Happy birthday, yeah write! We have presents!

We’ve been anticipating #104 for weeks, and it’s finally here. Two years of laughter, tears and thoughtful posts. We’re nothing without you and to show you our gratitude, we have more goodies on the way. Among the many exciting prizes to be won this week, there is one in particular that’s in your best interest to share with friends: for every entry on the grid, up to 50 entries, we are giving away one dollar in gift card loot to the jury prize winner as well as the crowd favourite.

The offer will only happen if we hit 30 entries which will open the invitational grid. Fewer than 30 entries? No invitational grid, no editors’ picks and no dollar per entry prize for either winner. At least 30 entries? The writers’ award will start at $30 and go up to the maximum grid entry of $50.

It’ll be redeemable to your choice of online shop in the U.S. or Canada. More details on Tuesday, but if you ever needed a push to spread the word of yeah write and our celebrations, this is the week to do it. You guys will decide the difference between a $30 gift card or one worth $50.

A new family treasure to give as a gift or to keep for yourself

Yeah write supporter Jacqueline Bryant Campbell has generously donated one $60 gift card toward any doll or custom design in her studio. The non-ballerina dolls are $60, and you can choose hair color, skin tone, clothing style or even send Jacq a favorite t-shirt or fabric and she’ll work her magic and dress your new treasure with it.

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• If yeah write #104 reaches 40 on the grid and if yeah write #105 reaches 40 on the grid, anyone involved will be eligible for the drawing for the gift card
• On the challenge grid? You’re in the drawing
• On the speakeasy grid? You’re in the drawing
• Not on either grid, but you’re reading, commenting, sharing or voting? Leave us a comment on any post this week letting us know you’re hanging out, and you’re in the drawing
• Sent a yeah write virgin? Let us know who belongs to you. You’re in the drawing
• As long as the grids get to 40 each week, your name is in the hat

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 Best birthday ever.

We’ll be here every day this week

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• Sunday (today) handing out badges, giving you the what what of what’s ahead
• Monday acknowledging long ago bloggers who helped jumpstart this project with encouragement and advice and thanking current supporting subscribers with their very own grid
• Tuesday opening yeah write #104 exactly two years after the very first lovelinks grid opened with 35 complete strangers
• Wednesday revealing the “best of” yeah write from lovelinks #1 to yeah write #100 with 60 hand-selected posts out of around 3,500
• Thursday voting for the five best of the yeah write #104 challenge grid. Crowd fave gets the same dollar for entry offer as the jury prize winner. Must be at least 30 submissions on the grid
• Friday celebrating the winners of yeah write #104
• Saturday hanging out on the weekend moonshine grid, gearing up for yeah write #105, the final celebration week

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Want your own supporting subscription?

Just in case the chances of winning a dollar per entry in gift card loot wasn’t enough for you to recruit your blogging friends to yeah write, we’re keeping open our standard offer: If we hit 50 entries to the challenge grid this week and you’ve recruited a yeah write virgin to the challenge grid, you’ll be eligible for a random drawing for our 12-month, $10 a month supporting subscription donated by one of our yeah write editors. At that level, you would receive at your request:

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• a wet and sloppy kiss on the mouth from your yeah write editor of choice
• a text link in selected weekly sponsor highlight posts
• a custom editorial on one selected yeah write challenge grid entry (worth $40 USD)
• a quick and dirty evaluation of 12 planned submissions to the challenge grid, an average of one planned submission each month, before the weekly challenge grids open
• an evaluation of your blog itself on content and design with clear direction on what’s working and what can be improved (worth countless USD)

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Challenge v. speakeasy

The grids open Tuesday, and the challenge grid is where we want to see your personal essays and traditional blog anecdotes. Choose moments and stories that will show off your writer’s voice. Submit your short fiction and poetry over at the speakeasy, where they’ll be sharing in the celebrations. Crowd favourite winners there will receive a copy of Best American Short Stories 2012. In the mood for anything goes? On Friday, the moonshine grid has just what you need. 

Grab your badges

Badges for both the challenge grid and the speakeasy are now available in the sidebar, right underneath the “be the first to know” yeah write email blast subscription box. They contain the codes needed to satisfy the backlink requirement of the Inlinkz app. Be sure to paste the code into the html-view of your post before publishing. Your post cannot be dated earlier than today.

Submission guidelines and FAQ still apply

Anecdotes contain a beginning, middle and end. Personal essays contain commentary on the human condition from your perspective. Your yeah write editors may no longer be moderating posts for quality, but we will be monitoring. Any self-promotional or commercial posts will be removed without warning or notification. Please keep your word limit to 500 words.  Never ever forget your “so what.”  Check the sidebar under “quick links” for all you need to know, including the editors’ email address.

Yeah write #104 weekly writing challenge opens Tuesday. Open grid, open vote, open everything. Bring your best stuff and tell a few friends.