Sunday, May 22, 2011

Winners Announced--Pitch & 250 Word Contest

It's time!!!

I want to thank you all for participating. It was great fun and wonderful to read all the awesome entries.

I also want to thank Gina again for being an awesome judge and for donating the fabulous prizes. After reading the entries, I know she must have had a hard time choosing. Gina also took the time to write a little paragraph for each winner and for the entries as a whole. Encouraging words. So...a huge round of virtual applause sent her way.

Okay, I know you are all excited. Below are the winners.

Drum roll, please......

The winners in order are:

First Place

L.J. Boldyrev for GREYSKIN. Just an amazing pitch and first page. The voice was really engaging and unique. I really wanted to get to know this main character, and thought that she could be trouble and a good time, my kind of girl! The dead girl in the trunk was such a compelling element. How could you not keep reading. Great entry!

Second Place

Kalen O'Donnell for DUST TO DUST. Holy Toledo, talk about sibling rivalry! Having brothers trying to kill each other on sight and using all sorts of common elements, like shadows, to do it, while having your main character be able to conjure, um, dust storms ?! was funny and yet compelling. The attack in the opening page got us right into the story. Pace like a freight train, and great lively teen voice.

Third Place

Aheila for OIL AND BOILING WATER. Spunky heroine doesn't even begin to describe your main character. Who wouldn't root for her? She's remarkable and brave and determined, and the voice perfectly suits the genre. I had to detract a few points for the pitch which was a little too vague and difficult to follow. You could have done more with the space. Overall, very good job!

Fourth Place

Jackie Felger, BREATHE FOR ME. Terrific, well-explained concept and tough, feisty main character readers will enjoy. Cage fighting with their talents? Great idea! Your MC's fierce nature obviously makes us think she's a survivor. I'm sure you'll find lots of fans!

I was tremendously impressed with the talent and skill all the entries displayed. Choosing winners was more difficult than I had ever imagined. Time and again, I found myself disappointed when the sample ended because I wanted to keep reading! It was hard, too, only have four winning positions, since I also found a lot of entries that deserved special honorary mentions. Among those I wanted to mention are...

Chersti Nieveen for THE LAST ONSET
Robin Weeks for GEAS
AE Martin for RAVENOUS DESK
Elizabeth Mierek for TABITHA'S DEATH

The tremendous number of entries showed such imagination, creativity and love for the craft of writing, that I hate to leave anyone out! All of them were an enjoyable read, and so many of them I read over and over again. I want to encourage everyone who entered, since you are such an incredibly talented group. I hope I'll soon be seeing all of you on the bookshelves!

Further instructions:

I will contact each of the winners with instructions. Oh....and for the honorable mentions, I will contact you too. I've decided to give each of you a $5 B&N card.

Thank you all so much for making this contest a success.

16 comments:

  1. Gina, thank you so much! Huge thanks to Ebyss for hosting! Congrats everyone!

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  2. Congratulations to the winners! Thanks Gina for taking the time to read our entries. And thanks to Ebyss for hosting.

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  3. YAY! Congrats to the winners! Gina was awesome to judge.

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  4. Awesome contest. Thanks again for hosting it!

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  5. I am very honored that Ravenous Dusk received an honorable mention! Thanks so much Gina =)

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  6. Thanks again to Ebyss for hosting this fabulous contest, and Gina for all your hard work in judging it...and now with your prizes as well! You're absolutely dead on when you said that there were a ton of amazing entries and I certainly couldn't choose among them, so I'm honored that you chose mine. Congrats to the other winners and all the other entrants period - there's some amazing stuff here that I'll be on the lookout for on bookshelves in the next few years...

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  7. Congrats to all the winners and once again, thanks to Ebyss for hosting the contest. As for Gina, you are one awesome and generous agent.

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  8. Oh! *does the happy dance because happy things deserve to be appropriately celebrated*
    Congrats to all the winners. I'm very excited that my entry was chosen. This does wonders for my motivation (though I'm afraid my sleep will pay for it tonight).
    Thanks Ebyss for this contest and Gina for your time. This is much appreciated.

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  9. I won!! Okay, it was just an honorable mention, but it's my very first, so I'm HAPPY, especially considering the awesome competition. Thanks so much to Gina for judging and to Ebyss for hosting. And for the gift card--a very unexpected treat. Thanks!!

    Congrats to the placed winners, too--you deserve it.

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  10. Congrats to the winners-your entries were fantastic. I learn so much from these contests. Thanks Ebyss and Gina for making that possible.

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  11. Congrats to the winners! Thank you to Ebyss and Gina! :D

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  12. Congratulations to the winners! That had to be tough but Gina was so generous about it. I hope to see all those on the shelves soon too!

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  13. Ebyss - Many thanks for hosting such an awesome contest!
    Gina - Thanks for your time and for taking on the hard task of choosing between all of the wonderful entries!
    You both rock!

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  14. I am so happy to have won an honorable mention for TABITHA'S DEATH.

    You guys are awesome for taking them time to do this. Congratulations to all of the winners.

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  15. WRITING CONTEST.......My blog Amish Stories is having its first ever contest this week. The First prize winner will win 2 tickets to tour the farm where the 1985 move "Witness" staring Harrison Ford and Kelly Mcgillis was made in Strasburg,Pa . This farm is now Amish owned, and the family has given permission for folks to tour their farm. This may be the last time anyone will be able to walk and see the same things that Harrison Ford and the other actors saw during the making of "Witness". The Witness tour should last about 2.5 hours. In addition to the Witness farm tour tickets, 1st prize winner will also receive 2 tickets for Jacobs choice. There will also be a 2nd place prize, which will be 2 tickets for the Amish Homestead. Please go to My blog www.AmishStorys.com for contest details, and more information on the prizes. Richard from the Amish settlement of Lebanon county.

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