Hokey smokes, folks! 44!

Voting is now open for the GBA(s)FC. In all, 44 entries found their way into my inbox, which is an astounding turnout, as far as I'm concerned. I had set my sights on 20 as my potential goal, my arbitrary measure of a successful contest.

Getting 44 entries was beyond even my most optimistic hopes. Thanks eternally to all those who sent in a story, and in doing so, made this reclusive misanthrope quite excited and happy.

I hope the (44!) writers had fun composing their entries. I know I've had fun reading them.

So now we enter phase two, the all-important voting process. Here's what you do:

1. Read all the entries. Everyone clearly worked hard to compose something, and they are all deserving of your consideration.

2. a. If you were not an entrant, decide which story you like best and vote for it in the comments of that story's post. Do not vote for more than one entry, or your vote will not count. Anonymous votes will not be counted either, as there is no way to monitor them. You will have to use a screen name. The Reader's Choice winner will have their results checked against Site Meter data to try to ensure that no funny business is going on. Do not vote via email, as this will confuse the hell out of me.

2. b. If you entered a story in the contest, please select your five favorites and rank them in order of preference (1 is best, etc.) and send your choices to me via email using the address you used to enter the contest. Do not vote here on the site, and do not vote for your own entry. Identify stories by their number, as not all of them have titles, and it'll also make it easier for me to tabulate the results. I was initially asking for three choices from all the writers, but voting for five will give me the option to add a winner or two to the Writer's Choice categories.

3. Complete steps 1 and 2 by midnight CST on February 14th (the end of the 13th). I'll probably put another counter in the sidebar in the next day or so to help people remember the deadline.

4. Check back on February 15th for the list of winners and the unmasking of most of the entrants. There'll be links to the author's websites (those that provided one, anyway) so you can get to know them a little better.

Writers should also check to make sure that their posts have comments enabled at this point, and let me know if it is still disabled. You can also keep an eye on your post's comments if you like slowly torturing yourself over the course of the days that voting is live.

I'd also like to ask anyone who wanders in here to encourage your friends, families and readers to come and vote.

That's it. Easy-peasy. Have fun reading the entries!