Lady Astronaut Fan Art Contest Winners!

(When I said I would announce this October 1st, I actually meant November. November 1st. Yes.)

Did you see all of the wonderful entries for the Lady Astronaut Fan Art Contest? Picking was ridiculously hard, but I’ve managed to narrow it down. And by narrow it down, I mean that I decided to have some ties and add a category.

First up, the new category: Grand, Grand Prize, which comes with everything the Grand Prize did, plus an official licensing deal!  Ariela from Geek Calligraphy made a glorious Lady Astronaut Nouveau print. I liked it so much that we made a deal and now it’s official merchandise that you can get for yourself! Here’s mine, with strategic placement.

On to our regularly scheduled winners!

In third place, winning an IAC insignia patch is Clara’s beautiful calligraphic title. 23K gold, gouache, and bleedproof white. I love the visible polar ice caps on Mars and the flames of the rocket!

For second place, we actually have a tie. Because I make the rules.

First is Deana’s wonderful Chocolate Chess pie. The link includes a recipe, so you can make your own! And I say “chess pie” but let’s be clear, that this entry goes all out on the details. Note the martini, which everyone drinks or wants to drink, constantly in these novels. For those who’ve read The Fated Sky, note the radishes. Note the Challah. And the notebook with spirals and Fibonacci sequences and calculations. So very, very much to love.

Tied with that are Bethany’s Astronaut Trading Cards, which were a real thing in the 1960’s. All the card numbers are primes, which is a perfect touch. There are 4, so be sure to click through.

Both of our second place winners will get an IAC insignia patch, plus they will each become a character in a Lady Astronaut story or novel.

And now, a drumroll please!

For the grand prize, receiving an IAC insignia patch, tuckerization, plus audiobooks of The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky:

Todd printed “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” on actual punchcards, and made a beautiful box to store them! Here’s what he says about the process:

The box is made of maple and cedar (I like how the cedar striping makes on think of the landscape of Mars). It measures 4″ x 8.5″ x 1.5″. The NASA logo on top is metal (actually a lapel pin) as is the clasp and hinges. Inside are 27 antique IBM punchcards from the 1950s that had the text of the story printed on them. I used a 1950s period IBM font for the text and I like the ways the punchcard holes interact with it.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Thank you. Thank you all so much. One of my favorite things about being an author is seeing stories that I tell myself come to life outside of my head. Each entry was an absolute gift. Watching them come in gave me such joy.

So as a small token of my gratitude, everyone who entered the contest will receive a Lady Astronaut Club kit with a membership card, stickers, postcards, and a LAC pin. (Look for an email from Alyshondra asking for your mailing address.)

Here’s the Pinterest page with all the entries, as well as costumes. If you create or see other Lady Astronaut fan art, please tag me in it!

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