#WEP WINNERS - DECEMBER 2022 "THE FIRST TIME EVER I SAW YOUR FACE" - AND ANNOUNCING 2023 MOVIE POSTER INSPIRATIONS

HAPPY NEW YEAR, FRIENDS!

We're wrapping up the year 2022 with the "THE FIRST TIME EVER I SAW YOUR FACE" winner's post. As usual, this prompt took our writers in all different directions. Thanks to all the superbly talented writers who took part, the WEP challenges once again were so very hard to judge.

Thank you, everyone, for your outstanding entries:

Thanks to Jemi, here's a round-up of the taglines for all entries posted:

Denise Covey - Your Face, Your Face, Your Face - More than cooking goes on in the kitchen

Nilanjana Bose - Chiaroscuro - A random photo can open up a can of worms

Yolanda Renée - The First Time - Love defined

Beth Camp - When You Say Yes - Saying yes to a simple request can change your life

Olga Godim - The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - Kidnapped by a pirate, the Finder can’t resist the pull of her magic

NR Williams - The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - Love, acceptance, compassion

Hilary Melton Butcher - The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - Glory Be…a Cruel Unmasking…What a stink for Christmas Joy

Jemi Fraser - Harry’s Mission - Harry's on a mission to see a face for the first time

Roland Clarke - Soul Seeds - Slava Ukrayini

Ornery Owl - First and Last Memories - a tribute in the form of Choka poetry

Pat Garcia - The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - He turned to talk to the man on his left side and the full extent of the scar, the zigzagged flesh that marred the terrain of his otherwise sculptured face, had me wondering who could have been so angry as to mark him so brutally.

Bernadette Braganza - I Saw You! - A child’s curiosity leads to an unexpected discovery

Roland Clarke - (Act 3) Swords to Ploughshares - Night Witches look to the Peace after the firestorm

Sonia Dogra - The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - We choose to be handcuffed by rolling letters

Sally Stackhouse - The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - A forbidden meeting

LG Keltner - Seeing You - The line between love and obsession is easily crossed

J Lenni Dorner - ANTiation - A true face is revealed

Jamie - Face Of Fratricide - What did they expect with a name like King?

Carole Stolz - The First and Only! - Love can be deceitful, even fateful

Shortlist

So many great entries. We had such trouble whittling down our choices. This is our full list, but only 3 could win!

Sonia Dogra

Pat Garcia

Roland C. Clarke

Ornery Owl

Beth Camp

J Lenni Dorner

Carole Stolz

Jamie 

         Bernadette Braganza           

Commenting

Thank you to all those who comment widely, especially those who read and comment even when they do not have an entry in the ring or are unwell. Commenting is super important to us both as feedback towards the improvement of writing craft and as a communication channel for community building.

Sadly, this month as in months past we've had commenting issues. No one's quite sure what is going on, but it is not just a WordPress/Blogger issue. Please check the comments on the WEP post or the C-Box where we posted comments that wouldn't take on blogs. 

Please note that due to incessant spamming issues, we have had to keep comment moderation on. So your comment may not show up right away, but we will get to it soonest possible. We value your comments, please keep them coming. 

The December Prize:

 Award-winning writer and artist Olga Godim is offering to help design a book cover, critique a short story, a flash, or a chapter -  up to you.

Visit Olga's Blog: Olga Godim writing!

NOW LET'S CONGRATULATE THE WINNERS! 

THE WINNER OF THE 

DECEMBER 2022 CHALLENGE, 

THE FIRST TIME EVER I SAW YOUR FACE, 

IS 

CONGRATULATIONS, PAT

THE FIRST TIME EVER I SAW YOUR FACE is a heartfelt tome of love.

Nick said - "A sweet portrait of love and devotion. Very nicely done."

PAT, please post this badge and link it to your winning entry. Enjoy the critique prize or pass it on if you’d prefer. We look forward to a guest post here on a topic of your choice soon.

THE RUNNER-UP OF THE

DECEMBER 2022 CHALLENGE IS

ROLAND C. CLARKE -

CONGRATULATIONS, ROLAND!

Thank you for the reading pleasure of SWORDS TO PLOUGHSHARES.

Nick said, "A moving exploration of the human side of war and how love finds a way in the direst circumstances."

Roland, Please take this badge and link it to your winning entry on your blog.

AND FINALLY, THE ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD

FOR THE DECEMBER 2022 CHALLENGE

GOES TO -

BERNADETTE BRAGANZA!

CONGRATULATIONS, BERNADETTE!

Thank you for a sweet Christmas tale of I SAW YOU!

Nick said, “Whimsical and fun. A great antidote to the heavier pieces..”

Bernadette,  please take this badge and link it to your entry on your blog.

Thank you to all our amazing participants for your entries. We read so many magnificent and magnificently varied takes on this month’s prompt!  

PLEASE SHARE ACROSS YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA SITES.

We announce our WEP DECEMBER 2022 THE FIRST TIME winners @DeniseCCovey @yolandarenee @LGKeltner @OlgaGodim @jemifraser #amwriting #writingcontest #flashfiction #wepwinners https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2022/12/wep-winners-december-2022-first-time.html

#WEPFF DECEMBER 2022 THE FIRST TIME EVER I SAW YOUR FACE winners announced @DeniseCCovey @yolandarenee @LGKeltner @OlgaGodim @jemifraser https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2022/12/wep-winners-december-2022-first-time.html  #amwriting #flashfiction #wepwinners #writingcontest

Come congratulate our DECEMBER THE FIRST TIME winners! #WEPFF Challenge @DeniseCCovey @yolandarenee @OlgaGodim @LGKeltner @jemifraser #amwriting #flashfiction #wepwinners #writingcontest https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2022/12/wep-winners-december-2022-first-time.html

ANNOUNCING

 2023 

AS THE YEAR OF

Movie Prompts 

PLEASE JOIN US!

As it was the Movie Poster we found

most inspiring we'll be starting off

in February with

"GONE WITH THE WIND"

Remember, it's all about what inspires you:

GWTW can be the springboard for a million ideas- civil war, love, the definition of beauty (‘Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful but men seldom realized it..’), racism, slavery, strong women, gun violence, plantations, breaking conventions, the bond between fathers and daughters, mothers and daughters, the love for a piece of land, a lament for a vanishing society…alternatively, even an essay on the stars or the film director or the author Margaret Mitchell or some aspect of the making of the film...endless opportunities for creativity.

Post-February 15 to the 17th 2023

See you in the 

NEW YEAR 2023!

Here's to YOU!

Yolanda, for

And before we go, I, (Denise) wish to thank my team for helping me get through a very challenging time which is ongoing. Without them, WEP would not be possible. And how sad not to have this refreshing writing challenge to motivate us to dig deep and learn things about ourselves that surprise us! Thank you to a wonderful bunch of writers who inspire us! Your writing is amazing! 

Looking forward with great anticipation to 2023. 

#WEP DECEMBER 2022 CHALLENGE #THE FIRST TIME EVER I SAW...Post Dec 1st - 15 th

 

Welcome to our December Challenge for Write...Edit...Publish, the final for the year of musical prompts! 

Hi, it’s Nila and Renee presenting this month's challenge. The December prompt - “THE FIRST TIME EVER I SAW YOUR FACE,”  has been inspired by the iconic song of Roberta Flack.

 We do things a little differently for December - posting is early, linky opens on 1st Dec and closes on 15th in view of the holiday season.

 

Photo by Carli Jeen on Unsplash

From our Challenges page, use or discard as you wish. Your interpretation of the prompt is totally up to YOU as long as it refers to the prompt in some way.

The First Time (Ever I Saw Your Face) is a folk song written by Scottish musician and political activist Ewan MacColl in 1957 for Peggy Seeger, a relative of Pete Seeger and MacColl's lover at the time and wife later on. The track became a major breakout hit in 1969 for Roberta Flack, who sang a much slower version than the original MacColl had composed. Read more about this song here.

Roberta herself said about the song -  I think it's the kind of song that has two unique & distinct qualities: it tells a story, and it has lyrics that mean something....Because of [its meaningful lyrics] the [song] can be interpreted by a lot of people in a lot of different ways: the love of a mother for a child, for example, or [that of] two lovers. 

What's going to be your take? How are you going to interpret this title? What will happen the first time your MC sees the face?

Will it be a romantic love like Ewan wrote for Peggy?...Or will your MC recoil in fear, anger or unease? ...Will some light-hearted mischief be hatched leading to a lifelong friendship?... Maybe it will be a job interview and the employer will know that the face will bring nothing but trouble?...Or might a stressed, lonely soul find his Man Friday? 

The possibilities are only bounded by your imagination
.

- the sky's the limit...show us the heights you want to reach, we're standing by to take off with you.

The December Prize:

 Award-winning writer and artist Olga Godim is offering to help design a book cover, critique a short story, a flash, or a chapter -  up to you.

Visit Olga's Blog: Olga Godim writing!

To win Olga's valued prize, submit your 

"THE FIRST TIME EVER I SAW YOUR FACE" 

entry between

December 1 thru the 15th

COMMENTING:

If you have trouble commenting on blogger blogs, please continue to leave a comment here. And if your comments are down and you have a blogger blog, consider changing your comment settings to Pop-ups, not embedded, temporarily, until google provides a fix.

We'd love if you'd Tweet or post to FB or any social media site where you network!

WEP writing prompt December's "THE FIRST TIME EVER I SAW YOUR FACE" @DeniseCCovey @YolandaRenee @LGKeltner @jemifraser https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2022/11/wep-december-2022-challenge-first-time.html Sign up & post-December 1st thru 15th! #amwriting #flashfiction #WEPFF #poetry #nonfiction #amwriting #flashfiction #WEPFF #poetry 

Get your thinking caps on for December's "THE FIRST TIME EVER I SAW YOUR FACE" @DeniseCCovey @YolandaRenee @LGKeltner @jemifraser https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2022/11/wep-december-2022-challenge-first-time.html Sign up & post on December 1st thru 15th! #WEPFF #amwriting #flashfiction #poetry #nonfiction

Join WEP @DeniseCCovey @YolandaRenee @LGKeltner @jemifraser, for the next Challenge of 2022, "THE FIRST TIME EVER I SAW YOUR FACE". Sign up and post December 1st thru the 15th https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2022/11/wep-december-2022-challenge-first-time.html  #WEPFF #amwriting #flashfiction #poetry #nonfiction.

Write with @DeniseCCovey @YolandaRenee, @LGKeltner @jemifraser, for the December challenge "THE FIRST TIME EVER I SAW YOUR FACE"! Sign up and post on December 1st thru the 15th https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2022/11/wep-december-2022-challenge-first-time.html #WEPFF #amwriting #flashfiction #poetry #nonfiction

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Wishing you all a happy festive season 

Nila & Renee, for... 

#WEPWINNER MARY AALGAARD - GUEST POST - QUOTE OF THE DAY

 Hi everyone, Denise and Renee here again!

MARY AALGAARD won the October THRILLER challenge with her very short #flashfiction, Murder Moon.

Badge courtesy of Olga Godim

Our judge Nick Wilford said,    "This was very enticing in creating an intriguing setup in very few words and leaving the reader wanting more. Really skillfully done."

Here is an excerpt from the ending:

The tide was rolling in and the traces of footprints would wash away, leaving one body lying on the sand, under the water, the other moving into the shadowy bushes and back up the steps of the bungalow.

And now for Mary with:

~~***~~

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Quote of the Day: The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes. Agatha Christie

Since I began blogging in 2008, I’ve included a Quote of the Day and a Journaling Prompt in almost every post, even the ones that are theater reviews. I thought I’d use the blog as an extension on teaching journaling, or inspiring it, and as a motivation to keep writing and honing my craft. It’s been a great way to connect with other authors and readers. And, it’s given me the opportunity to become a theater reviewer.

The writing journey is like any other that you’re on in life. Some things you plan, but sometimes it takes you places you never expected. I’ve always loved the theater, attending and participating. I was in plays in high school and a few community theater productions, and I’m a piano player and teacher. So, when I saw that the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, MN was looking for theater blog reviewers, I signed up. I live outside of the city limits, so I wasn’t sure if they’d pick me, but they did. I figured out how to drive in the cities, and with the help of GPS, found my way to various theaters. Now, I’m offered tickets for reviews for everything from a local production of Brighton Beach Memoirs to the touring show of the hit musical Six. Both of which I reviewed in the past week on my website Play off the Page.

I’m a fan of mysteries and suspense stories. I read Nancy Drew Mysteries when I was young. A mystery with horses involved would have been the best! I’ve read or watched numerous Agatha Christie murder mysteries. My favorite author is Sue Grafton (RIP) and her alphabet mysteries with the skilled female detective Kinsey Millhone. I never thought I could write a mystery or suspense story until I answered the challenge for the IWSG Anthology. My story One More Minute is in the Tick Tock: A Stitch in Crime anthology.  

During the lockdown of the pandemic, I signed up for a zoom writing class with Candace Simar. It was one of the things that got me through the isolation, and I looked forward to our weekly meetings. One day, she asked us to write a description of setting and mood, but to leave out any mention of characters. I wrote my paragraph for Murder Moon that day, which won the October Thriller Challenge here at WEP, and it inspired me to write a story from that opening scene.

I’m currently writing a stage adaptation of a cozy murder mystery by a MN author. My love of theater and all the hours I’ve spent studying the artform as a reviewer are coming together with my love of mysteries in this exciting project.

Mary Higgins Clark talks to the aspiring author in her memoir, Kitchen Privileges, “When writers ask me what they should write, I tell them to look at their bookshelves and write something that they like to read.”

I didn’t know I had it in me to go to the dark side and create the kind of atmospheric book that keeps me turning pages and staying up past my bedtime. I also never expected to be a theater reviewer, quoted by theaters for promotions, and having this wealth of opportunity. You never know what you can do until you try!

Thank you for choosing Murder Moon as the winner for the Thriller Challenge!

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt: What opportunities have crossed your path that you never expected? 

~~*~~

Thank you, Mary

Mary Aalgaard at Play off the Page

Mary Aalgaard is a writer and piano/theater teacher in the heart of Minnesota. She writes theater reviews and supports the arts through her blog Play off the Page. She teaches youth theater workshops and works with both seniors and youth in multi-generational programs. Go. Create. Inspire!

 Her website is PlayoffthePage.com  

You can follow her on her Play off the Page Facebook page, 

@MaryAalgaard on Twitter, 

& email her at Mary@playoffthepage.com.

You can enjoy more of her work in the IWSG Anthology - Tick-Tock a Stitch in Time. Her contribution: One More Minute

 ~~***~~

Thank you so much Mary for your heartfelt post, and congratulations once again for your winning flash!

Please tweet this post or share it to Facebook or your favorite social media site.

#WEPWINNER #Thriller #guestpost by Mary Aalgaard https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2022/11/wepwinner-mary-aalgaard-guest-post.html @DeniseCCovey, @YolandaRenee, @LGKeltner, @OlgaGodim @jemifraser #amwriting #writingchallenge

#WEP Thriller #WEPwinner  #guestpost https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2022/11/wepwinner-mary-aalgaard-guest-post.html @DeniseCCovey, @YolandaRenee, @LGKeltner, @OlgaGodim @jemifraser #amwriting #writingchallenge #MaryAalgaard

~~***~~

Our next challenge will be here before we know it!

We hope many of you will consider joining us for our DECEMBER Challenge:

"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face."

Because of the holiday season, Posting begins on December 1st through the 15th.

The First Time (Ever I Saw Your Face) is a folk song written by Scottish musician and political activist Ewan MacColl in 1957 for Peggy Seeger, a relative of Pete Seeger and MacColl's lover at the time and wife later on. It was performed through the 60's around Britain. The track became a major breakout hit in 1969 for Roberta Flack, who sang a much slower version than the original MacColl had composed. It exploded in popularity when Clint Eastwood used it to score a love scene in his directorial debut Play Misty for Me, reaching no 1 in the US Billboards and winning the Record of the Year in 1972. Many covers exist - Peter, Paul & Mary, George Michael, Celine Dion,  Leona Lewis, etc. Read more about this song here.

Roberta herself said about the song -  I think it's the kind of song that has two unique & distinct qualities: it tells a story, and it has lyrics that mean something....Because of [its meaningful lyrics] the [song] can be interpreted by a lot of people in a lot of different ways: the love of a mother for a child, for example, or [that of] two lovers. 

Yup, she nailed it - it is meaningful, and it can be many things to many people. What's going to be your take? How are you going to interpret this title? What will happen the first time your MC sees the face?

Will it be a romantic love like Ewan wrote for Peggy?...Or will your MC recoil in fear, anger or unease? ...Will some light-hearted mischief be hatched leading to a lifelong friendship?... Maybe it will be a job interview and the employer will know that the face will bring nothing but trouble?...Or might a stressed, lonely soul find his Man Friday? 

The possibilities are only bounded by your imagination - the sky's the limit...show us the heights you want to reach, we're standing by to take off with you.

~v~v~v~v~v~

Here is an early TWEET! Help us promote December!

Write...Edit...Publish -- Online Writing Community: #WEP #December2022 #flashfiction challenge based on #song below. December 1 thru the 15th #1,000words or less! #nonfiction #poetry #poetrycommunity Get #feedback from professionals and peers. #romance?

See you in December!

Denise and Renee for the team...