Finalists have been announced for the 2018 Silver Falchion award is given by the Killer Nashville Writers Conference in Franklin, Tennessee. The Silver Falchion award categories cover the spectrum of popular literature. The conference’s Reader’s Choice nominees also have been posted.

The conference is being held this year August 23-26. The Silver Falchion and the convention’s Readers’ Choice Awards will be presented on August 26.

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How the winners are determined

SILVER FALCHION. All entries to the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award go through multiple rounds of judging that are performed by a collective of industry peers—writers, editors, agents, reviewers, etc. Each title is assigned a numerical score addressing multiple elements present within the submitted work. Scores are averaged together and the best-performing works move on to the next round of judging. This process is repeated until the judges are able to determine finalists and definitive winners in each respective category

READER’S CHOICE. The Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Reader’s Choice Award is given to the author who receives the most votes for his/her title. Voting is done online and is open to everyone. By submitting to the Silver Falchion Award competition, authors are automatically placed in the Reader’s Choice Award contest, as well.

Here are the Readers Choice nominees of genre interest —

Best Fantasy/SciFi/Horror

• PIGEON by Daniel Zadow
• UNTO THE THIRD GENERATION by Rosemary & Larry Mild
• SHADOW MOUNTAIN by Tess Collins
• TRIPLEYE by John Hegenberger
• ALTERATIONS by Jane Suen
• CHILDREN OF THE FIFTH SUN by Gareth Worthington
• DESTINY by Matthew Mather
• CHAOS UNBOUND by Brian Leon
• THE DEVIL’S BIBLE by Dana Chamblee Carpenter
• ANTITHEUS by G.A. Minton
• BLACKWELL by Alexandrea Weis
• DADGUMMIT by Maggie Toussaint
• IN THE VALLEY OF THE SUN by Andy Davidson
• KNIFE’S TELL by Daniel Dark
• THE GRIP OF IT by Jacob Jemc
• VACANT EYES by Christine Wevik