Award-winning author, Renee Hand , will be sponsoring a Youth Writers Contest. This is a chance for writers of various ages to really show their creativity and writing abilities to the world. Being a great writer is to be able to adapt to any situation. Each contestant must write two stories. The first story will be writer’s choice. It can be any topic of writer’s choosing. The second story will be an assigned topic of author’s choice. For a list, contestants must scroll down and use the first letter of their last name to determine what their story must be written about. You must have a problem that your characters have to solve and/or overcome. Characters can be human, animal, or other. How you develop your story is up to you, but there must be a moral to the story. Something must be learned by the reader. The winners will be chosen based off of the ability to create two wonderful and imaginative stories, a strong sense of style/voice, and correct grammar.

Rules and Requirements:

Writing cannot consist of extreme violence or anything vulgar or will be immediately disqualified. There will be two age groups: 8-12 and 13-18. The word length for the 8-12 age groups will be between 500-1,000 words. For the 13-18 age groups word length will be between 1,000-1,500 words. Story must be double spaced and typed. Writers name should not be anywhere on the entry. Cover page should have title on it only. Next page should begin story. A separate page should consist of writer’s name, age, e-mail, phone number, address and word count. Contest will start now and end on September 1st 2010. A panel of writing and reading professionals will pick winning entries. Entries must be printed and sent through the mail and sent to:

Youth Writer’s Contest

P.O. Box 144

Byron, MI 48418

Prizes:

There will be first place winners and honorable mentions. Winners and honorable mentions will receive various prizes and opportunities from the sponsor and co-sponsors. Thank you to everyone for participating and good luck!

Author's Settings:

For example, if your last name begins with H, then you will be writing about a Volcano. Which means that a volcano has something to do with the story. You can't just mention it in your story, your main focus should be on it. Maybe your characters are on an island with a volcano and it begins to erupt. Maybe you are writing a mystery and there is an object hidden by the volcano or something like that. Be creative and have fun. That is what this contest is all about. Good luck!

A-B MOON

C-D BEACH

E-F SKI HILL

G-H VOLCANO

I-K CITY

L-N POND

O-Q FOREST

R-S ISLAND

T-V RAINFOREST

W-Z OCEAN