Contest & Look-a-like Winners & more!

I hope you all had a delightful Fourth of July last weekend and celebrated our country’s 250th birthday of Independence. Ours was quiet. “Fires” are in the air. We saw smoke the other day and heard the helicopters circling. There is a small lake nearby, and the smoke was going up from a short distance beyond. Luckily, it was a cool evening (68) and no wind, plus cloudy, so that fire was out in a “wink.” (Thank You, Lord!) One town I often drive through on my way over the Cascade Mountains, Winthrop, was entirely evacuated on account of a huge fire over that way (two hours west of us).

✒️ Flash Fiction Contest Results

I hope you are all “itching” to learn the winner of June’s Flash Fiction Contest. Even if you did not enter, you will want to check out the 23 story entries. I was totally intrigued by the creative plotlines and “twists” so many of you came up with! Although I can only give out the $10 Amazon digital gift card to one winner, the honor of having your story posted for all to read should mean something to you!

The winner of June’s Flash Fiction Contest is Hadassah W.

You can read her story on the June 2026 Flash Fiction Winner and Entries

Below her story you can read all of the othr entries. Encourage your family and friends to read and comment. Positive feeback is so encouraging to young writers.

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📸 Look-a-like Contest Results

Our first “Circle C or Goldtown” look-a-like contest in many years resulted in fourteen entries. This worked out well, since I needed TEN to run the contest (the same as the story contest). Looking at the images, I can tell everyone had a very fun time! It was SO HARD to choose the winning image, so I enlisted the help of my story judge, Donna Patton, to give me a hand. Together, we came up with the overall winner for this month:

ALIYA H. as Macy Walker, the “orphan outlaw” from Thick as Thieves. She looks mean and dirty in this pose (check out the feet!). Aliya wins the $10 Amazon gift card. Thank you, everyone, for sending in more than enough to run the contest! (In August, I’m going with an art contest, so get those paints, colored pencils, and any other medium ready!) You can see all of the June look-a-like entries right here 👉 LOOK-A-LIKE ENTRIES

The next contest to be offered alongside the usual Flash Fiction contest will be an Art Contest this time. Stay tuned!

Jenny Grant Covers

First and foremost, I promised to draw a random name from all of the 202 entries (whoosh!). The winner can choose anything from my website to download. The Random.org winner was Kelsey, and she chose the Writers Roundup writing workbook (which also comes with ten video lessons). Great choice, Kelsey! Thank you all for your support in helping me show my publisher what you guys like.

I wish I could tell you right now which cover my publisher chose and show you the final, final cover! Alas, we will have to wait a long time to see what they come up with. But I read your comments and I sent in the statistics. Just over 200 responded (wow!), so my publisher will know you are pretty serious about covers.

The two most popular (but only by a few % points) are these. But basically, you pretty much liked them all,LOL. (Don’t get mad, but I took the pig off, as it made the cover too busy and pulled the focus from Jenny and Raindrop.) But I’m making a video book trailer that shows Jenny tripping over the pig, so all is not lost. It’s hilarious!🐖

As far as your opinions regarding the artistic style, it was pretty much hands’ down for photorealism, with a close second for illustrated (so long as the characters look real).

I am sending the results to my publisher today (Tuesday), along with the high-res images of all four covers. These will serve as a “model/example” for what I would like their graphic artists to imitate. Like most of you, I’m pretty sure AI is “out,” unless they can use it and brush it and alter it enough to make it fly. (To me, it was simply a good way to show them what I had in mind, because truly, a picture is worth 1,000 wordy descriptions.)

To that end, and knowing my publisher does not have a huge budget for kids’ books, I have offered to help pay for an illlustrator that can make the Jenny Grant characters come alive, if needed. I would especially appreciate your prayers about this. (If I knew how Kickstarter worked, I would be tempted to set it up and ask for help, since covers are so important to all of us, and they are not cheap.)

I may still have to do that, but first I would like to wait and see what the graphics team says. If they are willing to do an exceptional job using the sample ideas I sent in, then all is well. If they can’t, then I will revist this delicate situation, because sadly, my contract states that the publisher as the final “say” in cover design and layout.

That’s all for now! August 4th will bring a brand-new Flash Fiction prompt and an Art contest this time, so get ready! August will also bring a couple of Activity Packs your way for some coloring and activity fun (and a recipe).

Thanks so much for participating in my Cover Questionnaire. Soon, I will be feeling folks out to be Influencers. If you don’t know what that is, it’s someone willing to go above and beyond to help promote the book in exchange for a book that comes to you 4-6 weeks before anybody else gets it (and I hope to have the audiobook ready by then and will be offering that as an incentive as well). But, all in good time!