So I entered the Eleventy-one Celebration Writing Contest over at Laurel’s Leaves (I’m a sucker for a good contest), and can you believe it? I won Grand Prize!
Woo hoo!!
I’m seriously honored (and humbled) to have won the Grand Prize, especially after reading the runner-up entries. The contest asked for a dialogue-driven scene or story which showed an instance of negotiation and persuasion, “like the post-party scene in Fellowship of the Ring in which Gandalf convinces Bilbo to leave the ring of power in the Shire.”
Laurel is posting my excerpt on her site, along with her comments. She is excellent at what she does and her comments have been extremely insightful —well worth the time to check it out. I’ve been learning a lot from her. Thank you, Laurel, for holding such a fun contest and for giving my writer’s ego a gi-normous boost!
Without further ado, here’s my winning excerpt from “The Other Prince”:
First of all, I want to thank everyone who entered this contest! I had a great time reading your limericks. And don’t they say that doing something creative builds brain cells? Okay, I may be making that up, but I hope you had as much fun writing them as I did reading them.
Second of all, it was very had to choose a winner, you were all so good (and you all hit on different crazy areas of my life—all of which I love to laugh about). However, since a winner must be chosen, here we are:
The winner is Melanie for “Ode to St. Patty’s Cuisine”
For those of you who didn’t get a chance to read it, here it is:
A green dinner sounds so creative,
Until you think “what’s it made of?”
Your kids will all scream
Because everything’s green!
But cabbage and corned beef’s so native!
Maybe it was the St. Patrick’s day theme that won me over, but either way, congratulations! Watch for the coveted gift card in the mail. 🙂
St. Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite pointless holidays. I love the stories of leprechauns. I love the iconic movies (like Darby O’gill and the Little People). I love the green. And I love pinching people. Okay, not really on the last one, but still. Just thinking about it makes me want to break into song . . .
When Irish eyes are smilin’ . . .
But I digress.
It’s a holiday that can be as much or as little as you choose to make it. I tend to be a minimalist, so the “little” part really appeals to me.
So knowing I made a goal to have a silly, pointless contest on my blog this year, I thought why not. This contest will run from the moment this is posted until midnight EST on Saturday, 20 March 2010.
I really wanted to make the prize super Irish, but all I could come up with was beer and potatoes. Somehow that didn’t sound very exciting. So instead, since Olive Garden’s signature color is green, up for grabs is a $25 gift card for there.
Here are the rules:
Limerick /lim-rik/: a five-lined poem with aabba rhyme scheme. I could go on about the meter and syllable counts, but instead, I’ll give an example:There once was a girl from DC,Who lived far from all her fam’lyShe blogged every daySo in touch she could stayThen forgot to go out and sight see.Okay, I’m no poet. I fully admit this. But you get the idea.Please note, this contest is completely subjective. Anyone can enter (even relatives, gasp!). Odds of winning are about 1 in 4 since that’s about how many people comment on my blog. Consider all that legal mumbo jumbo said. You know: Taxes yada, yada, yada. Liability blah, blah, blah. You get the point.Good luck, and I can’t wait to read your entries!UPDATE: You may enter as many limericks as you want.
I did a quick search to see if I could find my resolutions from last year. Nope, not recorded in the journal. So I guess that means I kept them all. BUT, here are some pretend ones so we can all feel good about that assessment:
Of course, I COULD go on (wink, wink, nod, nod), but you get the point. I definitely accomplished things this past year. And may I just say, that resolutions are SO much easier when you write them down after the fact.
But not to let sleeping dogs lie, or whatever idiomatic expression would fit better there, I am going to actually record some resolutions for this coming year. And a year from now, I can reassess and see if I don’t prefer last year’s method of writing them down after I accomplished them.
Okay, here we go:
I think 5 is good for now. Though I have others, I’m choosing not to list them here . . . that whole mystique thing. 🙂 So are there any uber-unique resolutions out there? I’d love to hear them. And in fact, maybe I will add a sixth, uber-unique one, just for kicks and giggles. Let’s see, it would have to be something I wouldn’t normally do . . . something legal, of course . . . something that might challenge me . . . and that may be just a little silly. I could sew something wearable that’s NOT a costume. But that’s not very silly. I could read a non-fiction book. Definitely something I wouldn’t normally do, but there again, not very silly. Ah, wait, I have it:6. I resolve to hold a contest with an actual prize on my blog. Pointless, you say? Maybe. But I wouldn’t normally do it. It’s legal (except in states where prohibited, of course). It will be a challenge, because I still have to come up with what the contest will be. And last but not least, it’s a little silly. And funny, I’m actually excited by the prospect! Random contest, here we come!