Welcome to #WEP - Write...Edit...Publish AUGUST Challenge -- CHANGE OF HEART

Hello there beloved writers!

It's time for our AUGUST challenge, CHANGE OF HEART.

This month, we welcome writers from the IWSG (Insecure Writers Support Group) who are joining the challenge. Some are already regulars and I'm hoping many more will become part of the WEP team as well.

The WEP team have a GUEST POST on the IWSG website on August 6. Here is the link which won't go live until August 6:  
http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/2018/08/writing-together-with-wep-and-iswg.html

Here are some suggestions for this challenge:

• a commitment made when a prospect looked attractive, 
• a decision on a course of action, and then regrets and reluctance to follow through,  
• an engagement, a date, a diet plan, a chore someone said they’d do and didn’t follow through,  
• a strip poker-game. Or maybe a gamble with super-high, panic inducing stakes, 
• a break for independence that once made, gives pause for second thoughts,
• a bolt for the grass-always-greener pasture and then wanting to vault-n-turn right back,
• a broken relationship where one/both parties regret the loss
• something offered, then withdrawn.  

Myriad ways to go.  

Over to you. Sign up now. Please remember to add WEP to your post title so it's easily spotted. We like to have all participants on the blogroll, please have a quick scan and tell us if your blog is missing and email Denise if it's not there!
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We'd love it if you'd tweet one of these:

The WEP/IWSG August Challenge CHANGE OF HEART - @YolandaRenee @DeniseCCovey @TheIWSG https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2018/08/welcome-to-wep-writeeditpublish-august.html #amwriting #ff #WEPFF  

The WEP 2018 August Challenge Change of Heart - @YolandaRenee @DeniseCCovey @TheIWSG https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2018/08/welcome-to-wep-writeeditpublish-august.html #amwriting #flashfiction #WEPFF 

A Change of Heart? August’s Challenge @YolandaRenee & @DeniseCCovey @TheIWSG https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2018/08/welcome-to-wep-writeeditpublish-august.html #WEPFF #amwriting #flashfiction

Join @YolandaRenee @DeniseCCovey @TheIWSG for the Latest FF Challenge Change of Heart https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2018/08/welcome-to-wep-writeeditpublish-august.html #WEPFF #amwriting #flashfiction

What does a Change of Heart mean to you? Tell @YolandaRenee @DeniseCCovey @TheIWSG in this month’s challenge and you may be our next winner! https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2018/08/welcome-to-wep-writeeditpublish-august.html #WEPFF #amwriting #flashfiction

There will be no Change of Heart when you join and take part! @YolandaRenee @DeniseCCovey @TheIWSG https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2018/08/welcome-to-wep-writeeditpublish-august.html #WEPFF #amwriting #flashfiction

**IF YOU WANT TO SHARE THE CHALLENGE ON YOUR BLOG, COPY THIS SCRIPT:

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#Winners #GuestPost for #WEP June challenge - UNRAVELED YARN - Elephant's Child on a PARADOX. Plus - An exciting partnership for WEP!

Hi! Denise here!

A huge congratulations to Elephant's Child who won the WEP June challenge, UNRAVELED YARN with her non-fiction story described as 'Very powerful stuff and causes one to think about how things could have been different.' If you haven't read it yet, go to this link!

Elephant's Child sent through this text which encapsulates what she has to share today...

Over to Elephant's Child...

Paradox.

Was the internet (and specifically blogs) designed with selfish introverts like me in mind?

Curiosity is one of my defining characteristics.

I am also an introvert.  It isn't that I don't like people, or am not interested in them, or even that I am particularly shy which are all common introvert myths.  I am interested in people, immensely so, but I find them exhausting.  Exhausting to the point of nausea and collapse.  

I need quiet time (preferably alone) to recover. 

Discovering the internet certainly scratched my curiosity itch (although it createed new ones).  Discovering the blogosphere was like coming home.

I learn from other bloggers, on so many levels and about so many subjects.  I marvel at their creations across a whole range of genres.  

I laugh with them.  

I weep with and for them.  

And, if I am tired or overwhelmed, I can shut down the screen and take time out without offending anyone.  Bliss.

Thanks to the internet, my horizons have been expanded immeasurably, and access to that much wider world has been reduced to a finger click.  

A paradox for which I am immensely grateful.

Those of you who follow ninja Alex J Cavanaugh's blog will already know that there's something happening with WEP and the IWSG. He's been dropping hints. 

Great news! 

The IWSG approached us in late May regarding a partnership. After some thought, we saw the benefit of growing our group by joining together. A couple of the IWSG admin already join us for challenges on a regular basis and others have popped in from time to time, so they know us well. 

By forming a partnership, we can call on the superior marketing skills of the IWSG as none of the WEP team is into marketing/promotion. With so much competition in the bloghop arena, getting our name out there and giving more writers the chance to showcase their work (from beginner to professional) is awesome.

Along with marketing, we welcome our new judge from the IWSG, Nick Wilford. 

Nick is a speculative author and editor. He had a trial run in June and did an awesome job in putting our shortlisters into winning order. The bonus is he's easy to work with. We'll continue to send Nick our shortlist and he and another judge (new each challenge - yet to be chosen) will decide the winners. 

Good news for long-time WEPpers! Nothing will change for you! Except there'll be more competition for those prizes. At this stage we are keeping the challenges every second month and will be working through our 2018 challenges as on our Pages and badge in the sidebar - so August/October/December to go. The IWSG is going to run a competition for the best challenge to begin 2019, so be aware that's happening soon!

More news! A mixture of good and bad. 

Our very own horror queen, Yolanda Renee, will be running the October Deju Vu/Halloween/Horror challenge as her last hurrah before leaving the team due to health challenges. I hope you'll all rock up and rock Yolanda's world as she goes out with a bang or a shriek or a scream!

Those of you who receive the IWSG newsletter (SIGN UP HERE) will see they're making the announcement in late July and I'll be guest posting early August, explaining some of WEP's history (did you know we've been around - transforming - since 2010?)

So, lovely WEP people, please continue with us! I look forward to the August CHANGE OF HEART challenge where hopefully we'll welcome many new writers! Please show your WEP friendly spirit and welcome them! And don't worry. We'll still be the warm, supportive online writing group you've come to love!

JOIN US IN AUGUST!

And here is the joint badge. We'd love it if you post it on your site! If you prefer the one with rays in the sidebar, you're welcome to show that one!

And please, if the pop up pops up, asking you to SUBSCRIBE, please leave your email address for us to add to the list!

So, congratulations again to Elephant's Child.

Any questions re the partnership, email Denise.

We'd love if you'd Tweet one of these:

#WEPFF Unraveled Yarn Winners announced. @DeniseCCovey &@YolandaRenee http://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2018/07/winners-guestpost-for-wep-june.html #amwriting #flashfiction

Come congratulate Elephant's Child, first place winner #WEPFF Unraveled Yarn Challenge @DeniseCCovey @YolandaRenee http://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2018/07/winners-guestpost-for-wep-june.html #amwriting #flashfiction

The #WEPFF writers are all winners! @DeniseCCovey & @YolandaRenee http://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2018/07/winners-guestpost-for-wep-june.html #amwriting #flashfiction

#WEPff UNRAVELED YARN - Winners!

When we set the prompt, UNRAVELED YARN, the team wondered how it would be received. We needn't have worried. Your posts explored 'yarn' from many and varied POVs, some literal, some metaphoric, some fictional, some raw non-fiction, some poetic. The variety showed the creativity of the writer's mind.

The reading part of a WEP challenge is easy for the team, even though we often go back several times for a re-read. Then another read if there are similar stories. Then comes the hard part. Choosing three outstanding entries. Often the writers who make the final cut tugged at our heartstrings and stood out above the rest or simply entertained us. Whatever the process, coming to a final decision should be easier, but how we respond to writing is SO subjective. What floats one's boat, sinks another's.

UNRAVELED YARN resulted in some deep responses. Isn't that really the point of writing? To garner an emotional response in our readers? That's the sort of thing editors crave from submissions that cross their desks. Here at WEP, we like being emotionally involved in your stories and poetry. 

Here is a quick run through of the entries, excepting your hosts':

Pat Garcia – Engaging, emotional as always. Pat's heroine was someone with insecurities we could sympathise with. 

Carrie Golden – charmed us with her micropoetry on the unravelling that happens during a heat wave.

Christopher Scott - combined punk fiction with classical mythology to weave a thought provoking tale. Fixing fate is a tricky job!

L G Keltner – riveted us with her chilling, powerful flash on abuse, murder and thwarted revenge in the afterlife.

Pat Hatt – delivered with great panache another of his dark, nasty and extremely clever tales.

Kalpanaa – came in with a poetry entry that beautifully combined unravelling and yarn with gender stereotypes, expectations and freedom.

DG Hudson– gave us another snippet of her stellar sci-fi story set on an abandoned space station where some mysterious intruders are up to something disconcerting.

Jo-ke Ojo–  was amazing as always. Her brilliant poem explored the trappings and unravelling of gender identities.

Desk 49 – spun a fun, light hearted flash in prose this time, a change from his usual poetry posts.

Elephant's Child - posted a stunning, courageous and poignant memoir of a life unravelled by grief and alcoholism and its far reaching ramifications.
C. Lee McKenzie - delivered a poetry entry with splendidly evocative imagery and metaphors. Generations of women and the knowledge, or ignorance, of handling yarns.

Deborah Drucker – showed us that loneliness can take us down a dark path.

Orlin - a cute, playful take on the prompt with kittens literally unravelling the yarn, told from a cat POV done to a turn.

Jaya - posted a well-crafted and sorrowful tale of the unravelling of a suburban neighbourhood to creeping urbanisation. A dream home turned into a nightmare under the boots of progress.

Hilary Melton-Butcher -  wove a cool, colourful flash with children and wool and a napping grandpa which felt almost like a fairy tale, interspersed with amazing images, as is her forte.

Crystal Jepsen -  a first timer at WEP, Crystal gave us a disturbing and powerful flash on child abuse. Looking out for her future entries!

Dolarah - wrote an exquisitely atmospheric tale of an everyday hero set in small town USA. Is this navy Seal-turned-small-town-good Samaritan as whole and as wholesome as he appears?

Randomzb - Another first timer. Randomzb gave us a flash which kept the reader guessing whether grandfather was reminiscing or telling a tall tale. A Turkish delight!

Elephant's Child - non-fiction

Pat Hatt - flash fiction

L.G. Keltner - flash fiction

C. Lee McKenzie - poetry

Pat Garcia - flash fiction

Dolorah - flash fiction

As we couldn't get a consensus amongst ourselves, I outsourced the shortlist to writer and editor, Nick Wilford, who is also associated with the Insecure Writers Support Group (IWSG). (More on that in a later post.) Nick kindly read each entry on the shortlist, giving the following feedback:

Elephant's Child - non-fiction - 'Very powerful stuff and causes one to think about how things could have been different. Excellent interpretation of the theme.'

Pat Hatt - flash fiction -  'Packs quite a punch and took me by surprise! I know this one wasn't a poem, but it had a lot of haunting and poetic images and something of a flow to it. Dark and mysterious.'

L.G. Keltner - flash fiction - 'Powerful and moving. A great take on the theme.'

C. Lee McKenzie - poetry - 'Great structure, stream of consciousness feel. Manages to convey regret, nostalgia and hope in only a few words. Nice job.'

Pat Garcia - flash fiction - 'Very vivid and intrigued me to know more.'

Dolorah - flash fiction - 'Nice and understated, but hints at something deeper going on. Leaves it to the reader to fill in the blanks. Great folksy feel to it.'


So finally, we came up with three winners.

THE WINNER OF THE

2018 WEP JUNE CHALLENGE UNRAVELED YARN

is ELEPHANT'S CHILD 

Congratulations Elephant's Child!
Please link the badge to your story and post it on your blog!

An Amazon Gift Card of $10 will be winging your way shortly.

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THE RUNNER UP OF THE

2018 WEP JUNE CHALLENGE UNRAVELED YARN 

is C. LEE McKENZIE

Congratulations Lee!

Please link the badge to your story and post it on your blog!

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THE ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD FOR THE

2018 WEP JUNE CHALLENGE UNRAVELED YARN 

is L. G. Keltner

Congratulations L. G.!
Please link the badge to your story and post it on your blog!

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All prospective winners are vetted for their comments before they are awarded a prize. 

Why? Because WEP is a supportive writing community where each person is valued. Wouldn't we all be sad if no one took the time to read/comment on our posts?

For the very strong commenters, we made a special award. 

For the inaugural Commenting Champion Award, issued in April for the Road Less Traveled prompt, we acknowledged Desk49. 

For June, we pass the Commenter Award to Elephant's Child, who, even when she cannot take part in the writing challenge, often reads all our entries and comments. That's true dedication!

Thank you Elephant's Child!. Please accept the badge and display on your blog!

We thank our team member, Olga, for the creative winners' badges. And kudos to team member Nila who re-read all the entries whilst in India to produce those alluring blurbs on each! 

THANK YOU TO ALL PARTICIPANTS!

THE NEW TIMEZONE:  In June, WEP began posting to EST (East Coast USA) time which is shown on the clock on the site. Still, we sent out 5 reminders to late posters. In the future, we will no longer send reminders. Late posters often lack readers, so remember to post your entry on or before the challenge date according to the clock on the website. The linky will tell you how many hours to closing time. Thanks for making our lives easier!

Relative to comments: try to set up your comment system so it's easy to comment! No Google+ please. Leave a message on our CBox or in comments if you cannot post comments on someone's site.

NEW ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING AUGUST WEP COMING SOON! WATCH THIS SPACE AND YOUR EMAIL!

Thanks, everyone, for joining us in JUNE. We appreciate each and every one of you. 

Our next Challenge will be in AUGUST -- CHANGE OF HEART! 

So what's your CHANGE OF HEART going to be about? And I think this is the most gorgeous of Olga's badges yet. How about you?

On the Challenges Page you’ll find the prompt schedule for the year and further inspiration for the next prompt.

Be sure to return to read the winner’s guest post in a couple of weeks!

We'd love if you'd Tweet this post or share to Facebook or your favorite social media site.

Your Hosts…

Denise – Renée – Nilanjana – Olga