Wow, it’s been a week since the Clarion Write-a-Thon finished! There have been so many wonderful people participating in the Write-a-Thon. People have challenged themselves creatively. People have done that crazy scary thing of telling people that they are doing creative things and could they get some sponsorship.
People have finished, started and edited novels. People penned dozens of short stories. People picked up a pen for the first time in a long time. People wrote songs and made visual art. Through the blog and beyond the blog we saw people connecting, collaborating and egging each other on.
We saw Clarion alumni from years ago reconnecting, we saw Clarion graduates in potential throw themselves into the adventure, and I misted up a little when I saw one donor contributed because they want their kids to be able to go to Clarion someday (talk about a creatively supportive parent). Our donors are spectacular; they don’t just donate money, they are donating expressions of love, support and you rock-ed-ness.
So much has been going on in lots of little pockets and we’re looking at how we can make creative community mightier for next year — and you can help us bring the awesome by filling in this survey. It’s one page long and open to writers, donors and interested observers.
AND now the winner is…
all of us…
But the winners of specific physical objects donated by Jim Shea, Kater Cheek, John Shirley, Justin Whitney, Mysterious Galaxies and a Very Generous Clarionite go to!
Participating as a writer Raffle Prize
Rachael Acks won John Shirley’s Bleak History. Kelly Lagor, Dallas Taylor and James Patrick Kelly, in that order, will choose between Karen Joy Fowler’s The Jane Austen Book Club, David Brin’s The Postman, and Thomas Berger’s Being Invisible.
Participating as a donor Raffle Prize
Cuong Hoang, who sponsored Kari Maaren, won Karen Joy Fowler’s The Jane Austen Book Club.
Participating as a writer or donor Raffle Prize
Nina Hoffman, Leigh Huse, Lacey Neagle, January Mortimer, Justin Whitney, Shauna Roberts, Strange Horizons, Inc., Jennie Close, Kathryn Meyer, Sophie Sparham, Kate Schaefer & Glenn Hackney (single donor), Lesley Ashmore. In that order they get to chose from six of each; A set of refrigerator magnets made from the keyboard Walter Jon Williams used to write The Rift or A deck of Yukon-approved Story Seeds creativity cards.
Participating as a writer AND earning over $75 Raffle Prize
Ahmed Al-Sheikh and Keffy Kehrli, in that order they get to chose a new-in-the-box Six Fingered Man (Outer Limits) or a new-in-the-box Sebastian Haff (Bubba Ho-tep).
Note: all raffle prize winners were selected through the random integer generator at Random.org
Raising over $150 in donations
- Rachael Acks
- Barth Anderson
- Julie Andrews
- Liz Argall
- Stacie Brown
- Amelia Bruce
- Sue Burke
- Curtis Chen
- Robert Crais
- Nancy Etchemendy
- Donna Fitch
- Karen Fowler
- Laura Anne Gilman
- Victoria Griesdoorn
- Donaya Haymond
- Leigh Huse
- Keffy Kehrli
- James Patrick Kelly
- Kelly Lagor
- Lindsay Morgan Lockhart
- Kari Maaren
- John McDaid
- Nathan McDaniel
- January Mortimer
- Kari O’Connor
- Leonard Pung
- Kim Stanley Robinson
- Cath Schaff-Stump
- Jim Shea
- Ferrett Steinmetz
- Dallas Taylor
- Leslie What
- Justin Whitney
- Rose Wilson
34 writers!!!! We were able to send a t-shirt or mug (writer’s choice) to 34 writers, and there might be more! There are still some pledges to come in that will almost certainly add writers to this list AND there is no cut off date for this celebration. If a donation comes in three months from now that tips a writer over that $150 line we will honor it. It’s all about sharing the love.
We would love to put together a photo special something of all our fabulous t-shirt and mug recipients. Please send us your photos (liz@lizargall.com or, even better, post a link in comments).
Top 12 fundraisers after the grand prize winner
33%-off coupon for the purchase of a signed first edition book at Mysterious Galaxy
- Victoria Griesdoorn
- Kari Maaren
- Lindsay Morgan Lockhart
- Sue Burke
- Liz Argall
- Curtis Chen
- Amelia Bruce
- Kim Stanley Robinson
- Nancy Etchemendy
- Justin Whitney
- Kelly Lagor
- Leslie What
Grand Prize Winner of an iPad
Ferrett Steinmetz.
That’s right, Ferrett Steinmetz pulled out all the stops and won for the second year. Victoria Griesdoorn gave him a run for his money, but in the end there can be only one. Congratulations Ferrett and the special creator community he facilitated on livejournal clarion_echo.
Special Clarion sponsorship award
We challenged each graduating class of Clarion to support their compadres, and whichever year donated the most would get a scholarship named after them. We’re still tabulating those results — we need to check every donor against our alumni list, we don’t want anyone to miss out.
Thank you
Special thanks to the teeny tiny team of hard working volunteers who made this possible. There was a lot of busting of guts to make it happen and respond to more participants and more donors than we thought possible. Thanks Nancy Etchemendy, fearless leader and Clarion treasurer; Justin Whitney, technology man; Jim Shea, fundraising engineer; Mishell Baker, blog mistress; Misa Buckley, lady of spreadsheet; and thanks to my sweetheart who endured a Liz who was queen of minor injuries and doctor of THINGS.
Thanks again everyone who participated and helped us out — writers, donors, sponsors and people who made us coffee.
If you want to congratulate any writers on achieving their goals you can still donate.
And don’t forget to fill in the survey :-).
Much love
Liz
Clarion Blog 
Question: How do those of us who won something contact to receive our prizes?
I believe the prize people are already on it! 🙂
As Mishell notes, the Incentives Guru is on it. I will be sending out emails to all winners looking for addresses to send the Prize, as well as asking those who get to make choices to make them.
Soon.
Jim
Yay to everyone!
Congratulations, everyone! Congratulations, Clarion! The write-a-thon was a lot of fun.
Congratulations, everyone! 🙂