Best Character Writer of the Week: aniuby

**The Yogi** · 26-04-2010 12:42

Amric wins prizes again - all is well with AARland.

**Fookison** · 26-04-2010 23:48

Congratulations, Amric!

**TemplarComander** · 27-04-2010 00:08

Well Done, Amric !

**Amric** · 05-05-2010 18:03

Imagine my surprise when I was informed that I had won this award. To be honest I nearly fell out of my chair! I haven't been back long after a very long hiatus due to health reasons so it never occurred to me that such a thing could happen. Since my stroke my creative spark has been missing. I had no ideas, no plans, no real thoughts of writing.

I thought my writing 'career', such as it was, was over. Yet it turned out not to be true. About a month before I returned I started to dream. Yes I know, sounds crazy, but some of my greatest writing ideas come to me in a dream. This William Weiner tale was one of them.

It was only a nebulous idea. What if a young man saw his family murdered before his eyes? What would he do? Where would he go? Would he seek vengeance? I didn't know. At first, to be honest, I didn't care. But I kept having the bloody dream! It wouldn't go away. Now this has happened before to me and has caused me to lose many hours of sleep until I wrote it down and exorcised it from my brain.

I resisted. I figured only an opening sequence is not enough. Yet the dreams persisted. They didn't elaborate, but kept the same theme and opening sequence. I finally broke down and wrote it down. Finally, I could sleep! No, I seemingly couldn't. I still had that blasted dream. I hadn't posted the thing on the forums. I still had the dream and the problems sleeping thinking about it.

Fine, I'll post it. Well I read it first and realized that it was missing something. I added a few touches and posted it. I didn't expect much in return as nobody probably remembered me. Lo and behold, I was wrong. People seemed to like it. I was and still am, unsure of my writing skills. I feel I am still missing something, but it seems to please people to read it. So I continued. As I will continue to do.

I want to thank loki100 for the wonderful honor of this award. I didn't expect it, but I appreciate it greatly. After such a long time gone and a tough recovery it was gratifying to discover I still had some writing skill left.

Now for thanking all of you for congratulating me. I appreciate it very much. From the ones I haven't yet met to the old standard bearers like coz1, The Yogi, Qorten, CatKnight, Enewald who remember me from before to those of you I either haven't met, or don't remember<have memory issues, so please don't feel slighted if I should remember you but I don't> such as Lord E, Kazmir, Iain Wilson, Auray, King Richard XI, asd21593, aldriq, JDMS, cthuhu, Fookison, and TemplarCommander. Thank you all.

Now on to my nomination. I have had little chance to really peruse the forums but I have done some searching. I keep coming back to one of my new favorites. It is a sequel to a 'Game Show' that was first introduced years ago by our very own Mod, Coz1. Now you all know who he is and his obviously great writing skills.

What some of you may not realize is that he does grand work with broad humor and subtle as well. This is why I nominate him and his cast of characters in this...

Quest: The Wine of Milan

**Iain Wilson** · 05-05-2010 18:13

Congrats Coz! Good choice Amric!

**Lord E** · 05-05-2010 18:30

Nice choice. Congratulations coz

**King_Richard_XI** · 05-05-2010 19:43

I'm honoured to have been mentioned in passing by someone who doesn't know who I am.

Once again, congratulations Amric. A great choice of successor, too.
congratulations, coz!

**Auray** · 05-05-2010 19:45

Originally Posted by King_Richard_XI

I'm honoured to have been mentioned in passing by someone who doesn't know who I am.

Me too

.

Congratulations, coz1! I've always enjoyed your brilliant writing!

**loki100** · 05-05-2010 21:21

congratulations coz ... well deserved

**asd21593** · 05-05-2010 22:18

Congrats, coz1!

**Kazmir** · 05-05-2010 22:35

Congratulations coz1!

**JDMS** · 05-05-2010 23:19

Congratz!

**TemplarComander** · 06-05-2010 00:14

Well Done, coz1 !

**Fookison** · 06-05-2010 00:19

Congratulations, coz1!

**coz1** · 06-05-2010 00:38

Well this is certainly a surprise! Thank you Amric!

Only two posts in right now on the new Quest, but it has been fun to bring the guys back and see what new things I might be able to do with them. This AAR is a sequel to my previous quest attempt - Quest: The Spanish Search For Gold - which sadly ended with lost files. It took my literally years to find a new way to present them and the For the Glory game offered a great background to return Jackie Powers, Goldfinger, and yes...even King Midas back into action.

There are some new players this time around since wine is the goal rather than gold, but the idea pretty much remains the same. We follow the quest and hear the judges and various active parties discuss the game action. Sometimes hilarity ensues...and others, the jokes fall flat.

But it is fun and helps liven up the game and writing.

To be honest, when this award was first instituted back in 2006, I figured it was a sop to the narrative crowd and certainly well worth it as this forum has a great number of excellent fiction writers. But as the years have passed, we've seen plenty of different types of characters in AARs that captured this award and among them, comedy can certainly be king...and yes folks, Coz is writing comedy this time so I am extra thankful that Amric picked this. Shows the great inclusiveness I love about this place. If you want it, you can find it.

Thanks again to all of you and let me know what you think if you get a chance to stop by the thread. I truly appreciate all the well wishes and must point out in a rare moment of shameless lack of humility...I've won this award every single year since 2006. It is no less exciting and appreciated today than it was the first time. It does mean quite a lot to a writer to have their work considered.

Back in quick enough time to pick a worthy successor...but you better believe I'm keeping it for at least a few days.