What Serenity Means to You. Express – in any way you care to – what Serenity means to you. Write a story, essay, poem, or even draw a picture if that’s how you roll, and send it to admin@fireflyshipworks.com by Sept. 15, 2009. A panel of judges, including a few of our friends from The Signal podcast, will review the entries and we’ll announce winners on or before Oct. 15.

And what will you win? That depends on how much you make us cry (or laugh, or ponder the nature of existence). We can tell you this: For the entry that most impresses the judges, the grand prize will be the Inara’s Shuttle Diorama (pictured above; below).

The shuttle diorama features one of the 2.5-inch, hand-painted Serenity shuttles from the Big Damn Replica, hovering over it’s own little landing platform with the words “Serenity” and “Inara’s Shuttle” laser cut into its surface. Only 10 of these have been made and one of them already went to Jane Espenson (which only seems fitting as the shuttle diorama was originally her idea.)

By submitting an entry to this giveaway, you give us permission to republish your work on the Firefly Ship Works, on Quantum Mechanix’s website or to have your work read on The Signal podcast (although that’s strictly up to the folks at The Signal). No promises, but you might win the undying respect of your fellow Browncoats – along with this cunning little shuttle.

Turn Twitter to 1500+. Not feeling inspired to write a sonnet to Serenity? Are you more the strong, silent type? Prefer to focus on Public Relations? Well then, here’s another way for you to win yourself an Inara shuttle – just follow us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/QMxInsider) and encourage others to do the same. When we hit 1500 followers – whenever that happens – we will have a random drawing to pick one winner from all our followers. And to the follower who most impresses us with their efforts to find us new friends (remember, it’s not just about quantity, but quality), we will award an *additional* Inara’s Shuttle.

That’s right, we’re talkin’ a total of three ways to win one of these tiny wonders: Submit an essay, poem or other form of self-expression that tells us what Serenity means to you to us here; be one of our Twitter followers when we hit 1,500; or be the one who dazzles us most with their efforts to attract like-minded individuals and get us to that 1,500 mark.

So join in the What Serenity Means to You giveaway, and get yourself a tiny, shiny Firefly shuttle. (No purchase necessary, void where prohibited. Companion not included.)

“It’s been a little over a year since we introduced our very first Serenity product,” said Andy Gore, CEO of QMx. “That was the Serenity Money Pack, a screen-accurate replica of the money seen in the film’s bank heist. With that money showing up in the comic, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to partner with Dark Horse to say a big ‘thanks’ to Serenity fans for a fantastic first year.”

In the spirit of Can’t Stop the Serenity, if you’d like a chance to win the signed book and map just respond to this Equality Now action alert: Stoning to Death for Adultery—Discriminatory Laws Target Iranian Women (details of the issue and contact information are listed on that page.) Once you’ve sent your letter, forward a copy to dollrific@gmail.com with your name and mailing address (don’t copy me on the original e-mail—that’s wicked tacky. Please just forward it after.) If you’d like to respond to a different Equality Now action, that’s fine, too. There’s a list here.

In two weeks I’ll pick a random letter and e-mail the winner. Good luck!

A great prize, and a great cause. Thanks for doing this! More details here.