FINALISTS, FINALISTS! And Your Turn to Vote.

Therese Walsh on Sep 19 2007 | Filed under: Contest

Thanks to everyone who participated in Writer Unboxed’s CONTEST, CONTEST!

Kath and I enjoyed this word-creation contest even more than our Alphasmart contest, if that’s possible. Each of the over 200 words submitted had a unique bent, but we had to choose just ten finalists. Our process? We alphabetized all the entries, sans reference to their owners, so there was no potential for bias. Then we eliminated any words found in the online urban dictionaries or that were being used gratuitously on the ‘net, and gave props to entries that were 100% unique and 101% inspired.

(We’ll post the complete list sometime soon and acknowledge honorable mentions.)

Now we need everyone’s help to help decide who gets the big prize.

At stake: a set of fabulous market guides:

Writer’s Market Deluxe Edition 2008, which comes with a ONE-YEAR SUBSCRIPTION to WritersMarket.com

Guide to Literary Agents 2008

Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market 2008

Poet’s Market 2008

Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market 2008

(Insert drumroll here.)

THE FINALISTS ARE…

1. Appause (noun): the awkward moment in a poetry reading when the audience doesn’t know whether they should clap or not

2. Curbudgeon (noun): a cranky shopper who cuts you off in the checkout line

3. Dreamacidal (Adjective): pertaining to dreamacide, or the killing of a dream by another, esp. a parent, teacher, mentor, colleague or critic
“The newest member of our writing group is particularly dreamacidal in his critiques.”

4. Fretiting: worrying about your edits

5. Philanthrantasy (n.): the hope, usually unrealistic, that some anonymous rich person will donate a lot of money to you

6. Premature e-queriation: sending an e-query before your manuscript is ready

7. Pythong: a really tight thong usually worn by a man

8. Schizofriendic: the person you make friends with before you realize they are annoying/insane, and by that time, it’s too late…you can’t get rid of them
“When Sally showed up at my house at 3 a.m. wanting me to bake a cake with her, I realized that she just might be Schizofriendic.”

9. Tangified: overuse of self-tanner
“After being asked repeatedly if she glowed in the dark, Molly realized being tangified wasn’t as great as she had originally believed.”

10. Vocal point (noun): a person who seeks to become the center of attention through excessive talking

And now for the VOTING RULES: Vote now, but DON’T vote often – only one vote per person and/or URL. Voting ends Sunday at midnight, EST.

Thanks to all who submitted unique creations and used their personal blog horns to help spread word of the contest for us. We had tons of fun (fon?).

Write on, all!

Therese Walsh co-founded Writer Unboxed in 2006. Her debut novel, The Last Will of Moira Leahy, sold to Random House in a two-book deal in 2008, was named one of January Magazine’s Best Books of 2009, and was a Target Breakout Book in 2010. She's never been published with a lit magazine, but LOST's Carlton Cuse liked her haiku best on Twitter, and that made her pretty happy.