Surprise! Bet you weren't expecting a "Deadlines" post, were you? I bet you even forgot those exist, didn't you??
Really, I feel bad that I let my personal blog become a blog filled with only book and movie reviews. The problem is that I don't really have any deadlines anymore. I'm a receptionist. I don't have any major projects that I need to work on.
Should I have more projects in my life? Probably.
But then I just remembered that I am sort of working on something that need to be done by a certain date, so that kind of qualifies. What's going on is I'm helping Deseret Book read and vote for the best books written by LDS authors, who will receive Whitney awards in May.
What are the Whitney Awards, you ask? Ha ha ha! Ignorant non-editors... Just kidding, I had no idea until I got this assignment.
The Whitney Awards were named after the apostle Orson F. Whitney, who said that Latter-day Saints would have "Miltons and Shakespeares of our own." Founded in 2007, the Awards, a kind of autonomous entity of LDSStorymakers, is designed to help recognize the talents and achievements of LDS authors.
So every year, people go to whitneyawards.com and nominate their favorite books by LDS authors. They had to have been published that year. No endless-repeat wins for Ender's Game.
And the awards given are separated into a bunch of categories. Just go to the website for more info: I don't feel like writing them all out and explaining them.
I'm helping read the finalists for General Fiction. I can't tell you what I think about them yet, obviously, but it's been occupying my time and thoughts for the past few weeks. I've already read three of them, and have two more to go. My reviews of all five are due back by April 25, and then Deseret Book needs to send their final reviews by April 30. I think what happens is DB takes the votes of all the reviewers and combines them to form one final vote for "Best of..." in each category.
In all honesty, I kind of wish that I'd been chosen to read the Speculative Fiction section, because that includes Words of Radiance. But I guess it's a good thing I'm not, because then I would pick WoR out of my unbridled love for Brandon Sanderson, then not really care about the rest. I HOPE HE WINS!!! I'm a little afraid that whoever is reading Speculative Fiction will find the book super long and not really get it because it's a sequel. But hopefully the reviewers will recognize pure amazingness when they see it.
Anyways, I just love that this even exists. Heck, I love that LDS Storymakers exists. If you don't know what that is (I laugh at you! JK again.), it's basically a guild/writing group formed by (mainly successful) LDS authors. It's kind of my dream to become a member someday.
There are just so many great stories out there, and fiction by LDS authors) while I may find it cheesy sometimes) tends to have a special feel to it. Not only is it generally cleaner, it's also usually uplifting and inspiring.
I'm enjoying this assignment. It's giving me the chance to not only read more LDS fiction (which I usually avoid), but LDS fiction not published by Deseret Book. It's shown me how vast our network is--as vast as the Church itself, really.
I can't wait to see who wins the Whitneys in May, and I hope to participate every year from now on.
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