Final Day of ChaBooCha and Winner Announcements #ChaBooCha

Today is the last day of the Chapter Book Challenge. We've all done our best to create stories full of new worlds, new characters and magic for children to immerse themselves in.

Technically, to win the challenge, you had to write a new book, beginning to end, during the month of March. But "winning" is an interesting word. You might not have won, technically, but did you write more this month than you would have? Did you gain a better understanding of your story? Did you do some research that you needed for your story? If your story is further along now than it was at the beginning of the month, then you've come out ahead.

And just a quick note here: Don't ever ask yourself if you're a "real writer." If you write, then you are a writer.

There are several posts from previous challenges that can help you with more technical aspects of your story and, important at this time, with editing your manuscript and even marketing your book. To help you access these posts more easily, I am sharing the links below.

Tips for Building your Author Street Team by SASS

Seven Editing Tips by Miranda Kate

Marketing Madness - but It Doesn't Have to Be by Jackie Castle

Do It Yourself Publicity by Harold Underdown

The Ten R's of Revision by Lee Wardlaw

Editing Your First Draft by Tamora Pierce

Crafting Appealing Cover Art by Julia Stilchen

Your Query is Not a Blurb: Query Tips from a Freelance Editor by Victoria Boulton

Editing Your First draft by Radhika Meganathan

On Editing by Karen Pokras Toz

On Writing Badly and Redefining Failure by Becca Puglisi

Ten Things to Remember When Submitting your Work to an Agent by Carole Blake

Series Writing 101 by Emma Walton Hamilton

How to Reach Kidlit Readers: Hone in on Power and Control by Angela Ackerman

The Education Market and Chapter Books by George Ivanoff

Happily Ever-Afters: What Makes a Satisfying Chapter Book Ending by Lee Wardlaw

How to Successfully Use Crowdfunding for your Book Project by Margo and Emma Gibbs

Talent vs. Learning: Do You Have to Be Born a Writer? by K.M. Weiland

Perfection Isn't Necessary: Why Your Story Needs to Be Published by Rebecca Fyfe

School Visits by Y.I. Lee

Magical Realism: Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary by Kimberley Griffiths Little

I have to admit that some of the promised guest posts this month never materialised. It happens. For some, it was my fault for not chasing things up (or having an overly full e-mail inbox in which some guest posts were accidentally deleted), and for others, life got in the way. We're all human. The guest posts that did not materialise for this challenge will be stored and used in a future challenge though, so you will still be able to soak up the wisdom those authors have to impart.

And now on to the part of this post that I know you are all waiting for: PRIZES!

And the winners are:

Winner of the charm book mark: Melissa Gijsbers

Winner of the book "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy" by Orson Scott Card: Kristi Veitenheimer

Winner of Rory's Story Cubes: Anita Banks 

Winner of the critique of the first two chapters of a chapter book manuscript by Melissa Stoller: Brenda Harris

Winner of Melissa Stoller's soon-to-be released chapter book, "The Enchanted Snow Globe Collection - Book One: Return to Coney Island": Rebecca Koehn

Winner of the book "The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics": Mary Preston

Winner of the critique on the first five chapters of a chapter book by Alayne Kay Christian: saputnam

Winner of the book "Writing and Selling the Young Adult Novel" by K.L. Going: Ashley (Willoughby)

Winner of the Kindle Fire: Jerra 

All of the winners need to get in touch with me within the next two weeks to let me know your mailing address for your prizes or your prize will be forfeited. (And a little warning here: I am excessively slow in getting the prizes out to people, but they WILL arrive eventually.)

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On another note, if you'd like to donate to the Chapter Book Challenge, there is a "donate" button on the right hand side of this blog. Alternatively, you can buy ChaBooCha merchandise from my on-line shop from the Chapter Book Challenge section of the store and proceeds will go towards ChaBooCha. (More designs will be added soon!) You can also buy one of the Chapter Book Challenge's Teapot Tales anthologies (written by members of ChaBooCha), proceeds from which go towards the challenge. A new one will be coming out in April.

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If you feel as though you want to continue writing more of your story or would like to keep your momentum going, or maybe you now want to write something not aimed at children, consider joining the much less official Blog Your Book in 30 Days challenge which begins on April 1st. The posts are less frequent, mostly written by me, and there are a few prizes involved. But it's still fun. Deadlines can be very helpful in pushing us not to procrastinate when it comes to our writing.