The results are now online! Congratulations to Peter Stemwedel, Amy Sterling Casil, Eyal, Laura McDaniel, Jim Mitchell, Braddon Mendelson, David Thompson, Tom Hancock, Tony Cheetham, Michele Briere, Daniel, Don Griffin and Kiana! The results page has a more thorough breakdown including commentary and shortlisted entries for each category, which are all well worth reading.
Thanks to everyone who entered the competition and every who visited, and we'll see you again next year!
First Words is now officially closed! We're sorry if you weren't able to enter the competition, but we didn't want to let it go on forever and we'd already extended the deadline by over two days. We're already starting to judge the entries now and we should have a list of winners within two or three days - that list will be online here, and we'll also email the winners to inform them.
It's been great fun running this competition, and I'd like to thank the Mars Society for sponsoring First Words - they're why you don't see any adverts or spam on this website (well, apart from the maps, but we think they're pretty topical). Look out this time next year for our next competition, which will be just as fun, if not more, than First Words! And of course, come back in a few days to find out the winning entries!
Welcome all Herald Sun newspaper readers! The Herald Sun ran a feature article on First Words called Purlers For Mars, and as it says, you have about 12 hours from now to get your entries in before the competition is closed. For Australians, that'll be 10pm, and for people in the UK, that'll be noon. We will update this front page when the competition is closed - until then, you will still be able to enter.
The response to First Words has been truly phenomenal - I can say with honesty that none of the First Words team expected that we'd have nearly 4000 entries at this point from people all over the world. For one thing, it's going to make our lives difficult as judges - aside from the sheer numbers, it's going to be extremely difficult to pick out only a few winners from all of the excellent ones that have entered.
If your interest in Mars has been piqued by First Words, try checking out our New Mars online magazine; we have a whole load of interviews, articles, reviews and stories there that you'll enjoy.
A few hours ago we hit 2000 entries - not too shabby, I think you'll agree, and there are still over two days for you to submit entries. There'll also be an article in a major Australian newspaper on First Words this Sunday, so we have that to look forward to. Finally, since this site is about Mars, why not read our article entitled So you want to... find out more about Mars?
Discovery.com has written a front page news article about First Words, so welcome to all Discovery.com readers! The depth of interest in First Words from across the world has surprised and pleased everyone here and this proves to us that people still care about getting a human on Mars. Of course, that's much of what the Mars Society (First Words' sponsor) is all about.
At the last count, we've had over 800 entries to the competition, and a lot of those submitted have been great (although I must have seen '...left turn at Albuquerque' a dozen times now). For those of you who haven't yet entered the competition, there's still plenty of time for you to submit your own masterpieces!
Update: We just broke through the 1000 entry barrier!
The competition has been extended for two more days, so you have until October 13th to get your entries in! We've decided to do this because we've had an upsurge of entries over the past couple of days and all signs point towards that continuing. Since First Words was created to make people think about Mars and have a bit of fun, we didn't want to end that prematurely. The special deal on the Mars maps ($10 each instead of $18) has also been extended until the end of October 12th.
Stop press: It turns out that Space.com has written an article on us, called What Do We *Say* When We Get to Mars?. Hello to all Space.com readers!
The First Words contest has been underway for a few days now and we already have a fair number of entries - looks like word is spreading! If you know anyone who might be interested in the contest, why not drop them a note? We also have a new article online today by Bill White, called Fictional First Words - it's well worth checking out.
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