After the Year 7 and 8 readers had taken their places in the spotlight, I invited one of the first round Years 9-11 judges to say a few words. Julie-Ann Corrigan is a great new writer. We have published her short stories at Bridge House and I have been working with her offering guidance on her novels. She is a prolific writer who has had competition successes and one to look out for with her novel writing.
As I explained Years 9-11 may have had the fewest entries, but those we did have were great. Julie-Ann talked about the way, as children, our writing has no bounds in terms of imagination and gave a little précis of the stories in the book from this group, giving special mention to all :)
We then invited RUNNER-UP, and the only child from this group in attendance, Susie Bradley who talked to us a little about her aspirations to be an agent or editor in the future. Then she read her story Breaking The Ice about melting ice caps; and polar bears very moving it was too.
After that we invited all the children to take part in a group photograph outside in the sunshine.
When we'd finished melting in the room as the heat rose with the afternoon sun, and raffle drawn, thank yous and goodbyes said, lots of hugs, some of us wended our way over to Hyde Park for a picnic. This meant it could all become a little more relaxed and I had the chance to talk to Mums, Dads, Aunts, Uncles, friends and best of all the young authors.
When we were finally on our way home, Mum, Dad, my brother and I supping Mocha Frappuccino in Starbucks at the station (well I was!) and looking back on the day, all I kept thinking was: I want to do it all again.
And we will.
The next competition opens on September 17th and if you haven't signed up for the newsletter you can here:
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Enjoy some more photos :)
Author (judge) Julie-Ann Corrigan
RUNNER-UP Susie Bradley
How do we feel to be in this book?
GREAT!
If you don't have your copy of Wild n Free yet, find it on Amazon here: click on book cover
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