Announcement: Short Story Contest

Here it is, folks. Several months ago I mentioned that, in celebration of 50 followers, I would hold a short story contest. Though it took me a long time to get to it, I never forgot about it.

Therefore, today is the day to introduce the first ever short story contest on Red Lettering. 

This is the place where usually people are supposed to wax eloquent on how I now have 69 followers. I am incredibly grateful. 

However I also know that all of you are writers and what you really want to hear about is the writing contest, so I’ll move on to the point of this blog post.

 

Here’s the way it will work: 

At some point in the story, use the piece of dialogue, “Elves don’t carry guns.”

Your word count should be between 100 and 5,000 words. To count your words, simply paste them into a Microsoft Word Document, a Google Docs Document, or here (though I can’t really say I would trust that website enough to put my writing on it).

Submit it to me through email (craftingstoriesinred@gmail.com) by December 31st, 2014. I’ll most likely email you back within a day or two saying that I received it (though I will almost definitely respond faster if you send it in last-minute), but if I don’t, you may want to send it in again, just to be sure.

After the close of the submission period I will post the stories here and readers will get to vote on their favorite story until January 10th. (I’m not sure whether we’ll use an in-post voting widget-thing or if readers will email me with their votes; what do you all think?) I know it may be a long time to wait — a whole month to write and then ten more days until the voting results are released— but since December and January can be so busy, it seemed a better option to give more time than is necessary than less.

There is no fee to enter, and you retain all copyrights to your writing. 

There will be a prize for the winner— a $15 Amazon Gift card.

And if you want it, you can also have a little picture that says you won to put on your blog or download and leave forgotten on your computer. Either way.

Note

Your entries must be clean. Clean, clean, clean, cleaner than a cloud doused in dish soap. One of my readers is younger than eight, and I don’t know about a couple of the other ones. So please, don’t make it so that I disqualify you. If in doubt, ask.

 

Well, writers? Though I’ve said this many times before, this time I really cannot wait to see what you’ll come up with.

Announcements

Before you think it, I know what’s about to be running through your mind. “What? It’s Wednesday! Where’s the writing article? What’s going on?” 

Today, we’re taking a break from our normal routine for a couple of announcements. I wasn’t entirely sure that I wanted to make a whole new post for the few announcements that we have, but the thought of tacking them onto the end of the post was something I knew I didn’t want to do.

I’ve joined the Ravens and Writing Desks team!

You may be new to writing-like you started yesterday-or you may already be published, or you may be right smack in the midst of things. We hope to bring you encouragement, writing tips, ideas, and inspiration wherever you are!

I’ve been reading this awesome writing blog for quite some time, and now I have the privilege of being a part of it! You can check out the exceptional blog here.

 

Red Lettering is now on Pinterest!

“Brought to you by Red Lettering and dedicated to providing clean story inspiration for all genres.”

See Red Lettering On Pinterest

Registration for the Florida Christian Writers Conference, 2015, is now open!

Technically, this has practically nothing to do with this blog, but I thought that some of you might like to hear about it anyway. While I’ve never been there myself, several people who I know have, and they highly recommend it for beginning or published authors. There will be writing workshops, authors teaching, agents, and representatives of publishing houses there. See their homepage here.

And, well… This seems like as good a place as any to mention this.

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been nominated for several blogger awards by some of you awesome bloggers out there. I really appreciate it, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to say this now… I am no longer accepting blogger awards. I do half regret this decision, but since Red Lettering is a writing blog, and I simply cannot keep track of all of them, I think it’s really best for the blog. I was thrilled at every single one of them, though, and that you thought of me made my day.

Red Lettering Reached Fifty Followers!

To be honest, I was completely shocked and amazed to find out that fifty people followed my blog. I never expected to have much more than ten, and to have fifty is practically a dream come true. Thanks, y’all.

The plan, ever since the beginning, was to have some sort of writing contest if I reached fifty followers. Now that I have, I find myself slightly unprepared… So I turn to you, faithful readers. What do you think? What sort of writing contest should it be?

Well, readers? What do you think of these announcements? Do tell in the good old comment box!

 

On the Longest Fortnight Ever…

Sitting on the floor with her knees up, a notebook propped against them, a girl stared blankly at the near-white paper in front of her. A purple mechanical pencil lay unmoving in her hand as her head whirled, trying to think of what to write, but keeping stubbornly empty. Taking a deep breath, the girl leaned forward and looked forlornly at the paper. It looked back at her, expectancy filling its eyes, strangely non-existent though they were.

She had never meant to stay away that long.

Apologies, she had found, seemed only to make people feel awkward and uncomfortable, but this time, she would give one. They deserved one.

She leaned forward, set her pencil lead to her paper, and began to write.

I’m sorry.

When we moved, I did the best thing I knew to do; I paused in the maintenance of this blog. Yet moving became more complicated, and the crazy idea (yet epic and most appreciated) of doing Camp NaNoWriMo in spite of moving was suggested. When the move was completed, I continued steadily working my way up to the 50,000 word mark, but every time I opened a blank document to write a post for here, or ran my options for posts and interviews through my head, my mind seemed to come across a brick wall. How was I to start again after the slightly-longer-than-expected absence?

And there I made my first mistake; I let the matter rest.* I moved on with life and ignored the constant whispers of the blank cyberspace pages begging to be filled, ignored how they were reminding me of my dedicated readers.

As Camp NaNoWriMo ended, I found the obvious staring me in the face: I had been away too long. It was far past the time I should have posted again.

When a friend asked a question, I found myself on the blog page, and it pulled up the statistics page for me as it usually does when I open the website. Staring at the bars to indicate the views on my blog, I was astounded. Though I could see to the fourteenth of April, there was only two days that I could see to be void of views. Amazed by the dedication of my readers and thoroughly chastised for my abandonment, I came to my senses and a decision: within the week, there would be a post on this blog, no matter what happened.

And so, fair readers, you have found the circumstances surrounding my suddenly lengthened disappearance. What say you? I hope that you will not hold against me my mistakes, and I know that I will have to build up your trust again. My hope is that you will never again be unsure of when the next post should come, and instead you should know that I will regularly post. Forgive me, please, for my tardiness; I will not disappoint you in the future.

A new house, an exciting few weeks, and fifty thousand more words later, I have returned. The word “fortnight” was for a moment longer than it usually is. Hopefully the meaning will go back to normal now.

 

* If you got that reference, that’s awesome. You can probably guess what I’m reading.

Official Notice: Upcoming Absence

Hello, readers.

Briefly, I considered posting this two days from now (as that would be the day marking the first month since this blog was created), but for practical reasons, I decided against it.

Within the next week and a half, my family and I will be moving. In short, that means we’re going to be crazy busy (to borrow the colloquialism), and I’m going to have to cease posting until the move is completed. I simply will not have the time, and you deserve better than half-thrown together posts with very little thought put into them, and that’s all I would be able to manage.

I probably will not be absent for any more than a fortnight at the most, but since I try and regularly post on here, I wanted to let you know that I didn’t disappear off the face of the planet, nor was I abducted by aliens, and I will return fairly soon.

Until then, namárië, au revoir, adios and farewell. Thank you for reading, and I hope to write again soon.