The winning entries are:

etcet: There were slings and arrows, of course, and while her fortune was anything but outrageous, her accuracy with the slings, arrows, and several other tools of the trade certainly was. Too young to contemplate retirement seriously, and still, in her heart of hearts, enjoying her work to a certain extent, this left her feeling uneasy and a bit untethered.

It wasn’t easy, being Green.

Original here

Trey: What about Green? Sold by her family, raised in cruelty to a specific standard of courtesan, used as a weapon and on and on. She should have broken under all that. But she keeps on. She endures. She grows and changes.

I like her prickly pride, stubbornness, wit and temper. She’s also deadly as a viper. In all of these, she reminds me of Venera Fanning (Karl Schroeder’s Virga series) and Jamethiel Dream Weaver (of P.C Hodgell’s Kencyr series), with a touch of Hezhi from Greg Keyes Waterborn. I like reading about her though I doubt I’d want to deal with her regularly (sort of like Dr. House in that regard), and right now I want a copy of the sequel Endurance to read.

Original here

Greg: Green is a girl of a poor family sold into service of a forign power trained as an assassin and courtesan whom looks back on the stoic bull of her family as a symbol if her separation from her fate…

Original here

So, go you guys for being players! And winners! Please email me with your contact information so I can send out the ARCs. And thank you for playing.

As mentioned elsewhere this morning, the next Green novel, Endurance, has received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. That being the case, it seems time for another Endurance ARC contest.

Leave a paragraph or two in comments about Green — who she is, why she is the way she is, some adventure or misadventure of hers. You can frame it a fanfic snippet, as criticism, or blank verse. Just tell me something about my character.

I’ll leave this open a few days, then sort out how to judge. Might not be practical to do a poll, so I may have to rely on celebrity judging. But lay it on me!

Art by Dan Dos Santos

In order to celebrate the availability of the Endurance ARCs. I declared a caption contest on the following photo:

Very locked door, Bonspur, WA. © 2007, 2011, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

With 52 votes cast, we have a winner!

With 15% of the vote, Gerry Huntman takes the honors:
Neil Gaiman getting possessive with his BBC-gift replica of the Tardis

Second place goes to goldfishsara with 13% of the vote:
The family always locked Fluffy up when company was expected.

Special judge’s mention to saveswhat:
Lockpunk

All three winners will receive inscribed copies of the Green trade paperback and the Endurance ARC. Please contact me with your shipping information, guys!

Art by Dan Dos Santos

Time for another caption contest voting poll, to celebrate the availability of the Endurance ARCs. I declared a caption contest on the following photo:

Very locked door, Bonspur, WA. © 2007, 2011, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

The usual comment madness ensued: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]

I have now embedded the comments into a voting poll. Unfortunately, some of the longer witticisms are truncated by the poll code. Usual rules apply. Prize after the voting poll will be an inscribed copy of the Green trade paperback and the Endurance ARC. Additional prizes may be awarded at the judge’s discretion.

garyomaha

First prize will be a personalized, signed copy of the Endurance ARC, as well as the Green trade paperback. Additional prizes to be awarded at my discretion. Usual rules apply. I’ll collect captions in comments here (at both jlake.com and jaylake.livejournal.com) until I get bored with it, then build a voting poll. Please try to limit the length of your entries or they may become truncated in the poll code.

Very locked door, Bonspur, WA. © 2007, 2011, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

A month or so ago I held a caption contest for The Sky That Wraps. Unfortunately, real life intervened and I was unable to process the poll in a timely manner. For this, I apologize. Herewith is the winning caption.

Jay laughing, Martinborough, NZ. © 2010, Shannon Page.

This work by Shannon Page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Alex J. Kane – If you’re going to do that, sir, the law prefers that you do so in the center of the city street with one hand on the arse of your horse, for the sake of balance.

Alex, please contact me to arrange shipping your prize, a personalized copy of The Sky That Wraps. I want to thank everyone else for playing.

But we all know what author copies mean — a giveaway via caption contest! So I hereby declare another one of those suckers, based on a photo from the recent New Zealand trip. Your challenge is to write a caption that answers the question “Why is this man laughing so hard?”

First prize will be a personalized, signed copy of the book, additional prizes to be awarded at my discretion. Usual rules apply. I’ll collect captions in comments here (at both jlake.com and jaylake.livejournal.com) until I get bored with it, then build a voting poll. Please try to limit the length of your entries or they may become truncated in the poll code.

Jay laughing, Martinborough, NZ. © 2010, Shannon Page.

This work by Shannon Page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

I have now closed the steampunk caption contest voting poll, which has celebrated the release of my steampunk minim opus, The Baby Killers. The contest was for a caption to best fit the following photo:

Pipe, Lime, OR. © 2002, 2010, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

First prize is an inscribed copy of The Baby Killers, going to madrobins for:

“I admit to its utility,” said Miss Penderghast. “But the steam-powered corset-laundry will not catch on until it can be rendered small enough for the ordinary household.” with 15% of the polling, or 12 Votes.

Runners up are:

shelly_rae: Fortunately the colonoscopy scope has improved in the modern era and no longer requires a team of horses. It just feels that way. (11%, 9 Votes)

cjmarsicano: The Lime Observatory apologizes for the embarrassment caused by an intern pointing our telescope at the nudist beach in the next county. (10%, 8 Votes)

madrobins and cjmarsicano, please contact me with your postal addresses. (I already have shelly_rae’s.) Everyone else, go check out the other contestants if you haven’t done so already. Some funny stuff there!

I just received my author copies of The Baby Killers, my new steampunk single-title novella from PS Publishing. In order to celebrate, we’re going to have a caption contest. I’ve chosen one of the more steampunkish photos from my Flickr files, so take that as a theme if you like.

First prize will be a signed copy of the book, additional prizes to be awarded at my discretion. Usual rules apply. I’ll collect captions in comments here (at both jlake.com and jaylake.livejournal.com) until I get bored with it, then build a voting poll. Please try to limit the length of your entries or they may become truncated in the poll code.

The photo in question:

Pipe, Lime, OR. © 2002, 2010, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

As the Maltese Falcon first proved, there was a lot which modern technology could do to improve upon 19th century commercial sailing ships. But as the world was suddenly thrust into its second age of sail and those yards who still had the skills and materials scrabbled to put hulls in the water, the living fossils of that first age were much in demand. While in the early days they maintained those most delicate tendrils of physical contact between continents once more worlds apart, naval architects, shipwrights and mariners alike all sought to re-learn from those who’d gone before.

T.E.P. wins a copy of the Tor Books edition of METAtropolis, and a big smile from me. Check out the contest page itself for some awfully cool ideas from many other folks.

Bear’s contest here: here.

Toby’s contest here.

John’s contest here.

Karl’s contest here.