Midnight last night this morning six hours ago marked the deadline for entries in the First Annual John Shore 10-Word Short Story Contest.

Three hundred fifty stories. One prize. Two books. One the latest novel from contest co-judge and bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard. The other written by me.

Has this nail-biting, finger-dinting contest allowed anyone in the blogosphere to sleep a wink this week? I thinketh noteth!

As we look back upon the whirlwind of creativity unleashed by this invitation to succinct sublimity, what have we learned? I of course cannot speak for you (well, technically, I can if you pay travel expenses, room, board, and a humble yet reasonable stipend), but from this contest I, for one, have learned that:

a. People sure do like the idea of winning free books.

b. I should definitely continue my policy of never putting my home address on my blog.

c. Some of my readers probably don't work as hard at their jobs as they're supposed to.

d. Some of my readers undoubtedly don't work at all.

e. Some people are amazingly good at coming up with 10-word short stories.

f. Some people are a little too good at coming up with 10-word short stories.

g. Some people take speed, or drink too much coffee, or something.

h. A person can easily get lost reading through these stories.

i. I have the most creative readers ever.

I'm not just saying that last one. A lot of these stories are awesome. I laughed. I cried. I feared my reader Nathan---but he lives in Australia, so I (barely) slept at night. But seriously, man: Have you scrolled through those bad boys? There's some seriously good stuff in there.

Anyway, now Jackie and I have to choose one of them as the best.

It'll be like picking the best four-clear clover from, miraculously, a whole field of them.

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