Contest! | Cathy C. Hall Writes

As you know, I’m all about the contests. And I guess if you didn’t know, you know now.

So, naturally, I was pretty excited to see that the Pockets’ Fiction contest had returned. (Last year, the contest was canceled for restructuring.) If you have a swell story for kids, between 750 and 1,00o words, you should send it in. There’s no particular theme and no entry fee. And even if you don’t have a story now, you have till August 15th to think up something brilliant and write it down.

Then you can send it off and enter the contest. That’s what I plan to do. Because I’m not just all about entering contests. I kinda like winning them, too!

Sure, you can find a ton of poetry contests, or essay contests, even novel contests. But for that sparkly children’s story? Not so much. But today, wheee! I found two. Pick one or try both. What have you got to lose? Um, besides the entry fee. (Sorry.)

The Carteret’s 19th Annual Writing Contest has a category for children and a deadline of March 9th. Yes, there’s an entry fee, but you also have a chance of winning three cash prizes. Check out the site here for more details.

The Annual Writers-Editors International Writing Competition also has a children’s category. You can send fiction or non-fiction, too. Along with your entry fee. But again, you have a chance to win multiple cash awards. If you send your winning words in by the March 15th deadline. Check out details here.

And while we’re on the subject of contests, I’ll add my own little Wheee! I found my name here (at Georgia McBride’s blog). And while (Hmmm. Didn’t I just say that?) I haven’t won the Big Prize, I still feel pretty darn good about winning a wee weekly prize. Not that Merlin’s Harp is a wee prize. Not at all. But the contest is still running, and there are quite a few weekly winners. And the top winners go on to bigger and better and…okay, here’s the bottom line. You still have a few days left to send in your swell YA and win in this YA contest. (And you might want to read Georgia’s post with Dan Ehrenhaft, the Acquisitions Editor at Sourcebooks Fire. It’s a winner, too!)