Free Healing Gemstone Talisman Contest

As promised, this month I’m holding a contest. If you win, you’ll get a free healing gemstone talisman – totally free. I’ll pay for regular USPS shipping, too. In honor of spring, this month’s free talisman will be moss agate – a very earthy stone. I’ll post about the healing properties of this gemstone later in the month.

So here’s the contest. Take the two-word phrase “healing gemstone” and rearrange the letters as many ways as you can. How many words can you make out of these letters? Here are the rules:
–All words must be standard English words. (If in doubt, I’ll check them in my old American Heritage Dictionary.)
–No proper nouns or otherwise capitalized words.
–All words must be at least 3 letters long.
–Only one entry per person during the month.
–All entries must be received by noon (EDT) on Thursday, April 30, 2009.
–Please use Free Gemstone Contest in the subject line of your email.
–Please include your first name and location (city/state/country) with your submission.

The winner will be the person with the most points. How will you earn points?
–One point for every legitimate word formed.
–One EXTRA point for every word formed that’s related to gems. So, for instance, let’s say that you could make the word “quartz” out of the rearranged letters. That would earn you TWO points (one for the word, and a second for the fact that it’s gemstone related).

It obviously wouldn’t work to post your answer as a Comment, ‘cuz then everyone else would be able to see them. So instead, send me an email with your answer. If, for some reason, the link doesn’t work for you, leave me a note in the Comments and I’ll work with you to get your submission in. I’ll respond via email and let you know I got your entry, so depending on how high your spam level is set, you may want to check your junk mail to see my response. And you’ll want to get an email from me, because I’ll send a second email letting you know that you won, and will post the winner’s first name and location.

If you have any questions about the contest, please post them in comments. I’ll post responses there so everyone can learn from our dialogue.

GOOD LUCK!