Congratulations to the following Round Three winners of the First Chapters Writing Competition!
Thank you all for your participation in the First Chapters Writing Competition; your votes helped determine the five finalists from thousands of entries. Four finalists were based on the highest number of votes and ratings from the Gather community, and one was selected by the Gather editorial team. As in all Gather competitions, the voting was monitored by sophisticated click fraud technology to assure an open and free competition from potential abuse.
Our 5 Finalists are (in alphabetical order by last name):
Geoffrey Edwards, Fire Bell in the Night
Geeta Menon, Speechless
Scott Middlemist, Name Drop Zone
Stephen Prosapio, Dream War
Terry Shaw, The Way Life Should Be
The Grand Prize judging panel will select 1 Grand Prize Winner who will receive a $5,000 cash prize from Gather.com and publication of their book by The Touchstone imprint of Simon & Schuster!
The Grand Prize judging panel:
Carolyn K. Reidy, President of the Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Mark Gompertz, Executive Vice President and Publisher of Touchstone
George Jones, CEO of Borders Group
Tom Gerace, Founder and CEO of Gather.com
Please make sure to check back on Thursday, May 31, when we will be announcing the Grand Prize Winner of the First Chapters Writing Competition!
You can learn more about the First Chapters Writing Competition here.
rate
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 93
Arlene - as soon as I get the okay from Gather admin, I'm going to post my UPDATED first few chapters, so that everyone can see the improvements I made to my MS based on your suggestions. I'm so grateful to everyone who supported me over the past few months.
Congratulations to Geeta, Jeff, Scott, and Terry. I'm honored to be in the company of such good writers and good people.
Good luck to all.
I'm with Julie -- cannot wait to read the winning book when it comes out!
Best wishes to all!
And to those who aren't selected, congrats on making it this far and keep writing -- you've got talent.
KEEP WRITING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Personally, I am celebrating because my favorite, "Speechless" is here!! Geeta, I hope you win, because I cant wait to read what happens with Mina and Patricia!!
Good luck to everyone!
You are all winners!! :)
Now I must get back to my own grindstone and polish (yet again) my manuscript. Thanks Gather for the kickstart.
Cathy
Hope others will drop
When all has been said
Cream rises to the top!
(c) 2007 J L Kay, LLC
Congratulations to ALL authors that submitted chapters through this entire contest. Theaters of applause and thousands of "attapersons" for the finalists.
I wasn't even going to log in today -- busy day -- but when I saw the round three winners announced, I had to jump in and offer my kudos.
Good luck!
Terry, glad to see you made it.
Blessings
The man named Bob put the last of the fives in the money drawer, shut it, and said, "One thousand, six hunnert, and seventy two."
Earl looked at him, eyes wide. "That many? What are they millin' around for? Musta been a thousand trains through here the past four months. They coulda jumped on any one of 'em."
Bob pushed his cap back on his head and looked at Earl. "They say they're waiting for the last four."
"The last four? The last four what?"
"Well, I guess the last four of them. But when the last four get here, the whole bunch of 'em say they'll be heading out together, heading home. Got work to do."
"And that'll be all of 'em?"
"Nope. Supposed to be one left. But that one ain't going home."
"Where they headed?"
"Nobody seems to know. But I got a call that a special run's coming through here first of the month, and that's supposed to pick up the one that ain't going home."
Earl looked back at the crowd. "Well, ain't that somethin'. Wonder what that last person did that they deserve a special train."
"Dunno. But I do know one thing."
"What's that?"
"I sure as heck would rather be that one leftover person, riding a special train outta here by myself, than bumping shoulders with this crowd. Gonna be awful tight in their train."
Earl nodded. "Well," he said, plucking a lunch pail off a nearby shelf, "maybe someday they'll each get to ride on their own special trains."
Congrats to the Final Five.
Looking forward to reading the whole book of speechless.
Good luck.
Rita :o)
Great job everyone!
Just remember, its the harsh facts of competition that only one can win but, in this contest everyones wins, and that prize if you can grasp it, is knowledge. You may not have made it this far this time, but you left knowing what to do next time. Priceless!
GOODONYA Geeta
I'm honored and excited to join them in the final five.
Thanks to Gather, Borders and Simon & Schuster/Touchstone for creating this opportunity. Hopefully, more than 1 of the 2600+ will find their way to bookstore shelves soon.
summer
At this point, the decision is out of our collective hands, and in the hands of the real judges, who were going to make the ultimate decision all along, as it should be. I'm pleased that they have some quality, publishable (or nearly so, with minor editing) manuscripts from which to select. It's going to be a tough choice.
Again, good luck to the final five.
Cathy
I have to state here that my top pick, Fire Bell In The Night, is my choice to win. But that's just my taste - the others are deserving also and I'm sure all of them - along with many other entrants that did not get this far - will all be published.
Enjoyed the ride with all the bumps in the road that were identified.
Congratulations to all and the BEST 5...
Here is the posting:
What happened to all of the comments that used to be here? I need to see one of the comments. I have a theory on who the winner will be. I had written down my choice on a piece of paper and placed it in my wallet. I wrote down this name BEFORE the first round winners were chosen and this particular author is in the final five! What are the odds of that happening? Believe me, I am not that lucky. If I were, I would have hit Powerball by now. And if I am right, this contest was a scam. I find it highly suspicious that all of the previous comments have been removed. I need to see the comments that used to be attached to this article.
I just wanted to say I am finally going through what is now under 6,300 pieces of gather new mail that is in my inbox on here. So with that in mind I have finally come to a piece of mail that was addressed to me in regards this article submission you have created to share with the gather community. Thank you for taking the time and sharing your piece with us here at gather. :o)
And I hope you have a Happy New Year... in 2009 :o)