IWSG Anthology Contest Winners and #IWSGPit

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 today are Patricia Lynne, Lisa Buie-Collard, Kim Lajevardi, and Fundy Blue!


Today’s optional question - What are your favorite and least favorite questions people ask you about your writing?

The #IWSGPit Twitter pitch is once a year now – and the next one is on January 15!.
Hundreds of agents and publishers will be checking the hashtag that day.
For rules and list of genre hashtags, visit the #IWSGPit page.
The IWSG Admins will be monitoring the feed. Get those Twitter pitches ready – you have two weeks!

The WEP Challenges for the year:
(Ignore the listing in the newsletter.)

IWSG Anthology Contest Winners

The big moment everyone has been waiting for – the announcement of the IWSG winners. Here are the stories and authors that have been selected for our fourth anthology:

Oddly Suited by LG Keltner
Sea of Sorrows by AV Brown
Behind the Catcher’s Mask by Jennifer Lane
A Diver’s Ball by Angela Brown
Fearless Heart by Deborah Solice
The Dark Charade by CD Gallant-King
The Cog Prince by Elizabeth Mueller
Flower of Ronda by Myles Christensen
Remedy by Chelsea Ballard
Charleston Masquerade by Carrie-Anne Brownian

The top story has the honors of being included in the title. LG Keltner’s story came out on top! The official title of our next anthology – Masquerade: Oddly Suited. Congratulations, LG. (She was also in the top spot for our first anthology, Parallels: Felix Was Here.)

The IWSG Admins spent many hours reading the entries and fourteen were sent to our special judges. We certainly wish to thank them for taking time away from their own work to read the entries:

Elizabeth S. Craig, author
Kelly Van Sant, agent at Red Sofa Literary Agency
Elana Johnson, author
DL Hammons, Write Club founder
S.A. Larsen, author
Kristin Smith, author
Gwen Gardner, author and previous IWSG anthology winner

Look for Masquerade: Oddly Suited late spring!

Are you ready for #IWSGPit? What genre should we tackle next for the IWSG Anthology Contest? (We’ve had science fiction, fantasy, mystery/crime/thriller, and young adult.)

IWSG Post Day and Anthology Contest Winners!

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 today are L.G. Keltner, Denise Covey, Sheri Larsen, J.Q. Rose, Chemist Ken, and Michelle Wallace!

Today we announce the winners of the IWSG Anthology Contest! And they are…

The Mirror People by Crystal Collier

Ground Zero by Michael Abayomi

The Seventeen by Hart Johnson

Rainers by Sandra Cox

EVER-TON by Yolanda Renee

WIN by Sylvia Ney

Haunted by Melanie Schultz

Folds in Life and Death by Cherie Reich

Scrying the Plane by Tamara Narayan

Felix Was Here by L.G. Keltner

And as the number one pick overall, L.G. Keltner’s Felix Was Here will be included in the anthology title.

Big thanks to our judges – Laura Maisano, Russell Connor, Candace Havens, Dawn Frederick, Alice Speilburg, Michelle Johnson, Kendare Blake, and Lydia Moëd

Plus thanks to my awesome IWSG admins who read every story - Lynda Young Michelle Wallace, Joylene Nowell Butler, Susan Gourley/Kelley, L. Diane Wolfe, and Joy Campbell.

And thanks to everyone who entered! There were some amazing stories, which made our job of narrowing them down for the judges even tougher.

The anthology will be published later this year by Freedom Fox Press. We’ll keep you posted!