Allow me to settle comfortably into my position as arbiter of all law and taste. Let the band name selection begin!
First, wow. What an astonishing outpouring of great ideas. Here are a few of my favorites — call them “Honorable Mentions” or “tied for first-runner-up.”
- Ahimsa: “The Split Infinitives”
Sasha: “Edgy hedgehogs” [I like it partly because it reminds of Hedge, the bassist for the band in Emma Bull’s great novel War for the Oaks]
Ken: “Vampires with Amplifiers”
Dot Hutchison: “Demented Velociraptor”
Mia MacHatton: “Seven Chicken Nightmare” [I think I’ve eaten that]
Alyx Dellamonica: “High Chance of Gore”
Caio Marinho “The High-Z Supernova Search Team”
ClaireBear: “The Monstrous Regiment”
merkusa: “The Bootless Noobs” [And ellise’s spoonerized response, “Newtless Boobs.”]
Continuity: “Schrödinger’s Yeti.”
Pamela D. Lloyd: “Kate and the Crackernuts”
amber: “robot spelling bee”
enui_iune: “Joyce and the Defenestrators”
kythiaranos: “Pimpish Wit”
Dayle Dermatis’s “Petty Teenage Love Triangle” [I was in a couple of those]
I also appreciated Gary’s entries, with references to many of my books:
- “Bride of Death” “The Jump Engines”, “The Nex Big Thing”, “The Masonites.” But flattery will get you nowhere! (Well, this time. Usually it’s a pretty good route.)
Some Bordertown contributors made great suggestions, but must be excluded, on the basis that they’ll get a copy of the anthology anyway:
- Ellen Kushner’s “Rivendell 9-1-1” and Jane Yolen’s “First Star to the Right”
But there can be only one winner, and so, after much deliberation, I have chosen:
Michelle John: “Ophelia Dreaming”
Mostly because it sounds like a band I could imagine playing one of the clubs in Bordertown. Michelle will win a copy of Welcome to Bordertown — but fear not. The rest of you can get one, too. You just have to buy it or hit the library. Everyone wins!