Highlights for Children Fiction Contest 2014

Well, it's that time of year to put together a fictional story to enter Highlights for Children's fiction contest. The actual deadline is January 31, 2014. This year's theme, holiday stories, is similar to the 2006 category, the true spirit of holiday celebrations. I spent time reading a number of Highlights issues to get a renewed sense of what they publish and to find some of the previous contest winning stories. With no entry fee and good themes, this is one of the best and most competitive contests I've ever entered. Good luck to all those writers that enter this year! No matter the outcome, I've generated another story to add to my growing portfolio of manuscripts. Happy Writing! Ken

My New Friend, Albert

I recently wrote a picture book manuscript as part of PiBoIdMo, which has a monkey for a main character. Doesn't that sound familiar? No, this isn't Curious George pretending to be a monkey named Albert. This monkey's name is REALLY Albert. I'm not going to reveal any of the story, but I drafted the above and below rough sketches while writing the manuscript.

Inspirational Trip to New York City

New York City is known for many things, the Empire State Building,the New York Stock Exchange,Rockefeller Center, Trump Tower, and Grand Central Station, to name a few. But it's also the location for the majority of publishing houses in America. Yesterday, part of our family went to New Haven, CT and took the train into New York City to experience the holiday festivities. I find trips like these great for coming up with new story ideas for my writing. This isn't anything that I force though. There is so much to experience and see in the city that it seems there's never enough time to do everything. Sitting in Grand Central Station, I came up with two different story ideas while we were eating lunch. As we walked by the Lego Building and Rockefeller Center, another idea came to me. Things were very busy in that area last night. At times I felt like I was in a cattle drive, but it was fun. If you happen to live in the area, I think it's a worthwhile adventure to try. Now that I'm more familiar with the route, I expect that we will try this again. Happy Holidays!

The Last Leaf

I have been tweaking my rhyming PB story for a while now. It started off as a ms for the Highlights for Children Fiction Contest a long time ago. I even adapted it to a children's play, but I had to change the content to match that form. It was fun to do it. I tend to get inspiration for my writing by doing illustrations, which helps me get into the story. Above this post is an example of one of my illustrations.

PiBoIdMo

I started the PiBoIdMo a little late this year. To be honest, I haven't done it in several years. The last time I participated was about 2 years ago when it was held during the month of February. Anyway, I'm trying to catch up after starting on November 5, five days late. That's okay. I've written quite a few stories already and have a bunch of  ideas jotted down in my writing notebook, which should make it somewhat easier.

Good luck to all the other PiBoIdMo'ers out there.

Introducing Edward Egads, Environmental Eye

Edward Egads is the main character in a series of stories I am in the process of writing. He is a 10-year-old boy with a photographic memory and an intuition well beyond his years. He cares deeply about nature and all creatures that live in it. With the help of his beagle, Rory, and several friends, Edward finds himself getting involved with solving unusual problems related to nature and the environment in and around his hometown of Bolton Mills.

Writing and Savants

A number of years ago, a friend of mine experienced a period where he couldn't sleep for many days and it affected him adversely. But several months later, something positive emerged from that experience. He started to have this surge of energy and motivation to write. Before that difficult period, he had enjoyed writing fictional stories in school and even for his high school newspaper. But something had changed as a result of the experience. It was as if his brain had somehow been reprogrammed to be more creative. A roadblock had been smashed through and now the only thing that could quench this thirst was to write... anything.

Savants are known for having extraordinary mental and physical skills while not being able to do some of the most basic of tasks to be independent. I read that not all savants are born this way. Some people become gifted after experiencing some sort of head trauma. I was recently reading about brain research when I discovered an article that suggested that a musician's brain functions change during the creative process. It's like part of the brain shuts down so that the energy can be redirected to the creative side.

I sometimes wonder if my friend's sudden desire to write can be explained by this phenomenon. I'm curious to know if anyone else knows someone like my friend?