Spookys
From Fan History Wiki
The Spookys were an award given out in the X-Files fan fiction Usenet newsgroup alt.tv.x-files.creative (ATXC) from 1995 to 1996 and from 1998 to 2005. They were the largest awards program in the fandom.
In the X-Files fan fiction community, there is the claim that 1995's "Downtime I", which won a Spooky in 1995, was the first piece of fan fiction to be a true piece of fan fiction in that it had the complete lyrics prefacing the fan fiction. It was written by Sheryl Martin. There is a counter argument that "My Phoenix" which was posted in early 1995 and contains lyrics by Sting and Jim Morrison of The Doors was the the first one to include song lyrics. As with any awards, the Spookys dealt with charges of favoritism and were ultimately boycotted by a number of excellent writers in the fanfic community. Several of the these writers declined to allow their stories to be nominated for awards while others participated in alternative award options.
