Archive for April, 2008
Wordclay Interviews Poet Jamie Crawford, Grand Prize Winner of the Single Poem Contest
Calling all writers… Calling all writers…
Come in writers!
Jenn’s blog has been interrupted this afternoon to bring you some breaking news.
For the first time in history, Jamie Crawford, Grand Prize winner of Wordclay’s Single Poem Contest, has agreed to answer our Interview questions.
Blogger Justin Dimos is on the literary scene and reports:
Justin: How did you feel entering the contest?
Jamie: I felt a bit apprehensive because I’d never participated in a national writing competition before and realized this would mean a higher caliber of writing would be considered.
Justin: How did you react when you found out that you had won?
Jamie: I didn’t process it. I thought maybe a mistake had been made. Finally, though, I realized that I had legitimately won the single poem contest. It was an exhilarating and uplifting feeling to be recognized in this way.
Justin: What did you know about Wordclay before you entered the contest?
(more…)
2 comments April 3, 2008
Wordclay Short Story Contests Now Open: Submission Guidelines Posted
It’s my pleasure to announce the official open of both the Wordclay Single Short Story and the Short Story Collection contests. As of 11 a.m. today, April 2, 2008, you can send our readers your stories and cover letters for a chance to win cash, publishing packages as well as copies of the Wordclay Anthology Best Modern Voices, in which the 15 story finalists will appear in Volume 2.
And submitting doesn’t cost a dime either!
Now, your writing mission, should you choose to accept it, is to visit Wordclay’s Contest Connection, read over the submission guidelines, polish your best pieces and e-mail your entry to contests@wordclay.com.
Registration is not required, but I definitely recommend you join the Wordclay community. Maybe I’m just overly cautious by nature, but registration is free anyway; we never divulge any of your personal information; and we’ll have your contact information on file in case you win prizes or you’re chosen as a finalist.
Far be it for me to limit the creative process and frustrate writers, but there are a few practical limitations for acceptable submissions. No entry for the Single Short Story Contest can be more than 5,000 words, and you can only submit a maximum of three stories attached to a single e-mail. To avoid confusion, you cannot submit revisions at a later date either, so make sure you’re satisfied with your work before you click send.
As for the Short Story Collection Contest, (more…)
25 comments April 2, 2008
Movies … for Books’ Sake
When I was a little kid, a man claimed he could tell my future, so I let him. I’ve wanted to be in film since I was a toddler, so when he said I’d grow up to do “advertising,” I was pretty dismayed.
Now, however, at 34 years old, I’m making commercials. And it’s not so bad. Especially since I’m helping to promote a company I really believe in. Free self-publishing? Once the cat’s out of the bag, it really kinda sells itself, don’t you think?
The first video I did was a “Welcome to Wordclay” infomercial. I initially thought: “Two talking heads, some screen captures … easy.” But then there was the backdrop. The hosts had to be somewhere, and we don’t exactly have studio access here.
My cohort in crime was Angie, and we busted our brains for a few hours trying to decide where to videotape the actors. We were on a shoe-string budget and didn’t have access to green-screen technology, so the backdrop had to be a physical creation. It came down to Angie and me with X-Acto knives in hand, cutting out different colored concentric rings and pasting them together to create those logos you see floating behind the hosts. The paper was curling throughout the shoot and required constant re-gluing and flattening.
Moral of the story? I don’t know. But when you see the background, just know that there are blood, sweat and tears in it.
Add comment April 1, 2008
