News

And The Winners Are...

Another difficult time in the world of our 16 Challenge judges. Stories switched for first and second places back and forth, vote for vote. And after all the nominations were tallied, a tie was broken at the VERY end! Plus a valid Honorable Mention. The last few judges clinched it.

All nine stories in the Potterâ€™s Affairs Challenge are great. Each author went in varied directions with the requirements. The Adulthood and Galleons Well Spent categoryies didnâ€™t fair as well as Best Overall and Drama, but were just as interesting. The hero got the girl, got the gold, and got some peace with the Slytherins. I thought I saw them shopping for wallpaper last week.

And now the resultsâ€¦

The award for Best Overall goes to:
â€Speculations: What Every Wizard Wantsâ€ by Spenser Hemmingway

The award for Drama goes to:
â€All the Toys of the Worldâ€ by the mystery tramp

The award for Adulthood goes to:
â€Harry Potter and the Affairs of Stateâ€ by Nuvisionary

The award for Galleons Wisely Spent goes to:
â€When Life Gives You lemonsâ€¦â€ by MinistryMalcontent

Honorable Mention is given to one story that had a very high number of votes but not in any one category to win:
â€Foundationsâ€ by Rogan

The winning stories are now prominently listed in our Featured Stories section. Those of you that have multiple chapters or need to do some editing may continue at this time. The Challenge category is back open. If your story is completed, please ensure it is edited and YES, as completed.

The 2008-5 Challenge is coming very soon. You will need all your wit and wisdom.

I would like to thank my many judges who worked hard for this Challenge: AS, BP, CM, CP, CQ, DW, GC, IV, JML, KC, LN, MH, NSL, SH, Tc, and YC. You know who you are. Thank you very much for all that reading and judging. That one last nomination at 5 PM broke a tie.

Some authors have asked if I would tell them how well they did in the judging. If you wish, e-mail me and I will tell you your results.

PS: school, home, job, financial, affairs, and you need to start making your future plans now.

Sir Ollivander on 2008.09.15 - 07:24PM ()

Comments

jk_salmeier came out of the woodwork on 2008.09.15 - 07:46PM to say:

Congratulations to all the winners. What happened to on of the entries called "My Turn"? There were two chapters of it and it just seemed to vanish from the site. Whoever authored that story I would like to read the rest of it.

Sir Ollivander came out of the woodwork on 2008.09.15 - 08:05PM to say:

jk_salmeier - My only guess is that the author pulled it off SIYE or re-categorized it. I don't recall it myself.

Spenser Hemmingway came out of the woodwork on 2008.09.15 - 08:17PM to say:

Thank you everyone. The last four years have been great, and I still can't believe that I'm writing now--all because I became angry with JKR for letting Harry and Ginny break up at the funeral that way. Winning a Challenge is wonderful, but seeing people reading my stories everyday is fantastic.

Papa? I Googled it and Papa, Shetland is one of the Scalloway Island northeast of Scotland. Harry and Ginny are apparently taking a short fieldtrip. I have no idea what the island has to do with tiny garden gnomes. Again Thanks! Eric B.

jennyelf came out of the woodwork on 2008.09.15 - 08:18PM to say:

Congrats to all the winners! papa did it... Interesting. Can't wait to see what Spenser makes of the clues. :D

jennyelf came out of the woodwork on 2008.09.15 - 08:19PM to say:

See I knew he would have an idea about it... a field trip, eh?

Spenser Hemmingway came out of the woodwork on 2008.09.15 - 08:46PM to say:

"Papa is the roamin' gnome.
Whatever inn...he is at...is his home.
And off he flies...leaves me and Mom alone.

This is the chorus of a song parody of the Tempations' Papa Was a Rolling Stone song produced by Alvin Rhodes. The Challenge is a songfic competition set on that Shetland island? Hmm...

MinistryMalcontent came out of the woodwork on 2008.09.15 - 10:08PM to say:

I doubt that my sense of comedy will ever match Spencer's, but I too want to say thank you to all the judges -- and the readers too, of course.
It's major recognition, to win an award on my first try. Like Spencer, I thrilled to be writing finally, and the recognition is just the icing on the cake. Tom

M_And came out of the woodwork on 2008.09.15 - 11:19PM to say:

Congratulations to my fellow authors for their well deserved accolades on this challenge! You all did great! Thanks again to Sir Ollivander for thinking up this challenge and giving us the opportunity to push our writing skills, I for one appreciate the opportunity. - Mike

M_And came out of the woodwork on 2008.09.16 - 01:05AM to say:

Quick question. I was just adding the latest chapter to my HPDB story, and I noticed on the page where it gives your stats, on the line with the # of, stories, reviews, and challenges that I apparently have a zero for challenges, yet I've entered the last two. I thought that stat was for challenges entered? If so how come I'm not recieving credit for that? - Mike

Spenser Hemmingway came out of the woodwork on 2008.09.16 - 01:33AM to say:

M_And--I'm sure that it is just a glitch in the gears. This is my eighteenth straight Challenge and it had me at zero on mine as well. You're still listed and credited in the Challenge catagories for those who look there.

Nuvisionary came out of the woodwork on 2008.09.16 - 07:51AM to say:

So there I was, in the Congo...Wait a minute. This is the Harry/Ginny site. Ahem, I'd like to thank the academy for their tirless work at reading my fic. I hope it was worth a "Holy Crap" or two or a "large tub of popcorn in the beanbag chair." I do hope the next challege will not make me pump out 30K words - my poor, poor beta - his eyes....they are bleeding..." Again, thank you!

carolquin came out of the woodwork on 2008.09.16 - 07:57AM to say:

Congrats to all the winners. These were some of the best stories I've read. JK- I pulled "My Turn" out because I thought I could write the story and handle work and my 5 month old son. Turns out I was dead wrong! I haven't given up on it. I'll post it when it's more organized. Thanks for the interest in the story.

Sir Ollivander came out of the woodwork on 2008.09.16 - 04:48PM to say:

M_And - I never noticed that. It's 0 for me too. I didn't realize we had a counter for Challenges. It's just another category, nothing special. But I will ask about it. Thanks for bringing it up.