So many thanks to this year’s Pinkorama participants!  It’s always like Christmas crossed with a birthday when your entries arrive in my inbox: the surprise of seeing what you’ve picked to depict this year and the sheer joy of seeing the beauty you’ve made.  I am, as always, in utter awe of your peep-craft.

This year’s entries brought us everything from Teddy Roosepeep to the Library at Selpeep Hall to three different eras of Forgotten Peeps to masterpieces by Peeptian to Peeps in 1805 India to Team W bepeeped.

I agree with everyone who said that this year it was impossible to choose!  All of the entries were so brilliant– and so different.  Each displayed such creativity and peepsmanship.

The votes are in!  I apologize for any difficulties (i.e. the many difficulties) people may have had with the overactive spam filter.  I have attempted to rescue all the votes from the filter and to discount accidental multiple votes when doing the final count.  So hopefully no one was left uncounted or overcounted.

Our first runner up is…

–“The Library at Selpeep Hall” by Sharon (from The Masque of the Black Tulip)

Eloise is hot on the trail of the Pink Carnation!  Finally admitted to the archives of Selwick Hall, the American grad student is determined to uncover the true exploits of that most elusive–and floral– of Napoleonic spies.  Check out that floral wallpaper!

Our second runner-up is…

— “Two Peeps and a Wedding” by Rachel (from Two Wars and a Wedding)

Betsy Hayes is determined to get to Tampa to stop her best friend Ava from making the huge mistake of volunteering as a nurse in the Spanish-American War.  Thwarted when her train gets backed up two miles from Tampa in the middle of the night, she determines to walk the distance– only to be stopped by two of Peepy Roosevelt’s Rough Peepers.  Can you spot Teddy Roosepeep back there on the coal car?

In third place we have…

–“The Lost Summers of Newpeep” by Carla and Rowan (from The Lost Summers of Newport).

It’s autumn, 1899.  With the Newport season (and all its drama!) over, the Prince di Conti takes his new bride to his ancestral seat in Italy, showing her the prize of his art collection, Venus rising from the waves, by that great Renaissance master, Peeptian.

In second place we have…

— “Stolen Peep Moments in the Forgotten Room” by Candace and Cassandra (from The Forgotten Room)

In the forgotten room at the very top of a mansion on the Upper East Side of New York City, the stories of three generations of star-crossed lovers tangle and untangle.  As Gilded Age Olive, Jazz Age Lucy, and World War II Kate work out their fates, will they manage to find true love– and unravel the secrets of the forgotten room?

This was a particularly suspenseful Pinkorama vote count this year.  Tied for first, in a dead heat, with exactly the same number of votes (I recounted three times!), the winning Pinkoramae of 2023 are:

— “Team W Peep” by Rachel (from Team W!)

You know you’ve finally made it when you’ve been immortalized in Peep!  Here’s Team W, complete with Prosecco, pearls, and palm trees!

and

— “In the Weeds” by Carrie and Laura (from The Betrayal of the Blood Lily)

When Miss Penelope Deveraux was married off to Lord Frederick Staines and shipped off to India, it was meant to stem scandal, not cause more of it.  But here Lady Freddy is in Hyderabad in 1805 not all in her own clothes (in fact, not in any clothes!) in the weeds with a man very much not her husband….

Take a bow, Rachel and Carrie and Laura!  I’m not sure how Penelope feels about sharing the spotlight with Team W, but if we offer to share our Prosecco with her, hopefully she’ll be okay with it….

So many congratulations and thanks to everyone!!  Every year I can’t imagine how these could possibly get any better– and every year they do.  I can’t wait to see what you do to top it next year!

Our winning judge, chosen at random is… Terri Finkelstein!  Congrats, Terri!

Carla, Rowan, Candace, Cassandra, and Sharon will each receive a shiny new hardcover copy of Two Wars and a Wedding and a Two Wars notepad.  (I’ll be emailing you shortly!)  Rachel, Laura and Carrie will get ARCs of the new Team W book as soon as there are ARCs to be had (probably in the fall) and Two Wars notepads for right now.

Thank you to everyone!!  Start getting your Peeps ready for next spring….