Come See Me! Twice!

26 Sep 2025 Leave a comment

by C.O. Bonham in Author news Tags: , , ,

This is a big weekend for me as an author.

Come See Me Online!

Tonight is the final event of the 2025 Silmaril awards.

Come join me and the other hosts as we stream a Tolkien trivia challenge live on YouTube. Which blogger knows the most about Middle Earth? Tune in to find out. (Pretty sure it’s not me.)

We are competing in teams so my lack of knowledge might be covered by the insane level of lore that my teammates posses.

https://youtube.com/live/GkDfRz-dtIQ?feature=share

Don’t forget to check out all the awards ceremonies to see who this years Silmaril Award winners are:

Come See Me in Person!

If you are in the Toledo, Ohio area you can come meet me, and author friend H.L. Burke, at the Muddy Maumee book and arts festival.

September 27th & 28th

https://www.themuddymaumeefestival.com/

Free admission!

Over fifty authors and artists!

Saturday 27th 10-6pm
Sunday 28th 11-5pm
AT THE RIBBON IN THE GLASS CITY METROPARK

Heidi and I will be at Booth Number 42 — the answer to life the universe and everything.

Bonus: The weather is going to be beautiful so take the excuse to get outside and pick up a good book or two.

Most Devoted Couple Silmaril Awards Ceremony

16 Sep 2025 7 Comments

by C.O. Bonham in Silmaril Awards Tags: ,

The votes are in the couples are assembled and the band is playing. Time for the Most Devoted Couple Masquerade Ball.

I know it’s usually an awards ceremony but those are very boring for everyone who doesn’t win so this way at least there is dancing and everyone can have fun.

The five finalist couples are standing in the center of the dance floor. All are wearing masks to hide their identities from those in attendance. As the dance progresses the hosts will pull couples out of the dance one by one until only the most devoted couple remains.

The ballroom is strung with fairy lights and the there are purple banners hung from the ceiling with the names of the most devoted couples from past years: Westley and Buttercup and Nia and Esben. One banner is notably blank, awaiting the names of the newest winners.

The Finalists make a turn around the dancefloor. Then Faramir and Eowyn cut in on a couple. Faramir takes the hand of a tall woman with black hair and a half mask bejeweled with rubies. Eowyn takes aside the man, shorter than his partner, with short curls. Most notably the man has one hand that does not move. It is obviously a false hand. His mask is a simple silk scarf with holes cut into it. Much like a thief would wear.

Once the couple is led off the dance floor they unmask revealing Eugenides and Irene from The Queen’s Thief Series.

The remaining four couples take another turn around the floor. the music swells and Cor and Aravis appear to lead off the next set of finalists.

The woman is another tall black haired woman. This one wearing her hair in a long braid that goes nearly to the floor. Her mask is a made from black feathers.

The Man is equally as tall as his partner and also has black hair. His mask is covered in dragon scales.

The couple is led off and placed next to Eugenides and Irene. They bow and remove their masks revealing Cimorene and Mendanar from The Enchanted Forest Chronicles Series.

The three remaining couples take two turns around the floor this time.

When King Frank and Queen Helen join the dance the third couple seems ready for them. They break apart and take their new partners for a turn around the floor before taking their place beside the others.

They pull at their masks his a royal gold and hers white and non-descript, as if she is skilled at blending into a crowd. They are Halt and Pauline from The Rangers Apprentice Series.

Two couples remain. They turn and spin around the dancefloor waiting for the final set of hosts to appear and declare the winners of the vote.

Nia and Esben Wingfeather, the winners from last year, waltz onto the floor and grab the hands of the couple clad in green, the girl with long hair the color of honey.

Tress and Charlie, from Tress of the Emerald Sea, remove their emerald masks and run off the dancefloor.

The winning couple gets closer to each others and takes a slow turn around the floor. Then, for anyone who wasn’t keeping track, they pull off their iridescent masks.

The Most Devoted Couple is:

Char and Ella from Ella Enchanted!

It’s been a fun night and as the winners are awarded the Silmaril medal by Beren and Luthien, Everyone crowds the dancefloor and celebrates the newest Devoted Couple to join those from previous years. The blank banner ripples and the names Ella and Char appear upon it.

Char pulls Ella close to him and says, “Kiss me.”

She giggles and replies, “is that an order?”

He gasps. “I would never.”

“I know. That’s why I love you.” Ella leans in for their kiss.

Thank you for coming to the 2025 Silmaril Awards. Be sure to check out the other awards ceremonies from my blogging friends.

Did your favorite win? Let me know in the comments.

New SVR release and Anthology Sale!

09 Sep 2025 Leave a comment

by C.O. Bonham in book tours, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

NEW RELEASE! The Supervillain’s Bodyguard. 

A funny, heartfelt new superhero romance that takes you cross-country on a race for survival. Featuring a brand new match-up, this time of a normie guy and a superpowered gal. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

 Even a supervillain needs a protector sometimes.

Recently separated from the US Army, Caspian “Cas” Knight is having a hard time readjusting to life in his small hometown. His plans are delayed when he’s called to a high school mentor’s funeral out of state. Bumping into his mentor’s daughter and having immediate sparks wasn’t what he planned for his weekend. Getting in between her and a group of attacking supervillains? Even less so.

Jael Wilder has spent years hiding her unwanted superpowers from forces on both sides of the law. Her powers are dangerous, and a recent surge of them cost her the one person who ever looked out for her. Now pursued by both government agents and criminal interests who want to use her as a weapon, she has one goal: find the scientist whose experiments turned her into a monster and make him feel the pain he caused her.

Thrown together, Jael and Cas take off on a cross country journey, fighting for survival. As they develop a tentative trust, and an even stronger attraction, Cas’s determination to keep her safe solidifies. However, with her uncontrollable powers making every touch potentially deadly, is a life together even possible? Or will their connection bring him only death?

 The Supervillain’s Bodyguard is the 8th book in the Superhero Romance Project series but features a new couple and can be read on its own. 

Amazon link: https://amzn.to/3UtmdrW

Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/237693164-the-supervillain-s-bodyguard

Love superheroes? Love romance? Read it as a standalone or catch up with the series in Kindle unlimited .

Series: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C7Z8815Q

All Cover Art by KM Carroll. Layout by Jennifer Hudzinski

Want more more super hero stories for super cheap!

3 epic anthologies featuring 27 awesome superhero stories, on sale for 99c a piece! Get the DOSA Files Now through September 10! 

Fun hack: grab the audio of volume one for less than five dollars when you by the ebook for ninety-nine cents.

The best part is that the first two volumes feature stories written by me!

Grab the set here: https://amzn.to/3JhtOrg

The Author/Publisher:

H. L. Burke has written more books than she can count—because she’s written a lot of books, not just because she can’t count very high. 

Easily distracted by shinies, she has published in many subgenres including fantasy romance, Steampunk, and superhero, and always creates story worlds with snark, feels, and wonder. 

Married to her high school crush who is a retired Marine, she spends her time writing, spoiling her cats, and supervising her two supervillains in training (aka her precocious daughters). 

Originally from Oregon, but currently living in a forest in West Virginia, she wilts without trees and doesn’t mind the rain. She is a fan of delicious flavor, a follower of the Light, and a believer in happily ever after.

Author Site:

hlburkeauthor.com 

Silmaril Awards 2025 Voting Link and Most Devoted Couple Finalists

08 Sep 2025 2 Comments

by C.O. Bonham in Silmaril Awards Tags: , ,

The nominations and seconds have been tallied and the top five couples have been notified.

You can click on each Wiki Link to learn more about the Characters. But be Warned: Wikis will contain spoilers for the books and series the characters are in. Please only use it to refresh your memory of books you’ve already read, or to learn about books you don’t plan to read.

The Most Devoted Couples are:

Char and Ella (Ella Enchanted)

https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/ella-enchanted/char.html

https://ellaenchanted.fandom.com/wiki/Ella_of_Frell

Halt and Pauline (Rangers Apprentice Series)

https://flanagan.fandom.com/wiki/Pauline_DuLacy

https://arulen.fandom.com/wiki/Halt

Eugenides and Irene (The Queen’s Thief Series) 

https://eugenides.fandom.com/wiki/Irene

https://eugenides.fandom.com/wiki/Eugenides

Tress and Charlie (Tress of the Emerald Sea)

https://coppermind.net/wiki/Tress

https://coppermind.net/wiki/Charlie

Cimorene and Mendanar (Enchanted Forest Chronicles Series)

https://the-enchanted-forest-chronicles.fandom.com/wiki/Cimorene

https://the-enchanted-forest-chronicles.fandom.com/wiki/Mendanbar

This button will take you to the voting form where you will be asked to vote in ALL Silmaril categories.

Vote Now!

Don’t forget about our epic Voting Contest!

While anyone can vote for their favorite fantasy characters, every one who also signs up to our email newsletter while voting will be entered into the contest. Voting will run from September 8-12. Once it opens, you may cast your vote at: https://www.silmarilawards.com/vote/

2nd runners-up will be contacted via email after September 15th. However, two people will be selected to be entered into the grand prize contest. Then on September 26th, the hosts will meet online for a Lord of the Rings trivia contest, with half of the hosts competing for one entrant and half for the other. Whoever’s team wins will walk away with the grand prize and the other entrant will receive the runner-up prize.

Here are the amazing prizes you’ll have a chance to win in the two contests:

Voting ends September 12th.

Then Visit each blog on it’s ceremony day to see who the winner is. You can also visit each blog now to learn more about the finalists in each category before you vote:

Vote Here

Silmaril Awards Most Devoted Couple Nominations (CLOSED)

01 Sep 2025 80 Comments

by C.O. Bonham in Silmaril Awards Tags: , ,

It’s that time of year again!

Silmaril Awards season!

The Silmaril Awards are all about celebrating fantasy fiction. But whereas most awards go to authors or books, these awards go to the characters themselves!

And this year is the tenth anniversary!

Started in 2016, these awards are a four week online celebration of all that’s best in fantasy literature. There are several awards in various categories given every year. The characters who receive them have to be from books generally considered to be in the fantasy genre. And a given character cannot receive an award more than once. These are lifetime awards.

Also, as Tolkien is, for us, the gold standard of fantasy, his characters are not eligible to be nominated. That’s because they’ll be the ones presenting the awards in this cross-dimensional online ceremony. 

Nominations are submitted on the websites of each of the presenters for that year. Anyone can submit a nomination and you can second (and third and fourth, etc.) any number of nominations besides your own.

After the nomination period (lasting one week), the five characters receiving the most nominations will make it onto the ballot and you’ll have one week to vote. After the votes are tallied, the winners will be announced, one per day, over the final two weeks of the awards.

This years Dates:

Nominations will run from Sept 1-5.

You’ll vote on the top 5 nominees from each award from Sept 8-12.

The winners will be announced, one on each weekday over the two weeks running from Sept 15-25.

Finally, we will close out this year’s awards with a special online event on Sept 26. More on that below!

This year I’m hosting The Most Devoted Couple Award. It’s one of the newer awards only being awarded twice before.

Who are the couple that can’t live without each other? The ones that will always find the other and save them? Which couples are so fully bound together that you can’t think of them as individuals anymore?

Nominate your favorite fantasy couples in the comments, but remember:

  • Tolkien and Narnia characters are exempt from nominations
  • Past winners can not be nominated again. These are lifetime awards.

Previous Most Devoted Couple

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Silmaril Awards, we are running not one, but TWO contests. Five winners will be chosen for each contest. You’ll have the chance to win one of many fantasy-themed prizes.

Puzzle Contest

Anyone is eligible to enter this contest by visiting the contest page at silmarilawards.com submitting the form.

https://www.silmarilawards.com/puzzle-contest-2025/

Each host of the Silmaril Awards will post a line from one of Tolkien’s poems on their nomination page. Gather all of them together and enter it when you submit your entry to receive NINE extra entries for a chance to win.

The line for this site is:

We come, we come with roll of drum: ta-runda runda runda rom!

NOTE: By entering you will be added to the Silmaril Awards mailing list and may receive news about the awards or the authors participating as hosts in the future. You may unsubscribe at any time.

The contest will run from September 1-5. Winners will be contacted via email after September 8th.

Voting Contest

While anyone can vote for their favorite fantasy characters, every one who also signs up to our email newsletter while voting will be entered into the contest. Voting will run from September 8-12. Once it opens, you may cast your vote at: https://www.silmarilawards.com/vote/

2nd runners-up will be contacted via email after September 15th. However, two people will be selected to be entered into the grand prize contest. Then on September 26th, the hosts will meet online for a Lord of the Rings trivia contest, with half of the hosts competing for one entrant and half for the other. Whoever’s team wins will walk away with the grand prize and the other entrant will receive the runner-up prize.

Here are the amazing prizes you’ll have a chance to win in the two contests:

  • Stained glass dragon sun catcher
  • Painted gold “One Ring” bowl
  • A Mines of Moria journal
  • A 12×18 inch poster of the Fellowship of the Ring
  • Four paperbacks by authors H.L. Burke, DJ Edwardson, J.L. Mbewe, and Jenelle Leanne Schmidt
  • Four ebooks by those same authors
  • A Lord of the Rings scarf with a map of Middle-earth imprinted on it
  • A sign stating “No admittance except on party business”
  • A Leaf of Lorien pin
  • A 3D printed Tree of Gondor bookmark
  • A Gandalf quote sticker
  • Door of Moria sticker

We hope you’ll join us for these awards and the contest and that it will be a celebration worthy of Bilbo’s hundred and eleventieth birthday party. May the best hobbit win!

Quick Reminders:

  • No Tolkien or Narnia Characters
  • Book characters only (Movies don’t count unless the book came first.)
  • Only fantasy characters are allows (No sci-fi, adventure, mystery ect…)
  • Leave your nomination as a comment State the character’s name and what book they’re from.
  • Second other’s nominations by replying “I second” to their comment.
  • These are lifetime awards please check the past winners above before nominating.

Nominate in the comments: Who is the most devoted couple?

Then nominate more at the blogs below: