Skip to main content

Scribblers' Conference Giveaway

Hi, everybody!
     As I announced earlier, Anne-girl is hosting the 2014 Scribblers' Conference on her blog.  Part of that is a giveaway.  If you are interested, check out this blog post:
     Anne-girl, as part of her giveaway, challenged us to blog about our first book that we wrote.  I think the first book I decided to write was about an amazing black horse with such wondrous speed that he made all real horses look like hobbyhorses.  This amazing horse loved me and me alone, but he and I went on to win astounding fame and glory.  Etc, etc, etc.
     There were a few problems with this book, the largest of which was probably that I had no real horse experience.  But I was 7 years old, and I am proud of myself for trying.  Up until that point, I loved reading and hated writing.  I think I hated writing because my pencil could not keep up with my brain, and I found it frustrating.  But when I was seven, I was beginning to change my mind and learn how to regulate the speed of thought and hand.  And thus began my writing career, such as it was.
     My second book was a bit better.  I wrote down an analogy that my daddy had told me on the value of standardized weights and measures.  Basically, I had made a comment in the kitchen that I thought standardized cup-measures and things were a waste of time.  I could figure out for myself, by trial and error, how much flour to put in my cake.  Being a homeschooling dad, it was the perfect time for a lesson, and he told me this story about 3 kings.  I think I was seven or eight years old when I wrote that one, too.
     How about you?  I would love to hear about your first story!

P.S. Check out this post written by Trix on Anne-girl's blog.  I thought it was well-done.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Goodbye and God Be With You

It's rather fitting that some things come to a close on this day -- the last day of the year. I submitted my last entry into the Rooglewood contest this morning.  I can hardly believe it took me until the day of the deadline to send it in because I'm usually earlier than that.  And, even with the extra time I took, I still felt a little bit like maybe I could have done better if I had more time. But there was no feeling of regret when I hit "send."  Mostly it was just a prayer that Rooglewood would hear the heart of the message when they read it and that maybe, if I win, they could help me bring the full potential out of my little story.  And there was also a feeling, after working on these stories for more than six months, that it felt good to close that chapter and move on to the next one. I did it.  I wrote them.  And I'm really proud of them. Last year, the act of hitting "send" on my contest entry catapulted me into an anticipatory state....

The Countdown: Eight Days

Eight days.  Do you know what that means?  Barely over a week.  Tomorrow will be one week from the announcement date. Are you excited? I am. So, today, I want to talk to those who wrote something for the contest, whether or not you entered it in the end. What made you start writing your story?  What was the first inkling of an idea that tickled your brain?  What was it that you liked about your premise?  As you wrote, did you have a favorite character or a favorite scene?  And are you glad you wrote it down?  Do you feel like you learned and grew in your ability as a writer as you tried out things for this contest? And, if your story isn't included in this year's Rooglewood anthology (either because you didn't submit it or because it didn't fit with the other four stories selected), what will you do with it?  Will you market it elsewhere?  Or will you lock it away in a drawer?

Rooglewood Countdown: 12 days

     For the next 12 1/2 days, as we do our final countdown until March 31st, I'm going to do 4 posts asking about something you would like to see in the Snow White collection.      There are so many ways all of us, writers and readers alike, can win in this contest.  Maybe a familiar name makes it into the final five -- hurray!  Maybe a story in your favorite genre ended up in the collection this year -- woohoo!  Maybe you finally get to read a winning story about an evil king and his Snow White son -- how awesome!      So, in celebration of all the many things we can root for, I want to know some of the things that you think would be cool to find in this year's set of winners.      Without further ado, here is my question for the day: What is a point of view you would like to see in this collection?  Would you like a story written from the prince's perspective?  A story from Snow White's p...