2009 Watchy Awards Ballot

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2009 Watchy Awards Ballot

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Please cut and paste in to a PM addressed to Menolly before 12:00 AM GMT on Tuesday, February 23rd.

2009 Kevin’s Watch Awards (the Watchy) Official Ballot

Thomas Covenant, SRD and The Library Categories:

Best *Thread* in a Thomas Covenant Forum
Most Notable Contributor to a Thomas Covenant Forum
  • wayfriend
    jacob Raver, sinTempter
Best Dissection
(all from Fatal Revenant: Part 2)
Best Question in the Gradual Interview
  • Mysteweave:
    Sarah: Hello!

    You've said previously in the GI that when you came up with the idea for the First Chronicles, you knew how it was going to end, and worked backwards from there. Was it a case of working backwards through main story events until you reached a starting point, or was there greater detail involved in your thinking?
    An example: In "The Power That Preserves", Covenant destroys the Staff of Law when he confronts Elena. Was that known to you as you thought out the story (backwards), or was it something that happened as you wrote? If it was the former, did you know that Elena was Covenant's daughter, and therefore that he would rape Lena?
    Sorry if this is a difficult question to answer! And thanks for your time. :)

    Well, I *do* have to reach back three decades....

    Where the first "Covenant" trilogy is concerned, the "planning backward" notion applies in most situations. For example, I needed a final war to set up Covenant's confrontation with Lord Foul. I wanted that war to be as destructive (therefore as UNnatural) as possible. That led me to the misuse of Law, which suggested the misuse of the Staff. But of course Covenant couldn't get at Lord Foul without first facing the misuser of the Staff. And the misuser had to be a High Lord. Much better for the High Lord to be someone he knows: someone more than just a good-guy-turned-bad-guy. But not Mhoram, who didn't fit the role. Better for the High Lord to be someone with whom Covenant has a personal relationship. A very personal relationship. Who better than a daughter? But how was she turned into a bad guy? And where did she come from in the first place?

    You see what I mean. At any rate, that gives you a rough idea of how my planning process worked in those days.

    (02/04/2009)
    Demondime-a-dozen spawn:
    Greg O'Malley: Hello, Mr. Donaldson.

    Thank you for the Land and its people. I consider your work a priceless gift to our world, present and future.

    Recently, while discussing Fatal Revenant with another reader, I ventured an opinion that was rebutted by using a quote of yours from this Gradual Interview itself.

    That seemed to settle the matter. However, being the pedant that I am, I began to think about whether the story as presented can (or should) be trumped by the author. After all, the argument I presented in no way contradicted the evidence in the book, and only your quote from these interviews negated it. (I am deliberately NOT going to provide the quoted passage. <grins>)

    I feel that "if it isn't in the story, it isn't in the story."

    I suppose my questions are these: What authority (if any) should an author have over his published work with regard to its *meaning* and its *facts*, and are you aware of any instances where any of your stories as written diverge from what you intended them to say?

    PS. I also realize that there are still two books forthcoming, and what you stated here in the GI could simply have been an inadvertently dropped spoiler, but my questions remain.

    Since I don't know what specifically prompted your query, I have no context for a reply. (As you intended. <grin>) But in general I'm on your side. Only the text matters. The way the author happens to view his/her work cannot and should not take precedence over the actual text--if for no other reason than because the unconscious mind (the author's as well as the reader's) works in mysterious ways, its wonders to perform. Virtually everything I've ever published means both more and less than I intended it to mean: a fact which delights me (although the "less" part can be disappointing <rueful smile>); and which explains, at least in part, why I try (with incomplete success) to avoid polemics.

    Sure, I have opinions about what I've written. And my opinions are uniquely well-informed, since I'm the only one who has access to my own sources of inspiration. But those opinions are still...just opinions. They don't reveal the story (except, perhaps, occasionally and obliquely): they only reveal how *I* think about the story. As long as you "play fair" with the text, what *you* think about the story is surely valid.

    The fact that different readers can read the same text and extract different meanings is one of the true glories of storytelling.

    (07/07/2009)
Most Creative SRD-themed Username
  • Angry Naked Insequent
    Demondime-a-dozen-spawn
    Savor Dam
    Soft One
    Stonemaybe
Best *Thread* in an SRD Forum
Most Notable Contributor to an SRD Forum
  • TheWormoftheWorld'sEnd
    lorin
General Forums, The Hegemony and The Waymeet Categories:

Best *Thread* in a General Forum
Most Notable Contributor to a General Forum
  • Savor Dam
    lorin
Best ‘Tank Debate
Best *Thread* in The ‘Tank
Best *Post* in The ‘Tank
Most Notable Contributor to The ‘Tank
  • ParanoiA
    Syl
    Zarathustra
    Lucimay
Best *Thread* in The Close
Most Notable Contributor to The Close
  • rusmeister
    Orlion
    Fist and Faith
Most Notable Contributor to The Hall of Gifts
  • Furls Fire
    Lord Foul
Best Recipe
Best *Post* in The Waymeet


Most Notable Contributor to The Waymeet
  • Cail
    Montresor
    Stonemaybe
Gravin Threndor Categories:

Best Gravin Threndor Deity
  • Madadeva
    Agapé
    Zephyr
    Tawhiri-matea
    Bel
Best Gravin Threndor non-deity Player Character
  • Maddoc
    Led Pighp
Best Gravin Threndor Prose or Story-arc
Best Gravin Threndor Game Master
  • Xar
    Loremaster
    Montresor
    Fist and Faith
Best Gravin Threndor Game
  • Pantheon: Third Age
    Darkwood
    Aesir
    Acropolis
Individual Recognition:

Best Poem
Best Prose
Best Title
  • Dread Poet Jethro: haiku
    “Dread Poet Jethro
    Writer of haiku and verse
    For better or worse”
    Zarathustra: “Be true”
Best Signature
  • lorin: Image
    (clickable thumbnail)
    StevieG: Hugs and shit!!! ~ lucimay
    Vraith: There's nothing you can do about the bullet with your name on it...it's the ones addressed "To Whom it May Concern" that should scare you.
    DukkahWaynhim: "God is real, unless declared integer." – Unknown
Best Avatar
(all clickable thumbnails)
  • wayfriend: Image

    Savor Dam: Image

    lorin: Image

    Tjol: Image

    Seareach: Image

    Kaydene: Image
Best Visual Art Piece
(all clickable thumbnails)
  • Blackhawk: Thomas Covenant and Lena on Kevin’s Watch
    Image

    hue of bone: Linden
    Image

    Blackhawk: The One Tree
    Image
Visual Artist of the Year
  • Blackhawk
    Kevin164
Gadfly of the Year
  • Cagliostro
    Sgt. Null
    Vader
    High Lord Tolkien
    Lord Foul
Most Insane Watcher
  • dANdeLION
    jacob Raver, sinTempter
Comeback of the Year
  • Prebe
    Earthfriend
    Durris
    Bossk
Funniest Watcher of the Year
  • wayfriend
    CovenantJr
    Syl
    Goatkiller666
    dANdeLION
    Cagliostro
    Lord Foul
    High Lord Tolkien
    matrixman
    Cail
Most Helpful Watcher
  • Menolly
    wayfriend
    Fist and Faith
    Avatar
    aTOMiC
Most Literate Watcher
  • Montresor
    Avatar
    Fist and Faith
    Loremaster
    aliantha
    Zarathustra
MIA Watcher of the Year
  • Plissken
    Cail
    Lord Mhoram
    lurch
    Edge
    The Esmer
Moderator of the Year
  • Avatar
    aliantha
    Cail
Newbie of the Year
  • Kaydene
    Vader
    lorin
    Savor Dam
    StevieG
Watcher of the Year
  • Furls Fire
    wayfriend
    Fist and Faith
    matrixman
    Syl
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