The nominees for the sshg_awards have been posted here with links. Voting begins on the 5th and runs an entire month, so there's time to catch up on stories here you missed, and voting is a lot less involved than nominating (you don't have to worry about what's eligible among other things, and only one vote per category so you don't have to write out multiple choices. Hell, you don't even have to link, find author LJ or email. Just use the form below and type up the title of your vote (taken from the com profile):

<b>Shrinking Solution: Best Drabble</b> VOTE: <b>Hiccupping Solution: Best Drabble Series</b> VOTE: <b>Invigoration Draught: Best Short</b> VOTE: <b>Strengthening Solution: Best Mid-Length</b> VOTE: <b>Calming Draught: Best Novel Length</b> VOTE: <b>Everlasting Elixirs: Saga/Epic</b> VOTE: <b>Amortentia: Best Romance</b> VOTE: <b>Felix Felicis: Best Smut/PWP</b> VOTE: <b>Agitation Elixir: Best Angst</b> VOTE: <b>Scintillating Solution: Best Drama</b> VOTE: <b>Hair-Raising Potion: Best Action Adventure</b> VOTE: <b>Polyjuice Potion: Best A/U</b> VOTE: <b>Euphoria Elixir: Best Humour</b> VOTE: <b>Instant Darkness Powder: Best Dark Fic</b> VOTE: <b>Draught of Peace: Best Fluff</b> VOTE: <b>Still Simmering: Best WIP</b> VOTE: <b>Finite Incantatem: Best Newly Completed</b> VOTE: <b>Top Brewer: Best Author</b> VOTE: <b>Potions Apprentice: Best New Author</b> VOTE: <b>Mrs Scower's Magical Mess Remover: Favorite DH-Compliant Fic</b> VOTE:

Congratulations to all the nominees. Just to make it this far is an honor. If I haven't congratulated you individually, consider it done now! Lots I nominated on that list. SQUEE!!!

Also, annietalbot wrote an Open Letter regarding awards I muchly agree with here. She puts it more nicely and diplomatically than I will.

( A Modest Proposal: The Kanye West AwardsCollapse )

( Why I hate Wonderful ChildCollapse )

Oh, and mundungus42's filk below is FTW!

And a house-elf dropped these at my doorstep. And then ran off to iron her hands.

So, there's a new category in the sshg_awards, which just started taking nominations: Finite Incantatem: Best Newly Completed Fic (This category has its own rules. Stories nominated for this category began posting at any time prior to July 21, 2008 but were completed between July 21, 2008 and July 21, 2009.)

Anyone know some candidates I can nominate? (and no, not making another list post...) I immediately thought of lullabelle72's Jitters--certainly my favorite recently completed SSHG fic, but it was completed after the cut-off date so I'd have to wait till next round. I then looked at what I had rec'd on KIA (I rarely rec WIPs before completion) but Spellcaster by SGCbearcub, seemingly the next possible candidate, was completed before the cut-off date. So, anyone know of any stories that fulfill the above criteria for the new category? I can't think of one!

It might be a good idea btw to post a list of your eligible stories this week. (Especially if any fit the category above--and do mention if you're eligible for "New Author.") Don't think of it as self-pimping, think of it as a service to us all. I didn't write much this year at all. My eligible stories would be the two shorts Surfacing and Madmen and Englishwomen, two drabble series, Not Just a Pretty Face and Twice Blessed and seven single drabbles, Brilliant, But Scary, Heart of Oak, Tether and Just a Crack (and one, two, three drabble sequels to "Not Just a Pretty Face." All renitaleandra's fault).

Pathetic, I know, even if you add my one Snuna, The Hunting of the Snark and my romancingwizard Molly ficlet, Mated Pair, my Ron/Pansy ficlet on sortinghatdrabs, Sorthing Things Out and 3 drabbles in other pairings (SSLE, Stairway to Heaven; HPLL, Stargazing; and HGPP, Oyster) to the list of what I wrote during this period. Only 13,507 words in total, less than last year's of about 20,000. Hopefully I'll do better next time with my writing. OK, so I showed you mine--show me yours?

My Post-Deathly Hallows SSHG - Year Two list does have every completed story above 10,000 words, but below that there are so many stories and drabbles I had to be selective. With WIPs, I generally only listed those that have reached 40,000 words, and you won't easily find eligibles for the new category above through my lists since I don't include completion dates, so again, posting your eligibles would be helpful to your f-listies, especially since different posting dates on different archives can confuse the issue.

Edit: So far people have brought my attention as eligible in the new category: irishredlass's Require Your Assistance; ariadne1's No Loyalty in the Moonlight; subversa's The Love You Take, miamadwyn's Care of Magical Creatures, lady_rhian's Sage, little_beloved's Denial, Marisol's The Godfather, A Plus's Splintered and Broken and lariopefic's Second Life. Anything else? Also, keladry_lupin is linking to various people's eligibility lists here and lovedraughts here.

I notice that with the sshg_awards nominations beginning people are posting their eligibles--not that I expect to have a chance, but not only do I want to encourage that practice but I'm curious to see what I had written in the first year post-DH. Not much...

( My Fic in the First Year Post-DHCollapse )

Ouch. So little? Including my contribution to the fic I wrote with Grindy, not much more than 20,000 words total and nothing really I'd count a personal favorite. Not been the best year for me given personal/family reasons, hopefully this year I'll do better. Given the Exchange I *must.*

I have mixed feelings about awards stemming from my history in Trek. It can cause all sorts of hard feelings and resentment, but in the end, it can also cause a real lift to an author to see a story of theirs recognized, particularly if they’re a newbie. I’d been mulling over what to nominate at a new Awards Site, Quill to Parchment, and it’s been rather fun to think up what would fit in some interesting categories.

( But I'm Having a Problem with one cat--Suggestions?Collapse )
Oh, and does anyone have the scoop on FanLib? I hear it's a new Fanfic site with some buzz but also controversy, particularly about the TOS. I skimmed over it and maybe I'm missing the implications or how it's being applied, but it seemed straightforward, other than the part about one not being able to "degrade" the site. Does that mean you can't criticize it or your account gets deleted? Because I've had enough of seeing that kind of thing in fandom.

EDIT boji was kind enough to point me to an informative article about FanLib by icarusancalion here Interesting and disturbing. Go read.

( And RR just won some nice egobooCollapse )


Oh, and btw, my sshg_exchange fic, and that of my betee clare009 (hers is gorgeous) has been safely uploaded to the archive, and given betas and input from Djinn, bambu345 and darth_luna, I don't think I'll embarrass myself too badly. Whew Now maybe I can go back to reading some fanfic, including that posted to the exchange, guilt-free.

I just got notice my Ron-centric short story, "Gambit" has been nominated for "Best Gen!Fic" and "Best One Shot" on Quill to Parchment. I like the look of the site, the rules, and I'm in very good company with authors such as Minisinoo, Rozarka, and sioniann already nominated in various categories.

However, I notice they have yet to nominate one Snape/Hermione story among other things. Their nominations are still open until June 4th, so I thought I'd let people on my f-list know about the site and encourage people to go nominate their favorite stories and authors. There doesn't seem to be any limit according to how old the story is, the site seems to be designed in a way that reminds me of the old Multi-faceted Awards allowing for various rounds. With the demise of those awards, this might fill the vacuum nicely.

However, choose your nominees carefully. From what I understand of the rules, you can only nominate one story per category and you can only nominate a story for one category. I'm going to take my time choosing--well, at least until I figure out exactly what Darkfic and Crackfic is and what I'd like to nomninate in it. They also have a LJ community at qtp_awards