Awards and Delays

[First illustration for Misadventures of the Just Us Chickens.]

My son and cowriter of Doomimals: Extended books (pseudonym: Ax the Narrator) started writing his books when he was 13, earlier this year.  He began with short stores and then started writing novels like they were short stories, one small mini adventure at a time.  I helped him polish the first of these novels, The Misadventures of the Justice Chickens, and then he submitted it to the children's book writing category of the League of Utah Writers' annual contest.  When I first entered several years ago, I got a few prizes, first and second place.  But I was an adult, not 13, and already had a degree in English.  Ever since, I've felt lucky to get an honorable mention, as I did this year for my essay and the last two weeks of my nephews' mom's life, "Battered Wings."  This is a competitive contest, with lots of entries, most of them written by adults, some with degrees like me.

[2nd place!]

I say this to help you understand why it was so amazing that my boy's first novel achieved second place in this children's book writing contest.  It's a very good book.  Instead of heavy critiquing, the judge recommended a few line edits and begged that we find a way to let him/her know when it's published, so he/she can buy a copy.  That's downright high praise for the book written by a 13-year-old.  I want to get this series (and mine) out to you, but life has gotten complicated and busy.  I still need to finish polishing and illustrating my books, so they're all ready for you.  The first three books in the Just Us Chickens series will appear as bonus material at the end of my first collection, and then my books will appear as bonus material at the end of his.  It may be we'll be publishing both sets at roughly the same time at this rate.  I'll keep you posted.

Feedback

It's good to get feedback from other writers.  That's why I rejoined League of Utah Writers after some hiatus.  I went to a different branch of the group before, one, that met in person.  It was really good to get personal feedback, especially from such excellent writers and critiquers.  Several of them are published and really know what they're doing.

However, I found myself going less and less often because life gets hectic.  The way they run it, you bring your text in one time, people take it home and read and critique it thoroughly, and then you get it back with verbal explanations the next time.  It's a good system, but it didn't work for me.  I would have to have driven 20 minutes to get back into town after going home, or I would have had to stick around in town long after it was necessary...two weeks in a row.  It's hard to make a commitment like that.  If I lived in town, it would have been no big deal.  But especially in winter when even the highway can get slick, and fog makes visibility at night impossible, I just rarely went.

Then I discovered a group that met ONLINE.  Some of them aren't even in the same STATE.  I get the sense that most of them are a little more new to the experience of writing, but the group works for me because I can do it on my own time, without the drive.  It does require that I drop everything to critique others' writing once a month, but it's working fairly well for me since I get their critiques in return.  As I said in a different blog last time, I highly recommend a group like this for anyone.