Greetings, Earthlings!

Shut those curtains; pull those drapes. Don’t forget to to latch the windows. Got something that just needs to creep on in over the sill? It’s too late to post it, but you can hitchhike by leaving your link in the comments.

You’ve only got three votes, so use them wisely. Who gave us the best answer to this week’s ultimate question?

What came through the bedroom window?

Don’t forget everything you practiced this summer. Read each entry like you’re planning to critique it. Pay attention to structure, grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Think about how creatively or unexpectedly each participant approached the prompt. Does the piece have a beginning, a middle, an end? It’s only 42 words, but is there a “so what”? Just because gargleblasters are short doesn’t mean we should be lazy readers (or voters). Then go vote for the three that really make the grade.

Voting the yeah write way

It never hurts to go over the voting rules. Please take note:

• The gargleblaster is not a click-fest or a popularity contest. We want you to vote based on the merits of the submissions. Each visitor gets 3 votes, and none may vote for his or her own submission. Read them all, then vote. Gargleblasters are short and go down easy – it shouldn’t take that long.
• We encourage you to invite your friends, families and fans to visit and vote. If you ask your people to vote for your entry, please let them know they have three votes, and they should vote for yours only if it’s one of the best on the grid. Campaigning for your own targeted votes is highly discouraged.
• Yeah write and the InLinkz app allow only one set of votes per IP address. Again: one person, one set of votes. Sure, there are ways to get around this restriction, but that’s cheating, and the editors will more than likely notice. Besides, do you really want to win that way? We didn’t think so!
• The editors do monitor the voting to keep things fair. If we notice targeted voting, self-voting, or other rules-flouting, we will remove votes.

Voting is open until Tuesday, 10:00 p.m. eastern

Scroll down to view the grid. While voting is open, you’ll see voting icons on each thumbnail. If you don’t see the icons, voting is closed. You may vote for three favorites by clicking the voting icon. Once you’ve voted, the icon will disappear. You’re done, and you can spend the rest of your time campaigning for your favorites!

Winners will be posted on Wednesday by 12:00 p.m. eastern

You’re all winners in our book just for participating, but the crowd favorite walks away with the coveted gargleblaster winner’s badge.

Hitchhikers

Did you miss the posting deadline? Feel free to hitchhike in the comments. We can’t vote for you, but we always encourage readers to swing by and show you some love. As a clarification, if for any reason the editors need to remove a submission (for example, in the case of a duplicate entry), we’ll move hitchhikers onto the grid according to the order they were posted until we are back up to #42. More incentive to hitchhike!

Looking for more writing fun?

The challenge grid and the speakeasy both open today! Read the rules and see if one of these might tickle your fancy. If you’re looking for something more low-key, stick around for the weekend moonshine grid and post whatever you like over there (as long as it’s commercial-free).

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