The funniest thing is that the finalists' essays may actually wind up getting more readers than the winners in the book, since the finalists are going up on the 'net

It's true! But to be perfectly honest, I had planned to post my essay, win or lose, at least to this journal (and x-post to heavymeta, etc.).

I think ironically, charis_kalos and I had both agreed that we should do that (and she's one of the 3 winners!), and I had even asked on the message boards if we could be given a thread to post.

But this is cool, too.

I confess I am *really* curious as to how many submissions overall were received, though.

Nonetheless, we rock. And there can never be too much meta out there.