Goodnight Moon's 60th Anniversary Bedtime Story Contest.
http://bedtimeclassics.com/bedtimeclassics/submit.jsp
$1,000 Grand Prize plus publication (HarperCollins)
Co-sponsored by Johnson and Johnson
Unfortunately only open to US residents
1,500 words max.
Readership - 0 -4 years.
I just ran across this in one of the forums I belong to, in case anyone is interested.I'm outta here for a few days. Have a great one and write on!
allows people to attach a person with the book and vice-versa. I email a few dozen other authors throughout the year, but we look forward to at least once a year getting together in person. It's not all work or maybe not what most people consider work. There are all night how's-that-dones and who-dunits. One author friend brings water pistols, we order pizza, bring coolers of soft drinks (alcohol is not allowed in the Methodist Center where this is held each year). Of course we also bring our works in progress (WIP). We critique each other's works, have water pistol murders to see which way bodies will fall, and crazy stuff like that. 
3. Of course, yours truly has a speaking gig as part of the conference. Do I really know more than these people I'm speaking to? Uh huh, no way. But I might have a different way of getting the subject across. It is also a chance to hear other views. It also gives the writer a shot in the arm of excitement, enthusiasm, and writing energy. I try to make two or three conferences a year. Writing is a fairly solitary pursuit. Hours, weeks, and months are spent sitting in front of your computer or laptop. Most times you are surrounded with notes, reference books and assorted other writer tools all encircling you like the old covered wagons traveling west when the Indians attacked. The one I really want to go to is in Canada, but that a fair piece to travel for me...not only clear across the country but in another country.
4. As a writer, never underestimate human contact. Networking is all about the handshake and speaking niceties. You've heard the saying, "Fifteen minutes of Fame?" Well with the publishers, and agents at conferences that's all you get. You make your pitch. Even seasoned writers have something to pitch. There is always a better deal out there, a larger literary agency, or some such. Conferences are filled with would-be writers, published authors, agents, and publishers. If anyone can commiserate with a writer's life...another writer can. 
You have to sell your expertise behind your writing. You have to sell your writing. Sell, Sell, Sell... either I'm imitating a stock broker or I'm a telemarketer. Nah, I'm just an author wanting to stay in business. 
Abby Normal...long live the queen. When life is serious most of the time, you need a release or permission to be crazy, impulsive, and not normal. This particular time since one of the main underlying themes was chocolate...I sent two pounds of assortment of mini chocolates along to illustrate my book. I'm NOT recommending this tactic to anyone. It was an insanely stupid thing to do.
Authors use everything at their disposal to market their books with to the reading public. I have a romance writer friend who passed out match books along with the standard bookmarks for her new book. Saying her book was hot stuff! Another romance writer friend passed out little net baggies with her bookmark, a tea candle, and a trial size bottle of bubble bath and still another hands out red eraser lips. A juvenile writer passed out bookmarks with a small magnifying glass so children could look for the bugs that are in her book. 
Association Conference starting this Sunday at Epworth by the Sea. I've appeared every year since their 25th anniversary. This year is their 32nd. But I digress... The first conference, I was a budding novelist, because I was only printed in nonfiction at the time. On the first afternoon, it was meet-and-greet, each person in the auditorium was asked to stand up, say their name, and then attach something memorable to it. I thought about it long and hard. Then I decided to play on my heritage. My turn came, I stood up, announced my name, and followed it with, "I have 'made in Japan' stamped on my butt."
into it. Notice I said good writer. Bad writers are in it for the money and rarely see any. Who wants to read a bad writer...come on now, raise you hands. Ah ha, just what I thought. Nobody. I have critiqued quite a few budding writers whose project needed serious work and thought, but that's not necessarily bad, if they are willing to risk the hard work it takes to make it better. There is a wide gulf between good and bad. There are some writers who straddle the chasm. 
Still for other writers there is a financial risk involved. The simple fact is the chances of becoming published are small. Too many authors and too few printed books. It's a buyers marketplace. Investments in writing can be as small as the purchase of some writing books, paper, envelopes and stamps, and some investments are quite higher. Unpublished writers spend their days creating text in the hopes of being published forsaking standard paying jobs to fulfill their dreams. Others invest hard earned greenbacks in book doctors and scams to still seek their vision of seeing their work in print. With the advent of Print on Demand (POD) publishers, many writers who have received enough rejections letters to wall paper a living room, find their dreams realized at a cost. 
Do you listen to music while you write? Does that music find a way into your article or story or does it distract you to insanity? First let me say I normally like all types of music. Just this past weekend, my family and I were celebrating my daughter's twenty-first birthday. We were out on the dance floor to all types of music which had our daughters and her friends in shock. Although us old fogies cut a rug, we didn't close down the bar like our children did. There are some limits to getting older.
I listen to various types of music while I write different scenes. Not 
always classical, although I do use classical pieces in this blog. I learned if I listen to vocalists I'm too busy singing to the song rather than focusing on what I'm writing. I like the orchestra type music while writing. There is a wide variety for every mood, or juncture in writing...uplifting, sad, suspenseful, dramatic, cute and if you look at it, it has all the types of writing just to name a few.
For other writer's it may be different, but then, I'm the Abby Normal sort.It can be inspiring. Right now I'm listening to Schubert's #9. It's bright and perky and suits the mood I'm writing in. When I write standard things like backgrounds, filler pieces, or the like, most likely what's coming through my headphones is something melodic and easy listening, like now. I find myself clicking my keyboard to the beat of the music with my head swaying, and my feet thumping in the rhythm.
When I'm writing about death, destruction, mayhem, suspense and impossible odds something more foreboding with tension works well.It raises my senses and allows me to feel the words. Like with the other piece of music my fingers pound the keyboard and my head nods up and down to the music. What I'm hearing interprets into what I'm writing. I sit up right, feel tense, and can't wait for the next words to fly from my brain. An example of this type of music is Holst's Planets, most notably "Mars, Bringer of War." Every note raises expectation so I write the same way. Every word I type lifts the tension in the piece.
Even with sadness, you follow the words and music through the piece. When I'm writing sadness, or depression or lost soul passages, it has to be Mozart's "Requiem" or Beethoven's "Fur Elise." To me there is nothing so downcast or broken. It will bring tears to your eyes. When I look at my writing of these scenes, I want my readers to feel what the character is feeling.
By the end of the piece, because of the length of this type music, I find my productivity increases. Of course this is only during the rough draft stage of any of my writing. At this stage it can be rough around the edges, but still have impact. While listening to Beethoven, my typing speed increases because of the fast tempo of his works. Even the lulls are swift with almost no rests. By writing this way, I tire quickly with so much emotion packed into a short period of time. Imagine typing to Haydn's "Concerto for Flute and Strings"...quick, quick, quick. No, two finger typists could keep up. Luckily, I'm a eight-finger typist...I can't use my left thumb and forget about my right pinky exists while typing.
Have you tried writing to music for inspiration? For impact? For stretching the imagination just one step farther than you were before you started. Try it some time. Put on a piece of music and imagine what the characters are sensing through the music.
As you can tell from the time of this posting, the day has slipped away from me. Most often, I'm lost in my works in progress. My children used to say, "Don't mind her, she's lost in Sri Lanka, Belize, or London." Those are good days in writing. When you are so involved with the writing that nothing else interferes with the work to be done.
Then there are the days when nothing clicks while writing. Or at least trying to write. Those are the bad days. You try to think of dialogs between characters and you draw a blank. You know some of these characters better than some of your family members. They talk to you. You dream about them. You put them in jeopardy and get them out. You know every thought and deed...but they remain quietly in the background. Not uttering a peep. 
This is my version of writer's block. Or as this writer "affectionally" calls it, the writer's blah's. You struggle to break through it with every trick in the book.
For some writers it's a simple avoidance issue, or last minute crunch time issues. Way back in the dark ages when you were in school, you might have run into this a lot. An assignment was assigned last week and you waited until the night before it was due to write it. You had better things to do with your time than sit and write, especially if the project came from the hated Miss/Mrs/Mr (insert name here). You know how to fix this one. Don't put off til tomorrow what you can do today. You may not want to but sometimes ya gotta just do it.
Sometimes, it's too many distractions. You long to be left alone and in quiet so you can focus. In this writer's case, this is the normally the reason behind a block. You finally get that one critical piece of writing sorted out, then someone will interrupt you, have to be somewhere, or come over. It's maddening. (Insert your own distraction here). This one is not so easy to fix because it depends on other people cooperating with you. The easiest way this writer found to combat this issue was to schedule writing time when other people are asleep...usually about 2 AM. This is probably not the best solution for all, but it works for me. At other times, you can set an alarm clock and say, "I'll write from X time to X time." The reason for the alarm clock is in case you get lost in (insert writing locale here).
piece of paper. Does it look lonely to you? Use that word in a sentence. Now use that sentence in a paragraph. Now write another paragraph. Who cares if all the "t"s aren't crossed and "i" aren't dotted. Just write. You can always go back and edit. Don't be so self-critical. No one is going to see the first draft unless you let them see it. Congratulations, you've broken through the block of knowing where to start.
You will find that once the juices going it's hard to stop. You keep writing and writing until... you fall down in exhaustion or become physically ill. Neither one helps writer's block. It is important to stop and recharge your batteries. It is difficult writing a flaming romantic scene while you are snuffling and running a different type of fever. (For most normal people romance is the farthest thing on their mind while sick). When your body goes into revolt to get your attention, you're not doing something right. Falling asleep on your keyboard is an indicator that you need to go on to bed and start again in the morning. This writer has been guilty of this from time to time.
