Four More Days!!

Only four more days to post your entry to the Project Writeway contest. We’ll close the contest on Friday at midnight and then (and this is a change from what was posted before–an oversight), all the entries will be posted with pen names on this blog on Monday, the 23rd. That week the voting will begin. By the end of the week, Friday, we’ll announce the official contestants in the contest.

A FEW THINGS TO REMEMBER:

1. This is fun.

2. Don’t be scared.

3. This is for fun.

4. If you get eliminated, KEEP DOING THE CHALLENGES. We are going to have an “at home” winner who will also win a professional critique! It’s an awesome prize.

5. Four more days.

6. Email your entries to throwingupwords@gmail.com

7. My three year old stole a lindt ball (not to be confused with lint ball) from a local grocery store.

8. Tell your friends to enter too.

9. The first challenge is 150 first words of a middle grade or young adult novel.

10. My three year old thought he was going to go to jail.

11. We already have some awesome entries.

12. I like pecans and dates. I even made these. When I was fourteen, I would have barfed if someone gave me pecans and dates. Think like a fourteen year old for this contest.

13. You can only enter once.

14. Don’t forget to include your pen name.

15. My three year old almost went to jail like this lady.

16. There will be more prizes than just the grand prize and the “at home” prize.

17. I am scared of seaweed.

18. Make sure to have some pals read over your entry.

19. I never win anything.

20. I can’t wait for this thing to get a going!

I think that’s all. Holding my breath for more fabulous submissions SO HURRY! Love and kisses.

Ann Dee

What to Write?

I cannot believe this!
Third time!
Third time I’m writing this.

Quit the first.
Accidentally threw away the 2nd.
This best be the charm!

Weird things, today.
Or gross.
Or “Are you kidding me?!”

#1
Don’t hack, cough phlegm (just look at the way it’s spelled!), blow your nose or sound too congested around me or I’ll throw up.
Yup, keeps my girls laughing for hours. . .

So read this. When I reread just now, I nearly puked.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/01/11/woman-coughs-up-cancer-tumour_n_1198862.html

The thought of that coming out of her throat makes me gag. And it sitting in her hand?
Glad she’s cancer free, but if we are ever at a dinner party and she tells me this story, I’ll vomit in the kitchen garbage can, the front bathroom and in my hand every time I look at her afterward.

#2
The first time I taught a Writing for Children class at BYU–where I met the amazing Bryan Summers–I announced to the class that we were writing for kids in the class.
then I had them write a picture book.
I had Louise Plummer come talk about YA novels.
We read young adult lit.
And I had everyone write a bit of a MG or YA novel.
At the end of the semester one student turned in an adult novel as her final project.
I said, “What?”
She said, “This is a writing for children class?”
I gave her a C.
Today, she’d get an F.

#3
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304760604576428433276281402.html

I can vouch for this because it was at Wal-Mart when I saw that Kyra had gauged (yes, I know–that’s sad and sick and I cried) her ears.

#4
One of the big criticism of The True Colors of Caitlynne Jackson was that no mom would treat her children the way the mom in that book did.
OH, how I wish for the olden days, the 1998 days, when babies were more safe with their moms than they are now.
I wont say anything more than Casey Anthony.
And I will NOT post the horrible, horrible things I see EVERY day about man’s inhumanity to man.
And moms being the horrible villains in their children’s lives.

#5
What does this have to do with writing.
Nothing.
But
If you want your readers to read your work, you need to offer a fresh POV.
Or something that is truly funny.
Or something that is said in a new way. A beautiful way that has nothing to do with liver. (See cancer post)

#6
Are you still planning on entering the Project YoubetterWriteBetterThanCrapWay?
Finalize those edits and start turning stuff in–Quick!
Don’t
Hide your kids
hide your wife
or hide your husbands
Get ’em writing with you!

Hahahaha!