Tuesday 1 September 2015

Meet our Finalists for the WEP Spectacular Settings August challenge - #wepff

Hello dear readers!

From poems to flash fiction, from photographs to original artwork, from creative fiction to travel essays and a playscript, WEP entries in the Spectacular Settings challenge were an inspiration to all. Your entries transported us to other lands, to other times, which of course was the underlying motivation for a settings theme. 


Part A - share a Spectacular Setting which stopped your heart.

The shared settings were breathtaking. From favorite poems, book extracts to fantastic photos, WEP participants took us on a creative journey. Many famous authors and poets were often acknowledged by commenters as their own favourites, while others were happy to be introduced to a new writer or artist they intend to check out.

Here are some examples....


Pat Garcia of Thinking it Over:The Sunlight Dialogues by John Gardner

Patrick Colohan of Finding Environs: Donald E. Westlake's God Save the Mark

Linda Katmarian of Scheherazade's Journal Hilary Mantel's Bringing Up the Bodies

Madilyn Quinn at She Reads And Drinks Waterhship Down by Richard Adams

Tom Benson at Tom Benson Creative Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

Toi Thomas of The ToiBox of Words endorsed Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness

Debbie of the Dogladys Den of gave us the poem Greece by Oscar Wilde

Angelika Schwarz of write 2 Camp Euro  brought us Janet Fitch;s The White Oleander

D.G. Hudson of Rainforest Writing took us to the streets of Montmartre in Paris.


Part B - share your own setting piece

We had entries penned especially for the challenge or the perfect excerpt taken from a WIP. Through these shared, original pieces which highlighted setting, we were left open mouthed at the sheer talent indicated by the quality of the entries in prose or images. 

We had Damyanti at Daily [W]rite sharing an extract from her WIP, currently titled Underneath the Skin. Michael E Dellert from Adventures in Indie Publishing shared a scene from his WIP, The Hills of the Cailech. Who will forget  '...a child's burnt stocking lying in the mud.' Guilie Castillo at Quiet Laughter shared a short passage from her published novel, The Miracle of Small Things set in her adopted island home of Curacao. Debbie from The Doglady' Den shared her love story of Greece with fantastic photographs, beautifully presented. Nilanjana Bose at Madly-in-Verse's contribution, Roadblock, transported us to the Himalayas. Kiran Acharya of The sea and me gave us The Ruins of Doddakudla enchanting us! Rasma Raisters at Nothing but Poetry captured our imagination with her photograph and poem Golden Birches. Deborah Drucker of Notes Tied On The Sagebrush gave us The Journal is discovered a time travel and shape shifting fantasy full of promise. Sally Stackhouse of Sally's Scribbles introduced us to Molly and her young son, in a poignant flash called The Beach.

And that's just a small sample. If you haven't had a mention it's not because we didn't love your entry, it's just the sheer number prevents us from doing a complete wrap up of all posts. 

If you haven't read any/all of these entries, please treat yourself! That's why we have Direct Links. Reading/commenting on others' work is a core belief of WEP and can and will be taken into account in the final judging if a decision can't be reached any other way.  

Now, I'm sure you'll understand the torture we piled upon torture when we tried to whittle down 44 entries to just 3 winners! Yolanda and I struggled with this, and turned over 7 entries to our guest judge for this challenge, Donna Hole. Donna was a previous co-host and knows what to look for--entries that encapsulate the challenge, in this case, setting, entries that are error-free (or very nearly so), entries that have followed the guidelines (mostly), but at the end of the day, the entry must make our hearts sing. 

So, we will start with our overall winner, who was unanimously chosen by all 3 of us. I will tell you that the top 3 were moved around in position several times until this order was settled upon:


(((Drumroll)))
The Winner of WEP Spectacular Settings August 2015 challenge who takes home an Amazon Gift Card to the value of $10 is: ELEPHANT'S CHILD!


Elephants's Child's entry consisted of amazing photographs accompanied by a poem, Memories. Magic. Mystery. The animate mood and imagery of the poem were captured at a dancing horse show in Australia. The movement and pace of the poem matched the picture, both evocative.

So, congratulations EC! Please take the badge below and share it on your blog, linking to your excellent entry. Your Amazon Gift card will wing its way to you shortly!


Next, we chose LG Keltner of Writing off the Edge for her extract from her untitled WIP.
Her awesome descriptions and vivid sense of both history and the present earned her second place on the winner's podium.

So, many congratulations LG, please accept this Runner-Up badge from WEP and display it on your blog, linking to your entry.


Then, for the Encouragement Award, we chose Samantha Redstreake Geary who shared a beautiful, magical place in her entry, Weight of Wonder. Awesome descriptions, and using the trees as Dryads gave personality to the setting.

So, many congratulations Writerly Sam, please accept this Runner-Up badge from WEP and display it on your blog, linking to your entry.




Honourable mentions go to those who were moved up and down the line as we chose the final 3. They are Robyn Campbell: what a beautiful poet. Vivid imagery in such a concise piece. Then Kate McManus: awesome travel article. we certainly wanted to visit, even in the rain. Michael DiGesu: yes, certainly a favorite. Loved the poetic imagery and who can forget that photo taken by Michael of the pink flamingos! And finally Michelle Wallace, with her edgy experimental flash on the South African beachfront.

Now! Another fun part! Each WEP challenge we will have a lucky door prize! With the help of random.org, the August winner is: Laura Clipson! Congrats Laura! You have won a $5 Amazon Gift card which will wing its way to you shortly!

Now we want to hear about your WEP experience. Please take the time to comment and congratulate the winners and tell us about your experience. There is a poll in the right-hand sidebar. We would love for you to fill it out so we can make the WEP experience better next time! We have had a debrief and have come up with ways to make it more user friendly in October.

We hope you're already thinking about your Halloween post! There will only be one part to this post--so go scare us!!

Please visit us next week when we'll be guest posting the winner, Elephant's Child.









Don't forget to Spread the Word
We'd love if you'd Tweet one of these:

The #WEPFF has announced the winners of the WEP Spectacular Settings Challenge. @YolandaRenee & @DeniseCCovey http://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2015/09/meet-our-finalists-for-wep-spectacular.html

Congratulate the winners of the #WEPFF Spectacular Settings Challenge. @YolandaRenee & @DeniseCCovey http://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2015/09/meet-our-finalists-for-wep-spectacular.html

Spread the word & celebrate with the winners of #WEPFF Spectacular Settings Challenge. @YolandaRenee & @DeniseCCovey http://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2015/09/meet-our-finalists-for-wep-spectacular.html


42 comments:

  1. Congatulations to the winners - Elephant's Child (so glad she decided to go for it); LG Keltner, and Samantha R. Geary for showing us their unique words, and photos. Also congrats to all the participants for making this the largest group of WEP readings I've joined yet, with such a great variety. Thanks Denise and Yolanda and Donna for managing the challenge. Looking forward to the next one!

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    1. Thanks D. G.
      It's wonderful having a success right out of the gate! Halloween should prove an exciting challenge too. Love the holiday!

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    2. Lovely to have your enthusiastic support D.G. Halloween at Montmartre? Getting chills already! Roll on October!

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  2. This was a great experience and I'm happy for all the winners. I'm definitely going to try this again.

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    1. Hi Toi,
      So glad you enjoyed the challenge. We're glad you're joining the fun on Halloween too!

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    2. Your participation was valued muchly Toi! Thanks for your tweet support too!

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  3. Thank you so much. And particular thanks to D.G. Hudson who nudged my chicken hearted self into stepping outside my comfort zone.
    I was awed at lots of the entries, many of which have carved a niche in my crowded head and heart.
    Big thanks to Denise and Yolanda (and the invisible) Donna for all the work in bringing this together.

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    1. Congratulations again EC! I'm sure you'll be a popular winner! Those entries were beyond awesome and I'm glad I have direct links to read again! I'm so glad you dipped your toes in the water. Thanks to D.G. who motivated you! See, you just never know what can happen when you try a new thing! (Donna won't stay invisible for long, ha ha).

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    2. Hi E C,
      A well-deserved win. Being part of the WEP is magic,truly! Now that you've stepped into the water, I think you'll find the reception very warm. Congratulations again!

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  4. Congratulations to the winners of these quality stories.

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  5. With all the talented writers who entered, it's amazing to be chosen as one of the winners! This made my day! I am definitely planning on participating in October as well.

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    1. L. G. you're one of those talented writers!!!! Congratulations! Well deserved!!!!
      I'm so looking forward to Halloween!

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  6. Congratulations to all the winners, well deserved! I loved reading through their entries. Each post was unique and amazing. Also enjoyed the two part challenge format greatly, loved the way it added to my TBR shelf. Looking forward to October now.

    Thank you Denise and Yolanda for recreating this space.

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    1. That's a good point Nila. It did add to mine too. Maybe we'll have to consider that. Like we could ask for everyone's favourite Halloween or horror story in October? Hmm...

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  7. Congrats to all the winners; but also to everyone who participated. I was unable to read all the entries, or to post one of my own, this month, but I was impressed by the variety of submissions. I love story prompts, and writers of flash fiction. And hats off to Denise and Yolanda for such a spectacular revival. I am looking forward to participating in the October prompt.

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    1. And we're looking forward to hosting you Donna and having you scare the life out of us all! Thanks for guest judging!

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  8. Congrats to the winners and all the participants! Are there links to the winners entries that I missed?

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    1. Thanks, Southpaw, now there are. My bad during a late night edit I managed to delete them all. Now they are there! Thanks for pointing it out!

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  9. Hi everyone,
    I just saw this while reading a blog from IWSG. Congratulations to all who won. It was a great challenge and I enjoyed being a part of it. I won't participate in the Halloween Challenge, but I plan to be back for the last one of the year.
    Thank you Denise and Yolanda. You have done a great job.
    Shalom,
    Patricia

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    1. Hi Patricia,
      Thanks so much for being part of the challenge. We look forward to having you join us again in December. We'll miss you in October. :(
      But we do understand time and the pressures of other obligations. Happy Writing!

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  10. Very well done to Elephant's Child,L.G. Keltner and Samantha R.Geary. What a difficult task it must have been to whittle down the entries. It's so lovely to have WEP back - it was the very first challenge I joined and set me on trying my hand at various writing prompts. It was so great to see and read so many different and varied entries, there is so much untapped talent in the world, so much creativity in many forms and WEP is a great way to be able to enjoy it all.

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    1. Hi Sally,
      All the entries were amazing and to pick a winner, oh my, I never thought it would be so hard. I loved The Beach. It was so natural and real. I felt myself there, and that's real talent! Thanks for participating, can't wait to see what you post for Halloween!

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  11. Congratulations to EC, LG Keltner and Samantha Redstreake Geary!
    Three AMAZING entries!
    I had such a blast visiting different parts of the world, and reading the various FF pieces...

    There were so many good entries, so I'm really thrilled to receive an honorable mention.
    THANK YOU!
    Well done Denise, Yolanda and Donna!

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    1. Hi Michelle, you're welcome, loved your piece, so imaginative! It was a blast reading all the amazing spectacular settings, and the word spectacular hit the nail on the head!

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  12. Hi, Renee. Hi, Denise!

    CONGRATS to the AMAZING winners. I can totally understand why you had such a hard time picking. I was certainly awed by the talent on this challenge...

    EC's entry was stunning...

    LG's intriguing except

    and the incredible descriptions in Samantha's piece...

    I am truly honored to be included in so much talent! Thank you ladies for the Honorable mention. It means a lot...

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    1. You're so welcome Michael, and you so deserve it. That picture was amazing!

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  13. Wahoooo. LOVED all of the entries and especially Elephants Child. She ROCKED IT. I figured she would place. Congratulations to all who entered and to the winners. I loved this challenge. Can't wait for October. Thank you, Yolanda and Denise for such fun. LOVED it!!!! YEAH!

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    1. Hi Robyn,
      You rocked it too! Congratulations on your honorable mention. Your poem really spoke to me. October will be a blast!

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    2. Yolanda, I NEVER saw my name. I read that entire post. AND I never saw my name. I am honored. Truly. As a matter of fact, I did a happy dance when Michelle told me. YES, October will be a blast. I have an idea. :-)

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    3. Isn't that funny that you never saw your name Robyn. You were right up there in our considerations. :-)

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  14. Congratulations to all of the winners! There were some wonderful entries :)
    Thanks for the gift voucher, I can't wait to spend it :)

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    1. Look for it in the next few days, Laura. Gotta organise myself!!

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  15. Many thanks to Yolanda, Denise & Donna! This was such an great way to get back into the virtual writing community! Oh, how I've missed interacting with my blogging buddies and meeting new writerly folks. Oodles of talent in this group--it's a joy to be among you all! Look forward to October's spookfest!

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    1. We are so pleased to welcome you Samantha! Can't wait to see what you come up with for October!

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  16. Congratulations to the winners! I read a few and really enjoyed them. I think this is a wonderful activity for writers to stay inspired!

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    1. Yes, Lexa, the talent was amazing. And inspiring for all of us! Thanks for coming by!

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  17. I'm shocked. I never saw my name when I read this post. I am SO thrilled. To receive Honorable Mention among all these fabulous writers. Do you think my subconscious purposely skipped over my name? WEIRD. THANK YOU. Truly an honor.

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    1. Robyn, it is strange how our mind plays these little tricks. With WEP you just never know what catches our eye! Can't wait till Halloween!

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  18. Hats off to the winners. Way to go. Something to really be proud of here.

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