GEMS BOOK AWARDS- JANUARY EDITION(JUDGING)

Short Stories Batch A

Congratulations to the batch A winners!

Winners and participants please contact us for the your stickers and prizes.

Winner

Cornucopia of the Worldly Tales by SuVida777

Title/Cover: 9/10 Note: immediately eye-catching and piques interest. I’m not sure where the pink cactus comes from in one of the four stories, though.

Blurb: 10/10 Note: Short, to the point, and promising.

Language/Grammar: 14/15

Note: I could find no language issues. The grammar is a little funky in places, but I they’re really just personal tastes/me picking at straws.

Plot: 15/15
Note: It was a smooth, engaging ride from beginning, middle, and end. The rising action and ending arch were done wonderfully. Honestly, I couldn’t find anything wrong.

Character development: 9/10 Note: The character development could be clearer in The Goddess of Door Hinges and the She’s development in The Music of the Cosmos could be a little clearer at the end. Besides that, amazing! You have great sense of the characters and portray them awesomely.

Writing style: 10/10 Note: My goodness, the style and the tone are flawless, as far as I can tell. They way it changes to fit in each story! Amazing.

Originality and Creativity: 10/10 Note: goddess of door knobs? Never knew! That one is a little generic, but you did a great job of twisting it into something totally new. The same goes with The Kraken of Europa and The Music of the Cosmos.

Overall enjoyment: 10/10

Note: I loved it. I loved all four short stories, beginning and end. Especially The Music of the Cosmos. It was very presently surprising to read a story that far out into the future and the beings who live there! You did an awesome job in setting the tone, the world, and the alienness of them in all aspects of writing. And it’s also great to know there are some space geeks out there!

Overall, 10/10, I would read more if I could.

87 /90

First runner up

Dragon: Myth of the Bermuda Triangle CroodsGirl

Title/Cover: 9/10 Note: I love the cover’s dramatic-ness and hinting to the story, along with the intriguing title. The subtitle could be a bolder or something like that, as the light coming from the dragon makes it a little hard to read. Also, the top “triangle” word probably (not sure of the rules) needs a question mark.

Blurb: 6/10 Note: the blurb is interesting, engaging, and invites you right into the story! However, it gives a lot of the beginning away. To someone who hasn’t read the story, the blurb is awesome, informative in a good way, and makes you want to read the story. But after you’ve read the story, it seems to answer more of the questions raised in the story than the story has answered. However, as you’ve mentioned in the end, the story isn’t finished, and, presumably answer the questions raised, but the blurb doesn’t seem to reflect that. To sum it up, the blurb feels like it’s for the over all story than this part of the story.

Language/Grammar: 10/15
          Note: The grammar was great — I didn’t see anything wrong besides a weirdly worded sentence from time to time. The language was great — staying inside a 12 year old’s head and vocabulary. It reads easily, in a lower reading grade-level way, which is great for children/inexperienced readers. However, at times, it felt too bland/abrupt. There was a bit too much telling and I couldn’t quite grasp Will’s sudden emotion changes. He’s aware of his abruptness, which is a little better, but the awareness/compensation for it wasn’t enough; it still felt quite abrupt. But, this is a kid’s novella, so it probably doesn’t matter as much.