I've always found writing contests motivating. I've rarely won anything (a few first-place prizes almost 20 years ago from League of Utah Writers and a few miscellaneous prizes since, 2nd place on an essay in college, honorable mention from Writer's Digest, and a few others), but it's still fun to either come up with something fresh or to polish something you've had sitting around in a rush against the deadlines. My son and co-writer won 2nd prize from League of Utah Writers in the children's book category--bypassing several adults, many of whom have degrees--a couple of years ago on his first novel, one he wrote when he was 13.
As I'm also working on editing my stories for you, we'll be making a push to enter pieces into that same contest again. It won't necessarily get anything officially published, but the prize money and bragging rights could be fine. The feedback we get is usually very helpful as well. My boy's feedback on his prize-winning book was, "Tell me when this gets published, so I can buy it." It would be great for him (or me) to get more of the same this year. Besides this, this will give us a chance to edit some more pieces, so they're more polished when they get to you.
My boy, Ax the Narrator, has been wanting to write a silly story called "Just Us Chickens vs the McGuffin Puffin," a sort of Indiana Jonesish story for a few months now then get it published on Amazon as a sort of teaser for his books. That will happen very soon and will probably be your first chance to read the Chickens. You can already read the first of my Doomimals stories on Amazon, in "If You Give a Cat the Boot." It's even free on Kindle. We look forward to getting you more material in the near future. If ever you're looking for motivation to move your writing forward, keep contests in mind.
