Discussion Thread - 8th Annual Literotica Reader's Choice Awards

Hello, and welcome to the 8th Annual Literotica Reader's Choice Awards. Please use this thread to discuss the nominees and the contest itself. Please do not post your opinions on the voting threads themselves. Thanks, and Happy Voting!

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Withdrawal(?)

My "Tuscan Twilight, Ch 01" has been registered as nominated for the "genre transcending" category. There is nothing genre transcending about that one story, however, I don't think. I checked back on the nominations and see that the entire "Tuscan Twilight" five-part series was what was nominated in this category. That makes sense for this category, as the series purposeless covered straight, lesbian, GM, and bi, and, yes, genre transcending was the major point of writing this series. But listing just one of the stories doesn't make much sense for this category. So, while I'm grateful that someone nominated the series--and quite grateful that four out of the five stories were given "E" ratings when they were posted--perhaps either the listing should be for the series or the listing for chapter 1 only should just be dropped. What's there now is sort of a headscratcher. Thanks.

LATER: Laurel later extended the nomination listing to the entire series. Thanks, Laurel.

Problem solved.

Thanks for dealing with the problem.

Tuscan Series

Yes, I nominated the "Tuscan Twilight" series as a whole for the Genre Transcending category and hope voters will consider it as a whole--five integrated stories spanning the primary sexual preferences, with one author given four "E"s for his rendering (separately) of straight, gay male, lesbian, and group. Haven't seen anything more genre transcending on Lit. than that (or anything honored as such here by the Lit. editors' pure assessment of a story on its content merits and all club block voting based purely on author friendships aside). If you don't vote these stories, I at least highly recommend them to you as a read of an accomplished author given to lush detail and exotic locales and, in this series, transcending genres. Has any other Lit. author received Es in all three categories (straight, GM, and Lesbian)? If so, please point them out. I'd like to read that author's work too.

Till Dawn

Good but depressing.

dodgedartslant6 said:

Good but depressing.

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On the contrary. Having been in the headspace that the characters were, I found it quite uplifting.

Yes, I nominated the "Tuscan Twilight" series as a whole for the Genre Transcending c

Yes, I nominated the "Tuscan Twilight" series as a whole for the Genre Transcending category and hope voters will consider it as a whole--five integrated stories spanning the primary sexual preferences, with one author given four "E"s for his rendering (separately) of straight, gay male, lesbian, and group. Haven't seen anything more genre transcending on Lit. than that (or anything honored as such here by the Lit. editors' pure assessment of a story on its content merits and all club block voting based purely on author friendships aside). If you don't vote these stories, I at least highly recommend them to you as a read of an accomplished author given to lush detail and exotic locales and, in this series, transcending genres. Has any other Lit. author received Es in all three categories (straight, GM, and Lesbian)? If so, please point them out. I'd like to read that author's work too.

usana said:

Yes, I nominated the "Tuscan Twilight" series as a whole for the Genre Transcending category and hope voters will consider it as a whole--five integrated stories spanning the primary sexual preferences, with one author given four "E"s for his rendering (separately) of straight, gay male, lesbian, and group. Haven't seen anything more genre transcending on Lit. than that (or anything honored as such here by the Lit. editors' pure assessment of a story on its content merits and all club block voting based purely on author friendships aside). If you don't vote these stories, I at least highly recommend them to you as a read of an accomplished author given to lush detail and exotic locales and, in this series, transcending genres. Has any other Lit. author received Es in all three categories (straight, GM, and Lesbian)? If so, please point them out. I'd like to read that author's work too.

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Wow. This is almost identical to a posting just a few spaces up by 4glory6. Identical wording making the same argument. You would almost think there was a connection.

This is why these contests here are more trouble than they are worth.

Huh?

"You would almost think there was a connection."

Isn't it fairly obvious that the repeat poster was just posting an advertisement? This isn't the only place the dating service block was posted under that name, and the poster only signed up for Lit. today. Usana's posting doesn't really have anything to do with this contest--or of any discussion of it.

LATER: The advertisement on Usana's post was deleted, but the repeated post of the one above it was left. Just to be clear, Usana wasn't really posting on this contest; Usana was posting an advertisement for a dating service.

Sorry. What I read had no references at all to a dating service, and while I appreciate your response I'm still as confused as ever. No matter. My comment really had nothing to do with your story, which I haven't yet read, or the category it is in. It was more or less a grumbling about what the contests have done to this site in general.

I'm not furryfan, or any of the other four names I have written under here after my unpleasant winning of a prize in an earlier contest under my main name. No fun winning anything here, especially when it takes the joy out of what brought me here to begin with, which was just expressing myself as best I could and maybe bringing enjoyment to a few others.

Best of luck mate. Meant no harm.

Thanks

No harm taken, FF--and I can understand your concern. I, possibly like you, would prefer some line of contests here in which the stories were judged in the blind (author's name not identified during the judging) by a panel of trained writers. Concentrating on the content and delivery of the story and quality of writing rather than giving way to who is in what voting clique (or who has the access to the most computers with different ISPs) would enhance the literary reputation of the site, certainly. But this is what is offered--and the editors at Lit. are quite generous to be offering and maintaining any contests at all. If submitting to the contests means a few more readers will actually read my stories, it doesn't matter that much that the voting blocks (evidenced here by some stories going hot as they are posted) fully control who will actually win (or even register a good showing). I write in categories where few seem to vote anyway. Just happy to maximize the readers. More read my stories here in two days than buy one of my main stream published books in six months. I don't need the cash associated with these contests. I was flabbergasted to have been nominated for this contest at all.

sr71plt said:

No harm taken, FF--and I can understand your concern. I, possibly like you, would prefer some line of contests here in which the stories were judged in the blind (author's name not identified during the judging) by a panel of trained writers. Concentrating on the content and delivery of the story and quality of writing rather than giving way to who is in what voting clique (or who has the access to the most computers with different ISPs) would enhance the literary reputation of the site, certainly. But this is what is offered--and the editors at Lit. are quite generous to be offering and maintaining any contests at all. If submitting to the contests means a few more readers will actually read my stories, it doesn't matter that much that the voting blocks (evidenced here by some stories going hot as they are posted) fully control who will actually win (or even register a good showing). I write in categories where few seem to vote anyway. Just happy to maximize the readers. More read my stories here in two days than buy one of my main stream published books in six months. I don't need the cash associated with these contests. I was flabbergasted to have been nominated for this contest at all.

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I just decline the contests all together...they are really quite meaningless, they pretty much boil down to a popularity contest....

Disenchantment

You mean . . . you mean . . . that it isn't the most talented performer who wins on "American Idol"? Well, g-o-l-l-y.

(Scurrying off to read DarkSides's stories--which I understand are really very good.)

drksideofthemoon said:

I just decline the contests all together...they are really quite meaningless, they pretty much boil down to a popularity contest....

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I don't agree completely with this.

I was a new writer in 2005 and went up against some very well read, and well known writers in two categories and won both. I don't think I won because of popularity. Like I said, I was not known like those I shared company with.

This year, I am nominated for my poetry. Again, I don't feel I am losing because I am not as well known as a poet as the others. My poem, just isn't the favored. My score for one isn't bad at all, second I believe with only needed a couple more votes to tie with first, and this is in the early days of voting...One category, I'm going to be watching the dust curl behind the winner, but not because he's more popular than me. In my opinion folks liked his poem more than mine.

I'm sure there are people that don't read all the stories and just vote for the author they like more, or the poster they like more. But I am not going to see that my wins from 2005 were mine because I was popular. I believe I won because folks liked my story more than another, something that shocked me and made me feel very thrilled.

sr71plt said:

You mean . . . you mean . . . that it isn't the most talented performer who wins on "American Idol"? Well, g-o-l-l-y.

(Scurrying off to read DarkSides's stories--which I understand are really very good.)

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Oh, I wouldn't rush off and do that...

Shee-it! I’m a finalist and no one told me…

...in Literoticas 8th Annual Readers Choice Contest to choose the ‘Sexiest Female Character’

I’ve got to admit I’m pretty happy that my brilliant ploy (a strategy that drew some pretty harsh and unkind comments from fellow Literoticans by the way) of nominating my own character worked to perfection.

And although I’ve missed the first week or so of voting I still feel it’s incumbent on me to bring my expertise to bear and evaluate the nominees for our Literotica voters.

One thing to notice before you vote is that three of the stories are Chapter 1 of long series. Sweetwitch’s story has twenty four chapters, Varian P’s has fifteen chapters and selenakitten’s has nine. Nothing illegal about this but please remember that you are only voting on the character as developed in that nominated chapter.

Another interesting thing I learned is that Fusionnée is not a story by one author but a collaborative effort of two female Literoticans, people known as ABTRUSE and nirvanadragones. It is the only story I found posted under this name Fusionnée. The whole concept doesn’t sound particularly fair (two against one) – it seems to me that at best the votes this entry receives should be divided in two!

Please note that the figures I show for each story were accurate as of Friday, April 6th and that I am missing some figures (notably the number of views and in a couple of cases the number of votes). I’d be quite pleased if the other authors furnished these figures so that voters will have the full comparative picture.

Now on to the stories: Please note that I hadn’t read any of the other four stories before yesterday and just read the chapter nominated so I wouldn’t be swayed by later chapters.

1 -Carissa James in the Shelter From The Storm Ch 1 (of 24 Ch’s) by SweetWitch
Romance
4.60 rating
less than 100 votes??
5 comments
Unknown number of views

I had never heard of this author before and so was surprised when I found how many stories she had written. Although the story has 24 chapters, fortunately (for voters in the contest) chapter 1 is relatively short. Like all the other authors nominated in this category (except scouries), sweetwitch is a middle aged female and brings that viewpoint to this romantic tale of poor Carissa as she struggles with faulty car, useless cellphone, and rapists, in a western blizzard.

I’m sure that the 24 chapter novel as a whole is excellent, as evidenced by the interest and high ratings later chapters accumulated.

But, quite simply, although Carissa James may be an interesting woman, she is (at least in Chapter 1) one of the least sexy characters I’ve encountered on Literotica. Introduced as a divorced (bitterly) mother of two who doesn’t enjoy her job and is taken advantage of by male bosses, she is one of those mousy romantic heroines who I’m sure will blossom and find true love in later chapters. Just not in this one!

She’s introduced as a cursing, pissed off, semi idiot who is seemingly rescued from a storm by a ridiculously simpleminded male and then, after another male is found, is attacked in the back seat of a van. Escaping by driving a screw driver into one of the assailants while kicking the other unconscious, Cassie escapes. Then spends the rest of the chapter wandering around lost before she starts a fire with matches she’d forgotten she had. That’s it for chapter 1!

No sex. No sexy descriptions of our heroine. Just this - "Look at them titties, will ya? Big, ripe milkers!"

And I must say, I can’t imagine the author being particularly happy with being nominated in this category since it’s clear that her intention wasn’t to make Carissa a sexy heroine, it was to make her a much more real life-like character.


2 -Devan from the story Changed Girl Ch 1 (15 Ch’s) by Varian P
Non Consent
4.45 rating
40-80 votes??
6 comments
Unknown number of views

I’m not quite sure why this story is in the contest. When I clicked open the story link for ‘Changed Girl’ Chapter 1, I found it came out on August 10th, 2004 according to the authors story page, one of five chapters of the series that came out in 2004, and which was followed by seven more in 2005. Isn’t this the 2006 contest? Christ, I don’t want to compete with every story ever written! A 2004, story it should be disqualified immediately!

3 -Jovanna from the story carnival by Fusionnée
Erotic Horror
4.77 rating
47 votes
52 comments
Unknown number of views

This was an extremely difficult story to read. Different centuries, strange names of characters, different locations, different fonts and font styles, dream invasion, two authors, vampires…. Phoenix was really Francesca who became Daniella, then Gabriella. Jovanna, Juno’s sister used to be Lucia. And then we’ve got the lesbian vampires! If anyone is a sexy character it’s Phoenix the vampire, not the simpleminded Jovanna.

You end up concentrating so hard on figuring out what the hell is going on that a real ‘hard-on’ is the furthest thing from your mind.

I’d describe this story as too clever by half. Although brilliant at times in the end it seems staged, a little drama to entertain a very small group of lesbian admirers while ignoring the general reading public.

Nothing wrong with writing for your friends but then to propose Jovanna as the sexiest character to appear on Literotica in 2006 …to suggest that our readers would ever pick her as sexiest is an insult to our reading audience. My guess the nomination was meant as a sorta private in-crowd joke among gay AH’ers. Nudge, nudge.

4 -Tara in the Bluebeards Wife Ch 1 (9 Ch’s) by SelenaKittyn
Audio
4.52 rating
100 votes
11 comments
Unknown number of views

Of course I know the famous Miss Kytten but I’ve never read or listened to one of these audio stories before. Author of some 300 stories and poems in 2006, reviewer, editor, author of more than 500 comments, and writer of thousands of posts on varios Forumn threads, selena would be almost impossible to miss.

Unfortunately this author in 2006 was entered in that contest that rewards quantity of entries and whose rules encourage short, multi chaptered entries to accumulate the maximum number of points. Reading Chapter 1 of Bluebeards Wife highlights the problems this ‘survivor’ contest mentality engenders. You end up feeling you’ve read only about one quarter of a story. When you finish it you ask yourself, ‘Is that it? Where’s the rest?’

As to the character herself I find it almost impossible to believe many readers would find her attractive let alone sexy. In this chapter, to my male eyes anyway, she comes off as a nosy, prying, middle aged wife, quite a bitch in fact as she searches through her husband’s desk, private papers and computer. Not the alluring female that this contest is looking for. How sexy can she be if even her husband is more interested in masturbation and phone sex than he is in boffing her?

Like sweetwitch above this story seems to reflect an older woman’s romantic view of erotica.

Although often a brilliant writer, to me selena’s nomination in this category is inappropriate and is simply a reflection of her popularity among a certain Literotica subset.

5 -Stephanie James from Daddy I whispered by scouries
Incest
4.45 rating
5600 votes
255 comments
420,000 views

When this story was submitted I had no idea how popular it would become. I had anticipated maybe 30-50,000 views and 2-300 votes. Maybe 15 comments. Just a regular story.

Instead, riding on the sexy body of Miss Stephanie James, it became a best seller and soared to become the #1 read Literotica story in 2006 and the all time leader in votes received. Thirteen months after it appeared sexy Stephanie is still generating 20,000 views and 400 votes per month. I still get 5 or 10 e-mails every week from men telling me how excited they became reading her story…wanting more information about this sexy woman.

In this case the numbers don’t lie! Steph is the sexiest!


I know this category is ‘Sexiest Female’ but what the heck is it with all these pitiful men? Sweetwitch’s features two sick rapists who are morons. The men in Fusionnee’s lesbian story are cruel fathers and rapist boyfriends. Selena’s story features a husband that spends his night masturbating while engaging in phone sex while his wife lies next to him.

Please ladies! Literotica isn’t Womens Lib 101. It’s okay to have an intelligent, strong man in your stories.


Listen readers – just take the time and cast a vote. Don’t take my word on who to vote for. Read the stories and decide yourselves. (I would suggest however that you vote for a male author, men seem better able to create truly sexy female characters). And remember, the category is ‘Sexiest Female Character’, not ‘My Best Friend’ or ‘If I Scratch Her Back Maybe She’ll’…..

And as an added inducement for Stephanie James fans remember this – In a recent ruling the I.R.S. declared that every vote for scouries is fully tax deductible.

JRS

About the only thing that I found worthwhile in the post above was:

scouries said:

C’MON, VOTE for somebody!

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The rest comes across as whining and reminds me of the negative advertising that comes out at election time.

What people perceive as "sexy" is subjective. These are the stories which were nominated and all have votes, so they must have done something for at least a few people.

Vote for Scouries if you think Stephanie is sexy.

Vote for Sweetwitch, Varian P, Fusionnee or SelenaKittyn if you think Carissa, Devan, Jovanna, or Tara were sexy.



Just vote - read the nominated stories and vote.

Best of luck to everyone - and yes, JRS, that includes you.



Psst: You do know that your assessments have probably lost you the middle aged women and gay votes?

RogueLurker said:

The rest comes across as whining and reminds me of the negative advertising that comes out at election time.

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Thank you.

RogueLurker said:

About the only thing that I found worthwhile in the post above was:



The rest comes across as whining and reminds me of the negative advertising that comes out at election time.

What people perceive as "sexy" is subjective. These are the stories which were nominated and all have votes, so they must have done something for at least a few people.

Vote for Scouries if you think Stephanie is sexy.

Vote for Sweetwitch, Varian P, Fusionnee or SelenaKittyn if you think Carissa, Devan, Jovanna, or Tara were sexy.



Just vote - read the nominated stories and vote.

Best of luck to everyone - and yes, JRS, that includes you.



Psst: You do know that your assessments have probably lost you the middle aged women and gay votes?

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TY Rogue, for that wonderful post.

Scouries, you don't do yourself any favors with posts like that, you know. This is probably the third or fourth self-congratulatory drivel I've read from you, and far from being impressed, I have deliberately and intentionally avoided reading anything of yours.

No one likes a whining, mewling bad sport, for future reference.

(And trashing Fusionee's work probably just got you notonly last place, but there's probably a phone call being made somewhere to a guy named Tony from Brooklyn. You have no idea how beloved those two authors are.)

scouries said:

Don’t take my word on who to vote for.

JRS

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The only valid comment in the entire post. I certainly won't take your word on who to vote for.

FallingToFly said:

TY Rogue, for that wonderful post.

Scouries, you don't do yourself any favors with posts like that, you know. This is probably the third or fourth self-congratulatory drivel I've read from you, and far from being impressed, I have deliberately and intentionally avoided reading anything of yours.

No one likes a whining, mewling bad sport, for future reference.

(And trashing Fusionee's work probably just got you notonly last place, but there's probably a phone call being made somewhere to a guy named Tony from Brooklyn. You have no idea how beloved those two authors are.)

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thanks ftf


and its not tony from brooklyn. it's jessi from edinburgh


scouries - - - wtf is your problem man? you dont trash other peoples stories because u wanna look good. if u had something valid to say about the stories then cool but dont make up shit to make your average fucked up story seem better than whats out there.

honestly man. yours is about a dad fucking his 18 year old. whats sexy about that?

get a life.

femininity said:

thanks ftf


and its not tony from brooklyn. it's jessi from edinburgh


scouries - - - wtf is your problem man? you dont trash other peoples stories because u wanna look good. if u had something valid to say about the stories then cool but dont make up shit to make your average fucked up story seem better than whats out there.

honestly man. yours is about a dad fucking his 18 year old. whats sexy about that?

get a life.

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as it's been said: you write what you know.

He writes about fucking his daughter.

'nuff said.

Dear Scouries

Thank you for that... um... whatever.

I'm thankful that you had never heard of me. Please don't feel obligated to read anymore of my stories, Dear. It really isn't necessary.

SW

RedHairedandFriendly said:

I don't agree completely with this.

I was a new writer in 2005 and went up against some very well read, and well known writers in two categories and won both. I don't think I won because of popularity. Like I said, I was not known like those I shared company with.

This year, I am nominated for my poetry. Again, I don't feel I am losing because I am not as well known as a poet as the others. My poem, just isn't the favored. My score for one isn't bad at all, second I believe with only needed a couple more votes to tie with first, and this is in the early days of voting...One category, I'm going to be watching the dust curl behind the winner, but not because he's more popular than me. In my opinion folks liked his poem more than mine.

I'm sure there are people that don't read all the stories and just vote for the author they like more, or the poster they like more. But I am not going to see that my wins from 2005 were mine because I was popular. I believe I won because folks liked my story more than another, something that shocked me and made me feel very thrilled.

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Agreed, Red.

Personally, I'm pretty well stoked to have two Reader's Choice nominations. I feel like I earned them. Whether or not I win isn't as important as the simple fact of recognition. That's why we write, after all. Every author on this website has that in common.

As for scouries . . . well, actually, I don't have anything to add there. I've got him on ignore. Best thing, really.

Book burners???

This is how Miss Laurel introduced this thread on April 1st:

Discussion Thread - 8th Annual Literotica Reader's Choice Awards
________________________________________
Hello, and welcome to the 8th Annual Literotica Reader's Choice Awards. Please use this thread to discuss the nominees and the contest itself…

I just looked and there are 49 different categories to vote in. Approximately 170 stories and some 130 authors represented. And yet strangely no one except yours truly has made a post that actually compared the nominees in any category.

But of course there’s no shortage of Literoticans ready to complain and whimper when someone has the temerity to discuss the merits of a certain author’s stories. Don’t challenge his opinions…it’s easier just to attack him personally. Why would his opinion count – gosh, he writes incest category stories! Really intelligent argument pal! You can go right to the head of the stupid class.

We all know why there’s never any critical discussion of stories on this site. Everyone’s afraid! If someone announces publicly that he voted for such and such a story he knows that the four authors he didn’t choose will be pissed off at him. That they’ll vote against him in whatever category he’s nominated in. That they might vote him a 2 or 3 on some future story costing him an ‘H’. It’s not worth it! Risk an ‘H’? Just play the game…suck up… Here’s the type of comment you might get (of course this commenter was too gutless to sign her name – c’mon baby, fess up.):

Where to begin...
04/11/07 By: Anonymous
Oh, Jeez...

Hmmm... To begin with, some men can pull off writing from a woman's point of view. You're not one of them. I only read this story because I saw all of your self-advertisement on the forum. Well, there's forty minutes of my time I'll never get back.

Can you say editor? I thought not.

I have a hard time trying to believe the "woman" portrayed in this story is anything more than a thirteen-year old girl. Shouldn't it be banned from the site?

It's not a sexy story. It's just self-serving crap.

FYI – The woman in the story is going to medical school at Harvard. Not many 13 yo’s there. She’s intelligent, articulate, educated… no, she’s not a vampire…or an old married woman going through her husband’s private papers…or a harried divorcee attacked by two morons in a snowstorm… It’s strange how so many supposedly liberal people are so willing to start burning books. “I don’t like that – let’s ban it.” You and the other Nazis!

The story itself needs no defending – some people love it and some hated it. C’est la vie! Over 400,000 people have opened it. Many commenters trashed it. Many called it the best story on the site. Over 5600 have voted. Lots of 1’s and 2’s and 3’s and 4’s and 5’s. They’re just numbers. Remember ladies and gentlemen - we’re all amateurs. I don’t think that whether one of the fifteen thousand stories submitted to Literotica every year scores a 3.71 or 4.23 or 4.93 rating is really that important in the overall evolution of the cosmos.

Chill out! Go to the beach! Get naked!


For all of you reading this post and contemplating voting for in one or more categories a few questions:

Did you vote for any stories yet? Are you prepared to announce and defend your vote on this thread? Say why you picked one story over the others? Go ahead.

Did you vote in any categories in which you didn’t read all the stories? Of course you did. You voted for friends, you traded votes…the same old story.

Do you ever wonder why there’s so little interest in Literotica contests? Why with tens of thousands of members and hundreds of thousands of readers so few people vote. Why so many authors don’t even want to be nominated.

jrs