Word Out 2012

Our Grand Prize Creative Writing Challenge Winner!

Over the summer, we on the Word Out team got to read some truly astounding writing, submitted to our Creative Writing Challenge. Some entries made us laugh out loud; some gave us pause. All were totally impressive however, and it was both a pleasure and a huge challenge to choose winners.

At first, we were only going to have one prize for the contest, but seeing how many submissions we got, we decided that we'd add two more. For the next few days, we're going to be sharing the winning entries with you. You can check out all of the amazing stories, poems and essays however, by visiting the Creative Writing Challenge page.

The last winner we will announce is Wolffur86, who is our grand prize winner for this summer's Creative Writing Challenge. Wolffur86's heartbreaking short story is based on postcard #2.

Sparrow trotted towards me. As usual, she stood up, wobbling slightly on her hind legs, and lightly set her paws on my paint chipped crossbar. I tipped obediently onto one side, leaning against the wooden fence. Just like before, she gently tested my tires, and spun the pedals, making sure the drive chain worked. But there was something about her eyes and the way she moved, that, even an old worn bike without brains like me, could tell something was wrong. She took a mighty leap and landed neatly onto my torn leather seat. She gripped my handlebars tightly with her paws. I turned my pedals. My wheels turned on the familiar gravel path, going faster and faster, the wind roared. Ah, how I loved to be ridden! Two wet drops fell onto my seat. Startled, I rang my bell twice, “Is it raining?” Sparrow didn’t answer. I rang my bell three times, then once, “What’s wrong, Sparrow?” She let out a sad sigh. I slowed, and then stopped. Where were we? Sparrow leaped down, and nuzzled my handle bars, “The flat-faces and I are leaving.” I rang in alarm, “Where?” “To a South Carolina,” she stared at the floor, “but you aren’t going with us.” “But why?” I was shocked, “I’ve been a part of this family as long as you!” “I know,” she stroke my front tire with her tail, “they didn’t want to bring along a…a piece of junk like you. T-they were going to throw you in the dump. This was the best I could do.” My heart split in two, “So this is goodbye?” “The animals will visit you.” “But it won’t be the same!” “I’m sorry,” Sparrow padded away. I watched sadly as she grew smaller and smaller, until I couldn’t see her anymore.

Our Second Creative Writing Challenge Winner!

Over the summer, we on the Word Out team got to read some truly astounding writing, submitted to our Creative Writing Challenge. Some entries made us laugh out loud; some gave us pause. All were totally impressive however, and it was both a pleasure and a huge challenge to choose winners.

At first, we were only going to have one prize for the contest, but seeing how many submissions we got, we decided that we'd add two more. For the next few days, we're going to be sharing the winning entries with you. You can check out all of the amazing stories, poems and essays however, by visiting the Creative Writing Challenge page.

The second winner we will announce is tdfyukyh, who wrote a poem inspired by the first postcard.

A snowflake in the sky,
Or a tear drop in my eye.

A blade of grass in my pot,
Or a single tree in the lot.

They’re so beautiful and nice,
But sometimes they’re beauty does not suffice.

For a snowflake in a storm,
Does not stand out in any way shape or form.

A tear drop when I'm crying,
Gets brushed away and goes flying.

With its brothers a blade of grass,
Are lovely to see, but are seen as a mass.

A tree alone, is mighty and tall,
But a tree in the forest is a tree, and that’s all.

In the midst of a crowd, I’m one of you,
But alone at my mirror I’m unique, and that’s true

Our First Creative Writing Challenge Winner!

Over the summer, we on the Word Out team got to read some truly astounding writing, submitted to our Creative Writing Challenge. Some entries made us laugh out loud; some gave us pause. All were totally impressive however, and it was both a pleasure and a huge challenge to choose winners.

At first, we were only going to have one prize for the contest, but seeing how many submissions we got, we decided that we'd add two more. For the next few days, we're going to be sharing the winning entries with you. You can check out all of the amazing stories, poems and essays however, by visiting the Creative Writing Challenge page.

The first winner we will announce is Hanan, who wrote the moving story Unexpected Best Friend, inspired by Postcard #3.

Unexpected Friend

Ever since John Baker was a baby he always saw a person that nobody else saw. It was always the first thing he saw in the morning and the last thing he saw at night. When he first learned to speak, instead of those common question children would ask at his age he would ask his parents different questions, like, who is that person following me? Why does he do that? Everyday he would ask his parents those questions. Finally, they decided to go to the doctor but he said exactly what they knew he would, he said “it is all apart of growing up”, but his parents knew it was more then that. They watched him for a while but never saw anything weird anymore; he had stopped asking those questions. Although the questions had stopped the person never went away. He would see it everywhere he went. He really didn’t care. Years had pasted, he was now 10. He started to wonder who that person was. He talked to him, trying to learn more about him. He learned that his name was Harry Lord. He really liked harry, he started spending more time with him. He played with him at school (although his classmates called him a weird) and home (his parents saw but they gave up on caring a long time ago). They started to become really good friends, although that friendship may have looked weird it was the best friendship he ever had. He grew up, alongside his friend. He never cared if people stared, or thought he was crazy. One day, he went down to the photo booth across the street and took a picture to remember all the great times he had with his best friend.

Tasty Tomes Winner!

We had lots of delicious entries for our final Win a Book contest, where we asked you to tell us about  your favourite food description in a book. J.K. Rowling's writings of magical meals proved to be popular, and our winning entry from M.P. talked about some of their favourite discussions of dinner from the Harry Potter Series:

J.K Rowling puts a lot of food scenes in his books! I like the one where the students at Hogwarts drink pumpkin juice, and butter beer, she describes them so much! Even in the hunger games!

Congratulations, M.P! We'll be sending you a book shortly for your prize-winning entry! Those of you with eReaders might want to check out The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook for more culinary inspiration.

Thanks to everyone else who participated! Remember, there's still one more chance to win a Word Out prize this summer! Enter our end-of-summer survey and tell us what you liked (or even what you hated!) about Word Out this year, for a chance to win an eReader.

 

Paranormal Contest Winner!

There are some seriously talented and imaginative writers out there who participate in Word Out! We were blown away by all of your entries for the Use Your Paranormal Imagination Contest, where you were asked to describe a way for vampires to be created and killed.

Choosing a winner was no easy task, but at the end of the day, we decided to award the prize to Rrrrrrr, for their amazing short story about Katie. Congratulations! You'll be recieving some prizes shortly!

You can check out Rrrrrrr's entry after the break. Remember, there's still one more chance to win a prize, by entering our end-of-summer survey to let us know what you thought of Word Out this year!

 

One is Not Enough - Contest Winner!

Once again, you have totally impressed me with your answers. I love seeing that I'm not the only one who gets hooked on a series and waits impatiently, and I was amazed that some of you also track release dates! You guys are hard core, seriously.

My favourite entry, though, was from Joseph, who not only told me what the series was and how ecited he was, but also wrote a bit about the books and even linked to the catalogue, in case some of you were looking for something good to read - now that's full service!

Thanks to everyone who entered for playing along - and look for more contests this week!

The Writing Challenge is Almost Over!

The Word Out Creative Writing Challenge is almost over! You've only until the 11:59 PM on Saturday August 25th to submit your entries! After that we'll be picking some winners to give a whole pile of awesome prizes to.

So if you haven't entered yet, get your write on and submit a poem, short story, one-act-play or whatever before time runs out!

Wild Inventors Among You

Wow, you people fully knocked me out last week in our Wild Inventions contest with your ideas and the enthusiasm behind them, which has made it seriously hard to pick just one winner! But, seeing as I have one single ereader to give to one single lucky winner, here we go.

I'd like to say first, though? That if this were Dragon's Den and I had some dollars for Research & Development to give away, I'd be backing Sunny's chocolate machine (who doesn't want more chocolate?), FY's Machine of Requirement, if only for the lovely uses he imagines it being put to, and Gohar and Galileo, who sound like they are well on their way to a plan for an ereader that feels like a book. That, I would totally buy. (Guys? If you get this together and become rich and famous? remember, it all started here!)

But. Instead, I have to give this week's contest prize to Ann, for her gravity-manipulation watch, which sounds like something that would make for both fun and practical uses. Congratulations, Ann, and if you need someone to test out a prototype one day, come on by my branch!

Use Your Paranormal Imagination! Contest

Do you stay up all night with books about the paranormal? Have you read through Twilight or The Vampire Diaries series more than once? Do you ever think of maybe writing your own vampire series?

If so, this contest is right for you!

Submit a comment explaining how the vampires in your series would be created and destroyed.

The most creative submission will win a big Vampire Diaries canvas bag and a hardcover copy of the book, Tempest, by Julie Cross.

A couple of rules:

1. Only one entry per person
2. You have to enterby 11:59 PM on Friday August 24 2012 to be eligible to win.
3. Make sure to send us your email, or else we can't contact you to let you know you've won!

Good Luck!

We've Got a Best Bad Answer!

It's not clear how high Word Out writers fared on their final exams this year, but they certainly scored well on the wise-guy-o-meter! We had a whole pile of great wrong answers to funny questions in our "Canadian Most Humourous Wrong Question and Answer" contest. The winning entry goes to Gohar, for the Geography themed:

Q: "What is the capital of Canada?"
A: "C"

Yuk-yuk-yuk amirite?

Congrats Gohar! We hope you enjoy your eReader. Thanks to everyone who submitted excellent entries. Remember! Keep checking back for other awesome chances to win Word Out prizes until the end of the summer!