Category: Laura Galvin

Announcing The Winners Of The In Just Spring Contest!!!

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It’s finally here!

The day you’ve all been waiting for!

Monday!

No, seriously, I know you’ve been on pins and needles all weekend, wondering who the winner of a picture book manuscript read and comments by editor Laura Galvin of Kidsbooks was going to be.

And I fully intend to tell you, right after I recite Moby Dick.

“Moby Dick: Or The Whale, by Herman Melville.  Chapter 1.  Loomings.
Call me Ishmael.  Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – having little or no  money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world….”

Hang on.  This is a really long book.  I think I need a drink of water.

Also, it’s really heavy.

And I’m already bored.

Now.  Where was I?

Oh yes.  You were wondering about who won the In Just Spring Contest.

Which reminds me that when I was little, one of my favorite things about spring was that it was finally warm enough to take my pogo stick outside and jump.  I was (and still AM if I may say so) an extremely good pogo sticker.  If only pogo sticking were an Olympic Sport….  Anyway, I grew up in a fourth floor apartment in New York City, and though my mom would let us do many things in the kitchen (roller skate, skate board, climb the walls in the back hall… well, okay, maybe she didn’t exactly let us, but we did it :)) she was very firm about the pogo stick.  It was an outdoor toy.  And our downstairs neighbors had enough trouble dealing with the sound of roller skates and skateboards, and the water damage from the bathtub flooding we perpetrated every night… but that’s another story…  But anyway, technically, a pogo stick is a big spring.  In a way.  So you can see how relevant this story is.  About springing in spring.

Okay.  I’m sorry.  I’ll stop fooling around 🙂

We had the best turnout of writers we’ve ever had for this contest – 42 – a record we’ll have to aim to beat next time 🙂 – and the best turnout of voters for the finalists.  After 4 days of voting (which I know from the comments caused everyone trouble – all the entries were SO GOOD!) the results are in.

AND THE 1st Place WINNER IS:  (DDDRRRUUUMMM RRROOOOOOLLL PLEASE!)

TERESA ROBESON for her story WHAT HENRY KNEW!!!

Congratulations, Teresa!  Winning this contest was no mean feat!  And now, in addition to the fame of winning a Pretty Much World Famous Susanna Hill Contest, you have the opportunity to send one of your picture book manuscripts to editor Laura Galvin at Kidsbooks!  Please email me for details, or, if for some reason you want the alternate prize, please let me know!

2nd Place, and winner of a $25 Amazon gift certificate as well as her choice of the books listed below (unless Teresa for some reason doesn’t want the first place prize in which case they’ll swap) is:

WENDY LAWRENCE for her story LITTLE FOX’S SPRINGS!!!

Congratulations, Wendy!  Fame for you too! 🙂  Please email me with your choice 🙂

3rd place, and winner of her choice of the craft books listed below is:

JILL PROCTOR for her story BREAKFAST TIME FOR A HUNGRY BEAR!!!

Congratulations, Jill!  And there’s plenty of fame to go around 🙂  Please email me with your choice 🙂


Congratulations again, not only to the winners and other finalists, but to ALL the writers who worked hard, polished stories, bravely posted them for all of us to read, and provided us all with wonderful entertainment.

Thank you to all the writers who entered, all the readers who read and commented, and all the voters who agonized and chose.

The contests couldn’t happen without you all! 🙂

Sigh.  So now it’s back to normal blogging life.  I have such fun with the contests that I’m always sorry when they’re over.  But we still have great things to look forward to: a new Would You Read It on Wednesday, new Perfect Picture Books on Friday, Easter candy… although that’s not technically limited to my blog… 🙂

So have a happy and productive Monday, everyone!

Now.  I’m off to hunt down a certain small brown marmot who has some explaining to do about why it’s SNOWING! 🙂

Would You Read It Wednesday #78 – Oakley’s Keys (PB) AND The Prize For The In Just Spring Contest!

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If this post actually goes up in time it will be pretty much of a miracle.  I have reached new heights of doltdom!  Which I will tell you about… just don’t let me forget to tell you the awesome fantastic In Just Spring Contest Prize News afterwards!

My husband’s car needs brake work, so since it’s on warranty we had to take it to the dealership.  After work.  “I’ll drive from the train station,” says he, “and you meet me and follow.”

Fine.  Except I got behind The. Slowest. Car.  On. Earth! coming down our mountain to the train station, so he got ahead.  “I’ll pull over after the covered bridge,” says he, “and you’ll catch up.”

Fine.  Except I went through the covered bridge, looked on both sides of the road, no husband.  But there’s a little parking area there, so I pulled over and called him, thinking maybe somehow he was behind me.

“No!” says he.  “I’m up ahead on the hill.  Past the light.”  Well. that’s not exactly right after the covered bridge but…

Fine.  I take my foot off the brake.  Princess Blue Kitty rolls forward willingly.  I look to the left. and right to pull out and suddenly, out of nowhere, GRINDCRUNCHGROWLGROANSCREECH!  WHAT THE ???  Princess Blue Kitty can move neither forward nor backward.  Her engine groans.  Her poor little body shudders.  “OMG!  I’ve wrecked my car!” I shriek and shut off the engine, disengaging the blue tooth and effectively hanging up on my husband.

Yeah.  So what happened?  There was a GIANT rock, which had rolled from somewhere nearby where it was meant to be decorative, down into the little gully between the parking area and the road.  Too low to see (also it blended in with the gravel in the darkness) and too low even to hit with my bumper, it was positioned in just such a way that my front passenger side tire somehow rolled up on it like a ramp then slid off, leaving poor Princess Blue Kitty stranded in the air, her front right side completely off the ground.  Impaled, as it were, on a rock!  Oh the agony!  And the indignity!  And can I just remind us all that it was in a place where no rock that size should have been!

A rumbly diesel engine dually, a hydraulic jack, a lot of chain and a hook, some cardboard to crawl under the car on, several blocks of wood, a flashlight, a tire iron, a very nice guy form New Zealand, and a genius named Loren later, we managed to coax Blue Kitty down off her rock.

Needless to say, we didn’t get home until very late.  But luckily the princess does not seem to have sustained any mortal damage.  Although I believe there is a danger of internal injury, so I will probably take her to her dealership later just in case.  If it stops sleeting.

Anyway.  To make a short story even longer, PHEW!  What an evening.  Which leads me to the fact that it was some ridiculous hour and I hadn’t started writing this post.  Or loading today’s lesson for my course into the email template.  Hence the miracle!

Chocolate anyone?  I think we seriously need it after that harrowing adventure!  Here.  I’ll put some fruit on it so you breakfast purists can feel okay about it 🙂

Now, would you stop telling me ridiculous stories about your inability to drive so we can get down to Would You Read It?! 🙂

Today’s pitch comes to us from Yvonne.  Yvonee says, “I have a background in early childhood and the visual arts and am a mother of boys, from baby to teen, and one in between.  I write picture books mainly but I also write short stories and non fiction articles for older children. So far I am only active on twitter
https://twitter.com/YvonneCMes
I am trying to work up the courage to post something on my Tumblr blog, maybe this will be the push I  need.
http://yvon-novy.tumblr.com/
Here is her pitch:

Working Title: Oakley’s Keys
Age/Genre: Picture Book (ages 3-6)
The Pitch:  Intruder Alert!
Oakley hides away with his parent’s car keys. He’ll do anything to get the attention away from his drooling baby brother Dan. But wherever Oakley hides, Dan finds him, from loop-the-looping around a star to playing tag with tigers. And when creepy creatures crawl out of a pirate treasure chest, it is up to Oakley to use his brotherly love to save Dan, drool not included.
So what do you think?  Would You Read It?  YES, MAYBE or NO?

If your answer is YES, please feel free to tell us what you particularly liked and why the pitch piqued your interest.  If your answer is MAYBE or NO, please feel free to tell us what you think could be better in the spirit of helping Yvonne improve her pitch.  Helpful examples of possible alternate wordings are welcome.  (However, I must ask that comments be constructive and respectful.  I reserve the right not to publish comments that are mean because that is not what this is about.)
Please send YOUR pitches for the coming weeks!  For rules and where to submit, click on this link Would You Read It or on the Would You Read It tab in the bar above.  There are openings in April so we could really use some new pitches!  It’s your chance to be read by editor Erin Molta!

Yvonne is looking forward to your thoughts on her pitch!  I am looking forward to making sure Princess Blue Kitty hasn’t sustained any lasting injury.  I am not looking forward to how many times over the rest of my life I’m going to hear, “Remember the time you got your car stuck on that rock?” 🙂

Have a great day, everyone!

OH!  See?  I told you not to let me forget!

I have fantastic news.  Seriously.  Fantastic!

Remember that contest I told you about on Monday?  The In Just Spring Writing Contest?  Remember how I said I was still working on the prize but was hoping for something knock-your-socks-off amazing?

Well hang onto your socks!!!

The winner of the In Just Spring Contest will receive the opportunity to send a picture book manuscript to none other than Laura Galvin, Editor at Kidsbooks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That’s right, my friends!  You’ll have the chance to put a manuscript you wrote on an actual real live editor’s desk at an actual publishing house and be guaranteed that she will read it and offer constructive feedback!  And who knows… she might love it…! 🙂

Personally, I really cannot think of a more awesome prize.  I hope you agree.  But on the off chance that the winner is someone who doesn’t write picture books, or who for some reason doesn’t want this chance, I will think of a fun back up (probably a writing craft book and/or an Amazon gift card) to give them, and the chance to be read by Laura will go to the highest placed writer who wants it.

How’s that for a great way to start your Wednesday?! 🙂  So put on those thinking caps.  Warm up those pencils.  It’s time to write an amazing Spring Story so you can submit a manuscript to Laura Galvin!  (And many many thanks to Laura for so generously agreeing to do this! :))

Now, for real, have a great day 🙂