Category Clarification

We've had a few questions and realized we made a few mistakes, so here's some clarification:

1. "New" Categories

a. We inadvertently left off "Best Epic Fantasy Romance" from the Novel list. (We don't know how that happened. The category has been part of our awards since their inception. Probably just an error in copying the list from the old host to this setup or something.)

b. We also left out the "Best Fantasy Romance Story" in the Short Story/Novella list. This was an oversight on our part. Sorry.

We've received numerous emails about this and already have a good pool of nominations, but please feel free to email us with more nominations in these categories.

We've gotten a lot of great suggestions for new categories and will most likely be expanding our list next year, but for now, we think we've got it all straight. Please feel free to email us (ctmrrsn at yahoo.com) if you think we've made any other mistakes. Thanks!

Nominate Now!

Nominate your favorite books released between November 1, 2007 and October 31, 2008 for consideration in the 2009 Fantasm Awards! Read on to find out how...

Rules

1. The stories MUST be romance in one of our listed sub-genres with a Happily Ever After (HEA) ending. Sweet or erotic is all right, but it must be romance at heart.

2. To be eligible, books must have been published between 11/1/07 and 10/31/08 by a legitimate electronic or print publisher. (Self-published works are not eligible.)

3. Nominations are open until 12/31/08 and anyone can nominate. (Yes, authors, you can nominate yourself, if you wish.)

4. We will narrow down the list of nominations to a group of Finalists in each category and then voting will commence in January 2009.

5. Please read the category descriptions carefully.

Categories

Please see the next post to check out the newly expanded category list for this year's awards.

Nominate Now by Email

To nominate your favorites, simply copy the category list into an email and fill in your favorites by title AND author. Then email the whole thing to: ctmrrsn AT yahoo DOT com.

What We're All About

The Fantasms are geared specifically toward the sub-genres of romance fiction that seem to get lumped together by the bigger award sites. You know what we're talking about -- speculative fiction -- science fiction, fantasy, paranormal and all the sub-categories. They aren't all considered the same here. We know they are very different. So instead, we have categories like "Best Werewolf Romance" and "Best Post-Apocalyptic Romance." You can even suggest new categories if you think we've missed one.

Please Note

There is no cost to participate in this award process. We're doing this for fun and to help spread the word about some great romance books and authors. The only things authors gain from winning are bragging rights and a little logo to put on their site.

If you want to help spread the word, snag a logo and link back to us. We'll thank you for it with a place on our blogroll. Just let us know when the link is up and how you'd like us to link back.

The folks running this thing accept no liability whatsoever. We're all grown-ups here and this is designed to be for fun only.

2009 Categories

New for 2009! New categories have been added for short stories/novellas and cover art! (Please read the category descriptions carefully to be sure you're nominating in the correct place. We can't move them around after the fact.)

Cover Art
Best Paranormal Romance Cover Art
Best Fantasy Romance Cover Art
Best Futuristic Romance Cover Art
Best Sci Fi Romance Cover Art
Best Overall Speculative Romance Cover Art

Short Stories & Novellas
Best Vampire Romance Story
Best Shapeshifter Romance Story
Best Paranormal Romance Story
Best Futuristic Romance Story
Best Sci Fi Romance Story
Best Overall Speculative Romance Story

Novels

Best Vampire Romance

Best Werewolf Romance

Best Shapeshifter (non-wolf) Romance

Best Psychic Romance

Best Demonic Romance

Best Overall Paranormal Romance

Best Urban Fantasy Romance

Best Faerie Tale Romance

Best Overall Fantasy Romance

Best Post-Apocalyptic Romance

Best Futuristic Romance

Best Space Opera Romance

Best Overall Sci Fi Romance

Did we miss anything? Suggest new categories by emailing Cat at ctmrrsn AT yahoo DOT com.


Here's a more detailed explanation of the Novel categories:

Best Vampire Romance - Easy enough. Romance with a vampire as one or both of the main characters.

Best Werewolf Romance - Romance on the furry side. One or both of the protagonists must be a werewolf.

Best Shapeshifter (non-wolf) Romance - This is the category for all other kinds of shifters. Cats, dragons, snakes and all the rest.

Best Psychic Romance - One or both of the main characters must have psychic abilities. Clairvoyance, telepathy, telekinesis, you name it. If it's a psychic ability, this is the category for it.

Best Demonic Romance - Demons, incubi, succubi, gargoyles... all those "dark" creatures fit in this category.

Best Overall Paranormal Romance - This is the big kahuna. Pick your favorite from all of the above.

Best Epic Fantasy Romance - Think Lord of the Rings, but with sex. LOL. Elves, warriors, magic, sorcerers, wizards, orcs, goblins, mages and more fit into the this category.

Best Urban Fantasy Romance - Street wizard? Magic in the modern day or urban setting? This is your place to shine.

Best Faerie Tale Romance - Tales of the fae folk. If the story involves fairies, leperachauns, the sidhe or others of the kind, this is their realm.

Best Overall Fantasy Romance - The brass ring. The best of the above fantasy categories.

Best Post-Apocalyptic Romance - Has earth been destroyed or changed forever by some apocalyptic event? Is the story one of rising from the ashes of what was once our great civilization? If so, this is the place to nominate it.

Best Futuristic Romance - Futuristic in this context means a story that's set in the future. It could be on Earth or on a colony, or space station, but the majority of the action takes place in one or two settings. If you're looking for epic space battles, see the next category. Futuristics have more to do with people in relatively stationary settings than in sweeping space-bound sagas.

Best Space Opera Romance - Space opera is grand and galactic in scale. Space battles, inter-stellar wars, all set in the deep dark of space. Lots of flying around in space ships or other modes of transport between worlds, and lots of action as well as romance of epic proportions.

Best Overall Sci Fi Romance - The super nova. The best of the sci fi romance offerings.

Nominations Open Soon

Get ready! Nominations for next year's awards open at the end of this month. We've made some changes this year, offering new award categories and changing the dates around a little to make this easier on all of us.

Here's the tentative schedule for our 2009 Awards:

11/1/08 - 12/31/08 - Nominations
1/10/09 - 2/14/09 - Voting
March 2009 - Awards Announced

2008 Winners!

Best Vampire Romance
Blood Calls by Caridad Pineiro

Best Werewolf Romance
Ascension by Lauren Dane

Best Shapeshifter (non-wolf) Romance
Texas Tea by Maura Anderson

Best Psychic Romance
Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh

Best Demonic Romance
Silk and Steel by Stella and Audra Price

Best Overall Paranormal Romance
Sweeter Than Wine by Bianca D'Arc

Best Epic Fantasy Romance
Wings of Change by Bianca D'Arc

Best Urban Fantasy Romance
Soft Edge of Midnight by Stella and Audra Price

Best Faerie Tale Romance
Master of Dragons by Angela Knight

Best Overall Fantasy Romance
Riding the Thunder by Deborah Macgillivray

Best Post-Apocalyptic Romance
Sanctuary by Jade Falconer

Best Futuristic Romance
Insufficient Mating Material by Rowena Cherry

Best Space Opera Romance
Sons of Amber: Michael by Bianca D'Arc

Best Overall Sci Fi Romance
Hara's Legacy by Bianca D'Arc

Long Story Short...

We had a bit of very obvious ballot stuffing, even with using polls this year and setting them to not allow duplicate voting from the same address. I don't know how they managed it, but there were some VERY obvious attempts to double, triple, and quadruple vote on certain categories.

So, how to fix this? That's been what's been keeping us from announcing winners. We think we've come up with a solution and so we'll be announcing the winners shortly. In the meantime, we'd like to apologize to those who played by the rules and voted properly.

The categories that are affected are just a few. In order to keep everything uniform, we're going to disallow the very obvious votes by cutting the number of votes for those books by one-third, then comparing to the numbers left for the other entries. The one with the most votes wins. Stay tuned... we'll be announcing the winners shortly!

2008 Finalists Announced!

Voting will commence at the beginning of February, so stay tuned for the announcement!

Best Vampire Romance

• Blood Calls by Caridad Pineiro
  
• The Bodyguard by Michelle Hasker
  
• Blood Moon by Dawn Thompson
  

Best Werewolf Romance

• The Brotherhood by Dawn Thompson
  
• Ascension by Lauren Dane
  
• Kissing Sin by Keri Arthur
  
• Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night by Kresley Cole
  

Best Shapeshifter (non-wolf) Romance

• Prince of Spies by Bianca D'Arc
  
• Rearing Heat by Skylar Sinclair
  
• Texas Tea by Maura Anderson
  

Best Psychic Romance

• Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh
  
• The Crystal Falcon by Jeanne Barrack
  
• In Her Bed by Deborah Macgillivray
  

Best Demonic Romance

• Gideon by Jacquelyn Frank
  
• Silk and Steel by Stella and Audra Price
  
• Mooncusser Cove by Darragha Foster
  
• Bound in Lust by Dawn Montgomery
  

Best Overall Paranormal Romance

• In Her Bed by Deborah Macgillivray
  
• Wonder Witch by Ashlyn Chase
  
• Sweeter Than Wine by Bianca D'Arc
  

Best Epic Fantasy Romance

• Dissent by Jet Mykles
  
• Wings of Change by Bianca D'Arc
  
• Lady of Light and Shadows by C.L. Wilson
  

Best Urban Fantasy Romance

• Wired by Liz Maverick
  
• Dangerous Games by Keri Arthur
  
• Love's Alchemy by Ciar Cullen
  
• Soft Edge of Midnight by Stella and Audra Price
  

Best Faerie Tale Romance

• Faery Special Romance by Jacquie Rogers
  
• Violet Story by Tuesday Morrigan
  
• Whispered Promise by Kally Jo Surbeck
  
• Master of Dragons by Angela Knight
  

Best Overall Fantasy Romance

• Riding the Thunder by Deborah Macgillivray
  
• Faery Special Romance by Jacquie Rogers
  
• Soft Edge of Midnight by Stella and Audra Price
  

Best Post-Apocalyptic Romance

• Hara's Legacy by Bianca D'Arc
  
• Sanctuary by Jade Falconer
  
• Chasing Silver by Jamie Craig
  

Best Futuristic Romance

• The Wives Tales by Lara Santiago
  
• Insufficient Mating Material by Rowena Cherry
  
• Heart of a Peacekeeper by Angela Verdenius
  

Best Space Opera Romance

• Sons of Amber: Michael by Bianca D'Arc
  
• Games of Command by Linnea Sinclair
  
• Fox and Dragon by Jet Mykles
  

Best Overall Sci Fi Romance

• The Wives Tales by Lara Santiago
  
• Polyamorous Princess by Melodee Aaron
  
• Hara's Legacy by Bianca D'Arc

Congratulations to the Finalists! Finalists are entitled to snag any of the graphics below for their websites and mailings. They get bragging rights, good will, and the love of the masses for being nominated to the Finalist position.

* Note: Edited to fix one error, pointed out by our friendly fact checker. Our apologies for the initial, incorrect post, which left out one finalist in the Best Demonic category. It's now fixed.

Nominations Now Closed

We'll be posting the Finalists shortly and voting will commence on February 1st, 2008. Thank you to all who nominated their favorites!