Candlelight Awards || OPEN & JUDGING

IMPORTANT

Hey everyone, important update here.

I just wanted to let you know that yes, I am still judging this contest and will have results out soon! I am making great progress on the experimental category in particular and hope to have it out ASAP.

I've encountered a few questions and concerns about my awards recently, and I wanted to assure you that I have no plans of ever discontinuing any of my awards.

I want to emphasize that my reviews per category are at bare minimum the length of a novella, but normally closer to the length of a novel (60-70k+ words, and that's without factoring in that I have to first close read the books I'm reviewing and then edit my 60-70k+ words worth of reviews...), and I'm doing it alone, so it is normal for results to take a while. For those who are unfamiliar with my awards, me taking a while is not anything to panic over. That's why I absolutely allow editing and don't want anyone to feel like they can't change things in their books while in my awards: I can take time.

So, yes, results will be out soon. But think about how long it takes you to write a novel, and now add onto that the editing and reading that come with reviews. I'm not complaining in any way, shape, or form—I love reviewing. It just takes time, that's all.

But everyone's been very polite about asking me and checking in on the status of the awards, so I appreciate your patience and kindness and thought I should give an update so we're all on the same page. I hope that clears things up and clears any doubts anyone had!

Secondly, my next awards will be publishing in December but won't be judged for a bit since it's a 2024-themed awards, and I want to give people a chance to publish their stories prior to the December 31st deadline (since it's a 2024 only awards), so I will post the guidelines as soon as I can.

I say this because for the first time since starting awards, I am looking for a co-host to help out, ensure judging goes smoothly, and just take on general responsibilities. It's not a hard role or anything that's going to be too demanding, and experience is not required or preferred, so newcomers are welcome!

I'm only going to be choosing one co-host for this contest, though anyone who is interested will be considered for other events and future contests as well (as you guys know, I host multiple contests a year).

If you're interested in co-hosting with me, I have a very short interest form for you to fill out. It's just to get a scope of your availability and why you're interested. Mostly multiple choice, so nothing complicated. It should take no more than 3-5 minutes at most to fill out. So, if you're interested to co-host with me, please fill out the form!

Link is in the external link and in my bio!

Thirdly, in case you did not see my announcement, I am now streaming my reviews on Twitch. Obviously I still do most of my work off-camera, and I don't spoil any scores or results on-camera, but a lot of people ask me about my judging process, so I thought I'd start streaming it.

So if you're interested in having a discussion about your work (you can request me to review it, and as long as I haven't reviewed it already, I'll take a looksie), looking into how I review books, or just want to chill since it's a relaxing stream you can have on in the background (I speak quietly and have soft music playing), then I suggest heading on over to my Twitch, which is Ravendipity.

Next stream will hopefully be Friday, 11/29. Tomorrow for me but today for a lot of people. Likely in the mid-day, like noon in EST, which I believe is around 10:30 p.m. IST.

That does it for all the updates I have. The next chapter I post will be results! See you then, and thanks for reading!