Making Time to Write Mondays

MUD PIE DAY Wins the Children’s Writer Kindergarten Contest!

Children’s Writer Contest Win

I recently received some very encouraging news. My story, MUD PIE DAY, won grand prize in the Children’s Writer Newsletter kindergarten story contest.

If you’d like to read it, go to the Children’s Writer website.

Click on Winner’s Gallery on the lefthand sidebar.

From there you’ll see a link to my story.

Nancy Coffelt also wrote an article and did an interview with me about my writing, but it’s only available to subscribers.

 

How I Almost Gave Up

MUD PIE DAY was a story I wrote for the Picture Book Marathon in 2011. I had tried to send it to a few editors as a picture book manuscript, but I was mostly getting form rejection letters.

If not for sending it out and getting those rejection letters, I might not have been able to view this story in a different light. Sometimes what we intend for the story to be isn’t always what it turns out to be.

I was about to file the story away, mainly because I’d gotten to the point that I knew it wouldn’t work as a picture book. I thought I might try researching possible magazines. When the Children’s Writer contest guidelines came up for the Kindergarten story, I knew I probably already had something I could send.

And then I waited. I had put a date on my calendar for the beginning of October and thought I’d check on the winners at that point.

What the Win Meant

When Nancy contacted me to tell me I had won grand prize, I honestly was shocked. It was almost unfathomable to me that a story I nearly ditched was selected. It also showed me how subjective this business really is.

This meant a lot to me. First it encouraged me. I’ve been getting nibbles here and there on things I’ve been sending, but this gave me the boost I needed to keep moving forward.

The money—$500—also meant a lot. It meant that I could fully pay for a SCBWI conference without dipping into funds that could be used for my family. My husband never complains if I spend money on writing related stuff, but we were both excited when I got the prize money. It’s a tangible affirmation of my work. Because writing at 5:00 am is often a lonely endeavor, especially if you’re not sure if it’ll ever pay off, this really was like a pat on the back. One that said: KEEP GOING.

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