Welcome to Women’s Memoirs Contests

Each month during 2010, we are running contests.

NEW MEMOIR WRITING CONTEST FOR SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER

Women’s Memoirs is pleased to announce our new memoir writing contest. Here’s a link to our blog that describes the contest and its prize.

As a quick summary:

1. The contest begins now and ends on October 31.

2. To submit, send the text of your story including the recipe in an email to: matilda at womensmemoirs dot com (Of course, the at becomes an @ and the dot becomes a . in the actual email address). Attach the photos to the email.

3. The focus of this contest is on holidays. Write about any holiday — the best, the worst, the most outlandish, your favorite. We’ll even accept stories about your birthday. Birthdays are our personal holidays, after all.

4. Because this contest is in our KitchenScraps series, we’d like you to include a recipe. It doesn’t have to be the focus of the story but it should be related to your story. The recipe should appear at the bottom of your story.

5. We like stories (actually memoir vignettes) between 1000-1500 words. But we can always be persuaded to accept a shorter or longer story when it is well done.

6. Remember that we need a story that has a beginning, a middle (a turning point), and an ending. This is more than a “what I did on my favorite holiday.” There should be events and consequences of these events. There doesn’t have to be a major consequence, but it should be there. Here’s an example I use in my classes:

My mother died and my father died. (This is not a story.)
My mother died and my father died two weeks later of a broken heart. (This is closer to a story line, but it would be nice to have more that relates to you – the story teller. After all, this is a memoir vignette.)
My mother died and then my father died two weeks later of a broken heart, leaving my five-year old brother and me orphans. (Now, we have a story line. There are events and consequences.)

7. Just be sure to submit your entry no later than Halloween, October 31.

8. Contact Matilda if you have any questions.

TWO MEMOIR WRITING CONTESTS FOR JULY

CONTEST #1: TableScraps, Stories and Photos of Your Life with Pets

Alice the most wonderful Airedale

TODAY we are starting a new series in our ScrapMoir line of stories that combine the best of memoir with the best of scrapbooking–TableScraps. TableScraps, stories of you and your pet(s) combined with photos, joins KitchenScraps, stories with recipes and photos, as a way to tell our life stories.

FROM today (June 18th) until July 31st, 2010, you are encouraged to submit an approximately 1000-word memoir vignette about you and/or your family and a favorite pet (or any animal, for that matter). Kendra has had dogs, cats, turtles, even a Mallard duckling among her treasured friends. Matilda considers all the fauna–wild deer, boar, quail, even Phil and Fiona the Pheasant–that enjoy her flora and the 10 acres she lives on in California to be her pets. Actually, she considers them the best kind of pets. She can enjoy watching them without having to feed and care for them.

Do you have a story about the animals in your life? Submit your TableScraps vignette to Women’s Memoirs on or before July 31, 2010 to enter our contest. You can send to Matilda via email: matilda at womensmemoirs dot com. You can either paste your story into the text of the email or attach a .doc file. And be sure to submit a photo or two (or three) of you and your animal friend(s).

Remember that while a vignette is a very short memoir story, it is a story (not an anecdote) and needs to be a complete thought with a theme and message (although simple) and a plot with a beginning, middle and end.

We look forward to your stories. After all, who doesn’t like to read animal stories? Remember, cold nose=warm heart.

The prize for this month’s TableScraps contest winner is quite special too. We’re giving away a copy of Dr. Greg’s Dog Dish Diet: Sensible Nutrition for Your Dog’s Health. This is the first book we’ve published under our Riparian Press imprint. It has won four national book awards including the coveted Gold Medal in the Living Now Awards, and it’s author Dr. Greg Martinez won the Gilroy, California, Best Vet award. You can read much more about Dr. Greg and his book Dog Dish Diet HERE.

REMEMBER: Approximately 1000 word story plus one or more photographs.

CONTEST #2: KitchenScraps, Stories, Recipes, and Photos of Summer’s Abundant Produce

We couldn’t resist adding a second contest for July. If your parents or grandparents had a garden with fruits or vegetables that were part of your childhood, submit your story along with a treasured family recipe and photographs. Perhaps you have become the gardener who grows food for your table in the summer. Juicy tomatoes, just-dug Yukon Gold potatoes, baby arugula, ears of corn eaten 10 minutes after picking — these are just a few of my favorite things.

Send [ matilda at womensmemoirs dot com] your memoir vignette of food grown and/or shared along with a recipe and photographs, if possible. You’ll be sharing from the abundance of your life.

The contest winner will receive a bar of our Mindfulness Soap, made exclusively for Women’s Memoirs by two women who hand make each bar, just as their grandmothers did. Click Here to read the story of these two creative women.

REMEMBER: Approximately 1000 word story plus a recipe and one or more photographs. Submit stories that have a beginning, a middle, and an ending. Include use of the five senses and all the other elements of a well-crafted story.

Good luck, now get to writing.

OUR MAY GOOGLE SEARCH STORY CONTEST WINNERS

Congratulations to Barbara and Tricia. You can see their winning videos HERE. Barbara and Tricia will receive our original Rosie the Riveter Legacy bandana. Thank you to everyone who submitted.

OUR MAY MEMOIR WRITING CONTEST

If you haven’t yet played with the YouTube Google Search Story Creator, you’re in for some fun. Kendra has written a post about this over on our blog. Here’s the link. We recommend you go read that post before beginning the contest.

RULES:

1-You enter your search phrases in chronological order on the right; and select the type of search you want for each search string (Web search, Maps, Product search, etc.) You’ll notice that the preview screen (just below this form–you can’t see it in this screen shot) shows you what your Google search actually found. Try changing from Web search to Maps to Product Search, etc. to give your screens variety.

2-When you’re done and click NEXT, you’ll go to another screen where you can choose from several musical scores.

3-And when you are finally done, YouTube will begin building your video. This will take a few minutes. Be patient.

4-After you watch your video and if you’re pleased with the results, give your video memoir a name and brief description. Put “Women’s Memoirs” in quotes as a tag.

5-Post your new video on YouTube.

6-Finally, go back to my original blog post HERE and add a Comment telling us the name of your video and the URL. You must do this last step so we’ll know who’s video is who’s.

That’s all there is to it. Have fun, and good luck. The contest ends May 31, 2010.

Our Limited Edition Rosie the Riveter Bandana

Oh, the prize: We’re giving away our popular Rosie the Riveter Limited Edition Bandana.

Be sure to check back regularly as we have additional contests planned for this year. Past winners are only eligible to win every 90 days.

OUR MARCH AND APRIL MEMOIR WRITING CONTESTS

For March and April, we have a new Women’s Memoirs contest. We invite you to submit a story that features a recipe. All entries will be read by both of us. Kendra and I will choose the best one. It will be published as the month’s award winner. In addition, the top 5 will also be published in the coming months.

BUT WAIT, that’s not all. Kendra has talked me into another prize for the first place winner in each March and April. In addition to being published on our website, the winner will receive a free copy of our [Essential] Women’s Memoir Writing Workshop, a 5-DVD set. This product, based on my all-day workshops, is regularly $132. My in-person workshop is $200.

Be sure to enter. You have nothing to lose and everything (or at least two great prizes) to win.

RULES:

1. Submit a story vignette that centers around a recipe by March 31 (or April 30 for the second month’s contest). If you’d like to read some of the stories already published, just click here

2. The story should be approximately 1000 words.

3. Include the recipe and photos. Photos might include a picture of the prepared dish, a picture of one or more of the people mentioned in the story, a photo of any memorabilia mentioned in the story. Use your creativity both in your writing and in the way to include graphical elements. Have a great story and recipe, but no photos? Just let us know and we’ll work with you on graphical elements.

4. Send the story, recipe, and photos to: Matilda Butler

5. Be sure to email us if you have any questions.

Be sure to check back regularly as we have additional contests planned for this year. Past winners are only eligible to win every 90 days.

January Women’s Memoir Writing Contest Winner

Congratulations Janet Riehl

January 2010 Winner: Janet Riehl provided the most substantive comments to our blogs. It was thrilling for us to announce her award at the Saturday luncheon of Story Circle Network’s Stories from the Heart Conference on February 6.

February Women’s Memoir Writing Contest Winner

Our February winner is Mairi Neil. You may have read her touching KitchenScraps called Mum’s Legendary Scones. Her story generated a lot of responses and she commented back to each person — helping to create a real community around her story.

Mairi Neil with her contest prize -- Mindfulness Soap

Here’s the photo that Mairi Neil sent us after her prize — a bar of our special Mindfulness Soap arrived in Australia where she lives. This soap is made just for Women’s Memoirs of all organic ingredients and we’re pleased that Mairi likes it so much.

Congratulations Mairi on a touching story.