Hello, friends, it's August here. The final ONC results are out! Nobody from the Chucks community made it onto the winners' list this year, but that's okay: the real prize was the fun we had along the way, and none of my fellow mods are here to stop me dropping cheesy lines right now, so I'm just going to take this one and run with it  😆

This was quite the year for this contest. After the rules debacle in January, the ONC saw its usual number of submissions drop by about one-third, according to the estimations of Chucks data nerds. The contest tightened its timelines and did away with features like Ambassador's Picks, first-round judging, round winners, and (it seems) honourable mentions, too. Many of Chucks' long-time participants chose not to submit this year.

On the flipside, many others did, and did well, as evidenced by the names in our Longlist and Shortlist chapters of this book! And despite some hiccups, real-life time constraints, and the general rockiness of never having done this before (did I mention we threw together the basic structure of NONC in about four days? Yeah. That happened), we managed to pilot our very own ONC-adjacent novella festival to replace a little of what we felt went missing from the contest this year. 

In the end, this was a bigger success than I at least had anticipated. #NONC2022 saw more than two dozen new members join the server, many of whom have since become regulars. We got to cheer friends through both the ONC's rounds and the NONC prize draws, recruit new people to events like the NONC read-a-thon, and make space for a number of community members to join in the N/ONC hype even after becoming ineligible for the ONC, or never entering it in the first place. That alone made the work that went into this festival feel worth it.

It also means there's a high likelihood that NONC will run again next year, contingent on the life situations and spare time allowances of the Chucks mods. We had a lot of fun, and though I helmed the ship more publicly, I need to thank both authorelizasolares and CeeMTaylor for their critical roles in the process, which included (but were not limited to) discussion topic contributions, sticker-making, welcoming new members and making them feel at home, prize contributions, hours of discussions on anything and everything logistics-related, moderation duties, prize-draw administration, and of course Cee's incredibly generous provision of the NONC grand prize. Huge kudos to you guys!

And of course, thanks to everyone who participated: for your hype, participation, support for other members, and patience as we figured this out. This festival would be nothing without you. 

Whether NONC runs next year or not, this book will stay up in its current form for anyone to reference going forward. If #NONC2023 is a go, a new book will be made for that and posted on this profile. Our reading lists, likewise, will be maintained over time. If you're interested in future NONCs and are not following this profile already, go drop us a follow so you'll catch our announcements if/when a new round of festivities goes live!

That's all for me for now, I think. Wrap-up questions will be posted in the Chucks server, but I'll also make a chapter in this book for general feedback and related matters. Just turn the page for that!

Cheers, all. Until next year  💖