The 2013 Gay Authors Readers' Choice Ballot and Voting

[TalonRider]

The 2013 Gay Authors Readers’ Choice Awards.

G.A.is proud to announce that the voting for the 2013 Readers’ Choice Awards is now open! Voting will remain open until  February 23, 2013 (thus Saturday the 22th is the last day to vote). All GA members are eligible to vote including authors and team members. To vote, simply PM Talonrider with your picks.

Each member may vote once, and you may only vote once per award category. Any ‘ballots’ containing more than one vote per award category will immediately be void and not counted.

If you have any questions, please post those in this topic (do not submit your votes in this topic) or contact Talonrider via PM.

Please find a list of the final nominations (listed in alphabetical order under each category) below and feel free to copy and paste the list into a PM to send to Talonrider. Just make sure your votes are clearly marked. Again, only one vote per category!

Congratulations and Good Luck to all.

Thank you!

Jan aka Talonrider
Writers Support Team

All entries are listed in alphabetical order

 

Best Hosted Story:

 

9/11 by Mark Arbour

Beloved by Don H

Circumnavigation by CJames

Crosscurrents by Adam Phillips

Recovery by Nephylim

 

 

Best Promising Story:

 

Broken Prince and Mismatched Eyes by Layla

Cowboy Summer by Sasha Distan

Hidden Sunlight by Stellar

Pour Me Another by KC Grim

The Luxorian Fugitive by Mann Ramblings

 

Best GA Stories:

 

Dust and Ash by TMcCallahan

Electric Blue and Catnip by lilansui

Heart of the Tree by Graeme

No Room in the Lodge by joann414

Second Chances by Andrew Todd

 

Best Anthology Story:

 

All Over the Road by Sasha Distan

At the End of the Rainbow by Bill W

Great Balls of Fire by KC Grim

The Wardrobe by Aditus

Till the Last Breath by Ieshwar

 

Best Non-GA Story:

 

Exit From the City by LondonLampy at adult-fanfiction.org

JoeCollege by jpm770 at nifty.org

Somerset Farm by Jamie Haze at wolfnest.n40c.net

The Captain of my Dreams by tmabare at nifty.org

What a Peach by Chris James at awesomedude.com

 

Best Antagonist / Villain:

 

 

Bridget (Circumnavigation by CJames)

Jaeshun (You make me...... Crazy by lilansui)

Kenrick (So Little Magic Left by Mann Ramblings)

Lee (The English Year by Jwolf)

Tyler Maravilla (Dust and Ash by TMcCallahan)

 

Best Protagonist / Hero:

 

Dustin (Dust and Ash by TMcCallahan)

George Granger (Odyssey by Mark Arbour)

KC (Dance Lessons by joann414)

Shawn (So Little Magic Left by Mann Ramblings)

Trevor (Circumnavigation by CJames)

 

Best Poem:

 

Coming Home from Eloquence of the Heart by Winged_Wolf

Until the End by Layla

Winter Frost by Celethiel

 

Best Story by a New Anthology Author:

 

Burnt Dreams by Aditus

Half Jack by Thorn Wilde

I am Fine by totally

If I don’t tell you now by joann414

Six Seconds by Luc Rosen

 

Best GA Stories by a New Author:

 

BOYSTOWN by JBlakeview1

From the Depths by AC Benus

Nemesis by Thorn Wilde

Porcupines by Cole Matthews

Twas the Night Before Christmas by Aditus

 

King or Queen of Cliffhangers:

 

JBlakeview1

Mark Arbour

Stellar

TMcCallahan

[Daddydavek]

Wow.  This is going to be so difficult.

 

 

 

OH!   And Congratulations to all the nominees!   You all provided us with wonderful stories and hours of reading enjoyment!  Thank You!  DDK

Edited February 9, 2014 by Daddydavek

[Suvitar]

Wow.  This is going to be so difficult.

I agree! It was hard enough to decide which to nominate and now to choose the best one.

[Slytherin]

Wow.  This is going to be so difficult.

Nope - I thought it was much easier to vote this time than last year I have already voted..

 

Edited February 9, 2014 by slytherin

[Mann Ramblings]

It's a tough list. Everyone in it is has done great work. I'm thrilled to be up there myself.

[Andy78]

Best of luck to everyone who is nominated

[comicfan]

My votes are in.

[Kitt]

Soooo not fair...making me choose between two authors on my "gotta read immediately" list for king of the cliffies! At least the only other category I had trouble deciding in was best protagonist.  

 

Every single author on the lists deserve to be there. Thank you all for providing so much fantastic reading material. You should all be proud of yourselves.

[K.C.]

I better vote before I forget...I've had bad habit of doing that lately!

[Mark Arbour]

Being nominated for these awards is a huge honor.  Thank you to those of you who took the time to nominate, and congrats to my fellow nominated authors. 

[methodwriter85]

Alright, go Mark and Adam!

[Fishwings]

I have voted *A*

 

Thanks for the nomination, to everyone who nominated. Good luck!

[mickey1952]

Just sent TalonRider my votes. Good luck to all the nominees. You're all winners in my book; you've given me hours of enjoyment with your storytelling, and I look forward to more good things in this new year!

[Circle]

While I certainly see the purposes of these awards being purely motivational and generate recognition for an author's work, there are several fundamental questions to this which I would like answered, simply because the lack of transparency undermines the entire purpose.

 

There were hundreds of new stories in 2013. Who made this list? Who came up with this narrow band of a handful of stories inside which we must cast our vote? What was the process by which these stories were chosen? Were they judged on their merits, literary skills, popularity, or what? What were the criteria for such selections? How should we cast our vote, when the definition of 'best' story could simply be our favourite, or the only one we have read? And if no criteria had been given to what exactly the 'best' story is, should it therefore not be simply our 'favourite' story as it is practically a popularity contest?

 

Since the selection process is not transparent, and since this is a site that promotes quality fiction, 'best' is not an appropriate word for the small amount of stories that have been chosen which is then to be voted by willing forum voters who were not given the appropriate criteria of judgment for the word, 'best'. Even to the eventual winners, claiming to be 'the best story of 2013' is still rather too pretentious when there is little ground for which they could actually wear that title. If there *is* a transparent system behind the nominations, I would very much like to hear. Distinctions and acknowledgements would be very helpful to clarify that this award has taken into account the majority of works written in 2013, and indeed show that the forum clique had looked beyond members of their own and acknowledge other authors who share the same site they do.

 

Thanks for the clarification.

Edited February 10, 2014 by Circle

[Graeme]

Hi, Circle,

 

The short answer to your questions is that it's the members here at GA who made the short lists. There was a nomination process that finished a couple of weeks ago, where all members were invited to nominate stories. The stories with the most nominations in each category are the ones on the short list above.

 

This is why these are called the "Readers' Choice Awards". They are the choices of the readers here at GA. The nomination process was completely open and explained at the time. The voting in the nomination process and again here in the final selection for each category is kept secret, but that's not unusual.

 

Graeme

Edited February 10, 2014 by Graeme

[Cole Matthews]

Thanks to all for the hard work providing us with quality stories. I love reading the great stuff you have given us. Bravo! 

[Lisa]

Good luck to everyone who was nominated!

 

You all are winners in my book!

[Aditus]

Thank you!!! Monday's looking so much better this week.

 

I voted. Good luck everyone.

[Andrew Todd]

Congratulations to all the nominees and many thanks to all those who participated in the nomination process. Thank you so much for the recognition.

[jpm770]

Awww, wow, thanks so much for the nomination!  That's so cool.  It made my night.

[Lisa]

Awww, wow, thanks so much for the nomination!  That's so cool.  It made my night.

Hahah, I didn't even know you were on here!

 

Your last chapter btw, had me in tears. I cried myself to sleep that night just thinking about Joe and Chris drifting apart.

[jpm770]

Hahah, I didn't even know you were on here!

 

Your last chapter btw, had me in tears. I cried myself to sleep that night just thinking about Joe and Chris drifting apart.

 

Aw, man, that makes me feel kinda guilty!  There's lots more left to go, probably 12-15 chapters.  

 

I'm not really, actively on here.  I made a profile a long time ago in case I wanted it at some point, maybe for some later project.

[Ron]

Aw, man, that makes me feel kinda guilty!  There's lots more left to go, probably 12-15 chapters.  

 

I'm not really, actively on here.  I made a profile a long time ago in case I wanted it at some point, maybe for some later project.

I had no idea you were on here either. And, I haven't read the latest chapter yet - Thanks, Lisa!

I'm probably not the only person to nominate you for the story, I'm sure, but you were on my nomination list.

[Lisa]

I had no idea you were on here either. And, I haven't read the latest chapter yet - Thanks, Lisa!

I'm probably not the only person to nominate you for the story, I'm sure, but you were on my nomination list.

Oh shit Ron, I'm so, so sorry!!!! I should have put a spoiler alert there! I wasn't even thinking!!!!

Aw, man, that makes me feel kinda guilty!  There's lots more left to go, probably 12-15 chapters.  

 

I'm not really, actively on here.  I made a profile a long time ago in case I wanted it at some point, maybe for some later project.

Well, I'm thrilled there's way more to go! =) So there's always hope.

 

And it's funny, every time I drive down 684 I think of you. lol

[Adam Phillips]

Thanks to all of of you who put my 10-years-in-the-making-but-finally-finished story up for nomination! I'm honored, and gratified to be included in the distinguished company of other nominees, and just being recognized for my efforts will keep me churning out chapters of new stuff MUCH more regularly in 2014!