Announcement / Team Update: BIG announcements to follow + It’s October! [2017]

a Team Update by the Azure-Winged Magpie.

So. I just posted a review after so-so long! Go check it out! The Crow’s also back to form, himself!

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COMING UP: A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

First things first.

NOTE: Scroll to the end for an even BIGGER announcement! 

We’re almost there, peeps! We’re over two months behind, but we’re nearly there! First things first: we have NOT yet heard back from all of the rewrite requests, and are yet to reach out to a tiny number of our authors. But we do have FOUR confirmed stories, and one yet to even know that his story’s been accepted. There are five slots to go, and at least forty stories to pick from (rewrite requests pending).

It’s been a long, long ride. As a matter of fact, only ONE story has not been read by either myself or the Brown-Necked Raven. The rest have been cross-examined and ripped into. And only the Crow’s read and marked all of them up. There’s still a-ways to go, but we’re getting there, and sooner than anyone thinks!

We’d like to thank all our authors. Our current acceptances, those still in line, and those we have yet to polish off. This has been a ridiculously rewarding experience, even though we had disagreements and some ludicrous ratings-related fights. So, thanks, all!

But, in case no one’s heard: we’ll be doing 11 stories. Not 10. We’ll leave the secret extra entry hush-hush to those not in the know.

I’d like to now speak a little on the first two our top 5 so far (no spoilers).

Our very first acceptance was an instant winner. It was one of our earlier entries, and the Crow called me straight away to rip me away from work to read it. It’s brilliantly effective, and is handled with the deftest of touches. The full brunt of loss is on full display with this one. And wouldn’t you know it? It was one of the only two to receive the exact same score from all three judges.

And as for the other: it was our second acceptance, as a matter of fact. Again, we all instantly loved it. Apart from the scores, both stories share a very specific element, which I find to be a happy coincidence. It’s a lovely bit of slipstream that explores loss from a whole new perspective.

Our third instant contender took some time to turn into an acceptance, but it did in the end. This was the first of the Brown-Necked Raven’s stories to rise to the stage, and while I initially had reservations about it, I fell for the rewritten piece. The acceptance for this one should be sent out soon, once we’ve all signed off on the final rewrite.

Our fourth acceptance is a bit of an… odd one. Two of us were instantly on board with this one, but it ended up with a really low score thanks to the third judge’s pure seething hatred for it. This one took some arguing, but in the end, we decided to take a gamble with it. This one is best described as experimental, although I can come up with some very colourful tags for it.

And finally, we get to the one that hasn’t heard from us at all. It’s not necessarily the crown jewel of writing (and there’s another like it that I’m making a case for), but it had us pissing ourselves laughing in our seats. 10/10, without rice (Hi, Reddit!) would totally “show down” again (if you’re reading this, that is…)

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT #2

IT’S NOT OVER YET, /r/writing!

You know what? It’s a damn shame that we promised only 10 (11! 11!) acceptances. Sure, we’re not rolling about in bathtubs full of cash or anything, but there are some stories that made our decisions hard to make. That second comedy short I’m making a case for is right up there, as is one of the Crow’s favoured SF shorts.

So, here’s the deal. Once we’re finished with our first run, we’ll email the authors we considered to be honourable mentions. And if it turns out they haven’t published their stories anywhere else and are willing to publish their short stories under our banner, we’ll publish them, for the same payment as our first 10 acceptances.

There are some stories in there we’d be honoured to display, even though they might not make our initial run. So, we’ll leave that door open. It seems fair enough to me. And the Crow agrees (rob him. He’s the rich one).

Well, that’s it as far as our Call for Submissions go.

It’s only a few days until our first official announcement, so let’s now talk about what to expect in the coming days from us Corvidae.

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IT’S OCTOBER!

It’s October! And you know what that means! That’s right! It’s horror month!

While The Corvid Review was still in its infancy last year, the Crow filled it to the brim with horror film reviews leading up to Halloween. So, since our heavyweight post this year has been our explanation of The Blackcoat’s Daughter (first true one on the net, folks!), and since I love horror, why not make a tradition of it?!

The wings are already in motion. I just did up an (admittedly) crappy “horror” film, and I’m going to go through each.and.every.one missing from the Crow’s list. I’ve got some more on the way, too! And the Crow’s going to pop in now and again with one himself.

We also get to watch Thor: Ragnarok early! So, we’ll be bringing you a Spoiler-free review of that one as soon as we can.

Seems like this gon’ be one long, busy month. So tighten those seat-belts. The Corvids have powered back up again!

Love you lot loads! Have a great day!

— Azure-Winged Magpie out!

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