Contest | Cathy C. Hall Writes

But first, we pause for this message:

“She’s the birthday girl! She’s the birthday girl! The birthday, birthday, birthday, birthday Girl!”

And now back to our regularly scheduled post:

Guess who won FIRST place in the Society of Southwestern Authors Children’s Short Story Writing Competition?

That’s meeeeee! It was so hugely exciting because for the first time ever I actually got a phone call telling me I’d won! I got a plaque! I got a big, fat check! And I got all that MONTHS ago and had to sit on it till now.

Whew! I seriously was about to bust to get that horn-tootin’ toot out there. Here’s the picture I sent to Mary Ann (the absolutely lovely Coordinator of the SSA who called from Arizona and now we’re BFF’s).

I’m holding the Michael Lacapa Award and I really couldn’t be prouder. Michael Lacapa, for whom the award is named, was a Native American story teller who worked in developing multi-cultural curricula with the Apache tribe, using story telling as a teaching tool among the school-aged children. You can find out more about him, as well as the Southwestern Society of Authors here. And who knows? Maybe next year, you’ll enter and win a plaque! A big, fat check! And get a phone call from the absolutely lovely Mary Ann! Then you can bask in the SSA glow, too.

And now back to birthday business. The glow coming off all the candles is about to burn the house down.

You know what I love about being a woman of a certain age ? (And by certain age, I mean the age by which certain less than appealing things start to happen. Use your imagination here…) Okay, that’s enough imagining. Here’s what I love: when prizes come in the mail, I’m completely surprised because I’ve completely forgotten all about them!

And really, it’s more than just being surprised about the surprises. I can spend at least 15 minutes coming up with all kinds of wonderful reasons why two books would arrive in the mail for Cathy C. Hall. So, it’s not just a “What have we here” moment, but a “Why have we here” moment, too. Oh, frabjous joy!

Which is the long way of saying I received From First Draft to Finished Novel and First Draft in 30 Days by Karen Wiesner. And, after a few minutes and a pound to the head, I remembered that I’d won them in the Writer Mama giveaway! I certainly hope I can remember to read them. Then I can tell you all about them.

I can tell you about an anthology call out I found this past week. It’s from La Chance publishing and it’s all about dogs. The editors are looking for a few good true dog stories, about how a dog has transformed your life. Now, Sally the dog has most definitely transformed my life, but maybe not in the way that these editors have in mind for their anthology. But maybe you have a nice, heart-warming dog story you can send by October 31st. Check out La Chance Publishing here for more details and get 200 bucks for your bow-wow’s tail, er, tale.

I might even try writing about Sally the crazy dog. I could use a good surprise.