That's what this contest was. Heaps of wow.
First off, thanks to Jaye Wells for being a wonderful co-host. Much success to her debut novel, RED-HEADED STEPCHILD, and all the others to follow!! Secondly, thank you all for making this a record setting contest. 158 entries is astounding. There were more perfect scores, and near perfect scores, than any other Clarity of Night writing contest. Congratulations to all the new inductees into The Forties Club (see below if you are new to the Forties Club)!! You all have schooled us in excellent writing.
Without further ado, it's Jaye's and my pleasure to recognize the follow writers:
1st Place--JAMES R. TOMLINSON, The Sober Truth About Tyler & Zachary on Bickerstaff Street (#7)
[Prize: Signed copy of RED-HEADED STEPCHILD and $50 Amazon gift certificate]
2nd Place--WILLIAM WOOD, The Machinery of Self (#23)
[Prize: $30 Amazon gift certificate]
3rd Place--BETH HARAR, Age Ingrat (#76)
[Prize: $25 Amazon gift certificate]
4th Place--JANEYV, Drunken Semantics (#151)
[Prize: $20 Amazon gift certificate]
5th Place--STEVE SLATTER, Case of Merlot (#29)
[Prize: $15 Amazon gift certificate]
Honorable Mention--WHIRLOCHRE, A Full Bodied Red (#50)
Honorable Mention--CARRIE ANN RIDDELL, In Vino Veritas (#78)
Honorable Mention--MEGHAN SULLIVAN, Sub Rosa (#118)
Honorable Mention--STACIE MCELROY, Untimely Truths (#121)
Honorable Mention--STEPHEN PARRISH, Through a Wine Glass, Darkly (#123)
Honorable Mention--AERIN ROSE, Presage (#130)
Honorable Mention--MARK C. DURFEE, Wine the Great Tutor (#134)
Honorable Mention--CATRINA JOOS, Spouse (#141)
Honorable Mention--LIZZY MARTIN, Last Orders (#147)
Honorable Mention--JOHN DONALD CARLUCCI, The Sweetest Bouquet (#156)
READERS' CHOICE AWARD:
Readers' Choice, 1st Place--JANEYV, Drunken Semantics (#151)
[Prize: Signed copy of RED-HEADED STEPCHILD and $30 Amazon gift certificate]
Readers' Choice, 2nd Place--PETER DUDLEY, Judgment Day (#97)
[Prize: $15 Amazon gift certificate]
Readers' Choice, 3rd Place--CHRIS ELDIN, Brotherly Advice (#1)
[Prize: $10 Amazon gift certificate]
*********
As always, choosing was painful. You all deserve a massive round of applause.
STATS
Just how successful was it? Recording breaking!!! Your 158 entries have generated 41,582 hits from 11,589 unique visitors! I'm grateful for such a wonderful turnout.
FEEDBACK
Over the course of the next couple of days, Jaye and I will be adding comments on what we liked best about each entry.
FORTIES CLUB
Entries scoring at least 40 out of 45 in my scoring system are inducted into The Forties Club. Asterisks have been added next to the names of inductees. In my judgment, these writers have done their job excellently. Their strong, skilled writing brought their stories to life.
KEEP THE COMMUNITY GOING
Don't let the community end here. I hope to see all of you back at The Clarity of Night and on your own blogs. Link to each other and give your insights and gifts freely.
*********
Thanks again for a great contest experience and for all of the excellent writing. Give the winners a pat on the back for their outstanding work.
The Clarity of Night will now be powering down from contest mode and returning to normal content.
I toast you all with a glass of red wine and bid a fond farewell to "In Vino Veritas."
Feel free to contact me anytime. You will always find a welcoming place here.
44 comments:
This was an enlightening and satisfying experience. I learned so much from the excellent and diverse samples of writing. Thank you so much for the opportunity!
Congrats to all the winners! Job well done.
Kudos to everyone that participated! Putting yourself out there for "judgement" is so hard to do! And so many great stories! This has been a wonderful experience! Thanks Jason & Jaye!
I've had to take a minute or ten because I am so excited, thrilled and chuffed to bits. I'm as giddy as a small child in a sweetshop.
First of all I want to say a hearty congratulations to JRT for a well-deserved win. Really well done.
And YEAY! to everyone in the top 5 and the honorable mentions. Just - YEAY US!!!!
And I am thrilled to my tooties to be the Reader's Choice Winner. OMG! Thank you to all those who took the time and gave me their vote. You're all mad but I love you for it.
And finally to Jason and Jaye thank you both for running this competition and for all the time and effort that you've put in to it. I have learned so much through The Clarity of Night and I give you my heartfelt thanks for being such gracious hosts.
I'll shut up now!
Congrats to all! An amazing selection of stories.
I'm stunned, but so very honored. Congratulations to all the winners and the honorable mentions. Thank you Jason and Jaye!
Congratulations to all the winners!! And many thanks to Jason and Jaye for hosting the contest. What a great collection of stories you've gathered!
Congratulations to everyone!!!!
Specially friends from last contest JR Tomlinson, Janey, Pete & Aerin.
And equally heartfelt congrats to new friends too.
You all deserved it.
I made it to forties club this time, Yay! Am so very happy with that.
Thank again Jason and Jaye. Would be waiting for your insightful comments on the posts. :)
wow is right! grats all!
Congratulations to all the winners and to the 40s club entrants. I'll be back!
Congrats to all the winners! I'm happy to see a lot of my faves either win a prize or get honorable mention. I'm thrilled to get an HM myself because the competition was STEEP. Thank you so much! Now I need to add some blogs to my own because I want to read more from these great writers!!
Congrats to everybody! This was so much fun.
And Aniket, ditto! I might print myself up a 40s club certificate;)
Laurel,
Be proud you made it to 40's in your first attempt. I had to work my way for 6 months to reach there.
Guess you are like FedEx, naturally talented. Then I'll be Nadal (I like 'em both btw) I'll work my way and we'll clash for the title next time. Okay? :D :D
Yay! At least one of my picks ( Janey V ) won not only the reader's choice but also a fourth place!
Indeed, it has been a good judgment on the part of the judges.
Going back and reading JR 's entry, one realizes how uniquely 'truth' unfolds in the story, leading from one to another. Sober truth indeed!
Machinery Self is a poignant truth tale, that is so ironic in content!
Age Ingrat is full of pathos and makes one think about what future could be like!
Drunken Semantics is the most funny tale, which expresses realization of truth in an expert unique manner
Case of Merlot, I am surprised how that slipped my reading. I thought I had read all. And reading it now, makes me feel that I like it the best!
HEARTY CONGRATULATIONS! TO ALL THE WINNERS!
I realize that not one but two of my picks( Judgment Day too)won the reader's choice awards!
So many different wonderful amazing entries! It was so difficult to choose.
Congrats to everyone that won!
I'm tickled pink that I made The Forties Club, because I really wasn't expecting it at all and this is first contest I've ever entered. Ok, maybe not pink as much as a dark red blush.
Congrats to all the winners! Well done to everyone who contributed.
Yay for all the winners!!!!!! All well-deserved honors! (I'm pretty pleased that 4 out of my 5 choices are in this announcement, whether by place, honorable mention, or reader's choice.)
Such a wonderful contest, as always! Not to get all pollyanna, but with such a wonderfully supportive and open environment here, there really aren't any losers.
Thanks again very, very much to Jason and Jaye (and Aine)!!
Congratulations to all the winners, and thanks to Jason and Jaye. It was a fabulous contest and a great deal of fun to read all of the entries.
Congrats to the winners, and thanks to the hosts!
Thank you, Jaye and Jason!!! And many many congratulations to everyone who submitted a vignette. It was so much fun and continues to be a joy to feel like part of a community!!!
:-)
Just to add to Jason's comments, I'd like to say you guys didn't make this easy for us. A big high five to the winners. Thanks to Jason for letting me play along, and thanks to everyone for sharing your stories.
As always thanks for hosting the contest!
Congratulations to the winners! Thank you to the hosts - I don't know how you did this so quickly. Dedication, I suppose. :-D
I would like to add my congratulations. And not just to those who won an honor but to everyone who worked hard to create and post an entry. I have made several friends from prior contests, and I hope everyone comes away with something learned, something gained, something to look forward to exploring.
And my thanks to everyone who voted. I am shocked--shocked, I tell you!--that my entry placed in the readers choice top three. (And it's always been a secret fantasy of mine to be positioned between Janey and Chris... ooh, did I say that out loud?)
And I'm thrilled that my top choice (sorry vacuuming-the-living-room guy, but you were my second pick), JaneyV, won out! Jane, if you don't turn that into a one-act play, I'm going to have to chuff you to bits. Or some equally charming but perplexing expression from your side of the ocean.
Now, Jason and Jaye deserve whatever rest and relaxation you can get. Tough job indeed!
Pete:
You are a very naughty man! And congrats on placing. I loved your piece and voted for it.
Wow! This is my third contest at Clarity Night. From nursing home escapee to ex-felon stalker to brothers raising money for an urn, I'm starting to stretch my imagination as far as I can. I wouldn't've been able to do it without Jason's prompt and the encouragement of others. Thanks Jason, Jaye, and fellow writers. Also, I'd like to give a shout-out to brotherman Mark Durfee for his honorable mention--that's two for the Motor City!
Congratulations to every winner and to every entrant! Jason's "Ascension" contest in January was the first piece I posted in the blogosphere, and I've continued to write ever since! I really owe my renewed interest in writing to Clarity of Night and to the wonderful, supportive friends I have made here.
Congrats to all! I'm happy to be a 40s club member! Ah...to see my forties again... ;-)
What a wonderful time I've had over these past few weeks reading such great works by such talented writers. Congratulations to everyone, and a special thanks to Jason and Jaye for offering the opportunity in the first place.
Wow! Congrats to all the winners! This was a total hoot! I had a blast participating & like others, I learned a tremendous amount in the process.
I'm absolutely tickled pink to take home an HM. I was inspired to throw my hat into the ring due to being inspired by all the wonderful early entries that were being posted prior to the final deadline.
Congratulations to everyone who competed--the caliber of writing here is completely awe-inspiring. Thank you to Jason and Jaye for this wonderful opportunity.
Congrats to everyone who entered. JR's story was certainly an excellent one.
A great big Congratualtions to all the winners!
A huge thank you to Jason and Jaye for all the work they put into making this a terrific contest.
A riotous standing ovation for the winners, honourable mentions and Readers’ Choice winners. Every one enormously well deserved – bravo, bravo and bravo again!
I am a newbie to Jason’s wondrous blog…and, wow, what an adventure it’s been! I loved every single moment of this contest and am still awe-struck at the quality of the entries. I read all 158 of these delicious vignettes and along the way I met old friends and made new ones. It was also one of the most mentally stimulating and exciting bloggy events I’ve been lucky enough to have been involved in for ages - big thanks to Absolute Vanilla for the ‘heads-up’. Most of all, I want to thank Jason and Jaye for making it possible. Thanks so much, guys. Can’t wait for the next contest!
P.S. My first time participating and I’m in The Forties Club – wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Time to go crack open the champers.
Congrats to everyone. It was an amazing contest. I have never seen so many great pieces all in one place. Thanks Jason and Jaye for a great contest.
Congrats to all the winner and a heartfelt thanks to Jason and Jaye!
This was my very first attempt at writing, but I don't believe it will be my last.
Dottie
Well done to everyone. Thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the reading. There's an amazing amount of talent out there!
Once again thank you Jason for giving all the time to this. I think you deserve several glasses of vino old bean!
Four Dinners
Congrats to all of the winners. Well done.
Congrats to all the winners! Consider your backs well and truly patted.
And thanks Jason for the little * next to my name... Yay me :-)
I really enjoyed this contest; the writing, the reading, the comments, the whole thing - thank you Jason & Jaye.
Congratulations again to all the recognized writers in all categories and even more congratulations to every single writer who shared his or her vision!!
It is always a deep honor to host this contest. And I was especially honored to have a co-host with me this time. (Shout out to Jaye!!!) Thank you all!
eventually, i am sure, i am going to read every entry. (i am slow, but i come around.) it has been an absolute blast and i am awed by the time and energy given by our gracious host (and guest host) - a round of applause for them, for the winners, for everyone.
Dear host Jason and co-host Jaye: Thanks lots for sharing such a FUN-d environment. I learnt a lot enaging in such CoN execrcises:) CoNgrats to awe the winners and tryers2!:):) -- YL, Desi
Jason, thanks for another great competition - and I hadn't even noticed, until my wonderful and talented friend JaneyV pointed it out, that I'd made it into the 40s club! Thanks!
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