The Test Run (as cronicled by Tina)

Heather did the footwork to get us set and Jonathon and I were ready. The game was posted on Thursday February 4th at 1:00pm and we were at our computers waiting.

So this was how it was to work, Heather was the one to make a lovely rhyme and spread her brilliant commentary all over the web, while Jonathon and I waited at the starting gate to begin the race. The object is to gather (let us call it) the glitter scattered in the form of capitalized words at blogs, clues for which are hidden artfully in the prose of the post. This game, being the brain child of the nose-to-the-grindstone Heather, Jonathon and I didn’t know what to expect, but waiting there for the game to post was the first clue that some of the elements may need tweaking. Because, although we like to imagine it, how often are our blogging friends ready and waiting for our gun to go off (so to speak)? Ideas of how to change this race are already in the works. (Can you think of it more like a marathon as in it is not really about winning but more about finishing?)

But, intrepid game masters that we are, we pushed on.

Jonathan was up and running and I had a small panic attack. Focus on the detail, focus on the details,focus on the details was my mantra as I read the rhyme upon the screen. Heather’s rhyme aimed us to Agent and Editor’s websites, figuring that our test run would be least disruptive at these famous blogs. And the first one was a no brainer. I began by googling Rachelle. Jon, the smarter of the two of us, went and pulled up Heather’s blogroll. Luckily we were all connected by Gchat and Heather chimed in to remind us to post our comment setting our game in motion and announcing to the authorities that be(us) that we were playing. Um, we probably already knew but in the spirit of a true test, we followed the rules to a T.

So when I got to hee haw, I spent a long time googling variations of that and found a lot of interesting blogs, under followed blogs and book sites but alas no hee haw of an agent. Jonathon at the blogroll figured it out more quickly and moved on, commenting at EditorialASS and then proceeding to the next site, the mighty Nathan (you know who I’m talking about). Which was our next glitch as Heather’s comment was buried in some 400 or so others. I probably saw your comment there too. I  got tired of paging through and moved to the next clue (Heather was nice enough to chat what page it was on). Jon was having trouble with the Forest For the Trees and chatting it up. I totally beat him there and commented first, which ensured I missed his couch cabbage remark left especially for me (I went back later to appreciate it), hopefully Betsy Lerner enjoyed it as well. Then there was The Rejectionist. A blog that I love, anybody that cops to booze swillin’ in this day an age is my cup of tea. And Gollem as a muse doesn’t suck either. In the end, I never got the Hee Haw clue, Heather had to give it to me and I went there and commented while Jonathon resubmitted his phrase a couple of times. Only with cheating and a surprising dexterity at ridiculous thing such as word order, did  I manage to type in ONLY WHEN THE MOON IS FULL before Jonathon.

And there you have it, synopsis with links, of the very first ever round of WIBIJ. Read it (or I guess if you are already here, you have) and weep.