Better late than never: THE JUDGE'S MENTIONS!!!

Welcome back!

This took longer than expected. Real life kicked my ass, forgive me. HOWEVER! We have congrats to hand out and a celebration to get underway, so lettuce not waste anytime.

Now, during this contest, we gave the judges a rather intense score sheet to work off of for both the first round, and the Judge's selection round. We also wanted the judges to have a chance to state their opinions since Me, Chick, and Meads all freakishly like knowing what they're thinking. We're just nosy like that.

In order to share their thoughts with y'all, we asked them to pick a favorite story out of the entire hoard. These are the fics they chose. Enjoy!

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Bitter Fruit by BellaWriter7

~ Write up by Nycsnowbird ~

This utterly surprised, delighted and amazed me. It is intelligent, well written, utterly heartrending and unlike anything I’ve read before. Like an onion, this story has layers you keep peeling off to get to its core. It is so much more than I expected. First, I thought it was going to be Eric with a woman he saves from a life on the streets. Then no, she’s got powers, she can foresee the future. Eric’s future ... and her own she tries not to glimpse because she’s afraid to see the flames and screams in store for her.

It takes place in Seville in 1490. Spain is under the influence of the Torquemada and his medieval holocaust sweeping up Jews, Moors and anyone who looks sideways. A woman like Eric's Magdalena, with her sight, is in terrible danger of accusations of heresy and witchcraft.

Eric has a woman who loves him. They’ve been lovers for decades. He is the only man who has ever touched her lovingly, the man she saves herself for, this whore who makes her living selling her sight to other men.

“She wanted no master and fought against him—but she could admit that he’d mastered her body in a way no man had ever desired to do.”

She opens to him like some hothouse flower, unfurling her petals and trusting him even while she has a vision of a future Eric loving a blond woman, murmuring to her in a way he does not to Magdalena. Redolent in the air everywhere is the scent of orange blossoms from the groves bordering the town.

Dracul is alive and holding court. His fierce power and dominion over other vampires inspires lesser vampires to reach for the same fealty in their own towns. Eric, as a loner with no nest, is fair game for the political machinations of other vamps all jockeying for position in the court of the newly installed king of Andalusia, Theodoric the Visghoth, a loathsome, vicious monarch.

All the exposition, however, serves as the MacGuffin—now that is superb writing! The shock is who Eric finds in Theodoric’s court the night he comes to pledge fealty: a vampire dressed as a matador who appears to be no real threat to Eric but grabs Magdalena to use as a pawn in his own quest for power ... and a vampiress who he will come to know in his future many centuries later.

At The Oak Tree by AmmNIwriter

~ Write up by Mairemor ~

When the Age of Eric competition got under way, I’d hoped that some brave soul would tackle Eric in a historic Irish setting, but wondered how they would manage to make romance blossom in time periods when the Irish people suffered so terribly. Without sparing us the cruel realities of An Gorta Mór, the potato famine that claimed a million Irish lives, this love story beautifully renders a poignant and powerful tale of to people from different walks of life and different worlds who experience the light of a nearly impossible love.

Part of the magic for me was falling for Ascendancy Eric. Oh boy! Was I raring to dislike an English lord who arrives at his estate in Northern Ireland with a typically callous and prejudiced view of his tenants and the causes of the famine. The magic starts when he meets Aoife, a beautiful Irish girl who lives on his land whose life is, in many ways the story of her people. There’s a hint of Cinderella in this story…but you’ll have to read to see just how this poor girl gets her prince. PS The lemons are yummy too!

Love is a Battlefield by Missus T

~ Write up by LindsayK ~

I picked this one-shot mainly for one reason. That reason is that even a week or so after reading it the story was still in my head. I wanted to know what would happen next, what Eric and Sookie's life would bring them, how happy they would be. It was like reading a book and loving it so much that even though it's complete you really, really wish there were more. To me, that makes the best kind of story. It has to have heart, and it has to make you feel for and love its characters.

In this story, a Civil War surgeon Eric takes up residence at the Stackhouse home to tend the wounded from nearby battle. Sookie is pure awesome in this. She makes her first appearance holding a gun and protecting her home. This Sookie, to me, is very much Book Sookie. She's strong, she'll do anything for those that she loves, and she's still kind and compassionate. She and Eric strike up a companionship after a bit, and become friends. In fact, by the time Eric has to move on they've not even kissed, but you feel like they should be confessing their love. Alas, they live in hard times, and are not willing to put their hearts out there like that when the chance of them being crushed by circumstance is so great. In the end, the payoff for the waiting is perfect. For them, and for the reader. When I finished reading this I had a goofy smile on my face that I couldn't wipe off for anything.

The Viking and The Virgin Queen by hearttorn

~ Write up by Greenabsinthia ~

Since I was a kid I’ve always been fascinated by the Tudors, especially Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. Henry tore the country apart with his religious altercations. Elizabeth, on the other hand, united England with her liberal views on religion and cemented this with her famous declaration, “I have no desire to make windows into men’s souls.”

I was delighted when I received this fic to read for the Judge’s Selection round. A lot of the entries for the contest used actual historical characters in them, which is, by no means, an easy endeavour. You have to stay true to the ere, but also know an exceedingly large amount of facts about the real characters. I think this fic is a good example of staying true to facts and your own creative mind can merge into a great story.

The fic takes place in May 1559, less than a year after Elizabeth was made Queen. After the death of her sister, Mary, tensions were still running high with the religious problems of the country, but also with finding a suitable husband for Elizabeth. After 500 years as a vampire Eric has turned weary, but Elizabeth catches his attention - “But Elizabeth...she was unusual.” He sets out to pursue her by killing, and impersonating Prince Sven (a character invented for the story), one of the many suitors competing for Elizabeth’s hand in marriage. After befriending Elizabeth, their relationship progresses into something more intimate. She, however, quickly discovers Eric is something more than a mere human, noting that he is “much more handsome than the portrait sent to me of the Prince.” Their romance is short lived as Elizabeth’s advisor, Sir Francis Walsingham, discovers them and Eric is forced to flee.

It’s little things like Elizabeth noticing Eric’s unlikeness to the portrait of Sven, which makes this a pleasure to read. The beauty of the subject in portraits like these was often exaggerated to ensure marriages. Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII, was deceived like this when he saw his future fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.

I would love to see this fic be turned into more than a one-shot. A job well done.

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Now, our JSR winners weren't just a collective favorite of the judges in general, they were also personal favorites for two of our fabulous and esteemed cohorts. Proof positive that the excellent writing quality of the stories below blew us all away.

Here are their write ups!

The Soiled Dove of Deadwood by Sarifina85

~ Write up by Tradermare ~

Interesting characters, action and conflict--this story has plenty of all three. The pacing was quick and the characters had plenty of believable interaction. Eric as a vampire fits into the story in a believable way, and this dark tale of the Deadwood mining camp held my attention to the very end.

The story paints a picture of what it was like in both the industrialized east and the wild west, and then throws supernatural beings into the mix. You just know it's gonna end up bloody.

Eric was true to form, as he attempts to rescue Sookie from her fate as a prostitute. The Sookie in this story is a rather unique and different Sookie, a little rougher around the edges, yet still retains the spunk and sense of honor we love in book Sookie. An enjoyable read. Thank you!

Restoration by FarDareisMai2

~ Write up by Violhaine ~

This fic was a pleasure to read from start to finish. Set after the Interregnum, when Charles II restored the monarchy in England and ended Oliver Cromwell's reign of terror, it is a story of two kindred spirits who are centuries ahead of their time. Who, despite their differences, one is vampire the other human, manage to bridge the gulf between their two worlds.

A chance encounter, in which Eric saves the King's life, opens the door to an intellectual seduction that ends with a passionate love affair between the two men. The author manages to transport you to the 17th Century and an age in which superstition still reigned supreme. Yet there is Charles, having recognized that Eric is a supernatural being, deciding to forge a friendship and allowing his curiosity to take him so far as to succumb to Eric's seduction. This attraction is a two way street as Eric recognizes in the King a man who has a lust for life and is open in his desires.

The blatant, witty, sensuality of their discourse before, during and after is skillfully woven into the story. The author's attention to historic detail including the cadence of the language of the era, the ambiance of the settings and detailed descriptions all add to the richness and texture of this elegant story. It is a compelling tale and one any reader would enjoy immensely.

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Congratulations to the authors!!! *claps and pours champagne* Thank you for participating and giving us some truly incredible stories.

A huge amounts of thanks is also due to the judges for their time and hard work. No one gets paid for this, these contests aren't tax deductible or anything. The judges took time out their busy lives to make sure the stories entered were given a fair shake-down. And did so with a discerning eye and endless patience. We are forever grateful.

*foozles to all*

Zigs, Chick, Meads