Greetings, Earthlings!
It’s our first week back after the summer hiatus, and everybody is a little rusty – including yours truly. It’s been fabulous getting reacquainted with the gargleblaster grid. This week was a little quieter than usual, but we’re going to chalk that up to end-of-summer and beginning-of-school-year fatigue. It’s time to get back into the regular swing of things, don’t you think?
We’ve got a whole slew of winners waiting in the wings for you. And don’t forget our hitchhiker! Let Angie know she’s in good company by swinging by and saying hello.
Crowd favorite
This week you chose Suzanne P’s adrenaline-filled vignette from a familiar tale. Here’s Red:
Emily paused to catch her breath. A backwards glance revealed only trees and shadows. She lowered the hood of her cloak; felt the cool breeze on her face. Maybe she’d lost him?A howl echoed through the trees. Emily inhaled sharply.“Grandmother!”
Congrats, Suzanne! You are the first post-summer-series crowd favorite! Don’t forget your winner’s badge.
Editor’s pick
For this week’s editor’s pick I was looking for a story – something with a beginning, a middle and an end, a little bit of action, and a clear conflict. It’s a hard thing to do in 42 words, but I think Nate from The Relative Cartographer really nailed it with his short story, Hive:
“Run!” someone shrieked, and I did—across greedy sand and down into the lake. Underwater, I watched my brother gesticulate upward as if he thought I was lost. We surfaced to a frenetic orb of winged stingers hovering inches above our noses.
Wonderful job, Nate! Go pick up your badge – it won’t protect you from wasps, but hopefully it will give you something to smile about.
Top row seven*
In addition to Suzanne, the top row seven includes: Christinah at Other Than Lovie with Words; Jo-Anne at Going for Coffee with Aftermath; Rachna at The Pigments of Life with Convoy; Meg at Pigspittle, Ohio for Finding Common Ground; Tracy at From the Laundry Room with Broken Zipper; and Mike at Short Stories for They’re Coming.
Congratulations, all! Thanks for playing along. Go grab your badges!
The gargleblaster grid is down at the bottom of this post and 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.
Summer series invitational grid
We didn’t want you to miss all of the amazing pieces that came out of this year’s summer series. Here are some of the editors’ favorites – the best of the best of all the workshopped pieces this summer.
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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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Congrats all!
Talk about hittin’ the ground runnin’. So much good stuff on the grid this week. As always thanks to everyone who played and thanks to Yeah Write for all you do.
Congratulations Suzanne, Nate and the top seven! The return of gargleblasterhood caught me by surprise, but happy to be back and read everyone.
So fun this week! Congrats, all! Up, Up and Awaaay!!
Thanks for the editor love and congrats to the Talented Top 7!
Congratulations to Suzanne and thank you! Gargleblasters always start my writing week with a whoosh!
Congratulations to all the winners and thank you!
Good writing all around. Congratulations to the winners!