I’d meant this to go up on the website, but since I’m not sure when we’ll have new stuff up there, and the deadline is growing closer, thought I’d post it here (and repost to the website when possible):
“Storyteller’s Award” Writing Contest
I stumbled into the Surrey (BC) International Writers Conference while on a booktour back in…goodness, 1994—and was so charmed by the organization and personality of the conference that I’ve gone back every year since. (And I’ll be back this year, too—October 24-26—doing (among other things) a workshop with the ever-hilarious Chris Humphreys about how to write sex scenes.)
Well, another of the Old Regulars at this conference is the delightful Jack Whyte, author of the excellent Arthurian “Brood of Eagles” saga, and more recently, several novels about the Knights Templar. Jack’s a long-time friend, and at one of these conferences, we got talking about what we like to read, as well as what we like to write, and concluded that Story is Everything.
The upshot of this discussion is that Jack and I ended up funding the “Storyteller’s Award”—a cash prize awarded for the best short story submitted to a contest sponsored by the SiWC each year. Jack and I are the judges of this contest, and first prize is $1000. (We also have in progress a project in collaboration with Chapters bookstores to compile and publish a book containing the winning entries.)
There are also contests for non-fiction and poetry—and no, you needn’t attend the conference to enter, though of course I think the conference is well worth it. [g] (Further details about the conference can be found at HYPERLINK “http://www.siwc.ca/” http://www.siwc.ca/ .)
For those of you who work in short forms…give the contest a look, here!
HYPERLINK “http://www.siwc.ca/contest/index.php” http://www.siwc.ca/contest/index.php
Diana:
I see you’re having a little bit of trouble with that link. Try this:
http://www.siwc.ca/contest/index.php
If you ever need to type in the html yourself, replace the ( and ) with < and > respectively in what I've typed below:
(a href=”http://www.siwc.ca/contest/index.php”)description of the link goes here(/a)
Hope that makes sense. I had to substitute the () for <> because this site won't let me type HTML syntax as plain text into the comment window.
I'm by no means a storyteller, or an aspiring one, just an avid…um…consumer of good stories. [vbg] Just trying to help out here…
Karen
Diana,I think I have said this before, but thank you for recommending C.C. Humphrey’s books. I started out with the ” Jack Absolute” books. Got hooked, and now have read just about everything he’s wrote. Even though I had to send off to the U.K for one of his books “Blood Ties” I think. It was well worth spending my weak American dollars for. Your other recommendations haven’t failed me either.
Too bad that I’m too young for it, and that I write German. [sigh]
Dear Sarah–
Well, we do it every year. You’ll get older [g]–and your English is already good; eventually, it will be great!
Hopefully! So, be ready, when I’m 18 I’ll participate. [g]
I write something in English at the moment but I don’t think that would fit into the contest.
By the way I don’t have Word at the moment because of a computer crash.
It makes me grin to know that you & Jack Whyte are friends… :)Very cool! His Camulod Chronicles became a favorite, thanks to your Methadone List recommendation.
Good to know the Surrey info – I've always enjoyed hearing about it from the LOL crowd.
Thanks so much for the comment on my blog! I appreciate it.
Hi, Nathan!
People on the Compuserve Books and Writers Community (where I hang, most of the time) often post links to your blog–I happened to click on the one to your edit/copyedit explanations, figuring that it might give me one more resource with which to answer the ten million questions I get about how one writes and publishes a book. It did [g], for which many thanks!
I’ll include the link to your very lucid explanation next time I explain Just How Publishing Works to somebody.