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Yes!! We are finally done making banners and looking over the stories, and the polls are set.  If you voted before, they didn’t count since not all the stories were listed on it.  So we are starting with today, and you have until midnight on the 15th of August for your vote.  We are doing one vote per IP address, so make your decisions carefully.

If you leave comments on the reviews (which are more than welcome!) you will not receive any answers until after the contest ends.  Authors are highly encouraged to read the reviews.

One of the stories in here called,  Final Strand  was given anonymously, and only if the author wishes to step forward will it be told who did it.  But this one is dedicated to the late EricIzMine who had a birthday last month.  I am just honored that one of my pictures inspired this fic to be written.

And then there is all these amazing stories, that I worked hard in getting banners for.  In fact, one of the ladies in my group made a banner since I was unhappy with the one I made since I couldn’t do the wings.  FallingStar made the Banner for Where the Heart is.  I was thrilled with her work, and I hope the author is also.  Again, nothing will be revealed until after the 15th.

I will say thank you to all the authors who submitted stories, and I was thrilled to stretch out my skills, and to have some of the ladies help me make banners for the stories.  I enjoyed reading them all, and I hope you authors will grab the participation banner below.  Which coincidently is also the link to the July 31st, 2014 stories.

Participation Banner for 0714_edited-3

Lets make this a great experience for those that took a chance and submitted stories.  Give them the encouragement to continue to write.

And lastly, when the contest is done, if you can let us know, we will be happy to add your names to your banners.  They are yours to keep when it is all done.  A thank you for your work!

As a side note, these are items that are unique to my contest and mine only.  When we came up with this idea, it was to encourage writers to write something, or to help those that were stuck.  One of the things I craved so much when I started was banners.  So MissRon80 agreed to make banners for the ladies.  She went one step farther and made them different banners for the winners, which blew me away.  She also made the original participation banners.  Again, this was to encourage writers.  Since then, we have continued this practice even when our dedicated banner maker was no longer with our group.  Instead, I normally do all the banners, the only exception was this month when we had a record number of entries.

Making banners is not easy for yourself.  I have taken an hour to 3 hours to make one banner for myself.  And I have an idea of what I want.  Making them for others… Well that is harder.  You push yourself even harder when it is another person you make them for.  I read each entry that I made a banner for.. making notes to myself for ideas… And then opened a blank banner on photoshop and start working.  There were a couple fails.  One spectacular one on one particular banner that had all my ladies scrambling to find different pictures for me to work with.

I do NOT blame anyone hosting contests for not doing anything like I do, and in fact, I would be shocked if they did!  Sephrenia made 1 banner for each different fandom and the winner got the banner.  What I do with mine is a lot of work I would not wish on anyone else, and particularly this contest, that if you wanted an angel, you just had to contact me, and your character was made.  I took into consideration a lot of things when making the angels, even if a shoulder was tilted and so forth.

I only wanted to make sure people realized this, since one of the contests that is on right now, received an anonymous email (To the point they made up an email that was anonymous??@host.com) berating her for not doing all this.  Not everyone can make banners, I couldn’t for the longest time.  And then to expect others to do what I do?  Not cool people.  Instead.. read the stories and be happy that they hosted a contest that inspires others to write.

So read, comment, and appreciate the little things.  I am going off to vote in the other contest, since I never vote on my own contests, in case I need to be the tie breaker.  And if you want to read the stories in the other contest, click on the post below to go there.  I may… or may not have an entry on there.  Try to guess if I do and which it is……

Enjoy!

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