WEP wrap up and WINNERS of the Valentine's Day challenge!

Hello Everyone!

Thanks to all who participated during the 2016 Valentine's Day WEP challenge. It is amazing how different each entry was which made the reading delightful. Some had to think deeply before posting as they are not into VD at all, but they rose to the challenge with great aplomb. There was a good mix of fiction and non fiction. If you still haven't finished reading, please continue, using the links on the previous post.


We value each and every story submitted to WEP. Here is a quick overview of the entries (in  no particular order): (In the interest of time, I haven't linked them. The links are found in the previous post.)

LG KELTNER - Dani Dinklemeier's Valentine's Day Survival Guide. "Valentine's Day can be a tough time for those of us who don't fit into the typical order of things." 

PATRICK CONOLGAN - How you need to think Valentine's with Education - An intriguing and very different take on love and communication.

ROBYN CAMPBELL - A striking poem 'Love's Lost and Found Day'. In the preamble, Robyn said: "I wrote this to show how I felt when my husband fell off our roof a couple of years ago. The kids and I thought he was dead."

NILANJANA BOSE: Two poetic types for Valentine's - a sonnet and a ghazal. Both were amazingly written, poignant and moving with context provided to deepen the experience - minimalist, rhythmic and replete with imagery.

DEBORAH DRUCKER: Love in Autumn. Older women know who they are and that they have a depth of experience and life to share.

PAT GARCIA - STINE. A Valentine's story which could be seen as an abusive relationship just beginning. Or just a happy-go-lucky girl who doesn't mind a controlling guy...for now.

SAMANTHA: The Bridge Between Lost and Found. A unique entry which used the winners of Sam's commenting contest on her Lost and Found Blogfest entry, to people her playful story set in a sleepy little town nuzzled in the North Carolina mountains.

M PEPPER LANGLINAIS AT PEPPER WORDS: A Valentine's non-fiction entry about friends and Valentine's Day.

MADILYN QUINN: A blossoming love story between Judah and Tabitha set on campus. Very well-drawn characters.

ELEPHANT'S CHILD: Sue has given us a touching true story of the gift of an 'unromantic' husband.

NANCY WILLIAMS: The Annual Coloring of Flowers Day. A delightful story of the love between faeries, Wondrous and Raindrop.

kalpanaa: Valentines becomes Galantines. A great non-fiction take on Valentine's, where a group of girls choose to celebrate together in India.

LINDA KATMARIAN: A vampire story with a difference with mostly charming characters. We would all love to know a Rosa and we'd all like to see that healing quilt finished.

HANNAH BANANAFACE:  A heartbreaking story loosely based on real life drama yet filled with hope. A warning to stay away from cigarettes.

OLGA GODIM: Hannah's Rugelach was moving and so very beautiful. Full of hurt and hope. A Holocaust survivor story, yet much more.

RIVER: The Guilted Rose. The receiving of guilt roses/flowers is nothing new, but crafted into a clever non-fiction story by river.

C LEE MCKENZIE: A true story of Jolly, Lee's first dog who still has her heart.

ARPAN GHOSH: Forever. Another vampire story, but very subtly wrought. Some of the commenters weren't quite sure until the bite marks at the end. Very atmospheric.

KATE MCMANUS: The Lost Letter of Valentinus. I read this while waiting for a plane and found it riveting. Cleverly told through the voice of a sixteen-year old boy working on his Latin dissertation.

SALLY'S SCRIBBLES: The Generation Gap. A lovely reminder that generations do need to know about their families,They need to hear stories such as this. And what a beautiful illustration!

ROLAND YEOMANS: Love does not exist in a vacuum. There is no excuse for killing for killing's sake, especially of the innocent.

YOLANDA RENEE: Snow Moon. Haunting, beautiful, heart-rending tale of lost love.

DENISE COVEY: To My Darling Valentine. An imaginary letter penned in the Simpson Desert of Australia lamenting lost love and the end of hope. 

The entries that made the long list are:

Arpan Ghosh
Linda Katmarian
Elephant's Child
Samantha Redstreake Geary
C Lee McKenzie
Olga Godim
Deborah Drucker
river

The entries that made the short list: 

river
Arpan Ghosh
Samantha Redstreake Geary
Olga Godim

Francine Howarth, our guest judge generously took the time to put the final 4 into the winning order.

Francine wrote, " Thanks again for asking me to judge and to write a guest post (which can be found HERE)."

So without further ado – The Winners!

  

THE OUTRIGHT WINNER OF THE

2016 WEP VALENTINE'S DAY CHALLENGE IS:

ARPAN GHOSH
&
FOREVER

Francine said, "'Forever' is a refreshing break from the standardised Valentine's Day tale of romance, and it duly crushed the inevitable happily ever after. Luckily, I am quite at home stepping into the dark side of romance."

Congratulations Arpan!

Please accept the winner's badge and display on your blog with a link to your excellent story. 

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

THE RUNNER UP OF THE

2016 WEP – VALENTINE'S DAY

CHALLENGE IS:

OLGA GODIM
&
HANNAH'S RUGELACH

Congratulations Olga on your touching Holocaust survivor story!

Please accept the Runner Up badge and display on your blog with a link to your excellent story. 

THE ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD FOR THE

2016 WEP – VALENTINE'S DAY CHALLENGE

GOES TO

SAMANTHA REDSTREAKE GEARY
&
THE BRIDGE BETWEEN LOST AND FOUND

Congratulations Writerly Sam for your wonderful collation!

Please accept the badge and display it on your blog with a link to your story!

CONGRATULATIONS WINNERS!

Thanks everyone, for an exciting February!
You're all winners in our eyes!

The goal is to take on a challenge, surprise not only your readers but also yourself, and turn that experiment into a true masterpiece.

We'll be back in June 2016 with a new challenge - Gardens! Meanwhile, write as much as you can!

Please click the social media buttons below to share this post! Yolanda has been compiling the pre-written tweets, but is unwell at the moment. Sorry. Must learn this skill! Get well, Yolanda!! 

#GuestPost, Francine Howarth, on writer collaboration in Anthologies

Hello friends!

Denise here.

Our Valentine's Day challenge is to be judged by Francine Howarth, UK prolific author of Regency Romance. Francine was my original partner in RomanticFridayWriters, which morphed into Write...Edit...Publish so as not to bamboozle those who didn't think 'romance' was their thing. But really, when we think of the stories we love, most have some romantic element, (see my blog post on Romance V Romantic Writing here) and that was what RFW was all about...edgy flash fiction with a romantic element within.

Francine Howarth

Francine has moved on to a very successful career. Last time I checked her Amazon Author Page, she had 21 books listed! She has tapped into the pulse of what makes a successful romance author. But today she has chosen not to talk about her writing career...rather she chose to talk about one form of collaboration which has always intrigued me, and I hope, you too...well, let's hear it from Francine...

Hi, I’m Francine, and first let me say how honoured I felt when asked to do a guest post for Write, Edit, Publish, so thank you Denise and Yolanda.

It’s all very well saying, yes, I’ll do a piece for magazine, blog, whatever, until the mind goes blank. Yikes, and did my mind go into dead zone, until inspiration hit. So here I am, and rather than promote myself and my own books per se, I’m writing about the daunting task of compiling works by many authors for what became a charity anthology set within the Georgian & Regency eras.

As one would expect, the process of getting together for a collaborative working relationship is just the first stage in finding like-minded people. Our ideal became a themed anthology comprising of its own history base – The Chocolate House – which required a little forethought, more especially when the participants were from all around the globe and not one member of the group had met the other in person. Trust was therefore a major factor until the group slowly began bonding as a whole, thence mutual support from within built with every aspect of the process, and became enjoyable as the project proceeded.

In the early stages of our anthology characters came to light and names were cross-referenced, and thereby namesakes cropping up in different storylines saved the anthology from falling foul to the unmentionable of a Lady Jane Marchment in one story, and a Miss Jane Whitcombe stepping out in another story. Admittedly Jane is a common enough name for the eras depicted, but two Janes in the same anthology . . . Well, simply put; we were not at home to Mr Cockup.   

As always in writing stories, blood was sweated, tears were almost shed, laughter arose from amusing quips, and we came through with a sensual blend of Chocolate, Romance, Murder and Mystery at "Masqueraders". Each novella is a complete story, though one or two may now, or did when first written, link to other novels by individual authors.

The overall background setting is the beautiful City of Bath, famous for its Roman Spa, its Abbey, its Pump Room; Assembly Rooms, and Sally Lunn’s bun shop. The city itself has been made famous within the literary world by the likes of Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, and other authors of Georgian and Regency historical novels. Thus Bath is renowned as a place for intrigue and romance, but few readers will have stepped across the threshold of Masqueraders’, a notorious and fashionable Chocolate House, that existed within the city from 1700 to the latter part of the reign of William IV. What happened to it thereafter no one knows, for sure. Nor does anyone know why Sally Lunn’s bun shop disappeared in the mid 1700s, and remained undiscovered for decades until renovation work and the old ovens were rediscovered behind panelling in the 20th century.

So it could be said, essence of chocolate drifting on the ether denotes where the seemingly mystical Masqueraders’ once existed. All stories are in some way linked to The Chocolate House, and each author is represented with a brief biography and links to appropriate web pages. We’d love it if you would visit us and like our FB page at: https://www.facebook.com/thechocolatehouse/

If you would like to go one step further, you might like to purchase a copy of “The Chocolate House”:  Amazon UK -  AmazonUS

All  royalties earned will be donated to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London. 

And thank you for reading.

Thank you Francine for visiting us and sharing the story of a successful collaboration. 

Maybe there is a writer you've thought you'd like to collaborate with in the future. Maybe Francine's post was just what you needed to encourage you. It can be done. Like to read more? L.G. Keltner, who has written for WEP, won the IWSG Anthology competition has posted on the IWSG website on submitting to anthologies.

And a huge shout out for Yolanda who made the cut into the anthology. Congratulations Yolanda!

Now this post is to whet your appetite for the first WEP challenge of the year! The Valentine's Day linky will open on February 1. Please join us!

Francine Howarth talks collaboration!

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

Romance writer Francine Howarth visits the WEP.  @DeniseCCovey & @YolandaRenee join us http://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2016/01/guestpost-francine-howarth-on-writer.html #WEPFF

Are you interested in collaborating to write a book? @DeniseCCovey & @YolandaRenee http://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2016/01/guestpost-francine-howarth-on-writer.html #WEPFF

Regency Romance author Francine Howarth shares a few writing secrets. @DeniseCCovey & @YolandaRenee http://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2016/01/guestpost-francine-howarth-on-writer.html #WEPFF