Old News

I'm slightly disgusted with myself. 

It's a horrid truth knowing that in everything I've blogged about-unedited free verse and puppet symbolism-I've forgotten to write about a very important event. 

In October I found out that I won the Fresh Ink 2013 contest! 

It's only taken me three months to blog about it…and I have no excuse. 

As I said before, I'm slightly disgusted…and that is to say the least. 

I was announced the first place winner and awarded $100 in prize money, as well as published in the St. Catharines Library magazine. The magazine was by far the best part of the prize, as it meant that I was officially a published author. My life is a little bit closer to being complete. 

I had the pleasure of reading my story at the awards ceremony, as well as meeting some of the chair members of the library. 

As small as the contest was, it was really extraordinary for me to be able to share my writing with other people and to hear the praise and compliments I received over a single chapter. 

For those of you that haven't read the story, you can do so here, or by clicking the tab "Fresh Ink 2013" at the top of the page. 

I hope you enjoy the chapter, and once again, I apologize for my lack of commitment to my blog. I wish I had shared this with you earlier, but I guess old news is better than no news at all!

Fresh Ink 2013

     With July 31st fast approaching, I've been hard at work on my entry for this year's Fresh Ink writing contest. Remembering the last minute rush I went through to submit my entry last year, I've been determined to complete my short story in advance to give lots of room for editing and critiquing. 

    Although I have a few things up for entry consideration this year, the piece that I find myself focusing on is a short story that I wrote while planning to enter another local contest this past March. All writers were required to create an original piece that tied in with the theme "Raptorfest," an annual springtime event where various birds of prey migrate through the Niagara Region. Entrants had to write a short story or poem from the point of view of a bird of prey on how they see their environment, and I did exactly that. My bird of choice was an unusual one, but I picked the Turkey Vulture with the intention to hopefully spark some interest.


     Just shy of 1000 words, my story took place inside the typical day of a young Turkey Vulture named Acamar. I packed in as much information about the bird and its environment as I could while trying to keep it intriguing at the same time, but as you can imagine, that can be challenging to do with such a small restricted word count. Unfortunately, I didn't get the opportunity to submit my entry due to the fact that we went away for the Easter Weekend when the contest closed. However, I've been planning to submit it into Fresh Ink 2013 this month with some slight adjustments considering the fact that the word count for this contest is a minimum of 1000 words!

     Unless I have a miracle brainstorm within the next week or so, I'll be submitting Acamar the Turkey Vulture into Fresh Ink 2013 by the end of this month with climbing levels of anticipation and excitement! 

Fresh Ink...A Pearl

     Recently, in the local paper, we read about a contest being held by the St. Catharines Library called Fresh Ink. This year would be the twelfth annual writing contest for students aged twelve through eighteen living in the Niagara Region. All you had to do was write a short story or poem. My Mom suggested I enter and I gladly agreed, but I had one problem. I can't write short stories. Everything I've ever written since I was little, has been long and well...detailed. I had ideas coming out my eyeballs for this contest, but with a limit of 1,500 words I was feeling it would be impossible.

     Maybe you've read my previous entry, Lilac Lane. Mom suggested I enter that because she loved it. After this was decided, I payed little attention to writing at all until I figured I should probably check the word count on it. I discovered it was 1,630 words. Mom assured me we could edit it so that it would be shorter, but then something happened; we got busy. Suddenly I was being called out to movie sets and we had a few appointments and get togethers and the next thing I knew it was July 31st. We were in Burlington, early in the morning, when it hit me. I put my hand to my head. The deadline was today and my work was at home. Needless to say I was disappointed and mad at myself.

     On the way to my grandparents, where we would spend the morning, I was explaining to my Mom how Dad had woken me up that morning. She was laughing hysterically. Then I had the idea. I would use Grandma's computer to write my entry and I would write about my experience from that morning. Sure enough, at Grandma's I went to her computer and I think maybe an hour later, I had completed my entry for the contest. I printed it out, and as a team, Mom and I edited it and read it aloud to my grandparents. The next thing knew, I had clicked the submit button. This was the first contest I've ever entered for my writing and the excitement I felt...that I still feel, is incomparable!

To read my entry, click the link at the top of the page titled Fresh Ink 2012. Thoughts are welcome!