Highlights Fiction Contest and Foundation Workshops

Are any of you working on the Highlights Fiction Contest? The theme is holiday stories. Deadline is at the end of Jan. Note the prize: $1,000 or tuition to one of their workshops! I can't say enough good things about the folks at Highlights -- great vision, dedicated people, beautiful location. I've been very blessed to have the opportunity to nurture my writer-self once in Chautauqua and once at Boyds Mills. Intrigued? Good! Sharpen those pencils, flex those wrists and get writing! Here's a message from Kent Brown:



 

Make 2014 a turning point in your creative life. Join us as we celebrate thirty years of serving writers and illustrators and choose from programs have never been livelier. Whatever your genre, whatever stage in your career, we have a wide variety of workshops designed to help you meet your creative goals.

This year, our stellar faculty includes Chris Crutcher, Jerry and Eileen Spinelli, Linda Sue Park, Patricia Lee Gauch, Pat Cummings, Joy Cowley, Donna Jo Napoli, Paul Zelinsky, and many others.

Our workshops and retreats take place in a relaxed and supportive atmosphere. We conduct them in our rustic-looking conference center known as The Barn. You'll not only listen to famous authors and illustrators, you'll have the opportunity to meet, mingle, and sit down to farm-style meals with them. Plus, you'll stay in a cozy cabin, surrounded by a 1,300-acre forest. It's the perfect place to write or let your imagination take flight.

Visit our Website to find a workshop or retreat that suits your needs.

For more information about this workshop, contact Jo Lloyd at 570-253-1192, e-mail jo.lloyd@highlightsfoundation.org, or visit www.highlightsfoundation.org to request an application.

Please feel free to share this e-mail with others who might have an interest or to include the information in blog posts or through other social networking forums.

The Highlights Foundation is a public, not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. We dedicate our efforts to connecting, nurturing, and inspiring children's book writers and illustrators.

Highlights and Boyds Mills Press

We got a lovely tour of Highlights the day we arrived. Their offices are spacious and full of cover art and yes, even this replica of a dinosaur skull. Of course, I missed some of what the editors spoke because I wanted to spend more time sticking my head in its jaws. A part of me will never grow up ... 

It was great to meet some of the new editors  at Highlights and Boyds Mills Press, and to reconnect with my old ones. It's been a great pleasure to work with them. I encourage you to write for this crème de la crème of children's magazines. And the best way to get a feel for it is to read it. Get a subscription, check it out from the library, or go to the pediatrician's office.
 
Current fiction needs: holiday stories with religious significance, esp. Easter; folktales, rebus stories, mysteries, historical, and always: humor. Current nonfiction: poetry, career profiles (subjects must be squeaky clean), and religious nonfiction. I asked about lives of the saints, given that so many were teenagers, but I'll need to pick and choose carefully because the readership of the magazine is for 2-12 and being impaled, roasted alive, and drawn and quartered are not exactly appropriate fare for young children. Read complete guidelines on their website.

And for those of us anxiously waiting to hear about the annual contest results, Joelle said that they'll make the final decision by the end of June. Happy writing, all!

Don't Give Up

So, a big storm blew through yesterday ... from the south because it was warm. An alligator (five-footer) was basking, looking awfully hungry. I wish I'd taken my camera along but I've gotten out of the habit. I usually pray the rosary on my walks. A couple of little dogs came running out of the apartment building, and I'm glad the owners leashed them promptly. These gators can move fast, even when they lay quiet as statues. They don't even register on my dog's radar ...

I finished my Highlights story and put it in the mailbox. Last year, I was deep in revisions (YA contemp.), and did not enter the annual fiction contest. This year, I cut it close. I was so discouraged yesterday as I kept reworking the ending -- flat, flat, flat. But inspiration hit during a basketball game and I knew just how to fix it. So writers, if you are close, don't give up. Think outside the box. Let your imagination take you places. Be preposterous! What I struggle with most is making the ending both inevitable and surprising. I hope I nailed it.

And just so you know, if you put your manuscript in the mailbox, it will be postmarked today, which is acceptable as per the guidelines.

I have a couple of other shorts to work on, but they will go as regular submissions. My procrastination level is quite high right now because I recognize the mountain of work  my historical YA requires to get it submission-worthy. What I need is a real deadline, some discipline, some courage ...

Or perhaps Kristi's FREE e-book! She's giving it away tomorrow ... so be sure to check it out.

Have a great weekend, y'all. Enjoy the weather, whatever it may be. Can you believe how quickly this month has gone by? If you have not started on the writing life you dream of, it is not too late. Begin ... breathe, pray, write!

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Magazine Good News

My story, Surprise Squash, made the cover of Our Little Friend in the June 2005 issue and is going to be reprinted sometime in 2011. And Highlights is considering my fiction contest story for regular purchase ...

I'm writing again, as in productively, on my novel, instead of just free writing. I'm so close to the end and yet so far away. Still haven't made it to the climax ... my main character is discovering something about herself, which I had not planned when I wrote the outline. I'm trying to get out of the way and I am enjoying watching the story unfold in my head. Too bad it gets mangled on paper in the process. But that's what revisions are for.

I've had some extra time on my hands this week so not only have I cleaned house thoroughly, I've spiffed up my blog and cleaned up all the labels. You like?

I can't believe it's almost the end of June. Where is the warm weather? Oh, it's very pleasant, but I want to feel the heat. I want to know it's summer. Thankfully the salmonberries and huckleberries in the woods are loaded ... our usual 40-min walk easily translates to an hour as we stop to pick and eat and pick and eat. It's a great treat after lunch or dinner. But Wind, won't you chase Cloud, so that we can have our Sunshine?

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The Great Critique and Highlights Contest

The Great Critique always sneaks up on me ... it's next Tuesday and I'll be critiquing magazine and nonfiction manuscripts. This event gets sold out in a couple of days after it opens for registration, but I know people have managed to get in who are on the waiting list. You know, people break a leg over Christmas once in a while ...

I started writing about my first time and felt like I'd written about it already ... and sure enough I had here. Gee, not one original thought in my head.

Well, the kiddos are back at school after a wonderful two weeks at home, and I am working on both my novel and a couple of shorts for the Highlights contest. This is a yearly ritual and although I've never won the contest, I'd love to, so I keep on trying.

This year's theme is: Fiction based on a true story from your family. And the prizes as always are fabulous: Three prizes of $1,000 or tuition for the Highlights Foundation Writers Workshop at Chautauqua.

Doesn't this make you want to work on a family story? Even if you don't win, your story might be purchased for regular publication, and you will now have a family story that you can give as a gift for Christmas.

Good Luck!
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