What a great week on the grid! The traditionally Internet-slow season of summer doesn’t seem to be slowing us down any, and that’s a good thing. Let’s get to it…

[divider_header_h3]virgins![/divider_header_h3]

There were three on the challenge grid and one on the hangout grid for a total of four newbies this week. Thanks for jumping right into the fray, and we hope we didn’t trigger any of your social anxieties with our awesomeness. Please come back to see us next week.

[divider_header_h3]lurkers’ favorite posts[/divider_header_h3]

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lurker’s favorite by Flood G

What I love about weeks like this one is how easy it is to choose five blogs to star. What I hate about weeks like this is the difficulty in choosing one from those five to win.

This week goes to to Joe of Living in Kellie’s World. Clean writing made his story easy to follow, so my eyes didn’t glaze over after reading the words “nuclear powered submarine, armed with 24 intercontinental ballistic missiles.” Joe’s post Crimson Tide is a nail-biter: Will Joe get his underwear in time? Kellie’s dedication to remedying her husbands’s plight is admirable, despite her girly throw. In a kind of upside-down An Officer and A Gentleman moment, Joe gets to carry away his underpants, rather than Debra Winger, to cheers and applause. This entry is a great example of Erica’s reminder to tell your story with a clear beginning, middle and end and proof it can be done in 578 words.

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lurker’s favorite by Jen W

My pick this week is Amber Page Writes’ post The Opal. Amber does a really great job building suspense and tension in the beginning of the piece.

I kept wondering if her husband was going to leave her, or if she was going to do something rash, or…what?! I couldn’t stop reading. Small details like, “picking at the sleeve of my beloved pink gingham coat,” and, “the metal bars shockingly cold against the back of my thighs” really made me feel like I was watching the whole scene unfold in front of me. And, of course, I love that this couple’s relationship transcended the gift of the opal, so that even though the ring didn’t last, the marriage and affection remained intact. What can be more precious than that?

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lurker’s favorite by Kristin W

This week, I really liked Cindy’s The Reedster Does Old People Yoga.

 Not only did she characterize the yoga teacher while maintaining the narrator’s voice, she also managed to create characters with personalities and physical presence out of relatively anonymous yoga-goers.  I laughed out loud (guffawed, really) at the ski mask reference as well as the warning not to try to take a spot from someone in the yoga class.  I’ve been there.  I also found myself trying out the “healing noises” out loud. Just to find out if it really was the sound of ALL the vowels.

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lurker’s favorite by Ben J

My choice for Lurker’s Favorite this week is Joe from Living in Kellie’s World.

I spent a few years as an enlistedman in the Navy (what? I joined for the pants!), and it was a rare day when one of us hale and hearty petty officers would not have to save an officer’s backside— just not as literally as Kellie had to save Joe’s. His post made me laugh with (ok, and a little bit at) him as he ventured off to brave the seven seas.

So, to Joe and to Kellie, Bravo Zulu.

[divider_header_h3]popular vote winner[/divider_header_h3]

Crimson Tide by Joe of Kellie’s World

What else can be said about Joe’s post? It’s a triple win, so triple congrats, Joe! Over the next two weeks, all you gotta win is editor’s choice and Jen’s lurker’s favorite, and you’ll be eligible for a complete blog redesign if you’re willing to move to self-hosted WordPress. What an accomplishment in your second week of linking up!

[divider_header_h3]winners of the Skinner House Books [/divider_header_h3]

The original plan was for Flood’s lurker’s fave and Ben’s lurker’s fave to be the winners of The Pen and the Bell, this week’s prize on the grid. Coincidentally, they each chose Joe from Living in Kellie’s World and Joe probably doesn’t need two copies of the same book, so I’m pulling an editor’s choice and awarding the book to Jen’s lurker’s fave Amber.

Joe and Amber, please email me your mailing address and Skinner House Books will be happy to send your prizes. Thanks for linking up and congrats on the lurkers’ faves.

[divider_header_h3]random winner of the yeah write #61 ad square  [/divider_header_h3]

Random.org chose #16 and this week’s #16 on the grid after voting and as of this writing was Ado of The Momalog. Ado, if you’d like to promote your blog, small business or pet project in the sidebar of yeah write, please send me a 125×125 banner ad and a link to the project. If you don’t have a banner ad, I’ll be happy to whip one up for you.

Win-win

The thumbnails are now sorted in the grid from most yellow star votes to the least. In the case of a tie, like if four blogs all got seven votes each, the thumbnails are additionally sorted by page views. 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 voting. And for making yeah write the most welcoming spot on the Interwebs for writers who blog and bloggers who write.

Yeah write #61 opens Tuesday.