Welcome, virgins!
Are you kidding me? We welcomed seven (7!!) new yeah writers to our corner of the internet this week, which helped us reach 36 posts, well into the threshold to open up four votes apiece. Thanks to everyone who took the challenge! Yeah write is the awesomest (yes, that’s a word) place for writers to read and be read.
Invitational and editors’ picks
When we have 30 or more entries on the challenge grid, we unlock the invitational, which is pretty much what it sounds like: an invitation-only grid selected from the challenge entries. Yeah write editors are not eligible, but everyone else is, and this week, there were three of you chosen.
Congratulations to Karen, Katy and Christie. Please grab your editor’s pick badges in the sidebar!
Loading InLinkz ...Jury prize winner and crowd favorite
“How I Became a Hustler” by Karen at Fat Girl in Boxing Gloves
The jury prize is the ultimate writer’s prize here at yeah write. It’s the editors’ consensus pick from the invitational grid. We had a double winner this time in Karen from Fat Girl in Boxing Gloves, who managed to take home the triple crown by also being Wednesday’s gargleblaster winner. You go, Glen Coco, uh, we mean, Karen.
Karen eloquently describes how, as a ten year old child, raising a mere $9.79 to fight Muscular Dystrophy using a mail order Jerry Lewis Carnival Kit forever changed her into an entrepreneurial philanthropist. She’s a phenomenal storyteller, weaving in 47-pound wind chimes, Schnauzers, office politics, Dixie Cup Lawn Bowling, and pink leotards . Not many could pull that off and leave their audience wanting more. Congratulations, Karen! Go grab your crowd favorite badge in the sidebar.
Congratulations also to Jen, Christie and Cynthia, who round out our top row four! You’ve earned top row badges!
Who does Comment Bob love this week?
Who showed the most yeah write community spirit this week? Who commented on each post on the grid and cheered everyone on? Two yeah writers supported their fellow bloggers with thoughtful comments on most every post.
Congratulations to Jen at Finding Our Spirit and Cynthia at That Cynking Feeling! You each earned the Comment Bob #156 badge, over there in the sidebar. Bob loves you. And so do we!
Last call for entering our 3rd birthday party prize drawings
We are so excited about our third birthday that we’re giving YOU presents. And not some lame kids’ birthday party goody bag junk. We’ve got good stuff, and you get to pick what you want. So, in a twist on our traditional random drawings, we are asking you to fill out this Google birthday gift registry with your preferences. Only want to enter the drawing for one prize? Tell us which one. Want to be in the drawing for all of them? Select all the prizes on the form. The drawings will be held after the celebration has wrapped up, and we’ll announce the winners at the end of yeah write #157.
The birthday gift list:
- 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
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! The drawing will close to new entries upon closing of this week’s moonshine grid.
Did you gargleblast this week?
Thank you for making our new challenge — the gargleblaster hosted by Christine H — a huge success. We gave you a prompt and a 42 word limit, and you enthusiastically closed the grid in 14 hours. That’s some eager gargleblasting!
If, like me, some of you missed getting on the grid this week, you can still share your gargleblaster by posting to our low-key weekend moonshine grid. (More about that below.) The yeah write #157 weekly writing challenge gargleblaster opens Monday with a new prompt. Check yeah write on Sunday for the ultimate question.
Weekend moonshine grid opens today at 6 p.m. eastern time
It’s the weekend, and Natalie D is setting up her moonshine grid and bathtub gin just for you. The moonshine grid is the flip side of our weekly challenges: a no-stress link-up where we accept anything except commercial or sponsored posts. You can catch up with Natalie starting at 6 p.m. eastern time today. Closing time is midnight on Monday. Bring your archived posts, bring your late gargleblasters, bring your friends.
Win-win
The thumbnails are now sorted in the grid from most votes to the least. In the case of a tie, the thumbnails are additionally sorted by page views.
Do not be discouraged if your blog has landed near the bottom of the grid; especially if it was a tight race. The fun lies in getting better exposure for your blog and, in the spirit of competition, an incentive to improve your writing and blogging skills. It’s a win-win for everybody involved.
Thanks again, everybody, for submitting, for reading, and for accepting the weekly writing challenge. And for making yeah write the most welcoming spot on the Interwebs for writers who blog and bloggers who write.
Before you leave to start drafting for next week
Did we mention yeah write #158 weekly writing challenge will kick off family-free month at yeah write? You have two weeks to start thinking of some other topic besides those centering around blood, legal or otherwise common-law relatives. That cousin you haven’t spoken to in years? Off-limits. Your mom’s massage therapist with your mom making a brief, 100-word appearance in your essay? No. Your neighbor’s dog? Fine, but we don’t care what your wife thinks about the situation. It’ll be a fun challenge, we promise.
Congratulate this week’s winners in the comments, and let your favorites know you voted for them. Yeah write #157 opens with the kickoff post on Sunday, the gargleblaster on Monday, and the challenge grid and speakeasy fiction jam on Tuesday…
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Congrats, Karen and top row! You guys rocked this week.
Congratulations Jen, Cyn and Christie! I love this community of writers.
I also want to give a shout out to Martha B (Easter Memories), Katy Anders (Lesbians in my Soup), and The Little Blacque Blog – I really enjoyed your essays.
I did too!
Congratulations, Karen! Honored to be hanging out in the top row with you, Jen, and Christie.
Happy Birthday, yeah write!
Ditto!! I’m psyched to be hanging with you all, too. Thanks for clicking my heart! 🙂 And congratulations especially, Karen. Wow you go girl!!