Welcome, virgins!

There were three virgins on the challenge grid this week. We thank you so much for diving right into the madness and for sharing your hard work with us. Please stick around, learn and grow, and tell more of your friends. Our humble little community will take good care of whomever you send our way.

Jury prize winner—invitational grid

“1994: I Went Feral, Hit Bottom, And Then Got Myself Together” by Christie Tate at The Outlaw Mama

The word “brave” gets tossed around in the blogging world whenever a blogger peels back the veil just a bit. But to me, true bravery in nonfiction writing means an absolutely clear-eyed look at oneself. No pathos, no excuses. No that’s-how-I-was-then-but-now-I’m-not-anymore-okay? No neat bows, no overthinking.

Christie over at Outlaw Mama this week? She’s brave. She takes the Jury Prize with her post “1994: I Went Feral, Hit Bottom, And Then Got Myself Together.” It’s an unblemished look at a blemished night—a balls to the wall emotional rollercoaster of inappropriate behavior. It takes a lot of guts to just admit this kind of stuff to oneself, but to honestly and lyrically write it up for public consumption? That’s daring.

As an exercise in writing, the post’s short sentences and simple words move us forward quickly. It’s hard to watch as the author, caught in a whirlpool of debauchery, slips under in a sea of used gravy and other people’s leftover cocktails. The action is brutal – onward, onward, from one poor choice to the next – never stopping to explain why, or what happened later, or what she learned from it. The behavior is just laid out, starkly.

We pick ourselves up off the floor with her at the end, thanking God it was indeed rock bottom, and that she is here to tell us. We learn, feel, and grow just by the knowing of it.

Go grab your badge, Christie. I’m too emotionally exhausted to hand it to you, and girl, you worked for it.

Editors’ picks

Did your post make the invitational grid this week? Eight of you were from the challenge grid, one was selected from the Internet at-large. Congrats! Please grab your editor’s pick badge from the sidebar and add it to your writer’s showcase. Thanks for bringing us the best of the grid this week.

[hr]

Crowd favorite

Christie Tate at Outlaw Mama took the crowd favorite as well, but the editors are, for the first time, allowing a special mention for Dawn Beronilla’s “My Miss You”, second in popular voting and a near-even split with Christie’s post in total points from editor rankings. 

For us, Dawn’s post embodies the unconditional love of mothering.  We’ve followed Dawn’s story of her son Xander’s regression into autism, her struggle for a diagnosis, and her leaving work to stay home with her boys. We’ve grieved and cheered with her for these many months. But you don’t need to know Dawn’s story to have your eyes get shiny when her once wordless son finally tells her, in the words he can still use, “Xander miss Mama.” The post sends love out into the world with authenticity that resonates like a bell.

Congrats again, Christie. Thanks, Dawn, for sharing Xander with us.

Random drawing for this week’s yeah write #103 birthday gifts

 |  

Although we won’t be officially two years old until next week’s yeah write #104, we started handing out birthday gifts during #100.  Gave away two more during #101. Two more during #102! This week’s birthday gift winners we celebrate your writing, friendship and support:

[unordered_list style=”arrow”]

• Alisa S. from Ice Scream Mama won the novel The Book Borrower by Alice Mattison donated by yeah write editor Stacie 
• Linda L. from Incomplete Passes won the non-fiction title The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson also donated by yeah write editor Stacie

[/unordered_list]

Congrats, Alisa and Linda! Please email us to claim your prizes. Send us your mailing address and you will be our very next trip to the post office.

[hr]

Weekend moonshine grid opens today at 6 p.m. eastern time!

Tell your friends! Yeah write is now open on the weekends—no editors, no voting, no writer’s block—just hanging out in the clearing among the trees and discarded moonshine jugs. Use this chance to show the yeah write community the other side  of your blog—your top 10 lists, your stream-of-consciousness posts, that hilarious text message exchange with your brother. No commercial or sponsored posts allowed, but this will be a good space for letting us all know when you have a cool blog event coming up.

The moonshine grid opens at 6 p.m. eastern time each Friday and will close by 12:01 a.m. each Monday. Grab the badge from the sidebar and go find the perfect post to share!

[hr]

Win-win

The thumbnails are now sorted in the grid from most votes to the least. In the case of a tie, the thumbnails are additionally sorted by page views. Part of the top row five? Please grab a winners’ badge from the sidebar and display it proudly on your own blog. Congrats!

Do not be discouraged if your blog has landed near the bottom of the grid; it is always a tight race. The fun lies in getting better exposure for your blog and in the spirit of competition as incentive to improve your writing and blogging skills. It’s a win-win for everybody involved.

Thanks again, everybody, for linking up, for reading, for accepting the weekly writing challenge. And for making yeah write the most welcoming spot on the Interwebs for writers who blog and bloggers who write.