Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Kerth Awards 2007

Hi everyone!

It’s time to start thinking about the Kerth Awards for 2007.

The Kerth committee is the same as last year: Annette Ciotola, Elena, Kaethel, Yvonne Connell and Tricia Walpole, but we couldn’t do it without all the FoLCs who dedicate their time and energy to making this ceremony even more fun: the quiz team composed of Anna Botsakou, Dave, Julie Stars and Tricia. Kathy MacFarlane, our external auditor, continues to help us tally the votes. And most of all, we’ve got all the writers and readers, without whom the awards wouldn’t exist at all!

Staff organisation

Kaethel is our Kerth Coordinator. Decisions are taken collectively after being discussed among all K-Com members, but as coordinator she gets the last word if there's a disagreement. We usually tend to agree, though.

Annette and Elena are our techie geniuses. They maintain the website and they’re our official security guards, i.e. they check for fraud in nominations and votes. They know everything there is to know about IP numbers and such.

Yvonne and Kaethel are in charge of the nominations. They receive each nomination form, count all the noms separately, compare the numbers to make sure there’s no error, then they tally them so the official ballot can be released within two weeks at most.

Tricia is our official vote-tallier, with Kathy MacFarlane acting as our committee-independent vote-counter. Both Tricia and Kathy get your forms and count them. Kaethel spot-checks a couple of categories to make sure there’s no error.

2007 schedule

Nominations will run from Saturday, February 17 to Sunday, March 4, midnight EST. The official ballot will be released two weeks at most after all the nominations are in.

Voting will run from Saturday, March 17 to Sunday, March 25, midnight EST. That will give us a week to tally the votes and prepare the list of winners.

The ceremony will take place on IRC on Saturday, March 31. (Time to be decided)

2007 categories

This year, the number of stories dropped from previous years, so we’ve had to reduce the number of categories as well. We’ve tried to keep as many as possible. Some categories are borderline when it comes to the number of likely contenders, so we reserve the right to remove these after the nominating period if it turns out that only two stories are nominated in such categories. We truly hope we won’t have to, though, and we’ll certainly explain why and what we did if we do!

So here’s the official list for 2007:

Best Super Short (1-10k): Very short stories.

Best Short Story (11-50k): Short stories of any subject or tone.

Best Waffy Story (1-50k): Short, mainly light stories intended to give the reader a Warm and Fuzzy Feeling. No A-plots.

Best Comedy: Generally short stories where the main purpose is to amuse.

Best Mid-Length Story (51-200k): Mid-length stories of any subject or tone.

Best Revelation Story: Stories which contain a revelation about Clark being Superman. The person finding out can be Lois or any other character.

Best Episode Adaptation: Stories which alter the events of, or start from some point in, a particular episode. Includes adaptations, continuations, and rewrites.

Best Drama: Stories which focus on a series of exciting or suspenseful events. Stories can be similar in tone and balance to the show's episodes, or tackle a more serious subject matter, and will generally, though not always, contain a significant A-plot. No size restrictions.

Best Alternate Universe / Elseworlds Story: Stories which feature parallel universes (including the Alt World that was introduced on the show), or stories in which the author has made major changes (such as time, place and/or nature of the characters) before where the series started in the Pilot. Cross-overs and Next Generation stories would also fit in this category. No size restrictions.

Best Original / Supporting Character: Rewards a special character from stories which strongly highlight a supporting character from the series or creates a new, interesting character that plays an important role in the story. No size restrictions. (Sorry, but versions - no matter how altered - of Clark or Lois do not qualify as Original or Supporting Characters)

Best New Author: Limited to authors who first published their Lois & Clark stories in the past year.

Best Overall Story: A story of any type that is outstanding overall. No size restrictions.

More information is available at the official Kerth Website , which will be updated with all the relevant information in the next few days. There, you will find the FAQ, the list of eligible stories and new authors, the list of categories and so much more. And if there’s still a question we haven’t answered, feel free to email us at kcom@lcficmbs.com. We’ll be happy to help you!


The Kerth Committee
(Kaethel, Yvonne, Elena, Annette and Tricia.)

So how many nominations does a story have to receive to end up on the ballot?

Classicalla, there is no set number. The top 5 or 6 stories end up on the ballot. It depends on how close the number of nominations are.

Tricia

First, my thanks to K-Com. There's a ton of work involved in this but it provides so much fun for the rest of us. Not to mention the special acknowledgment it gives to some of our writers.

But ( and I do apologize for this) I'd like to ask for a reconsideration of the dropped category:
"Lois and Clark" was a series about the relationship and so this particular category always seemed a symbolic representation of that focus. Besides, sometimes you read a longer story and just beam afterwards because it has been such a great exploration of the relationship. Not much of an A plot if any, stock secondary characters, but who cares? - it was a well written relationship piece and you're a happy camper

On the other hand Drama has the other stuff too - you get caught up in the plot and are interested to see how that plot will affect our Lois and Clark, interested in the interplay between all the characters in the story. And at the end, you sit back - very satisfied by a "tale well told".

Of course, a story can fit both (true for most long stories: they fit more than one category), but while it could be especially great as a relationship story, it's not as strong as a drama. So it'll get overlooked. And vice versa.

The two are quite different types of stories - apples and oranges, so to speak There are fewer longer stories, I know, but it takes so much time to write a longer story so it would be nice to honour an additional 'long-fic' writer

Looking at it selfishly, too, the removal of "Relationship" makes it difficult for me as a nominator. Now I'm forced to choose between that relationship fic that left me feeling so blissful, and the drama that got me so caught up. That's a hard choice to make.

Reading this over, I think I've expressed myself pretty poorly. What do others think about this category issue, I wonder?

But, once again, I want to repeat how much I appreciate what the K-Com has done and is about to do for us.

We're mulling this one over. Anyone else in the fandom got any thoughts on this?

The Kerth Committee

I admit that as a reader, especially when I first discovered L&C fic, the "Best Relationship Story" category was always my first port of call, so for that reason, I kind of hate to see it go. Those tend to be my favorite stories in any fandom, and it was nice to have such a tidy little collection of them to start out with.

But if there aren't enough stories this year to make it a viable category with a reasonable amount of competition, then I certainly trust the committee to make that call. I'm probably too new to the whole process to comment, but I do grasp that it's about something other than providing me with a convenient reading list .

Still, if it could be kept, I'd like to see it kept, if only because it might encourage more writers to write my favorite kinds of stories .

Caroline

First, thanks to K-Com for their hard work!
About the dropped category, I'm with CC and Caroline here, Best Relationship is probably my favourite category and I've always so much fun nominating stories there; in L&C fics I love how their relationship evolves; first and foremost I love and appreciate the author's skill to develope it; if it could be kept, I'd be very happy.
Just my two cents.

Simona

Well, speaking as someone who was a very early advocate of *adding* Best Relationship to the Kerth categories, I have to admit I'd be inclined to keep it.

Disclaimer: You guys are the K-Com now, not me, (believe me, I'm very happy with that state of affairs! ), you're doing a fabulous job, and I will totally support you, whatever you decide to do.

But, since you asked... it's been my experience that there are some really *great* stories out there that just don't quite fall into "drama" (for instance Sue's current WIP, "Platonic." No bad guys, no emergencies, just all relationship, 24/7, and it's excellent). So the relationship category is the best place to showcase them. Mind you, I haven't really kept up with fanfic lately, so maybe this year there really aren't any (or not enough) stories that would need this category. You guys have the list, you make the call.

PJ

I second/third/fourth everyone here. If there are enough stories to warrant Best Relationship, I'd like that category to continue. Even if I haven't read every story during the year (like this year...way too busy), I always take time to read all of the stories in this category.

It seems like I've seen a lot of special occasion stories this past year. Any chance of adding that back in? I understand if you can't though.

Is there a list of the eligible stories somewhere? I'd hate for a story to be missed for possible nomination because some of us don't about it.

Nancy, go to the Kerth Awards website. Once you enter the site, move your cursor to the "The Kerth Awards" heading on the blue line running horizontally underneath the pictures. There you will see several options to click on, including "Eligible Stories"

Here's the link to go to the stories directly. 2007 Eligible Stories

But don't forget the main page itself, because you'll need to access it later on for nominations, voting, etc.

Well, I'm very far behind on my reading, but I don't remember seeing more than a handful so far. Personally, I shed a few tears at the loss of the Tearjerker category - always a personal favorite of mine - but I understand why it was abandoned. That happened a couple of years ago as well...

Kathy

Thanks, Kathy. I looked before but looked right over it.

It doesn't look like there are many stories this year. I'm curious as to how many there have been in previous years.

According to Archive records:

2006 - 162
2005 - 165
2004 - 204
2003 - 276
2002 - 300
2001 - 249
2000 - 242
1999 - 287
1998 - 224


LabRat

I noticed bakasi is spelled basaki on that list.

So many good authors this year.

I read that twice and didn't even notice!!

I guess that it's right that you only read the first and the last letter and know the word. But anyway, you cracked me up, woody.

I think this is quite amusing. Unlike other things that have been done to my name.

My whole family is good at proofreading, so I'm used to looking for errors. I had to look twice though.

If I had more time, I would BR/proofread some stories. I don't do well with phrading problems though.

Well, we've listened, we've mulled and you'll be delighted to hear that we've decided to bring back Best Relationship.

The Kerth Committee

Awesome.

Here’s a description for the added category:

Best Relationship Story (over 50k: B-plot driven stories which focus mainly on Lois & Clark's relationship. No tone or timeline restrictions. Might include "getting together" scenarios, or focus on their developing relationship, either before or after marriage.

The following stories have been added to the eligibility list.

Home for the Holidays – Catherine Bruce
web page

No Harm – Catherine Bruce
web page

Getting Nowhere – Catherine Bruce
web page

The Great Blankie Caper – Catherine Bruce & Jill
web page

Black Chiffon – Catherine Bruce
web page

Monster Night Fright - Catherine Bruce
web page

Tricia

What Woody said Thanks, K-Com!

c.