Hey guys,
I wanted to thank all the MEFA reviewers and other volunteers. It was
amazing to see all the reviews. And as someone who has worked behind the
scenes, I know that there are several volunteers still working hard -
thank you for all your hard work.
I noticed a few people saying they ran out of time. That always seems to
happen, unfortunately... there's never enough time to do as much
reviewing as you'd like. (I know I, too, left many stories unread.) I
did want to make a suggestion, though. If you found stories you wanted
to read but didn't get to them by the deadline, well, the MEFAs is over
but fandom goes on. All of these stories are hosted at some website
other than the MEFAs. Right now those links are still available through
the MEFA voting website (
http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2009/), and when
next year starts the links will be available at the MEFA archive
(
http://www.mefawards.net/mefa-archive/). So if you found a new author
you like or a story you wanted to read but didn't get to, why not go
ahead and read that story, and leave the author a review at the archive?
Speaking purely as a private author, I know I'd appreciate any nice
feedback, whether it's part of an awards contest or not.
If you want to "help" the awards... first, I'd say, no guilt allowed!
Even if you only reviewed a single story, that would be a benefit to the
author and to the MEFAs. But if you feel driven to get involved,
MEFA-wise, I'd say there's still stuff you can do. If you know anyone
involved in the MEFAs, anyone mentioned at
http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2009/index.php?page=FAQvolunteers, why not
send them an "attaboy" to encourage them for all their hard work? The
results will be announced soon, and you can talk them up when they are,
and congratulate the winners. And it's not too early to start thinking
about next year. You'll have twenty nominations you can make in a few
months, so you might want to think about what you'd most like to
nominate. It's really not too early to be thinking in that direction,
because as veteran nominators will tell you, getting it down to twenty
stories can be quite a hard decision! :^)
I say all this in a 100% non-official capacity. As Tanaqui mentioned
last night I've been much less active the last few months. I thought I'd
just offer some friendly advice to anyone who wanted it, based on the
emails I saw last night.
Thanks again to all the reviewers, especially those of you who took the
time to review my stories, and to the volunteers of all capacities who
made this happen. *passes around miruvor*
Marta