Welcome to the 2024 Kerth Quiz: New Author
SPIFFY DISCLAIMER THINGY!: All the stories featured in this quiz qualify for the Best New Author, and while this quiz is normally not a stamp of recommendation for nomination, this time it is! All 8 authors that are up for nomination in this category are in the quiz below!
(Instructions are blatantly copied/linked from previous Kerth Quizzes.)RECOMMENDATIONS: Don't forget that recommendations for other eligible stories from these new authors are *very* welcome and encouraged! So don't forget to add these in a section after your guesses!
QUIZ RULES: One point each for getting the story and author from the quote. Plus, shiny gold stars for those who recognize their own stories. Please don't forget to mention which number you're answering. Rule recap: Open hard drive and open boards (+AO3!), *don't* forget to snip out the excerpts in your replies, and don't forget the spoiler tag when you post in the replies thread.
CATEGORY: They may have written just one or might have managed more than a dozen! No matter how much fic they give us, we’re always grateful for new authors, especially after 30 years!
The DEADLINE for entries for this quiz is SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2024, by 11:59 p.m (Eastern Time Zone).
(And don’t worry – you still have until Tuesday, Feb. 27, to answer the Dramatic Story quiz!)
After this, there’s only ONE QUIZ LEFT! So be sure to get your answers in and rack up those last points!
Here’s the full list of
Eligible Stories.
Here are the full quiz instructions:
Countdown to Kerth Quizzes Extended Instructions and Disclaimers.
Please post your answers
HERE.
Good luck!
Evie
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EXCERPT #1:“Yes! An announcement!” Sarah repeated. “Superman is C—”
She stopped abruptly, her words caught in her throat. She finally realized WHY her father kept the secret.
“Superman is…?” her teacher started.
Sarah realized that the reason he kept the secret—to protect her and her mother. Super villains could hold me hostage to persuade Daddy to do something bad! Sarah thought.
“Um—Superman is—cool! Superman is awesome, and he helps save the city!” Sarah said as a cover.
EXCERPT #2:“He’s just a man, with some extraordinary gifts. And he’s our friend. I don’t think of my friends as aliens.”
“Well...he’s our friend. But that doesn’t change the fact, Lois, that he is an alien.”
“Maybe so. But it’s not how I think of him. Which is why I forgot. I mean, he might be ‘of alien origin,’ and sure, maybe he can fly and push meteors out of our orbit. But we also know he’s vulnerable. And not just, you know,” she lowered her voice to a whisper, “Kryptonite. I mean, we’ve both seen him, Clark, after a big disaster, when he looks defeated. His eyes...they’re haunted sometimes, by those rescues. We cover horrible stories all the time that take time to process, to decompress from. I think they really affect him too. So, he's...very human, in all the best ways. I don’t know how he endures it. Do you?”
His heart stuttered to a stop and seemed to hang suspended on this feeling, this revelation that—while she’d failed to recognize that her hero was also her partner—she could see right through to the heart of him. And he wasn’t quite sure what to do with that feeling yet.
But she’d asked...did he know how he endured it?
“No,” he said quietly, his mind still wrestling with all she’d said. “I guess I don’t.”
EXCERPT #3:"You sure this is it?" Lois clutched the small velvet bag as she looked over the railing into the dark, angry ocean. "This is the center?"
Her hair whipped around her head as the wind began to pick up.
"Yes, ma'am, this is it. Center of the Triangle," Officer Kellerman confirmed. "You might want to do this quickly, though." He clutched at his hat, looking up into the dark cloudy sky. "The storm's picking up. We're advising everyone to head back to their staterooms."
"Right." Lois nodded. "Leave it to me to cruise through the Bermuda Triangle during a category three hurricane," she muttered under her breath as she leaned over the railing again, her fingers continuing to fiddle with the tiny velvet bag in her hand.
"What have you got in there anyway?" Officer Kellerman asked curiously. "Engagement ring?"
"Ha!" Lois laughed, part of her wishing she did indeed have the horrible thing with her. She would have enjoyed tossing it into the abyss. "No."
"Heart of the Ocean then?" Kellerman laughed, moving to stand beside her.
"I've seen that movie," Lois smirked at him. "No, it's just something personal I promised to get rid of for a friend."
"Well, I'd hurry it up, ma'am." He stepped back to give her privacy as a drizzle of rain began to fall, and the ship started to rock as the waves grew stronger.
"Alright." Lois opened the tiny bag and tipped it up, the kryptonite bullet dropping into her palm. She winced as she remembered digging it out of Superman's body and the look of pain on his face."Well, see you later, you nasty little thing." She unceremoniously tossed it into the wild ocean, watching the waves swallow it.
EXCERPT #4:Death is warm and bright. But painful.
Intense, overwhelming pain.
Unrelenting.
There is no sense of time. Just pain.
Then, I see a glimpse of her face. Her smile, compassionate and beautiful. She tilts her head slightly. “I’m usually right about things.”
Yes, you are, Lois.
Pain. Radiating from my chest. And reaching every cell in my body.
At least I’m warm. Almost comfortably warm.
Like my mother’s hugs. And her freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Her voice invites me to visit. And I see a memory. Mom stands next to me on the front porch. It is the day that I left for New Krypton. My new black suit feels heavy and itchy. Mom hugs me, filling me with love and warmth.
“I know this was a tough decision, and I understand why you have to leave. But promise me, Clark, that you will come back home to me.”
I wrap my arms around her to steady myself. I will not let her see my uncertainty. I lean down and place a gentle kiss on her cheek. “I will, Mom.”
Promises broken. Intense aching and darkness.
EXCERPT #5:Her eyes widened into large, round discs, and she gasped loudly, almost dropping the envelope from her suddenly weakened fingers.
She had expected to be wrong about what she saw. She really had.
But no, the words were there, clearly written with a black pen, and in her own handwriting, no less.
She blinked, expecting the words to change somehow, expecting them to morph into someone else’s longhand…
But no, they just stayed the same. The same words, the same handwriting, that belonged to no one else but herself.
There was no denying it.
And even though she didn’t remember writing it —
She had.
And at some point, she had truly believed these words:
“Clark is Superman.”
EXCERPT #6:“You really don’t remember? During the heat wave. Luthor was blaming it on Superman and the mayor insisted that he stop using his powers. You were determined as ever to prove that Superman wasn’t at fault,” Daddy smiled gently and reached for Mommy’s hand across the table, gently caressing it, before meeting her eyes.
“You fell asleep at your desk at work,” Daddy continued, “And then Clark woke you up. I told you I’d been offered a job at the Smallville Post. That I was leaving.”
Contemplating their joined hands, Mommy continued, “I told you not to quit. Because Superman wouldn’t quit. You couldn’t give up on him because he wouldn’t give up on us.”
Daddy grimaced, “But I was determined to leave anyway. I thought it was the only way. That I’d never see you again. So…”
Matty watched as Daddy let go of Mommy’s hand, raised his own to cup Mommy’s cheek in that familiar way he always did, and leaned across the table to gently kiss her.
“…I kissed you goodbye,” Daddy said.
Mommy touched her lips as though right then, in that moment, had been their first kiss. Then, tearing her eyes from Daddy, she looked at Matty.
“Daddy’s right,” she finally agreed, “That was our first kiss. Just a few weeks after we met each other. I should have known then.”
EXCERPT #7:“Hey, quiet from the peanut gallery, grown-ups are talking,” Cat taunted.
Well, she wasn’t going to stand for that. Let’s see if she can find anything quippy to say about this! “Superman? I can tell you about all the responses I get from people about how you’ve changed their lives. How you never hesitate to always go the extra mile. I’ve seen you rescue frightened family pets from apartment fires and take the extra time to save toys meant for orphans from burning in a car wreck. I’d remind you about how people look to you as a symbol for hope and decency. You, just by being you.. .you recharge their spirits. You give people hope when they’ve all but given up, and that hope makes them push themselves just a little bit further than they thought they could go. You’re a national treasure, and you give so much to others. And you give so much hope to me. I’d be lost without you.”
EXCERPT #8:“Thank you for the dance,” he said, looking like his attention was suddenly split.
“You’re leaving?”
The song hadn’t even ended.
“I have to go,” he said, already moving toward the door. “I really just stopped by to drop off your wrap.” He opened the door and looked back at her.
She knew she was doing a poor job of keeping the crushed look from her eyes.
His eyes caught hers and he hesitated. For one second, the wave of her misery from his abrupt abandonment seemed to crest over him, too. But then his fingers gripped her door, and she watched the decision settle over him.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said. He sounded so earnest that she almost allowed herself to believe it was a promise.
She shook the thought off. That way led to an ache in her chest that she didn’t want to examine.
He was probably headed off to meet Mayson. She’d only been an errand after the ball. He’d returned her wrap and now Mayson was getting the glass slipper.
Pure of heart, sure, but the attention span of a mongoose, she thought with rising irritation.
“Goodnight, Lois,” he said in a low voice.
She didn’t wish him the same.
Good luck, everyone!
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In order to help you find all things Kerth for this year, we’ve created a TOC for all the
🏆2024 Kerth Award Posts 🏆.
The Kerth Committee
(KSaraSara, Darth Michael, lovetvfan, and JadedEvie)
