FaithWriters Book "Trials and Triumphs"

Here's an awesome book if you need encouragement, hope, or just good reading. I am one of the authors, along with other FaithWriters members.

http://faithwriters.com/testimonies.php . 

A Cougar Wins!

I won! I won, I won, I won! Yeppers, I am a winner. No one could have been more shocked and surprised than me. I have entered a few writing contests on Christian sites.

I always do the weekly challenge with FaithWriters—if you’re not currently a member, I encourage you to join and enter the challenge; it’ll improve your writing skills—and I place sometimes on there. I’ve entered other contests with no results, really! But now…now I am a winner! I won the FaithWriters annual Page Turner Contest. This year it asked for non-fiction entries. They alternate—one year it’s fiction, the next year, it’s non-fiction. I’m not much of a non-fiction writer, but I do have an interesting, trendy story right now in that I am a cougar.

Ew, I don’t like being called cougar. The image it evokes is not good, at least to me. But Jeff and I have been married (second for both of us) for 18 years after dating for almost 4 years. I am 16 years older than Jeff.

That was my entry: How Does A Harmless House Cat Become A Cougar? And I won. Look for the book. Hopefully it’ll be coming out next year. Can you have a successful marriage when the woman is so much older? What are the challenges in a blended family where the woman is the older one?

Read the book.

Weekly Writing Challenge

I love the Weekly Challenge writing prompts at FaithWriters.  Every week members are given a topic (or prompt) and have a week to submit a 150-750 word entry. This can be a short story, devotional or poem, fiction or non-fiction. It is a competitive in nature:  a team of judges  reads each entry, there are 4 levels, and pick first, second, third places plus two Highly Recommended for each level.   Other members can read and critique each entry and leave a comment before the judges make their selections.   Then from all entries the judges select the coveted ten top entries for Editor’s Choice each week.

 Every year all the #1 picks for Editor’s Choice are eligible to be picked for the whole year’s first, second, and third place entries. This year I was fortunate enough, along with thirty six others, to have been selected as number one in Editor’s Choice one week making me eligible for this. Alas, I got the news two weeks ago that I did not place first, second or third for the year.  I was just a tad bummed, but was still overwhelmingly blessed to have made it into the top 36.

This week’s prompt is “Picnic.” I’ve already submitted my entry. Why do I enter this every week? Because the knowledge I’ve gleaned has been priceless. I am untrained and without any schooling in writing, so these types of things have been food for my insatiable writer’s appetite.

As a writer we must constantly be learning, either through reading, studying or partaking in all the groups, workshops and conferences available to us.

I encourage you to be hungry to learn all you can.  If you aren’t already, be a voracious reader. Read “how to” books for writers, read novels and observe other’s writing styles.

Given the topic “Picnic,” what would you write? Does something instantly pop into your mind, or are you like me and have to mull it over for awhile?

If God has given you the gift to write, then WRITE!