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.

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:

The Most Magnificent Dragon Silmaril Awards Ceremony 2024

16 Sep 2024 7 Comments

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

Well that could have been worse. I guess. Julio and Norbert were polite house guests. But the other three. All I can say is, well just look at what’s left of my family’s barn:

This is what I get for housing three full grown dragons in the barn. Though maybe they were just upset about having to stay in the barn.

It’s finally time to go through the interdimensional portal for the awards ceremony itself. Shardas, The Dragon and Vollys fly though first while Julio, in his human guise, and I walk through pushing Baby Norbert in a pram.

As we enter the back stage area, we catch snatches of arguing. “I said, I don’t want to wear it.” Whines a prepubescent voice with an English accent. As we enter the giant green room where finalists and hosts wait. I see a boy who almost looks like he deserves the name Eustace Scrubb. He is holding a fancy gold cuff and staring down a large menacing dragon. I can only assume that this magnificent fire wyrm is Smaug the great and powerful.

Smaug points a menacing claw at the child and says, “This is an award for Dragons, and if you are going to cohost then you must be a dragon.”

Eustace sighs and slides the cuff onto his forearm. “If I’d known when they made me official cohost, that I’d have to do this every year then I never would have agreed to it.” Once the Cuff is firmly in place Eustace Scrubb starts growing scales all over his body. In seconds the transformation from boy to dragon is complete.

“That’s my cue as well.” Julio says before he too transforms into a fierce green dragon.

Smaug and Eustice step out on stage and introduce the finalist one by one. Fist Shardas, then Vollys, The Dragon, and Julio. I follow quickly with Norbert in the pram. Eustace takes the large envelope and slides a claw across the wax seal.

“And the Winner for 2024 with 23% of the vote…”

All of the finalists puff out their chests in anticipation.

“Norbert from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” He looks up from the card. “That can’t be right. I’m sure the book was called Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone.” I chuckle as I realize that of course Eustace would have read the British version.

Julio rushes over and steals the poster sized card away from Eustace. “Does it say what place I got?” He scans for a moment. I expect him to be disappointed but he actually looks cheery. “Second place again, and I didn’t even have to share it.” He shoots a smug grin over at Shardas.

He comes back to the Pram and picks up Norbert. “And if I have to lose to a baby at least it’s a cute one. Come on Norberta, Let’s get your award.”

“Wait, did you just call him Norberta?”

Julio looks down at the baby dragon. “Yes this dragon is female, I thought that was obvious.”

“Ah, okay. I guess I hadn’t thought to check that.”

Eustace is clearly getting flustered now. “i don’t understand why everything is wrong. The title of the book is wrong the gender and name of the dragon are wrong. Why is this happening my first time on stage?”

“Ah well,” says Julio. “If the baby is disqualified then does that mean I get the award?”

Smaug roars. “No one is disqualified. If the readers voted for this dragon, then this dragon is The Most Magnificent Dragon.” Everyone quickly calms down.

Julio hands Norberta to Eustace and Smaug gently lays the Silmaril around her neck.

With the ceremony over I see the other three finalists turn to me.

Vollys speaks up, accusation in her voice. “So you allowed the first and second place dragons to stay in your house, while the three of us were relegated to the dirty barn.”

I hold up my hands. “It wasn’t like that, I didn’t know the results ahead of time. I promise, it’s just what was most convenient. I mean Julio can literally turn into a human, how could I not let him sleep int eh house?”

The Dragon starts morphing. “Julio is not the only one who knows such a trick.” When he is done shifting I see a towering humanoid that resembles something out of the Slenderman horror franchise.

I think this is my cue to leave. I run back through the interdimensional portal and shut it behind me.

I hope you enjoyed the Most Magnificent Dragon Ceremony. Be sure to check out all the other Silmaril awards happening this week and next.

Award Ceremonies schedules

Most Magnificent Dragon: Mon. Sept 16 – cobonham.com (You are here.)

Most Faithful Friend: Tues. Sept 17 – https://imperialscribis.wordpress.com/

Most Nefarious Villain: Wed. Sept 18 – https://www.hlburkeauthor.com/blog

Most Devoted Couple: Thurs. Sept 19 – https://catherinesrebellingmuse.blogspot.com/

Most Silver Tongue: Fri. Sept. 20 – https://tpssarahlightshadows.wordpress.com/

Most Epic Hero: Mon. Sept 23 – https://bardonpilgrimage.wordpress.com/

Wisest Counselor: Tues. Sept 24 – https://samsbookshire.blogspot.com/

Most Epic Heroine: Wed. Sept 25 – https://djedwardson.com/blog/

Most Wayward Soul: Thurs. Sept. 26 – https://mackenziekwrites.com/blog/

Most Mischievous Imp: Fri. Sept 27 – https://www.jenelleschmidt.com/blog

Silmaril Awards 2024 Dragon Finalists and voting link.

09 Sep 2024 Leave a comment

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

Okay so I think I’m going to put up the Dragon nominees in my family’s barn. Hopefully no one is offended. Okay so let’s see who I’m putting up at my house.

Most Magnificent dragon tallies are in:
Shardas (Dragon Slippers)
Norbert (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s stone)
The Dragon (Tales of Goldstone Wood)
Vollys (Two Princesses of Bamarre)

And the stand out nominee with a total of 13 seconds is… Julio Aquino (Crockett and Crane)

You can click the links above to find information about each of these characters. Be careful the wiki’s contain spoilers for their respective books.

Unfortunately Julio has no fan Wiki to link to. So I will try to sum up his character.

Books you can find him in: Horseman and Deadwood. Crockett and Crane books one and two. Also The Fourth Musketeer (novella) All books written by Kyle Robert Shultz.

Julio Aquino: A fierce green dragon, who would much rather hang out with his friends eating nachos than fly around terrorizing people, though he does like to make things go Fwoom! His Human form is that of a fun loving Latino Man.

Wait, Julio has a human form! Win! I can put him up in the gust room. And if I get baby Norbert from Harry potter I might be able to give him one of the dog beds. That means I only have to put up three dragons in the barn. This might not be that bad after all.

The button below will take you to the main voting form for all of the Silmaril awards, I recommend using the schedule below and visiting each blog to see the nominee for each category so you can easily make all you selections, since you can only fill out the voting form once.

Vote here

Award Ceremonies schedules

Most Magnificent Dragon: Mon. Sept 16 – cobonham.com (You are here.)

Most Faithful Friend: Tues. Sept 17 – https://imperialscribis.wordpress.com/

Most Nefarious Villain: Wed. Sept 18 – https://www.hlburkeauthor.com/blog

Most Devoted Couple: Thurs. Sept 19 – https://catherinesrebellingmuse.blogspot.com/

Most Silver Tongue: Fri. Sept. 20 – https://tpssarahlightshadows.wordpress.com/

Most Epic Hero: Mon. Sept 23 – https://bardonpilgrimage.wordpress.com/

Wisest Counselor: Tues. Sept 24 – https://samsbookshire.blogspot.com/

Most Epic Heroine: Wed. Sept 25 – https://djedwardson.com/blog/

Most Wayward Soul: Thurs. Sept. 26 – https://mackenziekwrites.com/blog/

Most Mischievous Imp: Fri. Sept 27 – https://www.jenelleschmidt.com/blog

2024 Silmaril Awards: Most Magnificent Dragon. [CLOSED]

02 Sep 2024 61 Comments

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

Edit: Nominations are now closed and no new comments will be counted. Please come back on September nineth for the finalist voting. See you then and may the Most Magnificent dragon win.

I am hosting again for the premier award for fantasy characters.

The Silmaril Awards. This year there are ten categories including the return of last years newbie, Most Wayward Soul.

I am hosting the nominations and award for The Most Magnificent Dragon. I actually pretty nervious about this year. I heard that when you host the Dragon awards you actually have to host the nominees and I just don’t know if I have the room for them all.


What are the Silmaril Awards?

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!

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 in the fantasy genre.

Characters cannot receive the same award more than once. These are lifetime awards.

Tolkien and Narnian characters are not eligible to be nominated. Instead, they’ll be the ones presenting the awards. 

Nominations are submitted in the comments of each of the host blogs.

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.

The dates for this year’s awards are:

Nominations week — Sept 2-6

Voting week — Sept 9-13

Awards ceremonies — Sept 16-27

Most Magnificent Dragon Past Winners

· 2023 Yurgen from Wingfeather Saga

· 2022 Hulwen from Wingfeather Saga

· 2021 Malcolm Blackfire from The Afterverse

· 2020 Clefspeare from Dragons in Our Midst

· 2019 Saphira from Eragon

· 2018 Eustace from The Chronicles of Narnia

· 2017 Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon

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.

So, Who do you think the Most Magnificent Dragon is?

Nominate them now, by leaving a comment below!

Then nominate more at the blogs below:

Most Faithful Friend – https://imperialscribis.wordpress.com/2024/08/31/the-silmaril-awards-nominations-for-most-faithful-friend/

Most Nefarious Villain – https://www.hlburkeauthor.com/post/2024-silmaril-awards-nominations-most-nefarious-villain

Most Devoted Couple – https://catherinesrebellingmuse.blogspot.com/2024/09/now-open-nominations-for-silmaril.html?m=1

Most Silver Tongue – https://wp.me/p3FlHI-2io

Most Epic Hero – https://bardonpilgrimage.wordpress.com/2024/09/02/2024-silmaril-award-nominations-most-epic-hero/

Wisest Counselor – https://samsbookshire.blogspot.com/2024/09/the-silmaril-awards-2024-nominations.html

Most Epic Heroine – https://djedwardson.com/2024-silmaril-award-nominations-for-most-epic-heroine/

Most Wayward Soul – https://mackenziekwrites.com/2024/09/02/the-silmaril-awards-nominations-now-open-for-wayward-souls/

Most Mischievous Imp – https://jenelleschmidt.com/blog/nominations-2024-silmaril-awards-mischievous-imps

Remember all nominations close the evening of September Sixth.

Silmaril Awards 2023: Most Nefarious Villian WINNER

19 Sep 2023 9 Comments

by C.O. Bonham in Uncategorized Tags: ,

I am so sorry, I’ve really slacked off, and this is my first time hosting too. But I see no reason to change. The Fantasy Times has already covered the ceremony, which happened early this morning, so I’m just going to steal their article and post it here. I’ll do better next year I promise. If I get invited back that is.

Award Presenter Confusion Leads to Strange Flirtation

I arrive at the Villain Awards ceremony and take my seat in the press box. I am surprised at how civilized the crowd is. Though I guess I shouldn’t be, as villains seem to have the most impeccable manners.

Gentle murmurs of conversation hush as a woman clothed all in white steps onto the stage with a red envelope in her hands. “Our Dark Lord appears to be a no show. But the awards must go on. As the first ever to be awarded this prestigious award, it is my honor to present this years Silmaril for Most Nefarious Villain.”

The crowd gasps at the White Witch’s announcement. Then a man strides on stage. He has long hair of purest silver and a tunic fit for a king. He addresses Jadis, “Who is it that has not shown up?”

“Lord Sauron, naturally. He always hosts this award, but he’s skipped out this year. No giant fiery eye anywhere to be seen.”

The man shifts and the crowd can see that he is carrying a Silmaril case. “Is this fiery eye the only form he can take?”

Jadis steps back. “No, of course not, but I don’t see any spiky suits of armour walking around either. What’s it to you anyway, Son of Adam?”

The newcomer pulls back his hair revealing his pointed Elven ears. “I am no Son of Adam. I have been awake since before the breaking of the first silence. And truly I tell you that Sauron can take another form, one that is pleasing to both men and elves. A form that would deceive even the likes of you Jadis.”

The White Witch leans in closer to the stranger. “Who are you?”

The shining Elf turns to face the audience. “I go by many names. Some of you know me as Mairon, The Second age knew me as Annatar. But you,” he turns back to face Jadis, “my dear White Witch, you can call me Sauron.”

Jadis leans in closer, “It really is you! I did’t know you could look so hot.” She stroked his shoulder, “You know we could be a real power couple if we teamed up. Have I ever mentioned that my origin story involves magic rings?”

The Dark Lord pulls her closer. “Indeed, with the ring to the wood between the worlds I could rule all universes.”

“Yes, the Dark Lord and the White Queen.”

He reaches out as if to caress her face but strikes her instead. “Fool, there is only one to rule them all. How dare you consider yourself my equal. You couldn’t even put down that bothersome lion.”

Jadis’s already pale face loses all color save for the red welt growing on her left cheek. She drops the red envelope as she flees the stage.

Sauron bends over and picks up the envelope. “Now that I have reclaimed my rightful place as awards presenter Let’s find out who the winner is.”

Lord Sauron makes a show of placing the Silmaril case on the podium and dramatically opens the red envelope. “With forty out of one hundred and fifty-four, the Most Nefarious Villian is a man after my own villainous soul. No sad back story, no righteous justification. Just pure evil. Your 2023 Most Nefarious Villain is Prince Humperdink from the novel The Princess Bride.”

The crowd erupts into boos and cheers, as the villains in attendance express their admiration for and their jealousy of the evil Prince Humperdink. Prince Humperdink is exuberant as her runs up on stage. He graces Sauron with a bow as the Dark Lord places the Silmaril around his neck.

Humperdink straightens and holds the shining jewel in his hand. “Thank you to everyone who voted for me. At the start of my story I was just a vain, spoiled Prince who wanted to punish Guilder for their princess’s baldness. But over the course of my arc I learned how to commit truly heinous acts. And the best part is that, unlike most of you out there,” Humperdink swept a hand before him indicating the audience, “I lived to plot revenge.”

Humperdink took a breath like he was about to start a longer speech but Sauron cut him off. “And that is all we have time for this year. Congratulations Humperdink, and to those that didn’t win. Better luck next year.”

Awards Schedule by Ceremony.

Monday, September 18: Most Magnificent Dragon – Jenelle Leanna Schmidt
Tuesday, Septemeber 19: Most Nefarious Villain – C.O. Bonham (You are here)
Wednesday, September 20: Most Devoted Couple – Book Shire
Thursday, September 21: Most Wayward Soul – E. E. Rawls
Friday, September 22: Most Silver Tongue – The Grim Writer
Saturday, September 21: Most Epic Heroine – Catherine Hawthorn
Monday, September 25: Most Majestic Ruler – DJ Edwardson
Tuesday, September 26: Most Faithful Friend – JL Mbewe
Wednesday, September 27: Most Mischievous Imp – Bard on pilgrimage
Thursday, September 28: Most Epic Hero – Imperial Scribis
Friday, September 29: Wisest Counselor – Light and Shadows

I hope everyone enjoyed this year’s awards and to those who really think I was being lazy I want you to know—the reporter was me.

A quick shout out to fellow awards host Sarah Pennington. Her newest book, Song of the Selkies, releases today! Go check out her blog for all the good book links and info about the book. https://tpssarahlightshadows.wordpress.com/

Silmaril Awards 2023 Villain Finalists and voting link.

11 Sep 2023 4 Comments

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

Welcome back to the Nefarious Villain award. There were so many nominations and seconds that it took me almost two hours to read and tally them all. And to those of you who got sent to spam, I deeply apologize but worry not—your vote was counted. But it’s still busy and I may be hiding from Captain Hook so here’s another article I swiped from The Fantasy Times. I mean I they interviewed me for the article anyway the least they can do is let me share it.

Will Hook Make Waves Over Awards Snub?

Watching the contestants vie for the coveted Silmaril is always a fun aspect of awards season, but no award provides quite the level of entertainment as does the Villain award. Watching the worst of the worst get simultaneously offended at being nominated, and outraged at not winning is a highlight for many.

As a Journalist I hunted down the award coordinator and got the inside scoop on the counting process.

“Every blogger has their own process for keeping track of the votes. As a first time awards host it was interesting, Getting advice from veterans and also improvising my method. One Vetren award host shared a spread sheet that helped immensely. I have it set up so that I get an email every time someone comments on my blog. I waited until nominations closed and then went through my email deleting emails as I counted Nominations and seconds. That method combined with the spread sheet kept everything pretty organized for me. Then all I had to do was count the seconds to see who had the most. The top five characters to be ‘seconded’ the most times were the finalists.”

As I was taking my notes it occurred to me that there might be a flaw with this system. “What if there are Characters with the same number of nominations?”

“Well, it really only matters if the tie is between fifth and sixth place since only five characters can advance.”

I look at the blogger pointedly. “And was there a tie between fifth and sixth place?” I asked her.

She adverted her gaze and looked down at her watch. “It was a very close race and so many villains got nominated. So yes there were a bunch that got the same number of seconds. But it didn’t matter until it came to fifth place, so I used my one reader vote as a tiebreaker. I had to pick one or the other and I will not tell you who it was between because these are—well, their the bad guys and I don’t need one mad at me.”

She was looking really nefarious at this point and so I let the matter drop and we moved on to revealing the finalists for Most Nefarious Villain. They are:

Capricorn from Inkheart
Prince Humperdink from The Princess Bride
Lord Sero from the City Between series by W.R. Gingell*
Gnag the Nameless from Wingfeather Saga
Bonifer Squoon also from Wingfeather Saga

If you aren’t sure who any of these people are then click their names to be taken to related fan wikis.

*The City Between series has no fan wiki. (This is a grevious oversight and someone should correct it.) So here’s a run down on Lord Sero provided by the one of the other awards hosts:
Lord Sero may cause flowers and plants to grow wherever he steps, but that’s no cause to underestimate him — and misjudging his character could be the last mistake you ever make. He’s the epitome of a powerful noble fae — which is to say that he’s proud, ambitious, manipulative, and continually in the middle of at least one scheme to increase his own personal power and influence. And, like many fae, he’s not particular about who else he happens to hurt in order to achieve that goal — especially if they happen to be those whom he considers “lesser beings” (which is to say, not fae). He manages to have a finger in every pie, whether it’s the Fae Enforcers or the sinister Upper Management, in addition to the numerous other Behindkind under his direct command. His most notable recent scheme is his continual efforts to push his son into the Kingship of Behind so he can be the power behind the throne, and he’ll use any means he has to — whether magical interference, manipulating his son’s friends and companions, or plain old murder — to accomplish his ends.

As long time award followers will know, the nomination process is always open and can easily be double checked by any decently motivated individual so I assure you that this reporter has done her due diligence and confirmed the results. In doing so, I discovered that the tie for fifth place with ten “seconds” each was between Captain Hook of Neverland and Lord Sero from the City Between.

When I contacted the blogger again for comment, this all she would tell me: “Look anyone can see that Lord Sero is the greater Villain. I mean, Hook is just a Grumpy old man who’s being tormented by the universe’s brattiest child.”

When I reached out to Hook to see how he would react his only reply was. “Finally! Someone understands!”

https://www.silmarilawards.com/vote

When you click on the voting link above you will be taken to a form to vote for the finalists in EVERY award. So if you want to read up on the other finalists before you vote then click on the blog links below.

Awards Schedule by Ceremony.

Monday, September 18: Most Magnificent Dragon – Jenelle Leanna Schmidt
Tuesday, Septemeber 19: Most Nefarious Villain – C.O. Bonham (You are here)
Wednesday, September 20: Most Devoted Couple – Book Shire
Thursday, September 21: Most Wayward Soul – E. E. Rawls
Friday, September 22: Most Silver Tongue – The Grim Writer
Saturday, September 21: Most Epic Heroine – Catherine Hawthorn
Monday, September 25: Most Majestic Ruler – DJ Edwardson
Tuesday, September 26: Most Faithful Friend – JL Mbewe
Wednesday, September 27: Most Mischievous Imp – Bard on pilgrimage
Thursday, September 28: Most Epic Hero – Imperial Scribis
Friday, September 29: Wisest Counselor – Light and Shadows

2023 Silmaril Award Nominations [CLOSED]: Most Nefarious Villain.

04 Sep 2023 70 Comments

by C.O. Bonham in Uncategorized Tags: ,

After years of blogging I am finally a host for the premier award for fantasy characters.

The Silmaril Awards. This year there are eleven categories including one new one called Most Wayward Soul.

I am hosting the nominations and award for The Most Nefarious Villain.

I really wish I could share more. There is so much happening with the awards this year. But it’s labor day and I’m out of town for the weekend so I found this newspaper article to share with you instead. It’s from some obscure news site called: The Fantasy Times.

Shocking awards upset!

It’s that time of year again folks! The tickets are printed, the jewels are shined and the only thing left to decide is who is worthy!

That’s right it’s awards season here in the realms of fantasy, and society is abuzz with the latest news to come out of The City of Kings. Aragorn the King of Gondor has made a stunning announcement, all Narnia Characters are to be awarded honorary Silmarils.

This was announced at a ceremony where King Aragorn awarded a chest of Silmarils to the four high kings and queens of Narnia and bid them to distribute them to their citizens. (I pause to remind the reader that a lot of Narnians already hold Silmarils, so we can assume this won’t be a hard task.) Then when the Pevensies tried to bow to him Aragorn stopped them and said, “My friends you bow to no one.”

That’s the story folks, after years of the Narnians dominating the awards, it’s finally time for other members of Fantasy to get a chance at the most coveted award in all the realms.

Who will be victorious this year?

Your vote will decide!

What are the Silmaril Awards?

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!

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 in the fantasy genre.

Characters cannot receive the same award more than once. These are lifetime awards.

Past Nefarious Villain winners include:

Tolkien and now Narnian characters are not eligible to be nominated. Instead, they’ll be the ones presenting the awards. 

Nominations are submitted in the comments of each of the host blogs.

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.

The dates for this year’s awards are:

Nominations week — Sept 4-8

Voting week — Sept 11-15

Awards ceremonies — Sept 18-29

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 pst winners above before nominating.

So, Who do you think the most Nefarious Villain is?

Nominate them now!

Nominate more at the blogs below:

Most Magnificent Dragon – Jenelle Leanna Schmidt
Most Nefarious Villain – C.O. Bonham (You are here)
Most Devoted Couple – Book Shire
Most Wayward Soul – E. E. Rawls
Most Silver Tongue – The Grim Writer
Most Epic Heroine – Catherine Hawthorn
Most Majestic Ruler – DJ Edwardson
Most Faithful Friend – J L Mbewe
Most Mischievous Imp – Bard on Pilgrimage
Most Epic Hero – Imperial Scribis
Wisest Counselor – Light and Shadows