The Lodestar Contest

Now that you glanced down to see the results, please read.

Part four prizes go like this: If there are fewer than nine Part Four entries, then all entries get a 10K Awardicon. The best one also gets the Lodestar Merit Badge plus 10K Gift Points.

I am hugely happy to give everyone an awardicon! I'd be doing that even if I hadn't already promised it. You all did such a great job of revising and I'll get into my rambling opinions on all of it when I review your entries. (No one got back to me about reviewing something other than their contest entry, so I'm assuming that's what everyone wants reviewed. If you'd rather I review something else, the deal is that it needs to be a short story of up to about 5K words, it needs to be written by Mar 15, and you need to let me know by this coming Friday.)

As for the winning story, this one drew me in with the writing and pulled at my emotions all the way through. I feel a difference when rereading after revisions, but I'm not sure I can actually point them out. What I do know is that I went from being emotionally engaged the first time, to actually tearing up on the final version. Beautiful story.

STATIC

The Weeper  (ASR) Young musician owes his overwhelming success to a possessed violin. #2243365 by J.B. Ezar

Most awards are going out as soon as I've posted this. J.B., this marks your third earned MB and your second Lodestar MB. I'll be making a post in "Invalid Item"  to get you your community MB, and I'll get you your second Lodestar MB in a couple of weeks, when it'll count for CR.

Incidentally, when I'm able to send that, you will be the first person ever to earn two Lodestar MBs.

Thank you, everyone, for making this such a fun and inspiring round of the Lodestar!

2022 sneak peak: I'd like next year's round to take place in January, but it seems like there's so much going on for other people that it might be a bad idea. I may try splitting the months--going from mid-January to mid-February. Or mid-February to mid-March.

I've got a rough idea for what next year's round will be, but in what way it solidifies will depend on how 2021 progresses. For now, I can tell you it will be another short story round, though it won't be separated into "Parts," and there will be incentives to review the entries.

If you have any questions, I probably don't yet know the answers, but you're welcome to ask anyway.

I hope to see you all there!

Chy