YAY!  A new contest!!

Here's your chance to win one of 5 "Courage & Patience & Grit" DVD packs which include the new "Courage & Patience & Grit - Great Big Sea in Concert" DVD and an official 2007 GreatBigSea.com Calendar!

All you have to do is write an essay, poem or short story answering a very special question!  You can find the question and contest details at the Courage & Patience & Grit Contest page.

What makes this contest so exciting is that the winners will be chosen by both Alan Doyle and Bob Hallett!  That's right folks, both Bob and Alan will choose five grand prize winners - so you get the chance to have Bob and Alan read your entry - now that's COOL!

Check out the Courage & Patience & Grit Contest page for details!

Good Luck!

Just sent mine in - the story of how GBS helped me through the illness and death of a dear friend.  Does the fact the I'm the first one posting here mean that I'm the first entrant?  Oh no, maybe I should have waited and proofread it again.....

-Nancy

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...long as the river still runs to the sea, hey lucky you, lucky me...

GBS Concerts: The most fun you can have with your clothes on.

I just sent mine in too.  Mine isn't a poignant as I'm sure yours is, Nancy, but good luck!  I'm sure your entry is perfect the way it is.  Mine on the other hand?  Blech...I suck at writing essays.  Especially ones that are only 500 words.  Now, give me one that is 1000-5000 and I'm happy!

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"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men." ~ A. Lincoln

"Age is no guarantee of maturity." ~ L. Blackwell

"A word to the wise isn't necessary, it's the stupid ones who need advice." ~ B. Cosby

**New GBS fanboard in the works...PM me for info & note that not all enquires will be accepted**

My husband (huge GBS fan and lurker on this site) has written an essay to submit but is waiting for me to proofread it first before he officially sends it in.  He has this amazing ability to stick to an assigned word count - 500 words on the dot! 

I LOVE this idea!

We all have experienced the magic of GBS giving us hope in hard times.  I think its very insightful of the band/gbs.com to think of this as the subject of the new contest. 

I have one important question:  These guys are English Lit Majors, with a grand command of the language, right?  So does spelling, grammar and punctuation count?  Or will they be just looking at the content of the essay?

I feel a little awkward, but at the same time, priviledged that Bob and Alan will be reading our stories.

I am taking my time in writing, editing, proofreading and trying to say "it" just right!.

Good luck to everyone!

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Helen




I'm goin' Straight to Hell-On-Wheels!

The boys will be looking at content, definitely not spelling, punctuation and grammar!

 Good Luck everyone!

Helen

I hope lots of peeps enter this contest.  It will let the b'ys know just how much their music has an effect on people.  Great contest Helen!

 

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Sandy

Question:

The rules say that name, location, email, phone number etc need to be included. 

Can these be put in the body of the email, rather than in the text of the essay (attachment)?

It was so hard to only use 500 words!  I began with 3 times that and had to keep eliminating text until I reached 500. But now, if I add the required info, I'll go over and be disqualified!

Helen, can you shed any light on how to do this correctly?

Thanks!

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Helen




I'm goin' Straight to Hell-On-Wheels!

Hrm.  I may give it a shot, despite the fact I've got horrible luck with this sort of thing.

Helenwheels:

Question:

The rules say that name, location, email, phone number etc need to be included. 

Can these be put in the body of the email, rather than in the text of the essay (attachment)?

It was so hard to only use 500 words!  I began with 3 times that and had to keep eliminating text until I reached 500. But now, if I add the required info, I'll go over and be disqualified!

Helen, can you shed any light on how to do this correctly?

Thanks!

 Thanks for your question Helenwheels.

First off, you can put all your contact information in the attachment, that way it's all in one place.  If you put it in the email body, that's OK too because I'll just copy and paste into the attachment.

As for the 500 words, I know it's not a lot, but it's a nice little challenge.  Think of it this way, when the boys write a song, they need to express their feelings and the message of the song in usually less than 500 words.  Think of your entry as a song, get right to the point and express emotions in some powerful words.

Not sure if that helped, but you do have about 2 weeks to do this and there's definitely no advantage to submitting your entry early.

Cheers,

Helen

To think of it as a song won't help me, unfortunately.  A song really relies on everything ahead of its lyrics to deliver an emotional impact: the melody & harmony working with the arrangement & accompanying instrumentation, and perhaps most of all an excellent producer/sound engineer.

I can hardly describe a sneeze in under 500 words sometimes.  Clearly this contest is for concise people who have a short story to tell. Ever watch "The Actors Studio" with its list of 10 questions at the end? ... i.e. "What's your favourite curse word?" ... "If you could do anything in life what would you do?" ... etc.

Well, ZOUNDS, if I could I would be a musician and not a writer because music can do what writing aims to do in less time with far fewer words and much greater emotional impact. Lyrics may be close to poetry sometimes, but writing song lyrics isn't the same as writing a story. I wrote new lyrics to a popular melody for a character in a story once. Reading the words on paper had minimal impact, however, in my head where the words were accompanied by the song itself, with all its swells and angst and amazing production, the emotional impact was awesome, of course I couldn't communicate that to anyone else! 

Nope. Did. Not. Translate.

 

 

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Free Cruise Clocks

I almost wanted to write the essay in French, to give the guys a challenge.

But English all the way! Grammar is much easier , anyway.

Steph

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Great Big Stuff!


"I'm still in diapers, actually." - Ron Hynes

"Any people from Newfoundland? Whaddya doin' here?! Taking all the jobs?! REVENGE!" - Ron Hynes

"You're like Bob with tits." - Candace

Did I understand the rules right that it is an international contest this time ? 

I don't think that I'd have the chance to win - but I would like to tell Alan and Bob about their fans across the ocean in Germany ! Probably I can convince them to do some concerts here in Europe ...  ?!

 

Kati 

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Learn from the past, live now, see the future !

Yes this contest is open to everyone in every country. 

 

Just entered!  Don't think I could do my story justice in 500 words, but I don't think I could with 500,000 words.  I don't expect to win, but at least the boys will have an inkling of how they helped me through a difficult time, and that's enough for me. 

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In the social order, I accept the bottom rung, until the wine is pouring and the Lord commands a song!