Unicorn Pegasus Kitten Update

Posted on August 18, 2010    Posted by      54 Comments

John wanted me to mention that the winners of the fanfic contest have been chosen and are in the process of being told. Once they are notified, we’ll happily post the results for all to see.

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54 Comments on “Unicorn Pegasus Kitten Update”

  1. Great… now I will switch from compulsively checking Whatever to compulsively checking my email. :)

  6. @Laurence, after seeing the painting of Wil in those shorts, absolutely no one is innocent anymore…

  7. I think we can all assume that if we have not gotten an email by the time we’ve read this post, we didn’t win.

    I think we can also all assume that knowing that intellectually will in no manner prevent us from checking and re-checking our email accounts obsessively until the final winners list is posted, at which point we will all be able to luxuriate in the relaxing arms of soul-crushing defeat.

  8. @Brad, I assume you are correct on both counts.

    But it was an honor to simply have been nomin…

    um…

  9. Winners? Plural? I thought there would only be one winner. How many are there? Does this mean I have a chance?
    <fingers crossed>

  10. Brad@6: That sounds logical…but email is neither always instantaneous nor always reliable. I’ve had automated replies take ten seconds to arrive from the originating server, and others show up a couple of hours later — and I have at least one contact whose email to my primary e-address almost invariably disappears in transit (I talked to the relevant support folk, and they swear it can’t have been eaten by filters).

    Also, comments I make right here have been known to vanish into spam filters sometimes (but not others) for no apparent reason. We’ll see if this one posts….

  11. I hope you’re right John. I really, really do.

    And if I didn’t win, oh well then. Just means getting something published gets delayed for a bit.

  12. Oddly, I can take being told I’m a loser better than I can handle trying to figure it out by myself. Introspection without the support of a therapist at this point in my writing career may lead to death by punctuation.

  13. Oh poo. I was certain I wouldn’t be the best, or selected among a single-winner selection, and I was at peace with that.
    But I held on to the fantasy that I might actually be in the top 10. Now that I know there are multiple winners, and I’m not one of them… *cry*

  14. Wait! Wait! Let me write another one!

    Don’t count me out so soon. I can do it again if you didn’t like it. This time it’ll be TWICE as epic

    Refresh, refresh…

  15. Come on everyone don’t loose hope yet!

    Sure we haven’t gotten contacted yet, but the post says they are in the process of notifying the winners not that they already have…

    Besides, maybe one of those lucky winners will decline this amazing opportunity and they’ll pick one of us runners up in their place.

    LOL, Even I don’t believe that one!

    Oh well, everyone’s right, all hope is lost… :_(

  16. Well, it was fun – and I didn’t know I could write something that twisted…. so not a total loss. And by morning (because I’ll hold out ’till the last minute), I can check it off as another rejection…. ;) And use it for something else – although the pegasus kitty unicorn might have to shape-shift again….

  17. well technically they said they’re in the process of sending out emails. so if you DO get one, please leave a comment so we dont waste all our time wondering and let us feel defeated, and yet at the same time wait like kids at a candystore opening for the release of the list.

  19. Rudolph, the unicorn pegasus kitten
    had a very pointy nose.
    And if you ever saw it,
    you would even say it grows.

    All of the other unicorn pegasus kittens
    used to laugh and call him names.
    They never let poor Rudolph
    join in any unicorn pegasus kitten games.

    Then one foggy summer day,
    Wheaton came to say:
    “Rudolph with your nose’s height,
    won’t you fight the Scalzi orc tonight?”

    Then all the unicorn pegasus kittens loved him
    as they shouted out with glee,
    Rudolph the pointy-nosed unicorn pegasus kitten,
    you’re Whatever history!

  22. Hmm…must have deleted that email by mistake…I should just get in the car and go over to his house…yeah…I will need some adult diapers…for the long drive..maybe some duck tape?…

  23. HEY! THIS E-MAIL SAYS I WON! Curious, though, how he’s asking me to give him my bank account numbers. And who knew that “Scalzi” was a Nigerian name?

    Ah, well. In the rush of victory, how can I say no?

  24. Win or lose, this was amazingly fun to participate in.

    I really hope they post the results soon – or at least confirm that the winners have been notified already. The suspense is killing me! :)

  25. I’m with you Alex, this was an amazing contest to be a part of. I know for myself, and I’m sure for many others, winning money was never the motivator for entering.

    Granted I’d still like to win! ;-)

    Speaking of which, has anything been said about what happens to the stories that don’t make it?

    I Know they are ours free and clear, but I’d be happy to let them keep the story if they’d want it for a website promoting the chapbook or anything like that.

  26. @Zach: At some point someone asked John if they could collect the “losing” stories on one web site and John declined, at least for the time being. Personally I would like to see them all collected, but I definitely think it should only be done with the organizers’ blessing.

    I still have own my entry up at http://alexshvartsman.livejournal.com/ and have enjoyed reading a number of others.

  33. Thanks for the links–I was in stitches with your stories. For what it’s worth, mine and a friend’s can be found here (registration possibly required):

    http://jbern.fanficauthors.net/With_This_I_Smite_You_and_Hell_Hath_No_Pizza/

    I’m pretty certain I didn’t win (no email from John, even after wading through an ocean of Viagra spam in my crudbox), though it was good fun to play along. Perhaps the organizers could consider making a link to the top thirty or so runners-up? I can’t imagine our stories would be marketable elsewhere, so I expect most authors wouldn’t mind getting a bit more exposure of their efforts.

  35. Well, nothing in my inbox. So I say I probably am not one of the winners. I took a rather unusual approach to the format, seeing that my background is in screenwriting. It was mainly focused on Wil trying to tell a story while the author of the story about Will telling his story keeps changing the story on Wil. It was like a demented GM running an even more demented game of AD&D, where Wil is unaware that he’s in a story that’s being dictated by another source. It becomes a dialogue between the author and Wil as Wil tries to take back control of his story. It was a very make or break approach. Didn’t care. It was an inspired story and approach, and the experiment was well worth trying for my own sake as a storyteller. In other words, it was fun.

    The format is a bit off from the copy and paste, but here it is:

    http://nexus-nine.blogspot.com/2010/08/writing-fanfic-contest.html

  37. Oh, James, don’t you realize that just makes me want to read it all the more??? And curse all of you, now I have soo many stories I MUST read! LOL! Links, here I come…..

  40. I’m assuming at this point that either at least one of the notification emails has been eaten by ‘Net gremlins in transit, and/or one or more of the winners are temporarily Away-From-Keyboard and so the relevant email is still waiting in said winner’s (or winners’) inbox(es).

    Personally, I’m rooting for the ‘Net gremlins…but they can stop eating my incoming emails anytime now. :-)

  42. I am suprised that someone has not come on and said they got an email yet….he is on vacation…

  43. Why does everyone assume that the notification will be by email?

    Notice that the post says that “winners … are in the process of being told.”

    You think that means electronic notification. But that’s an assumption.

    Maybe John and Wil are writing snail-mail letters.

    Maybe they’re using Morse code via telegraph.

    Maybe they’re using smoke signals.

    Perhaps they’re using homing pigeons.

    Perhaps they’ve commissioned another painting that lists the name of the winners.

    Perhaps they’ve decided to go door-to-door and, just like Ed McMahon, ring your doorbell and announce “YOU’RE A WINNER!!”

    See, you don’t know. And so there’s still hope.

    At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.

  45. Oh My God, a huge winged kitten just broke down my front door with a horn on its head! Now it’s just standing there, grinning at me, with green flesh sticking out of its mouth. It’s extending a paw toward me – there’s a piece of paper tied to it. Let’s see, it says: Dear Larry: We read your entry for the Unicorn Pegasus Kitten contest. After deciphering the typos and bad grammar, we concluded that we not only hate your writing, we hate your guts, and the guts of all your offspring and other relatives. Armies of orcs will scourge the earth of any whisper of your existence. We will not rest until your DNA has perished from this Earth. Thank you for your entry, John Scalzi & Wil Wheaton

  46. Still vainly rooting through my spam folder, hoping for a response…

    Oh, look, here it is! “Develop your lover skills!” That’s gotta be from Scalzi, right?

  47. You know, we don’t even know what the process of informing actually is…. it might involve watching us all squirm for a bit….
    :) Yeah, that’s the ticket….

  48. That’s it. ‘Process’ means something that takes longer than dashing off a few quick emails, right? Right? Sigh.

  49. Taunting the Tauntable since 1998
    John Scalzi, Proprietor

    Welcome to the Tauntable everyone…do we have a support group?

  50. I suspect no e-mails have actually been sent, and John is sitting in his dark fortress, perched atop his throne of skulls, laughing maniacally at our reaction. Yes, that must be it… *eyebrow twitches in time with the refreshing of the Inbox* I’m on to you, Scalzi!

  52. You can quit clicking refresh now, folks – the winners names have been posted. For the rest, cyanide capsules will be served in the foyer.

  54. Oh whew! Only 2 winners and not, like, 20. I feel better about not being among them now. :)
    Congrats to them!! :D

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Taunting the tauntable since 1998
John Scalzi, proprietor – JS
Athena Scalzi, editor – AMS
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