THE SILMARIL AWARDS BEGIN! — Most Nefarious Villain Nomination

NOMINATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED! Thank you to everyone who nominated and seconded(edededed)! Stay tuned to vote for the finalists! <3

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happy monday, cyberspace!

Today is a very important day in the history of days, my friends. Not only is this the last day of August (which obviously means that Autumn is just around the corner, because September is the start of fall [this is what my heart believes, so don’t go crushing me with facts, peasants]), but it is also the very first day of the 2020 Silmaril Awards!!!

Oh my goodness, I am so beyond excited for this, you guys. I’ve seen the Silmaril Awards floating past my blog feed every year, but I never really knew what it was until Jenelle (one of the creators and the actual SWEETEST bean in the whole entire planet) contacted me to ask if I’d help host it this year. So for anyone–like me–who might be a wee bit confuzzled by this whole Silmaril Awards fandangle, allow me to take a moment to explain it all!

The Silmaril Awards

WHAT IS IT?

In the smallest of nutshells, the Silmaril Awards is like the Oscars–but for literary fantasy characters! It’s a yearly event where you are able to nominate and vote for your favorite characters in fantasy fiction in the hopes that they go home with the famed Silmaril Award!

Nominations open TODAY and run through September 4th, so make sure to get your nominations in for each character category before it’s too late! (the other presenters and categories are all linked at the very end of this post, so keep your eyeballs peeled for that)

“But Kenzie,” I hear you saying to your screen, “how does this all work?!”

Well, my dear bean, there are few ways to explain that. First and foremost, I would recommend checking out the official Silmaril Awards site for all the “officially official” rules. But if clicky buttons scare you, I’ve also tried my best to replicate the general gist for you down below. Please continue at your own discretion.

The Ruleses and Whatsits Galore

RULE #1 … no characters from Tolkien can be nominated for the silm award

Tolkien’s characters are actually the ones presenting the Silmaril Awards to the winners, so unfortunately we are unable to have any of them be the recipients of such awards. (otherwise we would have a time-space paradox on our hands, and that would make this a science-fiction award. of which it is most decidedly not.)

RULE #2 … only fantastical literary characters allowed!

As someone who greatly enjoys reading and writing science-fiction/fantasy, I am very aware of how heartbreaking this is to all my fellow sci-fi lovers. But remember that this is a fantasy literary award, and every character nominated/voted for MUST be from a fantasy book! There are, of course, some stories that have both fantasy AND science-fiction elements to them, so if you believe that the character’s story is fantastical enough, drop their name anyway! It can never hurt to ask, right? (or maybe it can? I’ve never done this before, don’t look at me for information. XD)

RULE #3 … tell us which book the character you’re nominating is from!

My brain is an actual marshmallow, so if you don’t tell me which book your character is from, I’m probably just going to melt into a puddle of confusion and Google searches.

RULE #4 … you can nominate/second however many characters you want! the sky is the limit!

The top five characters with the most amount of “seconds” (we’ll get there in a moment) are going to move on to the VOTING round, so be sure to nominate and second all of the characters you want to see move forward! (but also please remember that you cannot “second” a character you nominated. so. keep that in mind.)

RULE #5 … authors cannot nominate their own characters!

It’s a bummer, I know, but you can definitely give your readers a gentle nudge in the right direction! I’ve found that threatening to chop their legs off with my trusty pitchfork has worked wonders in the past…

RULE #6 … previous winners cannot win twice!

The Silmaril Awards are actually considered “lifetime” awards, so make sure you’re not re-nominating someone who’s already won! (for a full list of characters who’ve won each of the categories, check out this page right here)

RULE #7 … HAVE FUN!

Apparently this is an actual rule. So DO IT OR ELSE, PEASANT!!! *waves pitchfork at you menacingly*

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All right! Now that you hopefully know how the nominating works, let’s talk about how to actually … you know. Nominate. Aheh.

So! Firstly first, you’re going to pop down into that delightful little comment section down below and drop off the name(s) and book(s) of the character(s) you want to nominate! Then, as time progresses and more names appear, you can go through and “second” any of the characters you think deserve to win this most illustrious award! The 5 characters with the most amount of “seconds” are going to move on to the voting round, where I believe the process begins all over again and we narrow it all down to a single winner!

Sound like fun? TRICK QUESTION. Of course it sounds like fun! And now that all the rules are behind us, we can finally get to the thing that I’ve been dying to talk about…

MY CATEGORY!

MEEP! I think the fairy godmothers over at Silmaril Awards HQ know me just a leeeeeeetle too well, because for my first ever hosting of this most prestigious award, they were kind enough to grant me with the category for … (drumroll please) …

MOST NEFARIOUS VILLAIN!

EEP! Oh my goodness, guys!!! I am so impossibly blessed to be able to be the host for this category this year! My September month has been made. And also this ties in perfectly with the fact that I wanted the two months leading up to Halloween to be filled with epic-villainy and nefarious schemes, but I digress. Let’s talk about the actual award, shall we?

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Nefarious Villains. Everyone here knows that I’m a sucker for a good villain. They are the broken, evil brains behind the most vile of plots. The darkness to the hero’s light. my smol children who deserve nothing but the best out of life and who I shall avenge to the death. There are many facets to a good evil villain, from the polished, wise, and terrifying (*cough*moriarty*cough*) to the madman with a bloody knife (*cough*stillmoriarty*cough*). But every villain has exactly one thing in common–the unrelenting desire to stop their hero, no matter the cost.

They also have a lot of emotional baggage and more than a few inner scars but SHHH. We don’t talk about those ’round here, okay. That’s for our midnight therapy sessions.

The previous winners for Most Nefarious Villain include:

• 2016 … The White Witch from The Chronicles of Narnia
• 2017 … Shift from The Chronicles of Narnia
• 2018 … Queen Levana from The Lunar Chronicles
• 2019 … Death In Life from Tales of the Goldstone Wood

–so make sure that any nominations this year do NOT include these most nefarious of villains!

Personally, I see a gaping hole where a very specific villain should be listed, but…you know. There’s still hope for this year, amiright? (unfortunately I don’t believe that series is actually considered fantasy, but it’s fine. we can change that.)

AHEM. Anyway. Moving on.

Unfortunately there are just a few more things that I need to throw at your face before we can officially wrap this post up and get to the nominating, but don’t worry. You’re gonna love them!

First and foremost, this year we’re having a Silmaril Award GIVEAWAY, in which you can enter to win some fun prizes! I’m kinda jealous that I won’t be able to participate in this one, actually. But the fact that I get to house all the lovely villains this year makes up for it. XD

And secondly, we have a #silmarilawards2020 bookstagram challenge going on during the course of the Silmaril Awards! I’ve been a little behind with the daily challenges recently (hello, Life), but I’m definitely hoping to get caught up with that today! So if you haven’t already, hop on over to Instagram and share some of YOUR favorite literary characters with us!

And finally, here are the other hosting blogs and the schedule overview for the 2020 Silmaril Awards (a few of the names may not be available at the moment. I’m doing my best to track them down, however!)! I am so impossibly excited to be a part of this amazing team this year, and I cannot wait to see all the lovely villains you guys nominate! (just be sure to remind them to bring their sleeping bags, toothbrushes, and pitchforks when they come over. I heard we’re crashing the most epic heroine party, so maybe we should bring some s’mores, as well…)

SCHEDULE OVERVIEW

NOMINATIONS WEEK – August 31st – September 4th

VOTING WEEK – September 7th – 11th

AWARDS CEREMONIES – September 14th – 25th

THE PRESENTERS

• Most Epic Heroine … Tracey Dyck
• Strangest Character … Madeline J. Rose
• Most Mischievous Imp … Christine Smith
• Most Magnificent Dragon … Sarah Taleweaver
• Most Silver Tongue … Kyle Robert Shultz
• Most Epic Hero … Zachary Totah
• Wisest Counselor … DJ Edwardson
• Most Faithful Friend … Jenelle Schmidt
• Most Nefarious Villain … Kenzie Keene
• Least Competent Henchmen … E.E. Rawls

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talk to me, peasants!

OH MY GOODNESS. I honestly cannot believe that this is actually happening… I’M HELPING HOST THE SILMARIL AWARDS, PEASANTS!!! *flails for five-thousand days* And not only that, but I get to play with all the VILLAINS!!!! My heart. I don’t think it could get any fuller than it is in this moment, guys…

BUT! Enough about me! Let’s get to the nominating…! Go ahead and drop your nominations and seconds down in the comments below, my friends! I cannot WAIT to see what lovely villains I get to house this year… (I’m thinking I should have stocked up on more candy, though. if anyone has some to spare, I’d be eternally grateful.)

And as always, until next time…!

*flings cookies in the air and disappears*