In Which I REFUSE TO CRY

I won’t. I refuse.

But so you all can get teary-eyed, here’s a link to Lindsey’s awesome playlist she made for Sherwood.

As you will see reflected in a few of the awards below, I wrote this book last minute. I guess I couldn’t get past the NaNoWriMo feeling of needing to write everything in an impossible time crunch.

But there were days when writing was the last thing I wanted to do. There were days when I hated myself and my story. I wanted to give up.

Lucky me, I hate failure. So I didn’t give up. And the success of being on the other side of all the toils is UNESTIMABLY WORTH IT.

I learned that I had more on my mind about trust than I thought I did.

I learned about using your gifts for a purpose, even if that purpose is making a little girl in a cobbler’s shop smile.

I learned that more people have confidence in my writing than I thought possible.

And that really leads me to the main event; listing the awards I received. Now, I don’t like boasting, but Ms. Gaines suggested we accept the awards as well as give them out, like I did in this post.

First of all: Thank you so so much. I’m going to miss each and every one of you. It’s been an honor to be read by you.

*applause and swelling award ceremony music*

From Teresa:

Most Likely to Break Your Heart with Tragic Character Backstories goes to… MR. FANTASTIC (aka Deborah Lehman) with her novel The Tenth Muse. Yes, there are normally only nine muses, but read it and you’ll understand.

Most Likely to Think Their Chapter Is Trash but It Is Actually AMAZING goes to… ALL THREE OF THEM (They are in serious need of confidence)

Runner-Up Wins:

Best Female Lead Character: Hypatia

• Because Hypatia is a flawed protagonist who is just trying her best and develops so much over the course of the story

Best Villain: Polyhymnia

• Because Polyhymnia is evil, manipulative, and annoying even without her powers

Best Opening Line: “The first thing I noticed is light.”

• Because it draws the reader in: “What is this light? Is it symbolic or actual light?”

Best Wins:

Best Male Lead Character: Melpomene

• Because Mel is an angel in disguise. Seriously though, Mel’s character has so many layers that drive his actions, and the reader gets to know more and more about him as the novel progresses

Best Supporting Female Character: Calliope

• Because everyone should have a friend like Calliope: someone who is strong, stands for what they believe in, and is not afraid to put you back in your place

Best Setting: Pierda and Pelladonia

• Because this entire world is so detailed, and I just want to go explore it

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From Madison: (nothing was better than hearing you read this yourself)

Best Layered Characters: Okay, but Mel? And Calliope? And of course Hypatia? And all the others? Like wow. I basically couldn’t believe these weren’t real people after reading your novel project.

Best Emotional Dialogue: Every. Single. Time. My heart aches, especially the conversations between Hypatia and Mel, oh my goodness, just let me crawl into a little ball and die now.

Most Stressful Climax: Spoiler-Free Version: I’m shattered. Just like… you know what. I don’t know if I’ll be fine again. Also the rising action coming up to the climax really helped it out as well. I have too many emotions over this.

Most Likely to Write Last Minute, but Still Have a Freakishly Amazing Chapter: I can’t remember the amount of times how last-minute you said you wrote yours, but wow you really couldn’t tell because each chapter was So! Good! Ahhh!

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From Katie:

Best Couple

This is not up for debate. MELPATIA FOREVER. Okay, but seriously. The way you make the characters grow and learn together while facing totally different challenges and inner-battles develops their relationship so naturally and so perfectly. Because man, Mel has some serious issues. But on the other hand, Hypatia is only like 69% grown up (she does become so much more thoughtful and wise by the end of the book).

Most Likely to Make Me Cry with a Tragic yet Entirely Believable Backstory

For Polyhymnia and her father who always saw her as a Muse and never as a daughter. For Mel, or should I say a tortured saint who deserves nothing less than the best the world has to offer him. I mean, from the start, I loved Mel and I thought to myself, “Sure, he’ll be a cool supporting character with an interesting take on the purpose of Hypatia’s powers. It’s whatever.” But BOY was I wrong. Mel is like the most conflicted, developed supporting character of all time that it seems a crime to not call him the main character. Okay, dramatic love letter to Mel aside, you consistently bring up reasons for character’s actions that provide depth to the characters, not just excuses for their actions.

Most Developed World

The world of the Muses is something unlike anything I’ve ever read about before. I mean, I sort of had a vague idea of what a Muse was before reading your story, but nothing could have prepared me for being hurled head-first into detailed and all-too-real world of war and very human struggles. But after just the first chapter of your story, the entire world of the Muses, their powers, their countries, their diplomacy, their own mini-tyrant (I’m looking at you, Polyhymnia), and even their conflicted goals as individuals brought the story to life in a way that can’t be competed with. Besides, I’m a sucker for magical powers, so you got me there.

Most Likely to Write the Longest Chapters, but Make Reading Them Freeze Time

Seriously, every time I sit down to read one of your chapters, I am immediately sucked into the Muse world and everything around me stops mattering until I read the last line. Your story is unique in that the tone is set so clearly at the beginning of the chapter that it feels like I never stopped reading about Hypatia. I love the way your chapters take their time to let the reader catch on to what’s going on, without spelling it all out. You let us stumble along with Hypatia as the Muses fly past in a confusing and sometimes frustrating world. (Hold on, I forgot it wasn’t real for a second. I’m good now.) It’s always exciting to sit down to a Deborah chapter and wonder where on earth it’s going to transport me to this time.

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From Micah:

Most Intriguing Character-

This one goes to Mel from Deborah’s The Tenth Muse. I didn’t realize till halfway through Deborah’s novella how intriguing Mel was, but once I got into it I was hooked. His dramatic story and unpredictability was incredibly entertaining, and I think he is very worthy of this award.

Most Developed Character-

This one goes to Deborah! The character of Hypatia has impressed me since I first began reading The Tenth Muse, but the amount of development that Deborah was able to do with her over 10 chapters is even more impressive. I could see a legitimate change in Hypatia throughout the story, and I loved the moral choices that Deborah skillfully molded into her story to develop Hypatia.

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From Greta:

Best Array of Powers

Had such a hard time choosing what award to give this amazing novella.  But I have to give credit for keeping up with all the Muses’ different powers and abilities, because I don’t think I could have done that.  I love how Deborah had her characters struggle with their powers, to control them and to learn how to use them. She didn’t just use the powers to further the plot.  There was real struggle about ethics and the affect every Muses’ power had on each of them.  Every Muse was so unique and different. Can’t wait to see this in print!

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From Hope:

Next, Deborah. Your pulled off a fantasy novel crazily well. I mean, muses and people getting wings randomly and awesome powers and amazing characters and… I could go on and on. I kept your blog open all the time in anticipation of the next chapter I was so into it. I happily award you the Best Procrastinated Upon Writing Award. Though you always were telling us you stayed up until the wee hours of the morning writing your story, it certainly didn’t show. You had amazing dialogue and I loved your characters (especially Mel. He was my favorite. =D). Sequel? *grins innocently*

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From Susana:

Best Opening Line: Deborah Lehman with the tenth Muse.

“the first thing I noticed is light,”

This sentence is so intriguing to me and just draws me into the story.

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From Victoria:

Best Character Development: Deborah Lehman — The Tenth Muse

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Finally, from Aislyn:

• Honestly, where do I begin Deborah? Well, let’s start out with you receiving the award for The Best Closing Line. I simply adored your closing line. It was subtle, and perfect, and fit your Novel quite nicely. If some crazy person out there doesn’t agree with me, then see for yourself: “To the west, the beautiful sunlight faded from the water. One of those ravens cawed in the distance as the three of us finally walked into the Palace.” We can all just sit back and ponder at the wonderfulness of this closing line now.

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Again, I can’t thank you guys enough. This class was more than I dreamed. Keep being awesome, and live great lives.

 

 

It’s not perfect, but here it is! From top to bottom, left to right: Fake Love, Brenin of Llyr, Broken Bishop, Vote Vladimir, Assassin’s Day, Great Dakota Writers Block, You, A Different Fairy Tale, And He Called Her Woman, His Eyes, Incandescence, Star Gazing, Broken, Vera: Lady of Steel, Ransom, Pending, The Tenth Muse, Heir of Diaíresi. (oh and this graphic consumed about three times as much of my day than writing this post did lol)