Friday, January 14, 2011

DIVERGENT writing contest results!

We had some terrific entries in the contest! Thanks to all who did battle with the word list! You're dauntless!

Herewith the results:



Recognition for outstanding achievement in minimalism!

ClothDragon 9:04pm
Jeanne 10:07pm


Recognition for an exquisite sentence that took our breath away!


"He was no novice to the feast." Jeremy Myers 9:22pm

"She casually picked her teeth with a singed finger bone." Kate Higgins 1:49am

"Two disappearances: hers and his money’s." Simon C. Larter 10:46am

"a trait that scraped my inner blackboard." Marybk 1:22pm





best use of the phrase "heaving breasts" since Barbara Poelle's last conference bio
Deb 10:11pm



Best followup comment to a hilarious entry:
Deb 10:59pm



Lovely imagery but not quite a story:
AKDD 10:42pm
Kristen Dickson 11:00pm



Great evocation of True Grit:
Myimaginaryblog 10:58pm



Someone who needs a vacation and soon:
Myimaginaryblog 2:36am



Someone's been reading too much meta-fiction!
Ricki Berg 11:42pm



And here are the entries that made the final cut:

Ari 9:14pm

Simon C. Larter 10:46am

Papillon crew 12:28pm

Dylan 4:53pm

Kristin 5:29pm

Christie K 5:58pm



And here are the three entries we selected as the finalists:





GregKShipman 3:21am

Closing Conversation


“I’m pregnant,” she said, “and I want to keep our baby.”

“Knock yourself out, Amity,” I replied.

“I want us to raise our baby,” she said, dauntless as always.

“I may have to knock your ass out.”

“Don’t you want the baby? Don’t you want me?”

“Call me Abnegation,” I said. “in both cases.”

“How can you say that?”

“It helps being an erudite thug.” Candor is part of my lethal arsenal.

“You’ll make a good father,” she said.

“Baby,” I replied before walking out of her life forever, “the only good thing I’ll ever make is bail.”










Marybk 1:22pm
Masks

The raccoons waged a war. Not being creatures of self-abnegation, they graduated from summers pillaging my outdoor trash to winters looting my indoor pantry. Clever. Devious. Dauntless.

“There’s no raccoons at Dad’s,” said my ten-year-old with candor.

Although I’d called a truce with my ex, our amity went only so far. As a professor, he believed himself erudite in every subject of conversation ever spoken, a trait that scraped my inner blackboard.

“Look, Mom. One’s sleeping in your bed.”

I shut the door and winced. “Let’s give your dad a call.”








Marie Rearden 7:10pm


Lil and Margie lived on a cobbled cul-de-sac, homes and hearts separated only by a glowering A-frame. The eighty-somethings baked muffins, shared memories, and showed no abnegation at the library’s book giveaways. But amity turned to enmity when Mr. Pawpaw, the erudite librarian, moved into the A-frame. Cotton balls of hair fanned his ears, and his bespectacled eyes twinkled. He was a granny’s wickedest fantasy.

Margie concocted a lovely pie. A dauntless Lil whipped up an irresistible quiche. They hobbled to Mr. Pawpaw’s door with their seductive gifts.

With candor, he smooched Margie and honked Lil’s bottom. “I love cougars!”


I had a very hard time deciding which of these entries wins the ARC of DIVERGENT, a fabulous prize indeed, so I solicited the assistance of The Reef Dwellers.

They too struggled but in the end (and after we'd doctored up the cuts and bruises from the fin-fights) the winner is:



Marybk 1:22pm


Marybk if you'll email me with your mailing address, we'll send you an ARC of DIVERGENT.  Sadly, we can't email you the five free hours you'll need to read it but I have a feeling you'll forgo sleep and meals when you start reading!

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats to Marybk! I'll take a finalist's slot and sentence mention as consolation prizes, no problem.

Next time, Reid. I'll get you yet. >:)

kristen dickson said...

teeth gnashing! devastation! I cannot wait four months to read DIVERGENT like a normal person! perhaps I can fly to NY and exchange a good Reef scrubbing* for an extra ARC? Le sigh.

*not that the Reef needs a good scrubbing**; I've never been to the Reef, so it might be immaculate

**in the interest of full disclosure, my scrubbing skills are not super fantastic, but I'm a hard worker and will do what it takes.***

***JK. Fab contest, thanks for keeping us entertained, keep em coming!

Dr. Cheryl Carvajal said...

I TOTALLY agree with your pick. Great entries, though! Wow!

Maybe next time I'll give it ago.

CKHB said...

I completely agree. It's all about the raccoon in the bed. Congrats, Marybk!

Ari said...

Congratulations, Marybk! I loved your story, too.

Anonymous said...

Oh my, I can see why it was hard to choose. Congrats Marybk! And I love love (yes love) this :

"...a trait that scraped my inner blackboard."

Deb of the heaving..well, you know :p

Enjoy the weekend all and for those in the deep freeze, stay warm!

Anonymous said...

And thanks for "best use of.." and "best follow up...", lol. Looking forward to reading Divergent when it comes out.

Marybk said...

Holy reef bait! Those final entries were fantastic. Thanks, reef dwellers. *blush*

I'm more than stoked because Veronica is a fellow Chicago suburbanite. Not that I know her, but yanno, yay for Chicago YA writers!

Okay. DIVERGENT party at my house. Everyone is invited. Date TBD. :)

Jeanne said...

Sweet! Congratulations to Marybk on a clever story!

I, too, am very happy to receive a nod for my efforts. Thank you so much! In reality, we're all winners, because we rose to the challenge (all 99 of us). :-)

Sarah W said...

As someone who suffered a raccoon invasion several years ago, Marybk's story made me wince and cover my head. In a good way.

Well done! XD

kristen dickson said...

yes, congrats Marybk! let us know how DIVERGENT is, can't wait!

Michael G-G said...

"Shark keeps you on your toes? Huh? Sharks don't have toes."

Candor, not abnegation, is the fizzy drink of 14-year-olds and one reason why I want to whap this particular one upside the head. However, in honor of Janus, I have taken a vow of amity and shall not beat him or myself for failing to even notice that a contest was on. Candor of my own here, but I am not on the internet all day.

By the time I spotted that that ARC for Divergent was up for grabs, it was way past 9 p.m. Erudite Shark Time. For those of us in the dauntless west, 9 EST is happy hour. I drank several happy drinks after I saw the dreaded "comments have been disabled" note. Was divergent the rest of the evening.

Congratulations to marybk, though. If she needs more raccoons, I have them in spades.

gregkshipman said...

I am humbled... yes humbled... to be in the company of the final three... as well as in the company of the ninety-nine. My 8th grade gym teacher used to say in any contest all participants were winners. The true winners in the class always smiled. The losers gave our gym teacher the finger (covertly). I, for one, would never give the 'great-one' the finger (unless she asked) but I do believe Mr. Poponich was right so congratulations to the 'ninety-nine'!

Now I need to get to work. My East Baltimore roots have been freezing their collective asses off in forty below zero temps most of the winter (Fairbanks Alaska)but today it's a mild twelve below zero so likely I'll wear a jacket...

Michael G-G said...

Okay, perhaps I am on the internet all day. But I won't be for the new, just-announced contest for DIVERGENT. I'll be in a cabin at the coast with no wifi. Not even a landline. Perhaps I'll have to break into a neighbor's house. Drive miles to find an internet cafe (do they still exist?) Cancel my 3-day-weekend MLK break. O scandal, o mildew. I cannot eat; I certainly cannot snooze. Send up a flair (oh I know it's spelled flare, but I'm panicking.) It's enough to turn one into speckled stone, a.k.a. jasper.

Is 10 in the morning too early for happy hour?

It's obvious the gods want me to BUY my copy of DIVERGENT.

May the best (wifi-connected) writer win.

Jeff Chen said...

Congrats, Marybk! Fantastic use of 100 words.

I really enjoyed the use of bottom-honking in Marie's entry. The world clearly needs more bottom-honking.

Anonymous said...

Congrats, Marybk! Fantastic entry. :D

Also, congrats to everybody who made it into the finalist spot!

Marie Rearden said...

I will happily take a backseat to a raccoon invasion, but Lil and Margie made the top three! Hot diggity dog!

Keep these contests coming! :)

Anonymous said...

There were lots of great entries. Congrats to all the finalists and the winner.

And you're so very right; I DO need a vacation. (But I'll still be crazy-picky about word choice. There must be some career where I could put that vice to work . . .)

Joel Brown said...

Great contest. Great entries. Great choices.

I love these things!

Unknown said...

Excellent choice. And Marybk, that was wonderful to read. Though I do like raccoons - maybe because I haven't encountered any like these yet!

Though, if I may ask, what did you mean by the title 'Masks'? Is there a longer story out there, perhaps? Love to read it sometime :-D

Marybk said...

DIVERGENT is a fantastic read.