LeVar Burton Reads Writing Contest! 'Nuff Said! 👀

I'm entering. Are you?

Welcome Reader!

July was an amazing month! And that is all credited to the day I found out LeVar Burton was hosting his very first writing contest, where the grand prize winner will have their story read by him on his podcast! I'm just glad I was found out about it before it's too late and lucky for me it isn't.

Let me rewind a bit from here because there's a bit more to the story. I have been on this binge-watching journey through various MasterClasses and so far I have seen four of them (R.L. Stine teaches writing for young adults, LeVar Burton teaches the art of storytelling, NK Jemisin teaches writing sci-fi and fantasy, and Joyce Carol Oates teaches writing short fiction). I've watched collectively close to ten hours and absorbed so much of what these greats had to say in the fields of their expertise. And if you want to know my thoughts then check out my blog section below where I link to some of them directly. I mention these MasterClasses because it was while I wrote the blog for NK Jemisin's review that I stumbled upon LeVar Burton's contest. He had only just announced it sometime during the last week of June and my guess is I missed it because that last week was my birthday and I was a bit under the weather.

Some things to keep in mind if you ARE thinking of entering:

1. US residents only. (I assume this is because it's the first one and they are testing the waters to see how many entries they get.)
2. Speculative Fiction is the genre. (If you're unsure what spec-fic is, I've got a blog post all about it you can see when you scroll down a bit.)
3. Word Count: 2,800 - 5,200 words

You can find out more information by just clicking the image below.

The contest is open as of today, Sunday, August 1st. But keep in mind that it closes for entries on Tuesday, August 31st. It may seem like a short amount of time, just 31 days, if you're just hearing about the contest from me today. But be not discouraged! It can be done if you put your mind to it and join me 3 days a week in the month of August where I'll be doing much of the same that I did in July. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I streamed for 2hrs every morning and worked my fingers to the bone on the story I plan on submitting. It's far from done but the story is complete. It just needs plenty of revisions and rereads and with any luck, I'll find a last-minute beta reader or two for feedback.

My goal is to submit my story no later than 8/26. And according to the contest the winners will be announced on Friday, October 15th giving us an entire 6-weeks to bite our nails together and wait to find out who's won. If I don't place in the top three (and I'm fully prepared not to) then my intention is to have a SPECIAL Live Stream on my YouTube Channel that following Saturday, October 16th to read my story aloud. And it will officially become the first addition to an Anthology I've been wanting to put together of all my stories. More on that later.

And if you're wondering about Born From Blood, don't worry, it's still very much alive and well and moving along nicely. In fact, there are a few key elements of the story that involve creating a game and writing some short folklore stories specific to the culture. Like Aesop's Fables only scarier! Look for a HUGE update on this series in my next newsletter. In the meantime, if you're planning on entering the contest, shoot me a line and let me know! Or follow me on Twitter & Instagram where I'm sharing my progress as often as I can.

INSPIRATION FROM YOUTUBE

Why you should quit your job - Woke Wednesday