Blogging For Books Winners

By: on June 29, 2005 | # | Comments (2) | A Writer's Life

This month I participated in Blogging for Books on The Zero Boss blog by Jay Allen. Every month Jay puts out a topic to write about. Bloggers write their piece, post it on their site, and Jay and his wife, Kim, read all the entries. Then, they give the finalists over to their guest author to choose the winner. The winner decides and then sends a free book to the winners. It's good for everybody. For writers, for authors, for bloggers....I just think it's great.

So for June, I was the guest author on Blogging for Books. Jay put out the topic: write a blog entry about one of three things:

A memorable trip or "mini-vacation" (with "memorable" covering
everything from "best time of my life" to "unmitigated disaster");
A time you did something spontaneously, in order to shake up your
life;
A time you metaphorically took "the road less traveled", and made
an unpopular or uncommon decision.

They had 30 some entries which was the largest amount of submissions they've had in months. And it just goes to show you...people love telling their travel stories. Fortunately, and unfortunately, I had a heck of a time choosing the winners. I must've read the finalists two times and some I read three times. It was definitely a tough call. And here's the thing. I know it's work. Sure it can be pleasurable work to write. But it's still hard work. So, thank all the bloggers who were excited about this topic and took the time and effort to participate, I'm going to list all of them here. I appreciate your enthusiasm, your support of my books, and wish you all the best with your writing.

Big thanks to Jay and Kim, too for their devoted attention to this great project and including me in it!

And the winners were....

#1) "The Kid at the Pump" by Rag and Bone Shop

This story impressed me. On the quality of the writing, on its originality. On the story line. I loved it, plain and simple.

#2) "Maybe Kafka Was from Florida" by Paper Napkin

This submission made me laugh, and groan at the same time. It was a true misadventure. And since I was giving out Whose Panties Are These? to the winners, I was hoping that I'd find a travel misadventure in our style...this was it. Dare you to read it.

#3) "Pretty in Pink" by Skip to My Lou

This story moved me. And I chose it because her journey is a life long one. It definitely applies to the third topic, and it illustrates the theme of this month, literally—Hit the Road, Jack!

But several of the finalists deserve recognition and I did have a really hard time choosing. For those of you that love the truly bizarre, please read Scheiss Weekly. And for those of you that treasure a good love story, please read "Rivers, Roadside, and Home." And for those of you who lived through the 60s or can appreciate the wanderlust of those that lived in the 60s, please read Left Wing Liberal Commie Agitator.

And here are all the entries...many thanks, bloggers!

Comments

Wayne | July 1, 2005 05:15 AM

Thanks for judging this! I look forward to receiving your book. :)

Comments

Edgy Mama | July 5, 2005 02:10 PM

Thanks for judging! And for giving a shout-out to my story (despite not winning, I got big bonus points from my spouse for writing about our first kiss!).

I'm looking forward to reading your books. Best wishes!

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