#WEPFF – WEP- HOLIDAY CELEBRATION WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

Happy Holiday's Everyone!

Thanks to everyone who participated during this very busy time of year. The challenge was particularly difficult as you were asked to write in a science fiction genre, but you rose to the challenge and we have some true masterpieces to enjoy. If you haven't yet, use the links in this piece or click HERE!

AlexJ. Cavanaugh, our guest judge generously took the time to read and comment on each entry. Without any input from us, he's chosen the following winners.

Alex wrote, "It was a difficult choice although I wish nailing down the winners of the IWSG Anthology contest had been this easy! Thanks again for asking me to judge and to write a guest post."

Thank you Alex. Denise, and I find choosing the winners near impossible!

So without further ado – The Winners!

  

THE WINNER OF THE

2015 WEP – HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS 

CHALLENGE IS:

ELEPHANT’S CHILD

&

PRECIOUS PEACE

Alex said, "Not only did it use several of us in the story, (not that that swayed me), there were pop culture references and lots of humor. And presented in such a unique way! Hooked me immediately."

A world without war is the universal wish. If only.

Congratulations EC!

This is your year!

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

2015 WEP – HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS

CHALLENGE IS:

NILANJANA BOSE

&

EMPTY SHOES

Alex wrote, "This came across as a reporter’s story and it was so interesting because it was based on real facts about the International Space Station, ISS and more. Fascinating stuff."

I think we all learned something from reading Nila's non-fiction piece.

Congratulations Nila!

Please accept the badge and display it on your blog with a link to your non-fiction piece!

THE ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD FOR THE

2015 WEP – HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS CHALLENGE

GOES TO

OLGA GODIM's

BLUE SANTA

Alex said, "Told from an alien’s point of view, this one had humorous elements. Dug the main character and would like to see more of him."

Despite his reluctance, alien, Lyd-Co found the Christmas Spirit and saved the holiday for a young believer.

Congratulations Olga!

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

CONGRATULATIONS WINNERS!

This year's entries included poetry, excerpts, and flashes that embraced the challenge's criteria.

Such as Book Lover's 'Earth Day'. Alex wrote of Donna's piece, "She told a solid story about young men and what they’re willing to do to gain an audience with a young woman. It had personality and could easily be a longer story." Donna's story made the short list!

We agree. So many of the stories could be expanded to either novellas or books. It's happened in the past, and it's what the WEP is all about.

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

L.G. Keltner's Unity Day!

D.G. Hudson's Spacer Celebration

Roland Yeoman's Christmas at the End of the Universe

Nancy William's Stow-Away-Faerie

Patrick Coholan's Swirling Outlaw

Jody Harmon's Tubes for Two

J Lenni Dorner's Purple Light

Excerpts such as

Deborah Druker's Zenarra the Warrior Queen

Feather Stone's Madame's Dark Secret

Poetry

Robyn Campbell's Terraform Day

J Lenni Dorner's Purple Light

Desk 49's Beyond Starry Skies

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

Now the WEP will be taking a break 

as we all adjust our lives for the New Year.

But we'll be back in February 2016 with a new challenge!

Denise here. I want to thank Yolanda for helping me bring WEP back to life. She's learnt fast and is a fabulous partner. Thank you Yolanda! There would not have been these 3 challenges without you! And so much fun would have been missed!

If you've been enjoying WEP, please Spread the Word

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

The #WEPFF has announced the winners of the WEP Holiday Celebrations Challenge.  @YolandaRenee @DeniseCCovey & http://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2015/12/wepff-wep-holiday-celebration-winners.html

Congratulate the winners of the #WEPFF Holiday Celebrations Challenge. @YolandaRenee & @DeniseCCovey http://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2015/12/wepff-wep-holiday-celebration-winners.html

Celebrate with the winners of #WEPFF Holiday Celebrations Challenge. @YolandaRenee & @DeniseCCovey http://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2015/12/wepff-wep-holiday-celebration-winners.html

#WEPFF- HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS that are out of this world!

December is the month of celebrations worldwide, below is a list of just a few. For this challenge, we want you to give your favorite celebration a Science Fiction twist. This month's judge is Alex J. Cavanaugh, author of the Cassa Series and Dragon of the Stars.

Winter Holidays Around the World

Diwali - Recently celebrated, Diwali is also known as the festival of light is celebrated at the start of winter in India, Nepal, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Fiji.

Hanukkah - Also known as Channukkah is a 'Festival of Lights'. One of the most important Jewish holidays.

Boxing Day - Also known as St. Stephen's Day, is celebrated the day after Christmas. On this day it is common to give gifts to the poor and needy.

Las Posadas - This is a traditional winter holiday celebrated in Mexico, Guatemala and Southern parts of United States of America.

St. Nicholas Day - This day is especially celebrated in Northern Europe on December 6. St. Nicholas was a protector of the weak against the rich and the strong.

St. Lucias Day - This is a winter holiday celebrated on December 13 in Sweden in honor of St. Lucia, who lived in the third century and is regarded as the patron of light.

Eid-al-Adha - This is a feast that is celebrated by Muslims, to commemorate Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his son, Ishmael, at the behest of God.

Kwanzaa - Literally meaning 'First Fruits', this has its basis on an ancient harvest festival of Africa which celebrates ideals like collective responsibility and work; self-determination; co-operation; purpose; creativity; faith; and unity.

Hogmanay - This is a Scottish word which means the last day of the year and is basically celebrating the New Year, according to the Gregorian calendar, in the Scottish way.

Japanese New Year - New Year celebration is one of the most major events in Japan. New Year's Eve is known as Omisoka in Japan. The Japanese spend a lot of time shopping and cleaning their houses in preparation for the new year. This symbolizes getting rid of the past and starting afresh.

For this month, we want you to take us out of this world, whether in a flash fiction piece, a non-fiction piece, a poetic interlude, maybe a photograph or an artwork with an otherworldly flavor and explanation for how it relates to the challenge. This time the sky's not the limit! Think on some of the holidays above and if you need more prompting, remember these are merely suggestions and in no way have to turn up in your entry.

Further prompts:

What if space travel was necessary?

- The world is succumbing to the abuse of its population, and flights to other planets occur regularly...or

- It's simply an opportunity to travel to other planets, say for vacation, a job opportunity, or because it's always been a dream, but you depart or arrive during the Holidays.

- How would you write a farewell scene that takes place on that special Holiday? It could be lovers, families, or friends that are departing.

- What if your job is the Entertainment Director of a new settlement? You have a diverse population, what would you do to celebrate the 'holidays' of the crowd or would you imagine an entire new celebration?

So, scriveners, use your experience, memories, or your out-of-control imagination to write a Holiday Celebration that is out of this World! Or a farewell that is of this world!

December 16 – 19

1000 words or less

Don't forget to share the Challenge!

Tweet one of these:

Do you have an idea for a Holiday celebration that's out of this world @DeniseCCovey & @YolandaRenee join us http://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2015/12/wepff-holiday-celebrations-that-are-out.html #WEPFF

Flash Fiction a Holiday that's out of this world What planet would you visit?@DeniseCCovey & @YolandaRenee http://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2015/12/wepff-holiday-celebrations-that-are-out.html #WEPFF

How would you celebrate the New Year in Space? Holiday Flash Fiction Challenge @DeniseCCovey & @YolandaRenee http://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2015/12/wepff-holiday-celebrations-that-are-out.html #WEPFF

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WEP challenges for 2015. Why we believe in WEP.

Hello there!

Denise here. It's taken awhile to get to our second post, but Yolanda has had edits of her third novel, and I've been travelling up and down New Caledonia. You can check out my trip here. Now Yolanda's edits are all but done and I'm back, so let's get down to the fun part of WEP.

We present to you our Challenge Badge for what remains of 2015. As you see there are only three. We don't want to wear you out, so we'll go slow. This way there's plenty of time for you to participate in other challenges you may be involved in, and of course, November is NaNoWriMo for most of us.

OUR CHALLENGE BADGE:

We'd love it if you would copy this badge and post it onto your blog .

You are most welcome to post it in a blog post to help promote WEP.

For this we would be very grateful. Just send us a link so we can visit your blog!

So on August 19, we have our first challenge, Spectacular Settings. Very soon I will publish a post on settings as a prelude to our challenge. Meanwhile, think about some aspect of setting that comes to you. As you know, you are welcome to post flash fiction, non fiction, poetry, photographs, artwork...go for it, but try to keep under the 1,000 word limit. 

Our Halloween challenge, Youthful Frights Vs Adult Fears, will be posted early, so you can participate in other Halloween challenges if you wish. Yolanda is the horror Queen, so she has taken charge of this one! As well as a winner's badge, there will be an Amazon $10 gift card to the entry that catches our eye and disturbs our dreams!

The December challenge, Holiday Celebrations that are out of this world, will have a definite sci-fi flavour, so that will be an excellent way for those of us who don't write in this genre to think outside the square. It will be fun!

For further information on all three challenges, click on the page above. 

Now as mentioned in our previous post, there will be judges for each challenge, and we will return to the RFW (RomanticFridayWriters) idea of choosing a WINNER,  a RUNNER UP, and an ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD for each challenge. A guest judge will read through our 3 choices, then decide on the winning order. There will also be a wrap up of each entry.

HERE ARE THE WINNER'S BADGES:

Can't you just see your name and a link to your story on one of these?

WHY WE BELIEVE IN WEP:

So in case you're wondering, why do we feel so passionately about running an online writing challenge group? Let's try to put our passion into words...

Writing prompts are designed to help us start writing. And I don't just mean fiction. You may be a poet, a creative non fiction writer, an essayist. It doesn't matter. Sure, most who accept the WEP challenge write either flash fiction or poetry, but all writing is creative. Many creative writers use prompts every day to get into the writing groove. Some call these exercises free writing. Once they've jump-started their writing, they often move on to their WIP, energised and refreshed. 

Not that anyone here suffers from writer's block, but just say you did, a writing prompt can hasten the return of your muse. Sometimes when nothing else works, a writing exercise will! 

The best part of writing challenges such as we host here at WEP, is that your entry could be edited, rewritten, transformed into a longer piece, a short story, or even a novel. Many of us have had this experience. And it all started with a writing challenge, a very powerful tool.

Often someone leaves a comment about how we have improved as a writer with each challenge. It's true. We learn our craft by writing to prompts and editing for clarity and a word limit. Sentence structure, paragraphing, punctuation, grammar, dialogue...all can be improved in this little writer's laboratory. 

Hi folks, Yolanda here. Are those badges awesome or what? Kudos to Denise. She out-did herself with those! As a collector of old typewriters, that Winner's badge is way too cool!

Just popping in to say Hi! and let you and Denise know that first edits are done, so my attention is back on WEP. And to reiterate Denise--I know first hand that participating in Flash Fiction challenges are an excellent way of honing our writing skills. When you have to write a story with a beginning, middle and ending in only 1,000 words, well, it's called a challenge for a reason. Cutting, tightening, and rewriting until only the meat of the story remains, is a skill your editors will appreciate.

Please join us. We promise to make the journey informative, rewarding and fun!

Don't forget to share the Challenge!

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

#WEPFF 2015 Challenges and dates are now up join the WEP Flash Fiction Challenge http://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2015/07/wep-challenges-for-2015-why-we-believe.html  @DeniseCCovey &@YolandaRenee  

#WEPFF The first Challenge is Spectacular Settings – join the fun on August 19  http://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2015/07/wep-challenges-for-2015-why-we believe.html  @DeniseCCovey &  @YolandaRenee

#WEPFF Winners badges designed by Denise are Perfection! Join the WEP to win at http://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2015/07/wep-challenges-for-2015-why-we-believe.html  @DeniseCCovey & @YolandaRenee