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The Writer’s Studio Award is given out by a committee of fan fiction readers who meet monthly to read and discuss which online fiction stories are the most memorable. The stories can be humorous, dramatic, erotic, historical or romantic. It really doesn’t matter, as long as the story is memorable.
There will be two awards given, one Xena/Uber, and one Original.
RECIPIENTS
May Recipient
“Xena the Conqueror meets the Amazon Queen, and together they discover their true destiny.”
https://thestoreelounge.wordpress.com/authors/the-conquerors-destiny-by-j-a-zollicoffer/
Shaken by K.G. MacGregor
http://www.academyofbards.org/fanfic/k/kgmacgregor_shaken1.html
http://xenafiction.net/scrolls/kg_macgregor_sh1.html
Shaken Series on the Story Lounge
“Luxury car dealer Anna Kaklis and family attorney Lily Stuart meet by fate and work together to overcome an extraordinary challenge. Can their courage also help them conquer their fears of love?” — Academy of Bards
“On a day that begins like any other, a violent earthquake strikes Los Angeles, plunging the region into chaos. Two strangers, trapped in a collapsed shopping mall, find each other amid the rubble and join forces to escape. Hampered by injury and darkness, they claw their way through one crumbled store after another, emerging long after most have given up hope for survivors.
The ordeal leaves both women shaken, but their shared triumph sets them on a life-changing course, igniting a connection like neither has ever known. Anna Kaklis, whose perfectly planned life never included falling in love with another woman, is thrown for a loop, but she doesn’t doubt her heart. Lily Stewart, abandoned too many times by people she trusted, won’t let herself believe that Anna’s love will endure.” — K.G. MacGregor
March Recipient
Nano Series by Jules Mills
https://thestoreelounge.wordpress.com/2013/09/26/nano-series-by-jules-mills/
http://www.academyofbards.org/authors/jules_mills.html
The Nano Series received Lunacy’s Highest Recommendation and is the winner of the Amazon Ice Award and the Swollen Buds Award.
“Grace Wilson, a young ambitious doctor, becomes involved with ex-con and brilliant nanotech Dana Papadopolis. Together they attempt to find out who it is who wants Dana either in back in prison or dead, and why.” — Nancy Amazon Presents . . .
“This compelling . . . series set in the not-too-distant future transports the reader to the New Haven, Conn., bar where ex-con Dana Papadopolis and Dr. Grace Wilson first meet and from there to the fascinating world of “cell life, mutating DNA, and self-replicating nano machines.” Both women are driven in their own ways — the dark and distrustful “Doc” struggling with the anger produced by years of abuse and by her guilt over the horrific use to which her research in nanotechnology has been put and Grace by a hunt for a cure for cancer that borders on obsession and leads to a growing dependence on stimulants.” — Swollen Buds
February Recipient
Black’s Magic Cephalgia & MJ
http://www.academyofbards.org/fanfic/m/mj_cephalgia_blacksmagic1.html
“British secret agent Addison Black is assigned to rescue the kidnapped daughter of an American research scientist, but the straightforward mission is soon complicated by old enemies, the threat of global bio-terrorism and possibly a traitor from within. It’s not just a simple case as Addison finds she is increasingly attracted to her objective, the intriguing Skyler Tidwell.” — Academy of Bards
January’s Recipient – 2015
http://xenafiction.net/scrolls/norsebard_catfsatwil1.html
“A collection of five stories chronicling the lives of two women over a period of nearly two years. When Cassey Peters split from an abusive relationship, she had no way of knowing that she’d soon find genuine happiness and true love in a truck stop in New Mexico – nor that they would appear to her in the shape of Toni Willis, an intriguing truck driver on her way to San Diego…” — Norsebard
December’s Recipient – 2014
November’s Recipient
Madam President by T. Novan and Advocate (aka Blayne Cooper)
http://www.academyofbards.org/fanfic/a/advocate_tn_madampresident.html
http://www.ausxip.com/fanfic13/mp.html
http://pdafiction.com/advocate.htm
“It’s the year 2020, and the future is here at last. America has its first woman president, Devlyn Marlowe. President Marlowe, a compelling woman of heart, mind and spirit wants her term in office chronicled, and she wants it done by an author whose voice has always captured her, Lauren Strayer.” — Academy of Bards
“It is November 2020, and Devlyn Marlowe is a widow with 3 kids that just happens to be the President of the United States. Lauren Strayer has just been hired to be the Presidential Biographer. She is young, blond, professional…and trouble for the dark-haired, blue-eyed Madam President.” — Athenaeum
October Recipient
Fusion by JA Zollicoffer
https://thestoreelounge.wordpress.com/authors/223-2/
“Camron and Antoinette are both loners, when they meet each other, they finally understand what making a connection with another person can mean.”
What?! I can’t believe my little vampire/werewolf romance received an award! Thanks Writers Studio!
~J. A. Zollicoffer~
September Recipient
Incarnations I: The Chosen Road by Icebard
http://www.academyofbards.org/fanfic/i/icebard_incarnations1.html
This is Part 1 of the Incarnations Series. Each story in the series offers a brief glimpse into different uber incarnations of Xena and Gabrielle.
“Set in a dystopian near future. When a young woman in an impossible situation witnesses a beating, she wishes she could help the victims; then watches as another woman intervenes. Everything is about to change.”
August Recipient
http://stagefreakmusic.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/episode-1-after-the-storm/
http://www.academyofbards.org/fanfic/w/wendyarthur_afterthestorm.html
http://www.xenalibrary.com/ebooklibrary.htm#901464710
“When Special Agent CJ Carson took a long overdue vacation into the Rocky Mountains, she never anticipated finding Kate Marshall, a strong, determined actress… in the middle of a snowstorm. Lives thrown together in the strangest of ways, they fell in love, but CJ’s worst nightmare just won’t go away.” — Wendy Arthur
May Recipients
In Xena/Uber Category, High Intensity by Bel-Wah (Belle Reilly)
http://www.ausxip.com/fanfiction/h/high_intensity01.html
http://www.pdafiction.com/bel-wah.htm
Veronique “Ricky” Bouchard, a French-Canadian mountaineer, signs on to help guide a trek to the top of the formidable Mt. Everest. She’s reached the summit twice before and comes to the expedition with more background and knowledge than the trip leaders and the odd assortment of experienced and greenhorn climbers. New York stockbroker Allison Peabody is a thrill-seeker who has spent considerable time and money on dangerous and extreme sports, unconsciously trying to get a reaction from her distant and uncaring parents. She ponies up the $70,000 to join the expedition, and that’s how she and the taciturn, mysterious Ricky Bouchard meet.
In the Non-Xena Category, For the Love of a Woman by S. Anne Gardner
http://ausxip.com/fanfic20/forthelove1.htm
In a land where oil is supreme, passions rule reason and there is the threat of Civil War; men rule like kings. In this jungle of power, Raisa Andieta resides as one of its masters. Carolyn Stenbeck doesn’t understand this land and is just trying to keep her marriage together. A storm is brewing. Civil War is on the air and passions, like the coming storms, begin to erupt.
April Recipients
In Xena/Uber Category, All In A Year’s Work: Winter by L. Fox – 104 pages
http://www.ausxip.com/fanfiction/w/winter1.html
An entertaining collection of stories transcribed by a biographer of Gabrielle of Poteidaia and featuring the bard’s recollections of some of her most memorable adventures with Xena.
In Solstice Eve she remembers one of the many times her warrior defended her. This is followed by two very different hurt/comfort tales, The Fever and Splish Splash, I Was Takin’ A Bath.
The first has a delirious Xena recalling some of the most violent events from her past, while in the second an unconscious Gabrielle is gifted with the opportunity to see the future of two souls fated to never be far apart.
In The Blood Stone a friend is up to his old tricks again while in The Last Competition a certain warrior reveals perhaps one of her most surprising skills.
Finally Gabrielle shares the story of Thespus And Horatio, a couple of very unusual warriors she and Xena once helped on their quest to locate a legendary ring of power. Told from Gabrielle’s perspective, these tales all have a refreshing slice-of-life feel to them.
Sometimes funny, sometimes suspenseful and always revealing of the deep love between the Bard of Poteidaia and her beloved warrior, this collection of stories will have you both grinning and feeling a terrific sense of poignancy. ~Lunacy~
In the Non-Xena Category, Exit Wounds by Estraven (Bad Girls fanfic)
http://www.ralst.com/ExitWounds.HTM
AU – When the newly promoted governor of HMP Larkhall’s G Wing meets angry, intelligent lifer Helen Stewart for the first time, their prejudices lead them into a predictable confrontation. Can Nikki Wade overcome her hard-line attitudes, and Helen her distrust of the system she’s trapped in and the screws who run it, for long enough to find a way of seeing each other as anything but enemies?
March Recipients
In the Xena/Uber Category, The Bluest Eyes in Texas by Linda Crist (Texbard) – 330 pages
http://www.academyofbards.org/fanfic/t/texbard_bluesteyes1.html
This is part one of the Kennedy and Carson Series by Linda Crist (Texbard)
“Two women in the legal profession meet at a seminar and are brought closer together when paralegal Carson Garret finds herself as a potential witness in an investigation into her law firm. Kennedy Nocona, an attorney, lends support and advice to Carson and as the investigation proceeds so does the relationship between the two women.”
In the Non-Xena Category, Past is Present by Zee – 130 pages
This is the story of Amanda an A-student aiming at becoming a physiotherapist and Cameron who work as a bouncer at the local stripclub. Amanda and Cameron come from vastly different background – one with a supporting family setting and the other exactly the opposite. They strike up a friendship during high school, but loose touch when Amanda decides that kissing Cameron is not something that she wants after all, at least not at that time.
http://xenafiction.net/scrolls/zee_pip1.html
February Recipients
In the Xena/Uber Category, Heart’s Passage (aka King of the Beach) by Cate Swannell – 292 pages
“Australian Jo Madison is a charter yacht skipper in the Whitsunday Islands. Strong, independent and a loner by necessity as well as by choice, she has a past she would rather forget. The last thing on Jo’s mind is love. It’s a complication she not only doesn’t need, but doesn’t feel she deserves. Cadie Jones is the long-time partner of a US senator, stuck in a marriage well past its prime and bordering on abusive, she is scared to leave and willing to work on it. The product of a privileged Midwestern upbringing, Cadie blossoms in the Australian sunshine, finding strength in herself and her growing bond with the tall and mysterious yacht skipper.” — Athenaeum
http://www.academyofbards.org/fanfic/c/kotb.html
In the Non-Xena Category, Licit Cusp by weebod – 280 pages
http://www.gbrooke-fiction.com/fiction/wendys_fiction/licit_cusp_1.htm
“This story begins in September 1986. Shona MacLeod, an eighteen year old from a small Island off the west coast of Scotland is leaving home for the first time to study at university. This is the story of her struggle to cope with a domineering father and her attraction to a woman she meets in the city.”
https://thestoreelounge.wordpress.com/authors/licit-cusp-by-weebod/
I’m very chuffed!
~Weebod~
January Recipients – 2014
In the Xena/Uber Category, Amends by Maclay – 20 pages
An alternative ending to ‘The Reckoning’: Xena is overwhelmed with guilt, and Gabrielle has some overwhelming feelings of her own.
http://wp.me/P3Qr5Y-16I
Thanks to the committee for your consideration.
~Maclay~
In the Non-Xena Category, Without A Front by Fletcher Delancey – 484 pages
Raised in the halls of power and holding the highest title in the land, Lancer Andira Tal is used to being prejudged because of her rank. When she meets a woman who sees beyond it, she finds her own lifelong assumptions brought into question — at a time when political maneuvering jeopardizes everything she holds dear.
http://www.fletcherdelancey.com/book_pages/WAF_home.html
Well, this is a surprise out of the blue! Thank you for this award.
I’m working on a prequel to Without A Front even as we speak. It was supposed to be a rewrite, but got away from me. I’m hoping to publish both works at the end of this year, so keep your eyes peeled!
~Fletcher~
December Recipients – 2013
In the Xena/Uber Category, the award goes to Twelve Days by Colleen 76 pages
This is part one of a three part series by Colleen.
“An ordinary visit to Santa leads to an extraordinary discovery of love. This holiday tale is not just about two people becoming a couple, but four people becoming a family.” — Academy of Bards
http://www.academyofbards.org/fanfic/c/colleen_twelvedays1.html
In the Non-Xena Category, the award goes to Adeptus Major by PsiDraconis – 459 pages
This is part one of a three part series by PsiDraconis
While touring Europe, Evelynne deMolay, heir to the throne of Atlantis, is saved from an assassin’s bullet by a mysterious young woman who is more than she seems. While helping to nurse each other back to health, they will each be forced to stretch their minds, and see the world in a new way. The world, however, is not always so accommodating.
http://www.academyofbards.org/fanfic/p/psidraconis_adeptus1.html
November Recipients
In the Xena/Uber Category, the award goes to Chance Encounter by Littlespit
“A story about how a chance encounter can ultimately fulfill every fantasy…and then some!” — Academy of Bards
https://thestoreelounge.wordpress.com/authors/chance-encounter-by-littlespit/
In the Non-Xena Category, the award goes to And Playing The Role Of Herself… by dabkey aka KE Lane
“Caid Harris is an ex beer commercial actress who’s made it to the big time and can’t believe her luck. A plum role on a hot new cop show has Caid sharing her once private life with a horde of press and media, sharing the screen with a temperamental southern belle who she calls friend, and sharing her trailer with a leggy brunette who leaves her tongue-tied, slightly off-center, and just a little breathless. And the roller coaster ride that took Caid from a beer hawking ‘Balentine Babe’ to the role of tough cop Rita Stone gets even more interesting when the show’s creator wants to push the envelope and decides Caid is just the woman to do it.” — Academy of Bards
http://www.academyofbards.org/authors/dabkey.html
October Recipient
In the Xena/Uber category, the award goes to Breaking the Ice by Mary Morgan – 12 pages
On a mission to rescue a girl taken as a slave, the friends agree to help her captors find out what’s killing them and leaving just the skulls behind. From time immemorial human cultures have invested circles and stones (or crystals) with powers of an esoteric nature. Artifacts from ancient times have shown this to be so and ancient Western European cultures believed that stones in a circle had magical, spiritual and healing powers. In this story one finds all three elements: the alien being is magical, the psychological transformations that occur derive from the spiritual and healing processes. This adventure of the Soulmates is told from the point of view of a woman saved from the sea by settlers in a far northern outpost and subsequently made a virtual slave by them. She was denied common respect so that even her name became what their language signified as Other or *brennen*. During her seven year captivity she had given up hope that her father would come for her so this added to the anger consuming her. At this time when life is barely bearable in the settlement because of a curse on the land Xena and Gabrielle arrive, sent by Bren’s father, to take her home. They hear the stories of enforced sacrifices and other misdeeds perpetrated by the settlers that created havoc, guilt and fear. It is Gabrielle who sees the solution which brings about the healing needed by all, not the least of whom is Bren. The ritual that follows takes place primarily at the circle of stones and signals the return of the life-giving sun. The reader’s imagination is engaged from the beginning by Morgan’s picturesque language describing desolation and horror, a watcher, whom we feel in our bones is alien but in no way resembles ET. Have a read. Another hit from a fertile imagination that consistently awes us with the unusual.
~AB~
https://thestoreelounge.wordpress.com/authors/breaking-the-ice-by-mary-morgan/
Phineas Redux has written a review on this story. It can be found here.
In the non-Xena category, the award goes to The Secret History of Vampires by Windstar and Zee – 412 pages
The story takes place mostly in Russia. Alexei, a vampire is hunting other creatures of the night and is so badly wounded that she is in desperate need for blood. She drains her first victim completely. Her second victim however, the pickpocket Kathja, is spared. Instead of killing her Alexej takes her to her house. Together they try to find out who is plotting against Alexej. But this is more difficult than they thought partly because Kathja is always getting into trouble. Fortunately the half human half hound Vidar stands by her side and protect her.
~Athena~
http://xenafiction.net/scrolls/windstar_and_zee_the_secret_history_of_vampires1.html
September Recipients
In the Xena/Uber category, the award goes to Journey’s End by LJ Maas
This Xena is not the dark ruler from many Conqueror stories. It is rather the
story of that same dark Warrior after she has ruled Greece and the surrounding
lands for twenty years or so. She has come to the point in her life where she is
trying to change, for many reasons…enter slave, Gabrielle. The Lord
Conqueror’s new slave, a submissive and frightened young woman, holds the power
to change Xena, if only she can muster the spirit.
https://thestoreelounge.wordpress.com/authors/tale-one-journeys-end-by-lj-maas/
In the non-Xena category, the award goes to Road to Glory by TNovan and Advocate
When Leigh Matthews finds herself lost due to an unexpected detour in her normal trucking route, she ends up in the middle of nowhere. As soon as she lays eyes on RJ Fitzgerald, however, a beautiful and intriguing handyman for a lonely country diner, she realizes that nowhere can be a very interesting place. ‘The Road to Glory’ is a story of two women, their bumpy road from lust to love, and the multitude of surprising turns along the way.
http://www.academyofbards.org/fanfic/a/advocate_tn_roadtoglory.html
August Recipient – 2013
Fetchin’ Cousin Minnie – 415 pages
On her way to retrieve her saucy Cousin Minnie in Sacramento and bring her back to her ranch, Gaine Sargos, Sheriff of Barden’s Corner, meets a green-eyed stranger on the stagecoach who completely changes her life.
https://thestoreelounge.wordpress.com/authors/fetchin-cousin-minnie-by-b-soiree/
Wow! What an honor. Thank you.
~Bsoiree~
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