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Awards For Excellence In Fan Fiction The Ratcave has a long history of promoting fanfic excellence - find out what we've done in the past, then learn how you can be involved this time around. History It's no great secret that a lot of fanfiction is, well, not all that noteworthy. In Krycek/Marita we're privileged with an unusual calibre of authorship. The quality of the genre, as a whole, is exceptionally high. The reason, quite simply, is our subject matter. It takes a gutsy writer to delve into the darkness of such complex characters and tease out the juxtaposition of love and pain we see in these two. That kind of bravery and challenge warrants recognition, and it's long overdue. That's why we've always sought at the Ratcave to recognise excellence in Krycek/Marita fanfiction. Presently, we award in conjunction with the Spooky awards. Get the details below. Before the Spookys, there was Blondie's Choice. Blondie's Choice was just a private commendation by me. I liked them, but I decided after a while that they didn't give as much recognition or as much group involvement as I'd have liked. That was how we came to collaborate with the Spookys. However, during the time they ran, the following fics were recognised: Acaulescent by Miss Elise, Crashing In The Same Car by Rachel Anton, The Good Fairy by Cecily Sasserbaum, Maybe Marigolds by Miss Elise, and Shades Of Scarlet Conquering by Rachel Anton. 2001 Spooky Awards The 2001 Spooky Awards have concluded. The winners for our sponsored categories were: Krycek/Marita Romance: Waiting In Tangier by Deslea (1st), House Of Hope Is Built On Ash by M Sebasky (2nd), and Dangerous Folly by Kelly Keil (3rd). Marita Characterisation: Waiting In Tangier by Deslea and House Of Hope Is Built On Ash by M Sebasky (tied 1st), Dangerous Folly by Kelly Keil and Never Be The Same Again by Sophia Jirafe (tied 2nd), and All Which It Inherit 3 by Brandon Ray (3rd). Congratulations also to Krycek/Marita fic I Heard The Roar Of Thunder by Frogdoggie, which came second in Outstanding Mulder Slash. 2002 Spooky Awards The 2002 Spooky Awards have been announced. The winners are: Krycek/Marita Romance: Deslea's Not My Lover: Enigma (first), Kelly Keil's Nicotine Bliss And The Road Not Taken (second), Deslea's Christmas Reunions: St Petersburg and E. Watson's Burnt Bridges (tied third), with honourable mentions to Winter Baby's Pure Morning and Deslea's Take Thy Only Hand In Mine and Trace a Random Star. Marita Characterisation: Deslea's About The Maimed (first), Deslea's Christmas Reunions: St Petersburg (second), Kelly Keil's Nicotine Bliss And The Road Not Taken (third), with an honourable mention for Deslea's Not My Lover: Enigma. 2003 Spooky Awards (Current Year) The situation for the 2003 Spooky Awards and beyond has changed. Blondie's Ratcave will no longer sponsor these awards. After extensive discussions with the Spookys committee, it has been decided that Krycek/Marita Romance and Marita Characterisation will become standard awards. As a result of this, the information below has become obsolete. However, I am preserving it for historical interest. - What Are The Spookys? The Spookys are the annual, peer-voted awards for the USENET newsgroup, alt.tv.x-files.creative (often known as atxc or atxfc). These are considered the most credible and prestigious of the voted XF fanfic awards. They began in 1995. - What Does That Have To Do With Blondie's Ratcave? Blondie's Ratcave, as part of our commitment to promoting and rewarding quality Krycek/Marita creativity, negotiated with Lauryn, who ran the 2001 Spookys, to sponsor two new categories in the 2001 Spookys. These awards are called the Blondie's Ratcave Award For Outstanding Krycek/Marita Romance and the Blondie's Ratcave Award For Outstanding Marita Characterisation. Krycek Characterisation is already a Spooky category. These awards are nominated, voted and tallied along with the rest of the Spooky awards. We continued this arrangement in 2002 and will do so this year as well. Each year, we assisted in the administrative tasks associated with the Spookys as part of our co-operative association with the awards. - Why Not Just Run Our Own Awards? There are a lot of reasons. Probably the biggest one is integrity. Since I and my behind-the-scenes helpers are prominent K/Ma authors, we would probably be nominated for any award we ran. That raises accountability issues. By working with the Spookys we can guarantee you that no person tallying votes in our category will have been nominated in that category. That is important for our own integrity; but also for the integrity of the nominees and winners. People are growing quite cynical about the plethora of awards, and it's important to us that when people see the award you got for your work, they know you deserved it. The other reason is that by having this category in the Spookys, we are sending a clear message to the broader fanfic community that Krycek/Marita romance is a viable medium with a readership. This encourages new writers, who may have been hesitant about the genre because of fears that there might not be an audience. - Is My Story Eligible? That depends. To be eligible for the 2003 awards, your story MUST have been sent to atxc for the first time between 2 October 2002 and 1 October 2003. Revisions or reposts of stories posted earlier are not eligible. If your story is a work-in-progress carried over from a previous year, it must not have won a Spooky already. In addition, your story must have been sent, in .txt format or as a reliable link, to the 2003 Spooky Awards. You do not have to have your story archived here, but it is to your advantage to do so. Please let us know if you have any stories here already which are Spooky eligible, so that we can mark them accordingly. - What Does The Winner Get? In 2002, the prizes are as follows: Krycek/Marita Romance - glossy photos of Nick Lea and Laurie Holden, and Patient X/RATB on VCD. Marita Characterisation - a glossy photo of Laurie Holden, and her movie The Majestic. The prizes for 2003 have yet to be determined. - Where Can I Find Out More? Check out the 2003 Spooky Awards. All questions relating to the administration of the awards are up to Alice and her team. |
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