2018 Derringer Awards Voting

The SMFS's annual Derringer Awards process (January 1–April 30, 2018) culminates in an April 1–29 membership vote determining the winners. To vote, or participate in any of the process, however, your Shortmystery membership must date back to at least December 31, 2017.

2018 Derringer Awards Coordinator Jay Hartman has yet to determine the location of this year's voting. Keep reading Shortmystery for the latest information from Jay, which will then be copied here on the SMFS Blog.

Read on to familiarize yourself with the traditional Derringers voting process.

Important: Voting eligibility is checked via your existing Shortmystery Yahoo! ID, so you must use the same ID at the Derringer Awards voting location. Otherwise, your Shortmystery membership cannot be verified, your voting group membership will be denied, and you won't be allowed to vote.

April 1–29, visit the voting group homepage and log in with your Yahoo! ID and password.

In the FILES section, click on the folder "THE DERRINGER FINALISTS" to see the four category folders:

• FLASH
• SHORT
• LONG
• NOVELETTE

Click on each category folder to see the five finalist stories as MS Word .doc files. You can open or save each file to your computer.


In the POLLS section, there will be an open poll question for each Derringer category:

Click on a category's question and you'll see its five finalists as answer choices:

Click on the circle to the left of the finalist you believe should win the Derringer. This fills the circle with a white checkmark against a green background, the record of your vote.

If you want to change your vote before polling ends, return to the same poll question and click on the circle to the left of your new choice. The white checkmark and green background will move accordingly.

If you just want to withdraw your original vote, click on the same circle you did before and it will go blank.

For this example, let's say you change your vote from Sample Choice B to Sample Choice C. When polling ends, the breakdown of votes is shown, your final choice highlighted green:

The results will be visible April 30 but will not be official until Derringer Awards Coordinator Jay Hartman announces them on Shortmystery May 1.