Sharpen Your Pencils: #50PRECIOUSWORDS IS COMING SOON!!!

Posted on February 21, 2022 by viviankirkfield

In 2012 I had a dream. I wanted to write picture books. And I wanted to be traditionally published. One of the most important things I did was to participate in writing challenges like Susanna Hill’s contests. Why was that important? Because it got me writing. It got me revising. It got me submitting. Hmmm….writing/revising/submitting. I believe that if we do those three things enough times, our writing improves and agents and editors get a chance to see our work. And as much as I am thrilled with my own success, nothing makes me happier than to hear about the success of others in our kidlit community.

When I first got the idea for this contest back in 2016, I thought a few of my friends might take pity on me and submit a story – to my surprise, there were 128 entries.

Art by Vicky Fang

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#50PreciousWords 2021: And the Winners are…

Posted on March 31, 2021 by viviankirkfield

Welcome all! It’s been a busy month, for sure!
Writers writing!
Judges reading!
And an entire kid-lit community supporting with encouraging comments.
To me, the thread of almost 11,000 positive comments is probably what I love most about the contest. Well…perhaps the 770 fabulous stories and the courage of their authors are what I love the most. And honestly, I’m pretty fond of my five assistant judges who read all of the stories and commented on them. It was only when the sheer number of comments broke the Linky List that I instructed them not to comment, but to concentrate on reading because the blog was taking so long to load after each comment.

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#50PRECIOUSWORDS 2021 is Officially OPEN!

Posted on March 2, 2021 by viviankirkfield

Art by Vicky Fang

WELCOME TO ALL! Whether you have participated in previous years or you are just dipping your toes in for the first time – whether you are a pre-published author or you have multiple books out there already – I am so very glad you are here!

The #50PreciousWords 2021 International Writing Contest is OVER and the 51 finalists will be announced March 31. If you have trouble accessing the entries, you are not alone. We had so many comments (over 10,000), I think we broke WordPress, but the tech gurus are at work trying to resolve the issue. Thank you so much for your patience.

Congratulations to all who participated! We had a record 763 entries! The linky list is complete. You can find your story or a particular story by scrolling down and clicking on the link. PLEASE NOTE: THE LINKY LIST IS NOT WORKING RIGHT NOW. But you can read many of the entries by scrolling through.

I hope you will visit many of the stories.- getting positive comments is a great validation for writers – and reading other stories is a wonderful learning tool for all of us!

I’ll be reading all of these amazing stories…and so will my assistant judges. There are going to be some very difficult decisions to make…so many of the stories are top-notch – several feel like they should be on shelves already! But right now, please celebrate your courage and hard work! YOU DID IT! And, if you didn’t participate this year with a story, I hope you will next year! Because we all have a story to tell – and I’d love to read your precious words.

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