'm gonna ask something I'm already regetting: Does anyone want me to continue writing? Please, if you're a lurker, or just want me to go on, then please tell me so. Even if you're one of the people slandering my good name, but all in all, acctually liked my story, then I'll keep said story alive. I know I like my story, but *sigh* if it comes down to it; I'll just write it down in a notebook or something. I thank the people who gave me support, without trying for some hope of just breaking me for some reason. I don't need friendlyness, I wanted fairness. So to Alex, and BSD, I thank you for indulging me, and the only thing I can offer in return is my stubborness to continue on a apparently rough course. And, against my bitter judgement, I thank those who answered my call for constructive critizims, even if it'd been said many times, especially those who understand the concept of internet ettiquette, I salute thee. We are few, but we do exist, and for my human flaws that make you think I speak too highly of myself, two points:
You don't, and cannot understand me, as I you.
And they say information is better retained with repition: "To err is human, to forgive is divine."
I'm sorry; to all, for if I did or didn't give insult, if it was imagined, I apologize anyway. If it was needed, there it is. If I bore no insult, but accused thee anyway, then I'm honestly ashamed.

"Walk straight; for a final solution,
Walk straight; don't you be so cold,
Walk straight; with clear resolution,
I'll state my case, and never turn."

Of course you should continue writing. But do it because you want to, and nothing else. Don't worry about what others think about your writing, because in the end the only thing that really matters is what you feel, Orimus.

Thank you redsrock, I agree. I'll keep writing no matter what, I just wanted to know if others were interested. And I came up with some more suggestions:

If you take one of my previous points; to expand the time next time (if ever) on a followup competition, I'd also suggest having all judges read every story. I admit again that this is asking alot, but it's like playing darts; this was admittedly a subjective competition, so everytime you add another judge (dart) you exponentially increase the chance of one of those darts getting close® to the bullseye.

P.S, the lyrics at the bottom are from SOiLWORK. Also, the one thing I can't stand is someone who is heavily hypocritical; so to avoid becomeing the thing I loathe most, I apologize if my posts seem to be targeted assaults; which I accused some of you of. I meant none of them that way, but it's hard to interpret things online with no tone of voice.

Right, it seems everything that can be said about Orimus' tale has been said, and so it's time to move on.

Thanks. And; about time. Out of curiousity, who was the third long catagory judge? If they're alright with you telling me.

Hi stargelman!! How goes things? Been a long while since I've seen you.


The Elder Scolls are (from what I've been able to determine on my own) a written history of the future. They may or may not be able to be destroyed, though probably not as they are rather powerful magical items in their own way. The folding/spindling/mutilating/burning of one for real or just illusion would definitely get the attention of people though. And then one must consider what the overall reppurcussions of doing so would be for the whole world of Tamriel. They can definitely be altered however as is shown in the Thieves guild questline.

On the matter of any of us changing TES lore, well that's already been done by Bethesda itself with the SI main questline. Now that was a major shredding of TES lore and for me rather destroyed much of the enjoyability of that add-on. But I know of many people who absolutely love that change to the lore. So, what and how something gets changed really is a personal thing

The reason for levitation not being avaiable in Oblivion is the "Levitation act of (some year I don't recall)" I got that from an NPC's conversation I overheard while playing one time. Nifty way of explaining it, though I'd thnk that most real baddies who could would use it anyways as baddies don't follow the law anyway. And it tells me that levitation is indeed possible just not legal

Posting one's story in the fanfic forums for commentary is ( as I've found) a catch-as-catch-can thing. I posted mine here after the contest results were in with the hopes of maybe a comment or 2 on how the story was written. What I might improve for the next time I actually sit and write something. I know people have at least glanced at it, though the only comment so far is in regard to the pictures. Ah well, hopefully those who read it at least got a chuckle out of it.

Ok. noticing that I'm starting to get rather scatterbarined here, I'll stop now. Keep writing folks! Practice makes improvement if not perfection.

Man things have been crazy in this thread...I'm glad that people are starting to cool down more but alot of the arguments here have been rather pointless. For those of you like me who didn't win, get over it. Alot of people lost but you don't see them here complaining.
Ouch and the ref takes a point.


Quoted for truth. My views exactly Minky.

I think people have been taking either themselves too seriously or the competition itself too seriously. It's just something for fun, as Minque said, and made for amateur writers who write above all for pleasure.

Some of you shouldn't be so harsh on the judges and the writers or the competition. I, to be honest, hope there will be another one in the future.

Also, I'm very glad that my story finished fourth. It's something to be proud of when your story finishes fourth out of 27.

Congratulations to all the other participants and to the judges for taking their time to read through all these stories.

Since Haplo already posted about it, I see no reason not to mention it again. He was the third judge. It was BSD, Haplo and myself for the long section.

As it seems most has been said about this and there hasn't been a post in 8 days, I'm going to unpin this.

Feel free to still post in it though if you feel the need to

Threadcromancy! Anyone else feel like not much was resolved in this (ancient) thread? I'd love to see whatcha guys have to say after all this time. Not that I'm suggesting we return to arguing of course, just curious.

Some things I'd like to clear up:
Yes, I am an arrogant boat. This was a means of self-preservation. I tend to give up on my talents pretty easy; and this was early in my writing career (and yes, I still write). So I took ever little thing against my story wayyyyyyyyyyyy to harshly. Understand, I was young and passionate, hormone driven and defensive. I really didn't have any other works of writing to "fall back" on, if this one flopped, which it did, very much so. My accusation of the judges not reading my work, was not indignation (then nor now) at my lowly rank, it was the lack of supporting evidence; and could have been worded better, which it was initially, but as my search for critique bore no fruit, I, like any other human, got frustrated and resorted to means below my petty social code of ethics; for this I again apologize.

So why renew a long dead issue? It's simple: My oblivion game disc broke, and I forgot about everything that had taken place on this forum. Recently, I got the game again, started playing, and low and behold, I was thinking to myself "Wow, I could write some great stories based on this!"

So I think this thread was not "dead" so much as forgotten.

So you're an avid writer, eh?

Some of the stories here are worth the competition. I like reading them.


Regards,
Kellie
Simulation pret immobilier

Will there be a competition this year?

I suppose it is about time we had another one. I'd rather just do a small forum competition rather than a large community one though - for several reasons.

1. It takes a lot of time to judge, and time constraints are a factor. The more stories, the larger amount of time required, and the less useful feedback given, due to those constaints.
2. We had a lot of problems in the community competition from people wanting things done their way. Problems we didn't face when doing the first forum only competition.
3. The announcement of Skyrim will inevitably mean an increase in interest. Whilst we can cope with new members here (due to the fact that all our existing members are very cool and all follow the type of forum we like to be instinctively), members from the official forums... might not be so accomodating. See point 2

If anyone is interested in doing a forum only (and friendly) competition here again, just say so. If there's enough interest, why not?

I have a question.

Will the competition be of Long or Short stories, or both?

I'd be up for it.

Similar to the first small forum only one we had? If so was the anonymous posting a good concept all things considered? Certainly having the stories and voting anonymous was nessesary but the commenting did cause a few issues. Also length is something worthy of consideration, but I'm sure it will be in due time, for what it's worth I'm rather partial to very short fiction...

Sierra - I'd agree on all three points :nod:

Yeah !!!

OMG....Well Maybe I should....write something perhaps?

I guess I could be persuaded to lend my incredible warped mind to this cause...either as a judge or a writer.

WOO HOO, TELLIE !!!! By the way, I hope you don't mind that I submitted your scene with Lucien Lachance to "Funny Moments in Fanfics" - that segment still makes me laugh just thinking about it !!!

I wish another fan fiction competition would happen to kinda give the forums a jolt of new members and activity.

Not to mention it was great reading all of the ES related material that was written.

Also, I am aware that I necro'd this thread big time.

Don't worry. I've been bumping dead threads by accident constantly, so what you did is nothing compared to what I've been accidentally doing. Anyway....

I do agree with Kiln, a fan fiction competition would be pretty cool.

I'd be up for doing another competition as well, certainly.

Same here!

PLEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAASSSEEE!Besides, it could bring in new members that will actually use their account.

I'm in.

Alright, if you guys are serious about this, somebody should put a proposal through to the admins here. They set it up and ran it last time, although it has been quite some time since the last competition, I feel that the release of Skyrim has bolstered the number of ES fans considerably.

I'd love to see some fresh blood injected into the forums. Maybe this would be a good way to do it.

Ok guys, I'm going to PM one of the administrators or moderators asking them if it's possible to set up another competition later. I'll get back to you with the answer soon.

EDIT: I just sent out a PM to minique, now I'm going to wait for a reply.

No reply so far so I'm guessing that there was not really any support for it.

I haven't gotten a PM back...so yeah. I'm guessing the answer is no.

Acadian had to wait 5 months for a response to moving his final chapter to the archive, Minque is traveling frequently to cat shows with her gorgeous cat.

Why can't we set up our own? Someone can agree to be the judge (jury/executioner) and all the stories would have to be entered under the judges name so all the entries remain anonymous. All of us on the forum can vote for which story we want to win, the one with the most votes gets the prize.

We could use Treydog's "Rat Award" (once more) as a badge of honor for the winner, lol.

5 months?!

I suppose this is just a waiting game then.....

If I ever get a PM back I'll tell you guys.

Why not do what I suggested?

KoB, go back and read the rest of mALX's post. Sounds like a good plan! Rat award, lol. That's before my time.

I'd be up for that, and I'd be happy to be one of the judges; I do advance reading of manuscripts submitted to a publisher, have review books and plan to study writing and literature pretty extensively in my free time and plan to do it for Uni, so I'd like to think that I'd be pretty well qualified for it.

I'd have to forfeit my entry, of course, but that's fine with me; gives the rest of you all a fair chance.