Papa Bear Awards 2008
The Mission Briefing
Kinch just started to jump up the ladder when Carter
called him back from his bomb-lab: "Kinch! The radio is talking!"
Kinch sighed and jumped back down again. "Never a
quiet moment in this place, is there? Not even time to go and get a cup of
coffee." He sat down at the radiopanel again and put the headphones on.
"This is Papa Bear. Go ahead, Goldilocks."
He listened for a moment; then he paled visibly.
"Carter!" he called out. And as the lanky head appeared around a
corner of the tunnel, Kinch ordered: "Go and get the colonel. And the
others. This is important!"
Within thirty seconds, the whole team was gathered
downstairs: Newkirk with a handfull of cards, and LeBeau with a wooden spoon in
his hand.
"What´s up, Kinch?" Hogan inquired
worriedly.
Kinch switched the radio to the speaker. "London
calling, sir. They say it´s mighty important: they need our expertise. Urgent," he read the words he had
started to scribble down. "Priority
1 mission. AAA+++. Extremely important. Urgentissimo."
Newkirk killed his cigarettebutt. "I wonder if
they´re trying to tell us something."
Hogan nodded. "Allright. Let´s have it."
"Go ahead, Goldilocks. We´re listening," Kinch
said in the mike.
"Good evening, chaps!"
Carter´s jaw dropped, and even the others looked at
best astonished at the chirping voice of – wasn´t that Wembley? "How is it
all going?"
Kinch handed the microphone to Hogan. "Fine.
What´s all this about an urgentissimo priority 1 mission? What´s the
problem?"
"Well, you see, Hogan, we´re a bit behind
schedule. It´s been awfully busy here lately..."
"You´re telling me," Newkirk muttered.
"... and in the process, we discovered that we
are no less than a year behind on the Papa Bear Awards."
Carter´s eyes shone instantly. "Gee, I had almost
forgotten about those! Are people still making up new adventures for us?"
Apparently Wembley had heard his words: "They
sure are. And since you guys are the experts, we´d like your opinion on them,
too, of course. We´ll make a bundle of them, and drop them at M14 tomorrow
night at 2300 hours. If you´d be so good as to pick them up there?"
"We´ll do. What categories do we have this
year?"
"Oh, it´s not the stories from this year, Colonel
Hogan. Not yet; we´ll get to those after we´ve decided on the old ones. This
time it´s about the stories written the year before!"
Hogan smirked. "Allright then, what categories
did we have last year?"
"Mostly the same as it has been, though a few
categories won´t compete this year, since there were too few stories that
suited the category. Or no stories in that category at all. If you´ve got pen
and paper ready, here´s the list."
Kinch nodded; he always had pen and paper at hand when
manning the radio.
"Go ahead, Goldilocks. We´re ready and
waiting."
"Right. The first category is drama, stories of 5000 words or more. That´s as usual; the story with the strongest, most
compelling dramatic impact."
"I like those. Gives me the creeps," Newkirk
mused.
"Except when they´re torturing the colonel,"
Kinch objected. "Personally, I´d rather skip those."
"Second category: short story-drama," Wembley went on. "The same idea, but
described in less than 5000 words.
"Third category: comedy."
Carter jumped. "Those are my favourites. I hope
there will be a lot!"
"Comedy can be described as the funny stories.
Here, too, we have made a division. The third category is for funny stories of 5000 words or more; the fourth category is for short funny stories."
"Less than 5000 words," LeBeau remarked.
"Oui, we get the picture. Go on, the fifth category."
"The fifth category is for the most unique story," Wembley droned on. "That is a story with
a totally unexpected twist, or a very unusual style, or... well, simply a unique
story. One of a kind.
"The sixth category is for the best portrayal of a canon character."
"That´s my bombs," Carter announced happily.
"They often play a vital part in those stories, don´t they?"
LeBeau glared at him. "Don´t be stupid. That´s us, you fool."
"That´s everyone,"
Hogan corrected him. "Everyone we have ever met here over the years: us,
the fellow prisoners, Klink, Schultz and the guards, Burkhalter, Hochstetter,
the people from town, any visiting Kraut we have met over the years... Even the
guard dogs included."
Carter gulped. "That´s an awful lot to choose
from."
"And the seventh category," Wembley
continued, "is for the best
original character. So that would be a
character the author has made up all by himself. And you´ll have to choose which
of those people you would have liked to meet in your work at Stalag 13."
"A girl no doubt," Newkirk grinned.
"Oh yes!" LeBeau´s eyes glittered. "And
no dirty Boche officers; we´ve seen more than enough of those!"
"I wouldn´t mind meeting any of the girls they´ve
made up for us," Carter added his two cents. "As long as they´re on
our side, that is."
Kinch sighed. "Perhaps we should let Goldilocks
continue first?"
"Thank you, Papa Bear," they heard Wembley
sigh. "Right. Onto the eighth category. That´s a new one: the best quote!"
"I know nothing!"
LeBeau and Newkirk chanted in chorus.
They heard Wembley laugh. "I agree: it is a great
quote, but this time we´re looking for new ones. Original ones. We´re looking
for a line, or maybe two lines: funny, moving, silly, very true... anything.
But it has to make sense even outside its original context."
Hogan took the mike. "Can it be a conversation
between two people as well?"
Wembley chuckled. "I suppose you´re hoping for
one of your crazy discourses with Klink to win this prize?"
"Well, hoping doesn´t hurt anybody."
"No, Colonel Hogan. Entire conversations do not
qualify for this category. Keep it short. A line; at most a line and a reply.
Like the famous ´Klink, shut up and
listen´, followed by ´Yes sir, shut
up and listen´ between the Kommandant and General Burkhalter. But no longer
discourses. Is that clear?"
"Yes sir."
"And then the last category: simply the best story, long or short. If someone agreed to read only one
story about you chaps, this should be the one you´d recommend."
LeBeau grabbed the microphone out of Hogan´s hands. "Hey, what about my favourite
category: the songs and poems?"
"I´m sorry, but no songs or poems have been
published during this particular year. But let me assure you that this category
will be back when we start on 2008´s awards in a few weeks time."
"And what about crossovers? I like it when we get
to work together with people from other era´s," Carter pouted.
"Sorry, chaps. There were so very very few
stories in both crossovers and challenged stories, that we´ve decided not to
have a special category for them. You may nominate them in any other category
you think appropriate though. And the same goes for the stories written in
German."
Hogan nodded. "Understood. Are the general rules
the same as they used to be?"
"Not quite. There has been one major
change," Wembley replied. "Everyone is still entitled to – though not
obliged to – two nominations in each category. But the author is not allowed to
nominate his own work anymore."
Newkirk grinned. "Now that´s a pity! I´d have
nominated every letter I´d ever written to me Mum!"
"Well, I´m afraid that possibility is out
now," they heard Wembley say. "Once your work has been nominated by someone else, the author is allowed to vote for his or her own creations.
But the author is not allowed to nominate his own work to enter the election."
"Makes sense," Kinch commented wryly.
"Can a story be nominated for more than one
category?" Hogan enquired.
"Yes, that is possible. The only restriction is
the distinction between short stories and stories over 5000 words. But for the
rest you may nominate one and the same story in each of the categories you see
fit. But I suppose that would require a really exceptional story, to fit in every
category."
"And when do the nominations have to be in?"
"The last day for nominating is February 7th.
The list of nominations in each category will then be published, and then
people will have the opportunity to vote – one vote in each category – until March
31st."
"Where is it going to be published?"
"On an electronic highway. There, you´ll find all
the information you need. The address is
www.konarciq.net/fanfiction/PapaBearAwards/index.html."
Carter blinked. "Say that again...?"
They heard Wembley chuckle. "Don´t worry, we´ll
send you a copy. At the moment a list of all the eligible stories is published
there. But if you chaps happen to know of any other ones that were completed
during the year 2007, we´ll be more than happy to add them to the list. We have
two new librarians, you see. They might have missed something."
"Allright. How do we nominate?"
"You chaps may do so over the radio; others can
find detailed information on the homepage at the electronic highway I mentioned
before. They will have to send their nominations by mail to papabearawards@yahoo.com."
"Address?" Hogan prompted.
"That is
the address."
The men looked at each other in puzzlement.
"What will they think of next..." Newkirk
muttered. "Not even a street or a town...?"
"Well, chaps, I´d say: have a good read! I hope
to hear from you soon!"
Carter jumped up and down with excitement. "I
wish it was tomorrow night already! I want to start reading now!"
And Kinch answered Wembley: "Yeah, roger. Over
and out."
Hogan nodded, with a mischievous smile playing around
his lips. "Well, it seems we´ve got some reading to do... Priority 1,
wasn´t it?"
"Urgentissimo," LeBeau recalled. "We´d
better start reading right away. If we have to get those nominations in by February 7th..."
A few days later...
"Goldilocks calling Papa Bear. Come in, Papa
Bear."
...
"Goldilocks calling Papa Bear. Are you there,
Papa Bear?"
Reluctantly, without even taking his eyes off the
pages in front of him, Kinch took the mike. "Papa Bear here."
"Ah, hello Papa Bear." A hesitation.
"Are you allright? You sound a bit... distracted."
Kinch finally took his eyes off the papers. "No
worries, Goldilocks. It´s just that I´m in the middle of an intriguing story,
and I didn´t really like it to be interrupted."
A chuckle from Goldilocks. "Sorry about that. I
take it the package arrived safely yesterday evening then?"
"Affirmative." Kinch grinned. "It´s really
quiet upstairs. Everybody is reading. Even our guard. He got suspicious about
the silence, and everybody staying inside today, so he came to check if perhaps
we had all fallen ill all of a sudden. He was delighted when he noticed the
pack of stories on the table, and going through the pile he immediately
confiscated the one about himself. That was a couple of hours ago. But he is
still sitting at our table, reading."
He heard Wembley chuckle. "Good show. Anyway,
I´ve got some news for you."
"More stories?"
"One more so far; will be dropped tonight, same
place, same time. But there is some other news as well."
Kinch nodded. "Go ahead, Goldilocks."
"Well, you see, the Propaganda Ministry has been
on to us. Apparently they´d like to expand their department, and they´re
looking for people who excel in the craft of marketing-writing. When they got
word that the Papa Bear Awards competition was on again, they asked if we could
add an extra category. For the best
teaser."
Kinch frowned. "The best teaser?"
"Yes. Surely you have noticed that on the cover
of every story, there are a few lines explaining what the story is about?
That´s what we call a teaser: teasing your interest, trying to entice you to
start reading this story immediately. It´s a craft of its own to write a good
teaser; to captivate your public in just a few lines. A craft closely connected
to marketing. So we agreed with the Propaganda Ministry and created an award in
the "best teaser"-category as well."
"Got it. I´ll pass on the message," Kinch
replied while jotting down the general idea.
"And one more thing," Wembley continued.
"I understand that some of you chaps were terribly dissappointed about not
having a special category to nominate crossovers and challenges and the
like?"
"That´s right."
"Well, let´s just say they weren´t the only ones
complaining: they have quite some company back here at the home front. So we´ve
decided to create one more category. For special stories of any kind: crossovers, stories written in German,
stories based on challenges, and stories based directly off one of your real
adventures. Most of these genres used to have their own category in past
editions of the PBA, but none of them had enough stories entered during 2007 to
merit an entire category of its own. So as a compromise, we´ve decided to class
all of them under one category: special stories. When we´ll drop the subsequent
correspondence tonight, we´ll include a preliminary list of the stories eligible for that special
category."
"Roger. So it´s eleven categories now?"
"Yes. Could you enumerate them for me, so there
is no misunderstanding?"
Kinch pulled out his notepad and turned back a few
pages.
"Best drama.
"Best short story – drama.
"Best comedy.
"Best short story – comedy.
"Most unique story.
"Best portrayal of a canon character.
"Best original character.
"Best quote.
"Best overall story.
"Best teaser.
"And best special story."
"Perfect. Well, enjoy your reading, gentlemen,
and don´t forget to pick up that extra package tonight. We´re looking forward
to your nominations!"
"By February 7th," Kinch nodded. "We
got it. Over and out."
A few weeks later...
"Goldilocks calling Papa Bear. Come in, Papa
Bear." Wembley, Baker heard.
"Papa Bear here. Go ahead, Goldilocks."
"What the heck is going on over there?"
Baker raised his eyebrows. "What do you
mean?"
"Have you forgotten about the Papa Bear
Awards?"
"Ehm... no."
Baker motioned Hogan over. "Papa Bear here, Goldilocks.
What´s up?"
"What´s up?! And you´re asking me?!? What on
earth are you guys doing over there? It´s less than a week left to nominate
stories for the Papa Bear Awards you all seemed so excited about, and yet we´ve
hardly got in any nominations!"
"Yeah, well... We´ve been rather busy
lately." Hogan sighed. Even he thought it sounded rather lame. "And
some of the guys prefer to have read everything
before deciding on any nomination. That takes time, too."
"They´d better hurry up then," Wembley grunted.
"Do you realize the deadline is going out this Saturday? And with the few
nominations we got in so far, it´s not going to be much of an election. Is that
what you want?"
"Of course not."
"Well, then get me some more nominations.
Otherwise we might as well give the awards to the few stories we got in so far,
simply because they were nominated..."
February 7th
"Roll call!" Schultz bellowed as he threw
open the barracks door. "Everybody raus, roll call!"
He was met by silence, and thorougly surprised he
looked around. Had all the men escaped perhaps?
No. They were all there. Lying on their bunks, sitting
at the table, engrossed in...
Schultz sighed. "Those stories will be the end of
me! How often have you guys been late for roll call ever since you got into
reading that stuff?" he complained.
"Oh, just a minute, Schultzie. Let me finish this
chapter." LeBeau put his hands over his ears.
"No, no, no!" Schultz was already losing his
patience. "When it is time for roll call, you should all line up outside
within a minute. I am sure it will take you longer than a minute to finish that
chapter. And if you finish yours, someone else will want to finish his, and
then someone else wants to finish his, too, and... No, no, no! Outside, all of
you!"
"We´ll be there, Schultz," Hogan mumbled.
"Just let us..."
"No, you will come outside right now!"
Newkirk pulled a blanket over his head. "I hear
nothing!"
"Come on, Schultz. We got a deadline to meet!"
Kinch tried to persuade their guard. "We have to get the nominations in by
midnight, and everyone wants to make sure they nominate the right stories and
characters and stuff. Can´t you overlook it this once?"
"Yeah, you can count us here. Then we don´t lose
precious time by standing outside waiting for the Kommandant," Carter
agreed.
"You got your nominations in yet, Schultz?"
Baker asked.
"No. But..."
"You´d better be quick then," Hogan told
him. "Deadline is tonight. Midnight. Just give us your list and we´ll make
sure your nominations will get through."
"Fine. But at this very moment I want you all
outside for roll call. It will only take a few minutes; you know that."
"Allright." Carter slid down from his bunk.
"But I´m taking this story with me. I can´t spare a minute: we´ve been so
busy lately that I still got quite a few stories to read!"
"Busy? With what?" Schultz wondered.
"Oh, the usual." Hogan pushed him outside.
"Come on guys, time for roll call. And take your story with you. I´m sure
the Kommandant will be pleased to see we´ve taken up a sophisticated
pastime."
Garlotti sniggered. "At least it´s better than
basket-weaving."
"Or kite-flying."
"Much
better!" they all agreed.
"Eins, zwei, drei, vier, fünf, sechs, sieben, acht,
neun, zehn, elf, zwölf, dreizehn, vierzehn, fünfzehn!"
With a happy smile, Schultz turned to the approaching
Kommandant.
"Repooooort!"
"All present and accounted for, Herr
Kommandant."
"Diiiiiism..." Klink frowned. "Colonel
Hogan, what are you and your men doing?"
"Reading, Kommandant."
"Reading, huh?" Klink came up to him and
glanced at the pages in his hand. And in Kinch´s hands. And in Carter´s. And
Newkirk´s. "Aha! Illegal texts have been smuggled into the camp! These are
not books from the camp library! Schultz, collect them. I want to inspect them
before I can let the prisoners continue reading them. There might be a codebook
or a sabotage manual among those texts!"
"Kommandant!" Hogan protested as Schultz
took his story from him. "You can´t do that! We need these stories!"
"I´m sure you do. When I´ve inspected them, and
found there is nothing wrong with them, I will return them to you."
"And how long will that take?"
"Well, I´ll have to read them all, of course. A
week, perhaps."
Protests from the men. "A week?! We need to get
the nominations in by tonight!"
"What nominations?" Klink asked puzzled.
"For the Papa Bear Awards." Schultz told
him. "Didn´t they tell you?"
Klink scowled. "No one tells me anything around
here." He glared at Hogan. "Well, Colonel, since you so graciously
"forgot" to tell me about this, I am definitely confiscating these
stories until tonight. Don´t you think I
would like to nominate a few of my own?"
And with that, Klink stomped away, with the bundle of
stories in his hand.
Schultz swallowed. "He forgot to say
"Dismissed"!"
"You say it then, Schultz," Newkirk soothed
him. "We listen better to your orders anyway."
Schultz had a broad smile.
"Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissssssssssssssmissed!" But then
he remembered, and shot Newkirk a dark look. "You usually don´t obey my
orders at all!"
"We will this time, Schultz," Hogan assured
him.
So the men sauntered back into the barracks. Spirits
were down; how were they supposed to nominate anything if they couldn´t finish
their stories?
"Allright, here´s what we´ll do," Hogan told
them as they all gathered around the table. "I´m sure everyone has read
quite a few of the stories. Try and pick your nominations from what you have
read so far. I´ll go talk to Klink and see if I can get the rest back."
"I hope you will, boy," Carter sighed.
"Er... I mean, sir. I mean, the nominations have to be in by
tonight!"
A few
days later
"Goldilocks calling Papa Bear. Come in, Papa
Bear."
Kinch took the mike. "Papa Bear here. Go ahead,
Goldilocks." He had hardly room to breathe. The tunnel was absolutely
packed: POW´s from all the barracks were crowding in the narrow space of the
radio room.
"I have here the results of the nomations-jury.
Are you ready?"
Kinch grinned. "Ready and waiting, Goldilocks."
"Allright then. The first category: best drama. Six stories have been nominated in this category. In
random order: Spilt Milk, Sweet Dreams, Endurance, Pandora´s Box,
Brainwashed and Brother´s Keeper. You got that?"
"Yep. Go on, Goldilocks."
"Next category: best comedy. Only two stories have been nominated in this category,
so they will be fighting amongst themselves for the gold and the silver award.
These stories are The Week The Pigs Flew
and Déjà Vu Near Uijeongbu."
"No wonder there´s a trial going on for the
fanficauthors abusing us," LeBeau muttered. "Only two good comedies in a whole
year??"
"Next category," Wembley intoned: "Best short drama. Here, seven stories have been nominated. In random
order: A Voice From The Deep, Luck Of The Irish, Ninety Seconds, NMS! Not My
Sister!, Unspoken, When The War Is Over and You Have Done Enough."
"Perhaps there´ll be more short comedies,"
Carter predicted, as always looking on the bright side.
"In the next category: best short comedy, six stories have been nominated."
"What did I tell you?" LeBeau grunted.
"Well, six is more than two," Carter
objected.
"And seven is more than six; yeah, I know my
arythmatics," LeBeau countered.
"Quiet you two," Hogan interfered.
"The
stories nominated in this category are: Caroling,
Caroling, Out In The POW Camp, Hogan´O´Lantern,
Hogan´s Menagerie, Mark Twain, New Love and NMS! Not My
Sister!"
"Hey!" Newkirk protested. "That one was
already nominated as drama!"
"Apparently someone else thought of it more as a
comedy," Wembley replied.
"You lucky dog." Baker prodded Newkirk in
the ribs. "That story is mostly about you. And nominated in two
categories!"
"The following category is the most unique story. Here, four stories were nominated, of which some
were nominated in other categories as well," Wembley continued.
"These four stories are: For Peace,
Hogan´s Menagerie, New Love and Spilt Milk."
Carter beamed. "Ha, that´s two nominations for my
Spilt Milk!"
"In the category special story we have six nominations: You Have Done Enough, Yesterday
The War Was Over, The Scourge, Déjà Vu Near Uijeongbu, Caroling, Caroling, Out In The POW Camp,
and A Voice From The Deep."
"That makes two for you, too, Kinch!" Carter
pointed out happily.
"As well as two for a few others," Kinch sighed.
"Now can we get on with this?"
"Now we come to the best portrayal of a canon character," Wembley said. "Here, we have quite a few
nominees. Ten, to be exact. They are: Carter
in Spilt
Milk (Carter beamed even more), Colonel
Hogan in Endurance (Kinch shuddered), Colonel Hogan in When The War Is Over, Kinch in A Voice From The Deep, Klink in Cold Days, Warm Heart, Klink in Snow White, Klink in The Week The Pigs Flew (Newkirk
gasped. "So many for Klink?!"), Newkirk
in And
To All A Good Night, Newkirk
in New
Love, and Newkirk in Pandora´s
Box."
"You didn´t do too bad yourself either,"
Hogan remarked with a tiny little edge of envy.
"On the other hand, only two nominations have
come in for the category original character," Wembley´s voice was heard again.
"Apparently there weren´t too many new characters around that year. Well,
the ones that got nominated are Captain
Anderson from Whispering Sour Somethings, and Gretchen Schultz from Schultz´s Heroes."
"Objection!" Newkirk called out. "We
have met Mrs Schultz in the series, so she is not a totally new
character."
Wembley cleared his throat. "I know. But we
decided to accept the nomination nonetheless, otherwise Captain Anderson
wouldn´t have any competition at all."
"Allright, go on," Hogan told him.
"Then we come to the tickling teaser category. Shall I give you the nominated
teasers?"
"Nah, just give us the stories. We´ll look´em
up," Kinch answered.
"Okay, here you go. The nominated teasers belong
to the following stories: When The War
Is Over, A Voice From The Deep, Ninety Seconds, Endurance, and Luck Of The
Irish. And someone figured the title of Secret Meetings, General Nuisance And A Major Headache was a teaser
in itself, so that one´s up for voting as well."
There was some sniggering around.
Wembley continued. "Then the category for the best quote. Apparently not all the nominators really understood
what was meant by a quote, but since it´s a new category, we´ve decided to accept
all the entries anyway."
"I think it´s best if you do give us the entire
quotes," Kinch told him.
"Okay. In random order, quote nr. 1: “Boy,
I wish I could get two phone calls in one day. You know, I haven’t gotten a
phone call since August of 194...”
A roar of laughter echoed
through the tunnels as Carter blushed with a happy grin. "Yeah, that was
me. In Secret Meetings, General Nuisance
And A Major Headache. But Newkirk put his hand over my mouth at the time
before I could finish my line."
"Right, we´ll make it a
guessing game," Hogan decided. "Next quote, Goldilocks. This one was
guessed right away. See if you have any harder ones for us to recognize."
Wembley chuckled. "Quote nr. 2: “Hey, who are you calling a complete and
total numbskull?”
“He
means me, Hogan.”
“Oh,
that’s all right then.”
"That must be Klink and you, sir!" Newkirk
crowed over all the others.
Hogan grinned. "Yes. In Sweet Dreams, if I recollect well."
"The next one is nice, too," Wembley told
them. "Quote nr. 3: “Hochstetter was shot? Gee, that‘s too bad, I hope he’s all right – he’s such
a nice guy.”
A puzzled silence fell in the tunnel. "It sounds
like you, Colonel," Kinch observed. "But did you really say something
like that?!"
Hogan grinned. "Sure did. In Whispering Sour Somethings."
"On to the next: nr. 4," Wembley continued.
"It´s rather descriptive for being a quote, but here it is: Hogan stopped at the front door and took
one last, deep, calming breath. “We did good, fellas,” he praised his men in a
whisper. “It’s okay.” Then he stepped inside the building to meet the end."
Hogan winced. "Ninety Seconds."
"Right again, Papa Bear. Well, see if you can
guess this one, nr. 5: “Hogan, you will
do as you are told. Let the quack paw you.”
"Sounds like Klink," Newkirk said. "What
was that all about, sir?"
Hogan shrugged. "That creepy doctor in Sweet Dreams wanted to examine me. And I
objected."
"Then I´ve got a quote, nr. 6, that was actually
a written statement: If you get to
expecting the impossible from someone all the time then maybe it’s your fault,
and not theirs, if you get disappointed."
Baker chuckled. "See him blush again."
"Well, it´s a real piece of wisdom, if I may say
so of my own words," Carter defended himself. "I said a lot of wise
things in that Spilt Milk-story."
"But here you wrote it," Wembley cut in. "Anyhow,
it got nominated, and it sounds like you´re happy about it."
"Boy, I sure am!" Carter confirmed. "To
think that my words may be carried into posterity with all the éclat of a
proverb..."
"Have you been reading Pride and Prejudice
again?" Newkirk chided.
"Can we get on with this?" Hogan interfered.
"Yes, one more quote. Nr. 7," Wembley
announced. "It´s a thought quote: This
was getting ridiculous. In fact, Hogan might’ve laughed if it was happening to
someone else. As it was, Hogan took it as a sign he was losing his marbles. His
little red choo-choo was chugging around the bend. His trolley was being
derailed. He was playing with half a deck. He was driving without his
headlights."
Kinch grinned. "Uijeongbu, wasn´t it, Colonel?"
Hogan returned the grin. "Indeed it was."
"And then on to the last category for now: the best overall story. Six stories have been nominated to recommend to
people who´d agree to read only one piece of Hogan´s Heroes fanfiction. So they
ought to be the very best of the best. Here they are: A Voice From The Deep, Cold
Days Warm Heart, Endurance, Pandora´s Box, Schultz´s Heroes and Spilt
Milk."
"Yay, my story got another nomination!" Carter
exclaimed.
"I bet Schultz nominated the story about
Schultz´s Heroes," LeBeau chuckled.
"And his wife as best original character,"
Baker grinned.
"And this completes the nominations of the Papa
Bear Awards jury," Wembley concluded. "And now let´s hear a
well-deserved applause for all the authors who saw their work nominated: 96 Hubbles, die Seele ist immer frei, Elsa
Green, Fourthirtyam, Frankie Alton, Hexiva, Kits, LJ Groundwater, Me, misanthrope1, Nitestalker, San Antonio Rose, SapphyreBird,
Settiai, Tuttle4077, Wordybirds,
and Zoey Traner!"
A loud applause rose up in the tunnels.
"You will have the chance to vote until March
31st," they heard Wembley say as it
finally died down. "You guys may vote over the radio as usual; other
people will have to use the emailaddress from before: papabearawards@ yahoo.com."
"Thanks, Goldilocks. We´ll do. Over and
out."
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