Writing Contests

Greets and well meets again, friends! Here I am on a nearly sunny, almost warm Sunday afternoon to bring you a little information I've dug up recently on the wonderfully wacky world of writing.

Before I do that, however, I'm going to fill a few of you in on how my last little blog episode went - Me learning to cook!

Shopping for the ingredients for my garlic butter and herb roast chicken was a bit challenging to begin with. Fennel seeds are NOT your every day cooking item. And in a small town where fennel seeds are almost never an item (more like never) served on the dinner table, they proved to be impossible to find. So I ~cringe~ made the executive decision to ditch the seeds and make the dish without them. I thought maybe the dish had enough other spices - rosemary, thyme, and sage, for instance - that the fennel seeds would go unnoticed as missing. By the end of the dish, I was right.

I am pleased to announce that my roast chicken went off smashingly well! I received six thumbs up out of seven. The six thumbs were three teenagers (one of them remarkably picky about what they do and don't eat), my sisters (who made sure I stayed on track while cooking the recipe), and myself (who was surprisingly shocked to see the dish turned out so well). The seventh thumb neither gave me a thumbs up or a thumbs down; a very particular eight year old who liked the chicken but didn't like the potatoes I decided to make with chicken as a side dish.

All in all, I was very happy with the dish. There were some ~ahem~ interesting moments, however, with the creation of my first ever real attempt at cooking from scratch. The biggest one being the garlic moment. :)

Having gone to the store and collected my ingredients for my dish, I collected 14 cloves of garlic like it called for... ~laugh~ However, at no point in my life have I ever been told or shown what a "clove" of garlic is. So, like most cooking-ignorant individuals, I purchased exactly 14 of the little balls of garlic you find in the vegetable section of the grocery store! Thank goodness for big sisters paying attention to little sisters learning something new. (Thanks Beck!) I now have learned the very valuable difference between a "head of garlic" and a "clove of garlic". ~sheepish look~

So, that is the update on my teaching myself how to cook. Recipe 1 went off without too much fuss or trouble, having learned my valuable lesson about garlic, so I'm on to Recipe 2 - Caribbean Roast Pork. Think I'll try to get around to that sometime this week and see how it goes...Now onto the reason I'm blogging today.

I've been doing a little research on publishers and agents but ran across a couple of writing contests I thought to share with everyone.

Please note: Only a small amount of research has been done into these contests to verify their validity. If you choose to enter one of these contests, please do your own research PRIOR to entering! I am not responsible for the legitimacy of any of these contests.

The first contest I ran across was: Annual Women Who Write Poetry and Short Prose Contest

DEADLINE: May 30, 2010


Entry Guidelines


* Open to women writers 18 or older.
* Women Who Write will retain one-time publication rights, after which, all rights revert back to author.
* Entry must be previously unpublished.
* Prose limit 3,000 words.
* Each poem or story must include a cover page with title of work, author name, address, home phone number, and valid e-mail address (if applicable).

* To identify each page of your work, use the title set in the header along with the page number. For example: This is my Title - 1
* Other formatting:
o Prose and Poetry
+ Microsoft Word .doc format
+ Times New Roman font, size 14
+ Double-spaced
o Prose Only
+ text justified
+ indent paragraphs one tab
+ double-spaced
+ no extra space between paragraphs
+ only one space after period at end of sentence
+ default on all other MS Word settings
* $10 entry fee for initial poem or story submitted; additional entries in the same category are $5 each.
* Postmark deadline: May 30, 2010
* Winners will be notified by mail or e-mail in August.
* Members of Women Who Write are ineligible.
* Submissions will not be returned.




Send entries and entry fee to:


Women Who Write
P.O. Box 6167
Louisville, KY 40206



Awards and Recognition:


Short prose and poetry winners receive:


First Place..........$150 and five copies of the current anthology
Second Place.......100 and five copies of the current anthology
Third Place...........75 and five copies of the current anthology

Winners' work is published in Calliope, Women Who Write's annual anthology.
Winners read their poetry and selections from their stories at the awards program.


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

general rules


1. Participants must be above 18 years of age, or sponsored by such a person.

2. Any style accepted – rhyme, no rhyme, nature, family, erotica, personal, society, humor, etc.

3. We apply no censorship, however it is fair to tell you up front that poems encouraging hate, violence, pornography, derogation of others, drug abuse, and similar – have no chance of winning. Of course, if such aspects are relevant and necessary as part of the “story” – then there is no problem in using them.

4. The specific conditions of each individual contest must be adhered to.

5. Proven plagiarism will result in indefinite banning from the site.

6. Poems must be between 10 and 50 lines long, empty lines included. This limitation might change occasionally, if specified in the individual contest. Submissions should be in .doc format.




participation and prizes


1. Any number of entries per contestant, grouped in groups of 5 poems with each group priced independently (see pricing lower down).

2. Participation is charged at:


- first entry


$5

- second entry


$4

- third and fourth entry


$3 each

- fifth entry


free

To be paid uniquely by Paypal.

Please select the number of poems you wish to submit, and the relevant submission fee.

3. Prizes:


- 1st prize


$300

- 2nd prize


$150

- 3rd prize


$50

Paid out uniquely by Paypal.

The first 3 prizes will be posted indefinitely on our site, against the relevant contest.

The following 77 entries short-listed for a specific contest, will be posted on our site against the relevant contest, until the following contest is concluded.

The three winners and the 77 short-listed will be published with Lulu or Amazon. The three winners will receive the book free of charge. The 77 short-listed will be able to purchase it on the Lulu/Amazon site, and the commission paid to Aquillrelle by Lulu/Amazon on these books (one copy) will be passed on to them, via Paypal (against proof of purchase). Anyone else will be able to purchase it on the Lulu/Amazon site.



This is the contest I have on my list that has the soonest deadline date, so I am putting it out here first. I have a few more on my list that have deadlines coming up, but they are a little way off so I'll post those later. For now, though, I wanted to share at least one today.

In the same thread as usual...If you have any contests (or good recipes lol) you want to share, feel free to post them direct to here, or email me at bbwalter@bbwalter.com and I'll share your contest on my next blog.



B