Greetings, Earthlings!

How are you all doing? Feeling full of grace? I have to say, I love what you all did with this week’s ultimate question: Did Grace say that, too? It was a hard one. You were working with a question around which it was difficult to create context, especially in 42 words, and especially without including the question in your answer. We had references to Grace Kelly, Grace Jones, gracefulness, Mary-full-of-grace, er, -grease, and more. I am impressed with the diversity of your responses!

This week we were joined by five gargleblaster virgins and one hitchhiker. Welcome, everyone! We think this is just about the best corner of the blogoverse, and we hope you come to love it too.

Crowd favorite

You chose to reward a writer who dug deep and shared something intensely personal. Lance’s voice in his short piece Ragged Company is honest and authentic. Give it a read:

Bad memories fade slower than good. That one, years ago, when booze and pills were dinner, I recall saying grace and wishing grace would say something back. It must have and I just waited a while to listen, because I’m still here.

Congrats, Lance! There’s a fancy badge waiting for you over in the sidebar.

Editor’s pick

There were a number of pieces this week that I wanted to highlight. There were some beautiful poems, some entrancing bits of prose. But the piece that really struck home with all of the editors was this sassy, saucy letter by Christi at Edit Moi:

To My Kind Editor,

I don’t know what I’m doing here. My words are all crap, or worse! I look forward to your corrections. Go ahead, mark me up. Please, whip me into shape for publication.

Yours, 

Grace

P.S. I trust you.

Handwriting aside (and frankly, we were all impressed with Christi’s handwriting, as silly as that seems), this unassuming little piece is layers deep. I think all of us can identify with the writer here. Writing lays us bare, and to trust an editor with that, well, you see the parallels here. Christi, go grab your badge. Hopefully this soothes your fears a tiny bit. You know, if you want to be soothed. <wink>

Top row seven*

In addition to Lance and Christi, the top row seven includes: Karen at Fat Girl with Boxing Gloves for Seeking Grace; Angie at Angie Inspired for Ukelele; me for Blooding (hey, thanks, guys!); Meg at Pigspittle, Ohio for Scandal; and Genna at writeamuck for did Grace say that, too.

The gargleblaster grid is now sorted in order of votes from most to fewest. It’s always a tight race and a wonderful opportunity to learn from your fellow grid-mates. In the case of a tie, InLinkz gives precedence to the post with the highest number of clicks.

* I realize that your browser may not display the grid in neat rows of seven, but mine does. Therefore, the Top Row 7.

Hitchhiker’s prize!

We only had one hitchhiker this week, but boy were we impressed! Creative Brevity’s poem Kabul is a snapshot of a terrible moment. We’re left holding our breath, but with a strong sense of connection between the two characters. I don’t know about you, but it didn’t feel like only 42 words to me. We want to extend a warm yeah write welcome to Creative Brevity – not only did she just barely miss the grid, this is her first time participating. Everyone, say hello – don’t be shy. And Creative Brevity, don’t forget to pick up your extra special hitchhiker’s badge from the sidebar!

Looking for something longer?

Hard as it is to believe, there are other challenges out there at yeah write! Go ahead — take a few minutes to check out this week’s challenge grid (for personal essays and traditional blog anecdotes) and the speakeasy (for fiction). Read, comment, get to know the community. And if the mood strikes you, submit your own post: the challenge grid and speakeasy are open until 10:00 PM Eastern on Wednesday. We know you won’t all make the grid every week, but don’t panic! The moonshine grid opens on Friday and we’d love to see you there.

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