A Change

Hello everyone!

As you can tell I have been very absent from this blog. For that I am kind of sorry.

Kind of not.

Let me 'splain.

The blog wasn't really going anywhere. I think I started too fast, too soon. In order to have real contests and challenges, I have to have enough people to participate. So to have as many contests going as I did really just became frustrating.

So I took November and December off for the holidays.

I had a blast and enjoyed hanging out with family and extended family. Plus I went to a winter retreat and directed a Christmas play. Fun was had by all.

On top of that I managed to get a new job! One that I really love.

As a result, here is February and I am finally getting back to business here.

However, there are going to be some changes.

I'm not going to have a whole bunch of contests to start out for now. Partly to help build some new readers and get more participants, partly because I no longer have the time to do that many.

But I'm also going to have more challenges. These will be different from the contests in that they will challenge you in what you are already doing but you don't HAVE to send anything in. Things like challenging writers to find words they use too much and learn to cut them out or change them up. Or challenging artists to try a new technique or medium so they can make what they are already comfortable with better.

Of course feedback or example of how you use the challenges is always welcome!

I'm also planning a bigger project for this blog. Something I have been wanting to do for a long time, I just have never gotten the chance. So I will probably have signups of some sort and when I have the right number of people I will start on that.

But don't worry. This blog is still solely for the purpose of inspiring you and pushing your creative boundaries and for you to have a reason to just be creative. My contest will still be for that purpose. My challenges will not be instructional (at least from my own instruction. I might include someone else's instruction) but merely something to push you and see if there is something new out there that you can try and find that you enjoy.

It's still the same blog. It just needs to learn to grow.

So thank you for reading through this whole thing and hopefully I will see you in a contest or challenge soon!

~Lauren

P.S. Here's a little treat for you writers out there. It's a list of magazines and anthologies that are looking for short stories and poetry and such. In case you need a springboard to get published.
https://www.authorspublish.com/15-themed-submission-calls-for-february-2019/