Wednesday, September 5, 2018

The IWSG Annual Anthology Contest is Now Open!

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. I encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs.

The awesome co-hosts for the September 5 posting of the IWSG are Toi Thomas, T. Powell Coltrin, M.J. Fifield, and Tara Tyler!


Are you following us on Instagram?
Here are the prompts for September:


The 2018 Annual IWSG Anthology Contest is now open for submissions!

Guidelines and rules:

Word count: 3500-6000

Genre: Young Adult Romance

Theme:
Masquerade
A Masquerade can be a false show or pretense, someone pretending to be someone they aren't. It can be a ball, a fancy dress party, it can be a mask. Open to interpretation.

Submissions accepted: September 5 - November 4, 2018

How to enter: Send your polished, formatted (Double spaced, no page numbers), previously unpublished story to admin @ insecurewriterssupportgroup.com before the deadline passes. Please include your contact details, your social links, and if you are part of the Blogging, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter IWSG group.

Judging: The IWSG admins will create a shortlist of the best stories. The shortlist will then be sent to our official judges. This year, we are honored to have seven incredible judges:

Elizabeth S. Craig, author
Elizabeth is the bestselling cozy mystery author of the Southern Quilting mysteries, Memphis Barbeque mysteries, and Myrtle Clover Cozy Mysteries for Penguin Random House, Midnight Ink, and independently.

Elana Johnson, author
USA Today bestseller Elana Johnson writes young adult and adult contemporary romance. She is an inspirational adult romance author under the pen name of Liz Isaacson, and her work includes the young adult dystopian romance series Possession, published by Simon Pulse (Simon & Schuster). Learn more at Elana Johnson.

S.A. Larsen, author
S.A. Larsen is the international award-winning author of the middle grade fantasy-adventure MOTLEY EDUCATION and the young adult contemporary-fantasy romance MARKED BEAUTY. When she’s not chasing her characters around a graveyard or antagonizing them with young love, she can be found in Maine with her husband and four children. Visit her cyber home at S.A. Larsen Books.

DL Hammons, Write Club founder
When DL isn’t running the online writing contest WRiTE CLUB on his blog, he splits his time crafting YA and adult Mysteries, with a little bit of Paranormal/Sci-Fi on the side.

Gwen Gardner, author and previous IWSG anthology winner
Gwen Gardner writes lighthearted, cozy mysteries with a few ghosties thrown in to “liven” things up. Since ghosts feature prominently in her stories, she has a secret desire to meet one face to face—but will run screaming for the hills if she ever does.

Kelly Van Sant
Kelly Van Sant has nearly a decade of experience in the publishing industry and is a literary agent with the Red Sofa Literary Agency. She is a teaching artist at the Loft Literary Center and blogs about writing and the publishing industry at Pub(lishing) Crawl and co-hosts the their weekly podcast.

Kristin Smith, author
Kristin Smith is the best-selling young adult author of the Deception Game series and a former Pitch Wars mentor. When she’s not writing, you can find her dreaming about the beach, beating her boys at Just Dance, or belting out karaoke (from the comfort of her own home). She currently resides in the middle-of-nowhere North Carolina with her husband and sons.






Prizes: The winning stories will be edited and published by Freedom Fox Press next year in the IWSG anthology. Authors will receive royalties on books sold, both print and eBook. The top story will have the honor of giving the anthology its title.


Our previous IWSG anthologies:
Tick Tock: A Stitch in Crime
Hero Lost: The Mysteries of Death and Life
Parallels: Felix Was Here

Gwen Gardner, Jen Chandler, and LG Keltner know what it’s like to have the winning story.

Yours could be next!



Any questions regarding the contest? Are you going to enter? Can’t win if you don’t enter!

22 comments:

Pat Hatt said...

Awesome chance for any indeed!

nashvillecats2 said...

The Anthology contest look awsome Alex. does that include "Humble Poetry?"

Yvonne.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Yvonne, I guess if you can write a 3500 word poem that tells a story.

Christine Rains said...

Fantastic opportunity for writers! Good luck to everyone submitting a story. :)

L. Diane Wolfe said...

It's going to be a great anthology!

Rebecca M. Douglass said...

Way outside my usual area, but it’s tempting to try, just to stretch myself.

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Alex - good luck to all entrants ... and a wonderful array of judges you have lined up - cheers Hilary

J.L. Campbell said...

Sounds awesome! Impressive line up of judges.

cleemckenzie said...

Good luck to all who enter. I'm on the sidelines in this one.

Gwen Gardner said...

The genre and theme are awesome. I'm looking forward to reading all the stories!

Lisa said...

Awesome lineup of judges! Still debating on entering as I've never written a YA romance before!

Roland Clarke said...

This looks like an interesting challenge - and outside my comfort zone. I've been researching what YA entails and have even read a few books in the genre. For this anthology, are themes like diversity and sexual identity allowed?

dolorah said...

Super awesome; but my YA voice is non-existent, lol.

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

Excited to read the entries! This will be fun. :)

Michael Di Gesu said...

Looking forward to submitting! It is my genre and I love the idea of a Masquerade! All the best to those who enter! I am sure the stories will be AMAZING!

Unknown said...

Do you have a link to view on past contest of this genre?

DL Hammons said...

I'm stoked about being part of this amazing collaboration!

Unknown said...

I will think this one over. I write fantasy, but there's plenty of romance in my stories.
Nanct

Juneta key said...

Congrats judges and looking forward to the anthology. Happy belated IWSG Day

Toi Thomas said...

Happy Belated IWSG Day!
This anthology is going to be awesome.
Even if I don't make the cute, I'm so excited about this theme.
Sign me up to help promote it when it comes out.
Thanks, judges for signing on and helping to make this wonderful opportunity possible.

Elizabeth Mueller said...

Holy Cow! IWSG has gone far since I've last visited the blogging community. That's wonderful! I think I'll give this one a shot.

Elizabeth Mueller said...

Do we include our contact info & social media links with the MS or in the body of the email?

Elizabeth