Just...wow!

So, I entered an anonymous one shot contest called the Jukebox contest. It was a real challenge because the premise was to pick a song from a vast list (I think 80 songs was the final count) and then write a story encompassing the song or a lyric from the song.

Unfortunately, since I had never written a story around a song, I choose a song that I instantly recognized and loved. The reason this was a terrible idea was because the song I choose was 'The Blower's Daughter' by Damien Rice. 

Yes, this is a lovely song -- beautiful and heartfelt and devastating -- but, you see, therein laid the problem; In order to encompass a beautiful and heartfelt and devastating song, you have a to write a beautiful and heartfelt and devastating story. Yeah, sounds easy, right? Ha! (that's a scoff, btw).

If you're reading this blog, chances are that at some point you've met or talked to me within the fandom. Hell, you may have even read one of my stories. If you have (read one of my stories, that is ) then you know exactly where this is going, but if you haven't then.... The easiest way I can describe myself --in life as well as the Twilight fandom -- is a jokester, a goofball, a WussPerv, and a smut connoisseur.

Basically, I don't do serious.

Needless to say, I contemplated just not doing it. I wrote about two paragraphs the first week the contest was opened and then didn't touch the story again until a week before it was due. I rarely finish anything I start and I realized that that made me a quitter, and quitters are losers by default.

I don't like to lose, though I do it often.

With renewed vigor, I restarted the story. It took me two days and five thousand words, but I finally did it. I named it 'And So It Is' and I got it to the wonderful coachlady1, who gave a me a rushed BJ (that's beta-job you h00rs!)  and we got it into the contest hours before the entries closed. 

What happened next, you may ask. Well, then I forgot about it, naturally. As I told you, I lose, -- a lot -- so I thought that it'd be the last I saw of the contest. And after I read over half of the other 42 entries (yeah, I know!) it solidified my resolve that this just wasn't my cup of tea, but it was worth a nice effort. I was glad I tried something out of my comfort zone, but I wasn't at all expecting to walk away with anything more than an exhale and a self pat on the back.

Let's just say wow! Just, wow! I can't even tell you how excited I was when I opened my Twitter and saw that they were posting the winners on the WayWard Pushers' blog. There were so many ties in the contest, too! I was just minding my own business, reading the reviews of the winners and scoping to see if I'd already read the entry or not -- opening tabs with the URL so that I could read them if I hadn't already.

This is what it came to:

People's Choice:

• 1st Place: Irreversible by LFC Hotstuff
• 2nd Place: Cygnus Reawakened by Risbee
• 2nd Place: All Of Me by elusivetwilight
• 3rd Place: His Word is Good by jadedandboring 
• 3rd Place: Wicked Way by il-bel-mondo
• 3rd Place: Do you Feel the Same by mizzdee  

Judge's Choice:

• 1st Place: Made of Choices by Vampire Extraordinaire
• 2nd Place: Love is on the Air by cosmoandmarvar
• 2nd Place: Cygnus Reawakened by Risbee  
• 2nd Place: Crown of Love by mephis1
• 3rd Place: All Of Me by elusivetwilight 

As you can see, there were a lot of repeat winners. I didn't think I had a chance. Then, I looked at the most recent post and saw that all the number one awards were viewed as one blog post, and I was floored.

I completely lost my shit. Like, I screeched at the computer screen and was like, "Are you fucking kidding me right now? Seriously?" I hopped up and down and startled my baby. My next door neighbor came over to make sure I was alright. I swear this to you. I even text'd "The Boy" and told him how excited I was. He graciously congratulated me and I felt like a million dollars.

And then, to make it even better, Tkegl was a judge and she liked my story enough to make me a banner. 

Did I mentioned that I was dead? I literally died of shock. Seriously.

Anyway, I just didn't know what to do with myself. I was so hyped, I couldn't keep it to myself. Thank you to everyone who participated, judged, hosted, wrote, voted, twitted, all of it! Thanks so much to everyone!

Check out the Jukebox FFn profile to read the stories and to listen to the playlist of all the songs. You can find my story there or on my own FFn profile as well.

~Tay

And another one!

Thinking about hosting another contest. It was kind of fun, a little stressful, but the excitement made it all worth it. Maybe I should wait a bit? What do you folks think about a little drabble didly? Like, a contest with a set of key words that you have to write a drabble to.

Hmmm..... *taps chin* I'd need a theme, judges, character focus, and a BANNER!!

If you haven't noticed yet, I'm a whore for banners.

~Tay

And the winners are...

This was incredible! As my first contest, I was a little worried in the beginning that there wouldn't be anyone to enter. Thankfully, there were 11 entries - all Jacob-centric. Some were graphic and lemony, some scary and intense, but all of them were great in their own rights. I have to say that I was impressed by some of the ideas and I enjoyed reading every single one of them. I'll be forever grateful for those who took the time to entertain me and my love of Jacob.

Even with all of the entries, I wasn't able to give away my awesomely, awesome named awards (I'm not biased at all...really...), but we were able to put together a Judges' Choice and two Readers' Choices. All of the entries were fabulous, but after a week of public voting - and an almost 3 way tie - winners were determined. Without further ado, the winners of The Reluctant Reader's Bathed In Black contest are:

Reader's Choice: Second Place (Runner-up in the public vote):

'Forgiveness' by ThatPanicGirlE

Reader's Choice: First Place

'Maybe Its Make Believe' by starry-nights88

And, the winner of the Judges' Choice - voted by Tiffaninichole, Pavarti, LadyTazz, and reluctantreader:

'Save Me' by TwiReaderAbi

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to create a scene to read and to all who took the time to read, review, and vote for their favorites. I cannot express how much it meant to me to finally feel like I had a place within the Twilight fandom. It can be easy to overlook people in a place this huge and it's an incredible feeling knowing that there were fans out there who gave me the time of day at all.

Special thanks to FrozenSoldier/Lonely-Soldier for making ALL of the banners. Thank you to TwilightAwards, TwilightSicness, Jacob Black 'N' Pack, and Black_Pack for posting contest information and tweeting the hell out of BiB! Also, thank you to my judges LadyTazz, tiffaninichole, and Pavarti for talking me off the ledge and helping me to promote BiB.

Last, but not least, I'd like to thank all ten of the authors for sharing the inner workings of their minds in Jacob form. So thank you, twilightnaley19 (x2), theboysandgirlsliketoplay, FigSk8ingAngel, anglflip, purelyamuse, Envy5, ThatPanicGirlE, starry-nights88, jazztastic1, and TwiReaderAbi. Y'all made the contest because without you, there wouldn't be anything to read. 

I'd also like to say a special thank you to purelyamuse and FigSk8ingAngel for writing entries that weren't rated 'M', you two were the other two stories that were in the three-way tie. It was refreshing to see that there could be great stories that the fandom enjoyed that weren't heavy in curses or sexy times. In the end it came down to one anonymous vote, but I wanted to let you know that you two did a great job and to keep up the great work.

~Tay

Ladies is Pimps too! Bathed In Black Update

 Y'all know the drill. Fuck-awesomeness by @FrozenSoldier

With about three weeks left before the contest closes, I'm a little worried we won't have more than the two entries. I'm grateful to the two ladies that have taken the time to write and submit work, but I need more! We have some amazing judges that are just chomping at the bit, ready to sink their teeth into some delicious wolfy tales. We have an itch that needs scratching. We're just... Okay I'm done with the wolfy jokes. I just wanted to let y'all know that @Pavarti has been helping get this pimpage thing on the move.

You can see snippets on:

• Jacob Black 'n' Pack
• Phase Fics

Trying to get The Twilight Awards involved, but they're a huge site with tons-o-stuff goinf on.

There really was no point in posting this here, but I felt like I needed to post something...so yea. I know, I'm a weirdo. Tweet me!!

~Tay

Avant Garde FanFiction Awards Winners!

I just wanted to take a second out and express how awesome this is. This was my first tine voting for such a large fandom contest and I was happy to see that some people shared my favs. Congrats to the winners on my reading list and those for stories I haven't read. It looks like I'll have to expand my list. I do have to say though, I was totally rooting for the Twinned/Seventeen Men Jasper by ConversedCullen. He is just too fucking cool for school.


Avant Garde FanFiction Awards: Happy New Year!: "Congratulations to all the winners!"

~Tay

@FrozenSoldier is Awesome

I just wanted to take a minute to say Paula is fucking cool. She's made all my banners and you should follow her on Twitter and read her awesome stories. That is all.

 

She made me this. so...this is why I'm geeking out...again!

~Tay

I can haz Contests?

So I've decided that I need to make more fandom friends. And what better way to achieve that than to host a contest? Genius plan, I know!

Well, what some of you don't know is that I'm Team Jacob. *gasp!* I know, but I rarely read any of the stories and all of the new fandom friends I've made are either Team Edward or Team Jasper (more like Team Jackson on that one). But it doesn't matter; I have love for all the Twi-guys. That being said, I think I'm going to have a little Jacob contest. I'll post the contest rules, stipulations, blah blah on its own page marker and figure it out.

Now, what I need from you, friends, are Jacob fans because I need judges. Lots of eclectic judges because this is going to be anything goes, (slash, Blackwater, Asshole-cob, etc.) I want it all, AU/AH/Canon/Pedophile-with Ness only, of course- all of it!

And I'd love suggestions too. What do you want to see stories judged on? I have a few categories picked out with crazy names and all, but I know I'm a huge fan of AH so I can't be super objective when it comes to vamps and wolves.

Anyway, I think that's all so um, yea, let me know what you think?

~Tay