Greetings, Earthlings!
Wow. You gargleblasted your way out of the galaxy, people. We had 42 entries in less than 36 hours. Talk about amazing!
Speaking of which, we know you’re all waiting to learn who found the perfect 42-word answer to the Ultimate Question: What’s so amazing that keeps us stargazing? Drum roll, please!
The very first gargleblaster crowd favorite prize goes to Natalie of The Cat Lady Sings, with her haunting, wistful poem Sitting on the Curb.
The possibilities stretch out before me in infinite patterns
I count and rearrange them, twiddling
Until they vanish, one by one
Some wink out instantly
Some slowly fade
As I sit on the curb
And wonder which to put in my pocket.
The idea of stashing possibilities away for later really caught on with most of the commenters, including yours truly. Congratulations, Natalie! Grab your badge and wear it with pride!
But wait, there’s more!
You all blew me away. Really, the response to this new challenge was more than I could have expected. So I’m taking the liberty of awarding an editor’s pick, completely at my own discretion.
I’m awarding this week’s editor’s prize to Marcy at Too Timid and Squeamish for her poem Sleeping in the Sahara.
In the Sahara,
collapsed on a carpet,
air so dry my eyeballs ache,
colors transform,
beige to orange to black.
Nearby, unseen,
a camel’s never-ending chewing
keeps me company.
I drift,
under a purer black than I’ve ever known
and never-ending stars.
What I like about this piece is the details that anchor it in a very specific time and place. It’s more than a photograph in words; it’s an invitation to drift along with her under the stars.
Happy birthday, baby
Don’t forget, it’s our birthday! And because we wouldn’t be celebrating if it weren’t for our wonderful community, this means prizes for you! This week and next, we’ll be giving away a few prizes that are out of this world. Instead of a purely random drawing, we want you to fill out this Google birthday gift registry with your preferences. You can enter the drawing for one prize or for all of them. We’ll draw for the winners at the end of the great birthday bash, and assuming all these gargleblasters don’t do us in, we’ll announce the winners at the end of yeah write #157.
The birthday gift list:
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- a flip face caricature of your very own just like the yeah write editors use as our avatars
- a coffee mug featuring ML Philpott’s random penguins
- a premium WordPress blog or portfolio theme by WooThemes (delivered as a .zip file; you are on your own for installation and modifications)
- a 12-month subscription to †yeah write that will include up to 12 quick and dirty edits by our wonderful literary editor Louise for your planned submissions to the challenge grid or the speakeasy. Improve your writing and increase your chances of earning an editor’s pick or the jury prize
- a mystery package of books and other goodies from your favorite yeah write editors
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You must be a yeah write challenge and/or speakeasy subscriber to be eligible for any of the prize drawings. Subscribe here if you haven’t already!
Next round of gargleblasters
The next Ultimate Question will be announced in the Sunday kick-off post. Remember: the gargleblaster goes fast, and it’s limited to 42 entries. So keep your eyes peeled, subscribe to yeah write, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook. Don’t be left behind at launch time!
A toast to all of you
You remember this is a challenge, right? We think a little healthy competition is good for the writer’s soul. So, we’ve sorted the thumbnails in the grid from most votes to the least. In the case of a tie, the thumbnails are additionally sorted by page views.
Don’t be discouraged if you find your post near the bottom of the grid. Sometimes only a couple of votes separate first from last place. Winning is great; we all know that. But the real fun is having people read your work and comment, and reading theirs in turn. Pay attention to what makes a winning entry! The competition is really just our little way of helping you become even better writers.
Thanks again, everybody, for gargleblasting with us! Let’s keep on making yeah write the most welcoming spot on the Interwebs for writers who blog and bloggers who write.
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Congratulations! Those were great entries!! I was crazy busy at work this week so didn’t comment like I wanted but I did have a chance to read many of the entries and was amazed at the breadth of topics, and terrific word choices. Innovative group!
Congrats to the winners! (And Happy Birthday to YeahWrite!)
Congratulations, ladies!! This was fun!
Thank you so much, and congratulations to Natalie! I loved this new challenge, and I loved seeing the different directions that everybody went in.
I was definitely not expecting this when I wrote it. Thank you guys! This was such a fun challenge.
Congratulations Natalie and Marcy! Thanks for a great first week at the gargleblaster challenge, everyone!
Congrats all! I love the Gargleblaster!!
Yay! Congrats all, and well done!