Five Enchanted Roses Cover Reveal!

I am so, so, so excited. Last year, writing stories for the Cinderella collection, Five Glass Slippers, was an absolutely delightful experience. And this year, we have an even more beautiful cover to inspire us...indeed, one of the most beautiful covers I've ever seen. Period.

Behold.

Rooglewood Press is delighted to introduce their second fairy tale novella contest—

Five Enchanted Roses

a collection of “Beauty and the Beast” stories

The challenge is to write a retelling of the beloved fairy tale in any genre or setting you like. Make certain your story is recognizably “Beauty and the Beast,” but have fun with it as well. Make it yours!

Rooglewood Press will be selecting five winners to be published in the Five Enchanted Roses collection, which will be packaged up with the gorgeous cover you see displayed here. Perhaps your name will be one of the five displayed on this cover?

All the contest rules and information (how to enter, story details, deadline etc.) may be found on the Rooglewood Press website. Just click HERE and you will go right to the page.

Rooglewood Press’s first collection, Five Glass Slippers, is available for pre-order now and will be released on June 14. Do grab yourself a copy and see what these talented writers have done with the timeless “Cinderella” tale!

Blog Button:

Please post the blog button on your sidebars so that others will learn about this contest! Invite your readers to share it as well. Here is the link to include: http://www.rooglewoodpress.com/fairy-tale-collections

This link will take readers directly to the contest information.

Cover Illustration Credit:

This cover illustration was rendered by Julia Popova, “ForestGirl.” You can find out more about this gifted artist on her website: www.forestgirl.ru

Updates and Reminder

First off, I may not be able to reply to comments and stories sent in till after the 16th of this month. That's not to say that I won't, but I probably won't be as quick.

There's still time to enter in the Christmas Short Story Contest! It ends December 20th, midnight. Check out the rules for entering and more details in this post here.

For those of you who are joining in The Five Glass Slippers Writing Contest, Anne Elisabeth Stengl has given an update on the approaching deadline, Dec. 31st. Head over to her blog and take a look.

Enjoy the Christmas season everyone!

Christmas Short Story Contest!

The Christmas season is almost upon us. To be fair, it actually is upon my house. My family and I rather love celebrating Christmas, as you might come to know in possible upcoming posts. :)

But I thought I'd like to spread Christmas cheer onto my blog as well. So I've decided to host a giveaway! But you're going to have to work for it a little.

Observe the wintery scene I painted below.

Who is this young girl? Is she human or perhaps an elf? Was she searching for her kitten or did she just find it wandering in the snow? Is she kneeling in soft snow...or is that perhaps ice beneath her feet? Who is coming across the bridge? Is it a man or a woman? Are they looking for the girl? Why? What are those lights hovering in the trees beyond? Lamps...or perhaps fairies?

But these questions are not for me to answer. YOU get to answer them.

1) Write a short story about the scene above in 500--2000 words. UPDATE: If you would like to write more then the word limit, than be my guest. I just didn't want to overwhelm you this season. :)

2) Send me the story to my email: williamshsj@gmail.com

3) Enter the Rafflecopter below after you have entered a story.

4) For those of you who might not know, I require stories to be completely clean. I will not accept  the entries otherwise. The above scene is innocent and sweet. While I don't mind if you put drama and danger into the story, it should still attain to the mood expressed above.

So what is the prize if you enter a story and win in the Rafflecopter? You win the above painting, matted and personalized with a special line from your special story written across the snow in the center of the left-hand side!

The DEADLINE for your story is December 20th, midnight. The winner will be announced on the first day of winter!

The contest is open to the US and Canada. 

And I'd love to post your short story on my blog so that everyone can read your genius. If you'd like to share about the contest, feel free to use this button and link back to this post! :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

By the way, this idea was inspired by Molly who is hosting her own picture-inspired contest that gives you a far longer time to write than me. You should go check out her story-writing challenge and the awesome prizes she's giving away! And thank you, Molly, for allowing me to use the idea!

I hope you all have time to write a short story for the picture, but if not, I totally understand. Christmas is a very busy season. I hope you all have a joyous one!

Short Story Opportunities

Looking for a fun writing exercise over the weekend?

Anne Elisabeth Stengl is hosting a spooky short story exercise based on on your childhood fears. To find all the rules and guidelines, please go to her blog to learn more. But here's the catch...your story will have to leave off on the moment of highest tension!

Also, Molly (who's creating a absolutely awesome writer's blog that you should go and follow) might host a short story based on a mysterious picture she drew if she gets enough people interested in participating.

 Do you think you might have a story to answer the questions the picture presents? Who is the woman? Where is she? What is in the bag at her belt? Whose hand is she holding? If you're interested, go over to A Writer's Ponderings and let Molly know! :)

Have a splendid weekend!