I'm not on the Merriweather Committee. I'm not a judge. I don't even have a personal stake in this (since I have no stories to submit), other than seeing it as another event (therefore potential conflict) in the fandom.
Like some - perhaps many - of you, I've had the same suspicions that Paul voiced. And CC brought up a very good point about katrinalee's entrance onto the scene. It could be a second ID for someone well known in the fandom, yet again it could indeed be someone who has been around (perhaps for years), but hasn't wanted to post on any mbs. I know that I lurked for 2 years before posting for the first time on a fanfic-related subject. And there could easily be people who have been around (IRC or ficlist, perhaps) for a long time but choose not to post on the boards. It is certainly possible that katrinalee has always preferred to remain anonymous until now.
LauraBF, you can be as cranky as you want about this. Paul voiced suspicions that obviously more than one person has had. I had them, and I don't know any of you people personally or have had more contact other than an occasional email. And as I've stated publicly more than once, I've never gone on IRC, so if this subject has been discussed there (as I would assume it has), I've not been *influenced* by it in any way. The coincidences are there. You have angrily come on and stated unequivocally that you are not involved. Fine. I therefore assume that you are not deliberately lying in order to maintain the M-Comm's anonymity, but I would hardly call all these suspicions "unfounded" or without any possible basis.
Since it seems likely that the Merriweather Committee will choose to remain anonymous, I guess you authors out there have two possible choices. To submit or not submit.
But if you have a story ready, why not go for it? You're going to be getting back the comments from the judges - if you feel that one or more opinions are totally skewed or if you disagree with the judgement as a whole, don't submit any other entries. There's no denying that a lot of thought and hard work has gone into this, and steps are being taken to allow for possible bias. They say that they are planning to run a fair and unbiased competition - why not see if they can?
Kathy
