I write stuff for kids...and muse on writing, children's books, and the publishing industry in general

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Second Crusader Challenge Wrap-Up (Vote For The Winner)

All-righty-ho, I hope you all had as much fun with the Second Crusader Challenge as I did. I was so impressed by all the entries, and particularly with all the different ways the entrants managed to work "kartofflepuffer" into their posts. Well done everyone.

It's time now to vote for the winner. We had an amazing 18 entries in this Challenge. I had to guess on the points for a few entrants, so if I've listed you as a semi-finalist and you didn't get the full 200 points, please let us know so I can take you off the semi-finalist list.

Here are those who entered the Challenge but either aren't putting themselves up for the prize (me) or didn't score the full 200 points:

  1. Rachael Harrie
  2. Hart Johnson

(*Drumroll*) And here are the semi-finalists - all entrants who scored 200 points, in the order I received their comments:
  1. Adina West
  2. Kangaroobee
  3. Kittie Howard
  4. Marieke
  5. Grandpa
  6. Megan Bickel 
  7. Joanna St. James
  8. Sarah G
  9. Jessica Stanford
  10. L'Aussie
  11. Su
  12. Quinn
  13. kar_took
  14. Rachel Morgan
  15. Julie Hedlund
  16. The Weed
Phew, that's a lot of entries to be judged. So don't make me choose the winner (*pretty please*) - it's going to be too hard! Drop me a comment in this post and let me know whose entry you liked the best. No hard-and-fast judging criteria, just whatever took your fancy (most humorous, most revealing, best secrets revealed, whatever).

Can't wait to find out who the winner is! I'm designing a winner's badge for your blog as we speak (woot!), plus there's all the other prizes.

Oh, and everyone who took part in this Challenge, make sure you're all ready to point your followers toward the Insider Scoop interview featuring the winner :)

Judging will be open until next Friday, November 5, so make sure you pop back and cast your vote before then...

18 comments:

Su said...

It took me a ridiculous amount of time to choose my favourite, but in the end, I have to go with Marieke.

Mary Mary said...

I've read most of the entries, and I'd have to say one of the more humorous ones is The Weed and one of the more fascinating ones is L'Aussie. So, I guess those would be my two picks.

Denise Covey said...

Hi Rach. This is an awesome task, as to be fair and honest, to vote you really need to go and read everyone's entry again if you have already done so, or for the first time, if you haven't already.

I am just halfway through my second pass and am a bit panicked with NaNo starting tomorrow.

Thanks Mary Mary for voting for me and it sounds like you read them all.

I just went through my comments and only 6 crusaders have read mine - most of my comments are from my other followers.

I know it's possible to read, then forget to comment, or to forget to fill out that dreaded word verification some bloggers use, but really to be in this crusade, we are supposed to read/comment on each others work - especially if we are voting.

I hope I'm not excommunicated for this post, but it is reasonable isn't it?

Denise Covey said...

Hey back again after my marathon, and that it is! I found that one entry (kar_took) had only been read by 2 crusaders. Oh dear. And one post wouldn't allow comments??

After much deliberation between Marieke and Kittie Howard, I'm going with Kittie Howard as she had the little edge of teaching me something new about wildlife in Louisana.

Overall, the entries were of a high standard showing heaps of imagination, so go crusaders

Rachael Harrie said...

@Su and @Mary Mary, thanks for your votes.

@L'Aussie, you're right, it is a heap of work to read through, comment and vote. I think I've got to everyone (let me know if I haven't), and I'd hope those who took part in the Challenge can do the rounds and make sure they leave a comment to let the relevant Crusaders know they have visited. Because I haven't been able to get Mr Linky to work, this is the first time the entries have actually been listed out and linked up, so hopefully it will be easier for people to check out the entries now. I know everyone is busy with Halloween and NaNo and other things, so I'm hoping a week gives them all enough time to fit it all in :)

Marieke said...

L'Aussie - I completely agree with you! Personally, I do try to keep up with the Crusader posts when they show up in my blog feed. Not just Challenges, but mostly all posts. Unfortunately, sometimes work or life gets in the way! ;) But before I vote I will definitely catch up on all the posts! :D

Su said...

I read them all at least twice, but didn't comment on all of them. As Marieke says, I keep up with the crusaders all the time, not just for the challenges, so I don't necessarily comment on every post. Especially not this week!

kar_took said...

I was in the process of going through all of the challenge posts to read and leave comments when I noticed this.

I don't mind that I only got a few reads as challenge posts aren't always overly interesting to followers (althought I've got a lot of comments now, so maybe L'Aussie's mention here gave me a little bost :-D). I think, while the challenge was fun and I'll be trying to participate in all of them, it's more the everyday posting that we are supporting one another on. As long as we continue to read (and sometimes comment) on each other's blogs then the Crusade is doing its job.

I'll be back to vote on my favourite later, once I've practiced what I preach and read them all.

Julie Hedlund said...

I'll have to go with Adina for my vote, since her post really got me thinking (in a good way). It was hard to choose though, because they were all good and entertaining!

Megan K. Bickel said...

I'm going to go with Julie. Loved it!!

Bast said...

My vote's for The Weed.

Unknown said...

My vote goes to the Weed too. I think he incorporated the random words pretty seamlessly, and his post really made me smile a lot :-)
Plus I love the bright red, not-a-children's-wagon bandwagon. I'm hopping in too!

Marieke said...

Hard choice! But my voice goes to kar_took. Mostly because, well, Scotland! :D

The Weed said...

Man this was hard--I'm going with my initial gut reaction even though I've been tossing around several excellent posts in my brain all week. My vote goes to Su for her quirky humor which really tickled my fancy ;-).

(Is it in poor taste to also mention how honored I am that my name has been even tossed into the hat? Y'all are amazing writers and it's a privilege to crusade amongst you. That red wagon of ours is filled to the brim with talent. And sweaty, hard-working writers. And manuscript pages and metaphors and unicorns and stuff. It's fun in here!) (Somebody needs to put me to bed--I'm tired cuz of the new baby.)

Faith said...

Eee... I can't decide between Julie and kar_took, because I liked them both for different reasons. Aaaaah... I need to split myself into different people. Ooh, or can you give them a half point each from me? LOL.

Rachael Harrie said...

Goodness, voting was close for this one! I've counted a couple of half points too ;)

Numbers stand as follows:

Marieke - 1
The Weed - 2 1/2
L'Aussie - 1/2
Kittie - 1
Adina - 1
Julie - 1 1/2
kar-took - 1 1/2
Su - 1

And the winner (and one of our newest Crusaders) is...(totally unnecessary drumroll cause you can tell from the above anyway, but hey, we all need a drumroll occasionally in our lives)...The Weed!!!

Woot, well done you!!! Shoot me an email at rachael[dot]harrie[at]gmail[dot]com so we can chat about your interview :)

The Weed said...

Wow! I'm smiling wide over here. Truly unexpected honor--and by such a landslide! ;-) No, but really, I think the closeness of the race is a tribute to the excellence of the writers we have among us. Thanks so much! What a superb experience all around this crusade is turning out to be!

Denise Covey said...

Congratulation The Weed! A great experience for you. Be looking forward to reading more of your work..:)

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