The Adept Pen 2021 Writers Awards [Final Round]

WINNERS: ALL WRITING CATEGORIES

BEFORE WE GET INTO IT, PLEASE READ

I want to apologize for taking almost a full year to conclude these awards. Anyone who has followed them knows we had a number of judging turnovers, most notably because the demands we placed on the judges were too high.

In the first phases, there were so many more entries than we expected, that I think we managed to scare off most of the first batch. Those that remained through phase 2 were champions, but even then real life comes first, and with the onset of school, complications from Covid regulations, work demands, and just plain burnout, we had a lot of stops, and there were moments where I wondered if we'd ever get through it.

Some friends on Wattpad volunteered and I was unable to use them as much as I would have liked. In the end, I relied on a small group of volunteers who could meet regularly and in person to discuss each entry, then vote on a different set of criteria for each category. The votes were averaged for each judge, then totaled for a final book score.

MOST OF THESE WERE BRUTAL!

I've said that before. When you have to choose 5 people out of a group of 7 all with the same score, there's no decision you can make that feels fair, but before getting to the end of this, we had to calculate scores to the 4th decimal place for some just to get enough variation. That's insane.

I'm not just being nice (I'm not that nice to begin with) when I say every person on this list deserves whatever pride they can manage to squeeze from their participation in a peer award, multiplied by 10.

All that said, there were a few that hovered stubbornly near the top. We wanted to be very fair with the allocation of these awards while remaining honest. With that in mind, a -0.5% score modifier (yes, that's how close some of these were) was applied to each winner for subsequent entries. I honestly don't think it made a lot of difference, but we tried.

I'm also not going to commit to a full review of these scores. I would have LOVED to outline everything, but we've gone on so long, and the people who've contributed are not all as accessible as I'd like them to be. I don't have the same insight for every category, because I recused myself in a few of them due to personal bias.

I will update THIS PAGE in the next week or two with badges and I'll contact each person directly with information about the promised awards. There will be a RUNNER UP and WINNER badge for each category, in addition to the bookplates and other prizes. All finalists will be added to a recommended reading list on this account as well.

Okay - so you're really only here for this part, and I see no point in making you wait any longer. The winners for the 200-2021 Adept Pen Writers Awards Are:

HERO

WINNER: @marsaumell for Amanita: Poison Shot
RUNNER UP: @Asiatic_wench for Turpentine

VILLAIN

WINNER: @dcompbooks for Blood on the Boardwalk
RUNNER UP: @TakiZyn for Pearl before Swine

MASTER OF WORLDS

WINNER: @JabreelWilson for The Crown of the Beast Book 4: Splitamus
RUNNER UP: @Gadralneure for The Secret King

SILVER TONGUE

WINNER: @LynaForge for The Ruins We Cherish
RUNNER UP: @SilviaKrpatova for Lost in the Castle

STORYTELLER

WINNER: @marsaumell for Amanita: Poison Shot
RUNNER UP: @emc_scribbles (laurelandlarkspur) for The Dreamweaver's Daughter

WORDSMITH

WINNER: @MicroscopicLlama for The Whispers
RUNNER UP: @LynaForge for Perception

PHILOLOGOS

WINNER: @emc_scribbles (laurelandlarkspur) for Oleander
RUNNER UP: @Gadralneure for The Secret King

And finally, with the highest average book score across all categories:

BEST IN SHOW: @marsaumell for Amanita: Poison Shot

I feel compelled to note as an honorable mention, that @JabreelWilson recieved the highest score in a single category, the only participant to recieve more than 90 out of a possible 100.

Thank you everyone for your participation and even more for your patience. I'm not going anywhere, but I think I need a bit of a break after this. I'll be back with, at the very least, a review of what I learned managing this award so others who are like minded can learn from our mistakes and successes.

Stay tuned for badges and further announcements.