The sun sinks below the horizon on a rocky and rugged landscape, the sky awash in purple and blue.

A beacon fire blazes in the darkness shedding light on the wilderland and the massive, rapt audience that has assembled for this, the final ceremony of the 2022 Silmaril Awards.

I rush about my backyard in the pre-dawn fog in a bit of a tizzy. The damp grass soaks through my tennis shoes as I dart back and forth trying to set up everything at once. The huge canopy I rented is definitely not a one-person easy assembly operation like the nice man at the rental shop assured me, the tables and chairs are still on their racks and will probably take me all afternoon to set up, none of the decorations have been properly set up and…

A wail goes up from the kitchen door and I look over to see a young girl with curly dark hair standing on the back steps, her pixie-like face a mask of despair.

It’s time to vote!

It’s been such a lovely first week of September, the season of Silmaril Awards, the time of Tolkien, and the hour of hobbits!

I love alliteration.

In case you couldn’t tell.

Nominations week is over, and so very many incredible Heroes and Heroines were nominated and discussed and brought back to mind in the past week. Thank you so much for your enthusiasm and excitement about the nominations and all your favorite characters. It was so lovely be be reminded of characters I hadn’t thought of in ages, and to re-greet them as old, beloved friends. I also am so grateful for all the new characters I was introduced to, I always come away from the Silmaril Awards with a whole stack of new books to add to my TBR and this year seems to be no exception to that rule.