Happy Monday, everyone!
I hope you all had a lovely weekend!
Last week I told you I had something exciting to tell you today and I do!
Are you ready?
dddddrrrrruuuuummmmmrrrrrooooollllllllll!!!!!
This week . . .
. . .
. . . Stop & Shop bath tissue is on sale for $.75 off!!!
I know! It’s not every day you get such incredible news!
So bring the van and load up, alrighty? I knew you’d want to know!
Okey-dokey, then.
Thanks for stopping by.
I hope you all have a Marvelous Monday 🙂
See you on Wednesday for Would You Read It.
Bye.
Buh-bye now.
Bye! 🙂
Oh, but wait. I guess there was one more thing. . .
Apparently I’m becoming very nice in my old age, because here it is, only October 6, with a full 3 weeks to go, and I’m announcing. . .
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| courtesy google images |
The Contest: write a 100 word Halloween story appropriate for children (title not included in the 100 words), using the words pumpkin, broomstick, and creak. Your story can be scary, funny or anything in between, poetry or prose, but it will only count for the contest if it includes those 3 words (you can count candy corn as one word) and is 100 words (you can go under, but not over!) Get it? Halloweensie – because it’s not very long and it’s for little people 🙂 (And yes, I know 100 words is short but that’s part of the fun and the challenge! We got nearly 80 fantastic entries last year so I know you can do it!) Also, you may use the words in any form – e.g. creak, creaky, creaks, creaking, creaked, pumpkiny, broomsticks, whathaveyou 🙂 No illustration notes please!
Post your story on your blog between 12:00 AM EDT Monday October 27th and Friday October 31st by 11:59 PM EDT and add your post-specific link to the list that will accompany my October 27th post. There will be no Would You Read It that week, and no PPBF, so the post and the list of links will stay up all week for everyone to enjoy. If you don’t have a blog and would like to enter, you can simply copy and paste your entry in the comments section of that post once it’s up. (Or, if you have difficulty with the comments, which unfortunately sometimes happens, you may email your entry to me and I’ll post it for you!)
The Judging: in a grueling, marathon weekend, my lovely assistants and I will narrow down the entrants to 3 top choices (hee hee hee – you know how much trouble I have with only 3, so we’ll see) which will be posted here and voted on for a winner on Monday November 3rd. The winner will be announced in a special Thursday post on November 6th. If we get more than 20 entries, I will post 6 finalists and give prizes for 1st through 3rd. If by some chance we get the kind of turn out we did last year, all bets are off. I may post as many as 10 finalists and I’ll probably end up giving everyone a prize 🙂 But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it 🙂
The Prizes: yeah… I’m still working on the prizes 🙂 Feel free to chime in in the comments if there’s something you’d particularly like to win! 🙂 But prizes will include:
– Julie Hedlund‘s fantastic new course How To Make Money As An Author, interesting, educational and suitable for writers at any stage of their career,
– a 2015 membership to Children’s Book Insider, an absolutely fabulous resource for kid lit writers of all kinds generously offered by Jon Bard and Laura Backes,
– a picture book manuscript critique from the renowned Alayne Christian (prose only, 800 words or less),
Alayne Kay Christian is an award winning author of BUTTERFLY KISSES FOR GRANDMA AND GRANDPA. She is represented by Erzsi Deak of Hen&Ink Literary Studio. To read more about Alayne, her critique service, and her books visit her websites and blog.
– an e-pub or PDF copy (winner’s choice) of Linda Ashman‘s Nuts And Bolts Guide To Writing Picture Books.
– a PDF copy of Ryan Sias’s A Spooky-Doodle E-Book, “doodle pages, drawing lessons and writing prompts inspire kids to invent their own stories, characters and artwork.”
Plus whatever else I dream up in the meantime 🙂
I hope those fantabulous prizes fill you with enthusiasm for the contest!
So sharpen your pencils!
Get your butt in that chair!
See what amazing, knock-your-socks-off story you can dream up!
It’s a chance to hone your writing skills, practice your craft, write to specifications and a deadline, win amazing prizes, AND get to read and enjoy the wonderful stories written by all your fellows 🙂
Many thanks to Julie, Jon and Laura, Alayne, Linda, and Ryan for their very generous prize offerings!
I literally cannot wait to read your stories!!! 🙂
Now, for real, have a Marvelous Monday everyone! 🙂
Susanna Leonard Hill 
At last! Someone after my own heart who appreciates chocolate as a prize! If you win, there's a box of Godiva in it for you 🙂
LOL. I meant to say…I love this contest, Susanna! 🙂
Good. As long as we're straight on the fact that you'll be starting on your entry this afternoon 🙂
I'm on it! 🙂
🙂 Extra brownies in your compensation this week 🙂
Oh, I hope so, Cecilia! If not, you can always email it to me and I'll post it here for you! Or you can post it yourself in the comments!
This sounds harder this year! But those prizes are sweeter then candy corn m&ms.
Getting in the halloween spirit today by taking the girls to buy pumpkins. They both picked pumpkins so GIGANTIC the cart was creaking in the aisle. It's going to take three hours to gut these big boys and probably two hours with a broomstick to get the goo and seeds off the floor.
Wait, wait, wait. Pumpkin, creak, broomstick – I'm done! 🙂
Ha! On it! 🙂
See? I knew you could do it! Can't wait to read your entry, Lauri! 🙂
Oh, Susanna! I love this contest! So much fun! I just finished my poem and was ready to post. Then I saw that it won't be up until the 27th. I guess I got too excited and brewed something up too soon. Anyway, I can't wait to read all the entries. So many talented writers here.
I am in awe that yours is finished already, Pia! I haven't even started my sample yet! I can't wait to read what you came up with… only a little more than a week to go….! 🙂
Do illustration notes count for the 100 or can we even include them? Great buy on TP…
Oh, golly! I'm so glad you mentioned this, Johnell. It's caused trouble in the past, and I forgot to mention it in the rules. No illustration notes please!
When you say “children”, s there a target age? my story is more a tweens short story.
Children's around here is usually under 12 but yours should be okay 🙂
Thanks much, Susanna.
Can I e-mail my submit to you now? Mine is complete, and I may be out buying bath tissue on the appropriate dates. (Got a busy week coming up, I don;t want to forget…)
tee hee hee (or should I say tee pee pee? :)) Yes, of course you can email it whenever and I'll put it on the post 🙂
I made it home in time Susanna and I have written and linked 🙂
Hurray! Can't wait to read it! 🙂