I received quite a few submissions for the Sourcebooks Fire YALitChat Writing Contest this week. I have to say, I was surprised by a few things. First, the rush to submit. People submitted before the official start of the contest. What happens when you’re in rush? Most times, something is forgotten. I saw a lot of typos, work that was not proofread, checked and re-checked. The contest is open until the end of February so I’m not sure what the rush is. There’s no prize for getting in early BUT for those who submitted poorly proofed work, you’ve lost the opportunity to have your work considered.
Next, I found some really interesting ideas and some recurring themes. You’d be surprised how many people are writing about similar things when you’re sitting at your desk cranking out lines. Dragons, mermaids or sea creatures, fae yet so far, not one vampire.
I was quite surprised to find some issues with basic writing skills including grammar and sentence structure. There was one sentence that had seventy-nine words in it! I counted it, then copied and pasted it into Word and let Word count it. Then I did it again. I scratched my head and read the sentence two more times. I simply could not get over a sentence with so many words in it. One sentence. Come on, people.
I posted comments about what I was reading up on the YALitChat ning community and responded to contest questions. Members of the Teen Fire Group get to read first-hand about each submission as I read. The hopes I have for each one from the promise of the title, the novel description and the first two hundred and fifty words. Some make me laugh and some make me cry. Some piss me the heck off. Some authors recognize their submissions based on the way I describe them–yet I don’t read the name of the writer when reading the submission. They emailed me to ask questions, apologize for not following rules, ask for special favors–you name it. Grrr.
But to get to what this post is REALLY about, a winner. Plucked from the submission stack this week is Jodi Meadows! I was completely blow away by her submission. She hit it out of the park. Premise, story, writing, pitch. It was all there. Nothing I would change. Congratulations, Jodi. Sourcebooks Fire will be sending you a copy of PICTURE THE DEAD by Adele Griffin and Lisa Brown.
Good luck to all the contest entrants. Contest ends February 28th! You must be a member of YALitChat to enter. Check back next Friday for the most impressive entry of that week!
xoxo-G















