The Crowning Gem Awards (Finished)

Updates 19: April 19

Hi, sorry about that April Fools prank. The contest is not over. I'm currently working on my judgments for Fantasy, I'll move on to Realistic Fiction next, followed by Short Story/Poem. I just wanted to ask, does anyone speak English as a second or third language? I'm judging everyone as a native English speaker right now, and I'm realizing that some of you might be learning English. If so, I will increase all your rubric scores on mechanics and blurb by one or two points unless you have an eight or nine. This is to account for the incredible fact that you are confident enough in English to write a story and enter it into a contest.

I'm trying to be a fair judge, and I can't be fair if I don't account for language disparities. Just keep in mind native English speakers, you should know English and I expect your mechanics sections to have pretty high scores compared to non-native speakers, so this is just to balance the scale. Please don't get mad at anyone for admitting they are going to need the extra points, they deserve to be given a fair chance at this contest.

I'm also warning all participants in the three genres being judged. This is going to take a bit longer than I expected. There are so many entries to get through and I can't be judging 24/7, so I'll go as fast as I can, but be patient. I will eliminate you if you send me even one impatient message. I'm not saying that anyone has so far, but if you do I will eliminate you. I'm not dealing with rude contestants when I'm putting a lot of work into running this. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but I don't want to have to deal with any of that.

Thank you for reading,

Sorry about the harsh last paragraph,

Sorry about that April Fools prank,

May the best book win,

Eliot Everdeen