It’s that time again! After many sleepless nights combing through huge snowdrifts of printouts, the good folks over at Pathfinder Chronicler were able to whittle down this year’s entries into the Second Annual Pathfinder Fanfiction Contest to the final five—or rather, due to a tie, the final six:
“Gozreh Provides” by Laura Bowlby
“Bend as the Willow” by Dawn Fischer
“Politics of Hell” by B. R. Bearden
“The Grey Tern” by Andrew Crossett
“Completing the Circle” by Todd Stewart
“Luck's Allegiance” by Alex Lindsay
As has now become tradition, the judges were kind enough to invite me to step in as a guest judge for the last round and cast the deciding vote. All of the candidates did an excellent job—the caliber was truly top-notch, and all six do the fanfic genre proud—but ultimately, only three people could take home the fabulous prizes of $100 in store credit for first place, and $50 each for second and third. And this year’s winners are:
First Place: Andrew Crossett for “The Grey Tern”
Second Place: Todd Stewart for “Completing the Circle”
Third Place: Dawn Fischer for “Bend as the Willow”
Honorable Mention: Though there’s no actual honorable mention prize, I wanted to call out “Luck’s Allegiance” by Alex Lindsay. While the other stories ultimately won on the strength of their writing, Alex really blew me away with his snappy dialogue and sense of adventure.
For a complete list of the Top 20, as well as many more awesome Pathfinder stories, head over to Pathfinder Chronicler. And while we’re on the subject, I want to note that each of the finalists will be appearing in the second Pathfinder Chronicler print anthology. Ted Thompson and the rest of the Chronicler folks really knocked us out last year with their lovingly crafted and high-quality anthology, which included a gorgeous cover by Pathfinder artist Eva Widermann. Well, this year they’ve decided to keep the tradition going with an equally stellar cover from Pathfinder artist Carolina Eade, previewed here for the first time! Both covers are beautiful, and I think I speak for all of us here at Paizo when I say that these are the sorts of things that make us so unbelievably proud of the Pathfinder community. (What’s more, I hear rumors that Ms. Eade will also be providing interior illustrations this year...)
Congratulations to everyone who competed, and I look forward to seeing you all again next year!
Who's this Dawn Fisher person? Yes I know, the name is all too easy to misspell.
Congratulations to the other winners and finalists! Thank you Ted Thompson, Montalve, James Sutter, and all the other judges for taking the time to read our little stories.
Wow, thanks to James, Ted (Zuxius) and all the judges and contest participants! I was just hoping against hope to make the Top 5 this year.
Now I need to get busy reading the finalized versions of the other contest entries. I also need to get busy writing again... I've been slacking off this summer.
The cover of the new anthology looks great. I shall be ordering a copy or three.
I have to say this is a great cheer-up after watching large parts of my town wash away down towards Chesapeake Bay last week. Thanks again, everybody!
Congratulations to the top three and the other finalists!! I'm so excited!!
Thanks so much, Chronicler, for this awesome opportunity!! This has been an amazing experience. Special thanks to Zuxius, Montalve and James Sutter for your honest critiques. I look forward to putting your suggestions into practice.
Well done, everyone! Ted (and the other judges) work really hard at bringing us this glimpse of every fan's vision of what Golarion can be. I had an absolute blast last year. And congratulations to Andrew for taking the prize this go-around. Also, to everyone else who applied themselves to writing so creatively. It's a lot of fun. And the feedback you get from everyone at PFC is worth its weight in gold. Here's to seeing the third annual contest next year!
Also, I must say...another awesome cover for the anthology! Miss Eade never disappoints. And I really like the continuation of the theme. Keep bringing us those libraries of Golarion, Ted. I'm excited to see what you come up with next time. And I look forward to picking up a copy of the new anthology at PaizoCon 2012.
Congratulations to everyone for the great work all of you did along the contest, special congratulation for the Top 6 and the winners for reaching so far, it was a tought competition this year, really tought. (and thanks googledocs for giving me ways to save time)
And yes... that cover is awesome... just look at what it does to our site's banner :D
But yes, this has been a few mad weeks... and there still work prior to PF Chronicler Anthology 2. We are sure you will like the end result.
Next years contest and anthology will be equally exciting. We at PathfinderChronicler.net have set a high standard for what we produce in print and we will continue that trend.
I was very happy with the top six, and think James made an excellent job narrowing them down further. I was a bit worried that by the last round all the stories would blur together or only a few contenders would arise. The high quality of the majority of the entries made this contest such a pleasure to judge.
Let me just say thank you Ryan for stepping up to the plate and carrying the day. You really are here for the community and we are better for it! Your choices as a judge will be felt in the Pathfinder Chronicler Anthology process and deserves a noteworthy credit in the book!