2018 NAPIBOWRIWEE DAY EIGHT – CONTEST WINNERS!

Congratulations everyone! You did it! YOU SURVIVED NAPIBOWRIWEE!

From May 1 to May 7, 2018, we wrote (or tried to write) 7 picture books in 7 days. Some of us finished all 7 drafts and now can spend the rest of the year deciding which rough drafts are worth revising and developing further! For those of you who finished at least one to six books, you still are a winner in my book for writing on a daily basis and not giving up!

And a special thank you again to our amazing Guest Authors Helena Ku Rhee, Colleen Kong-Savage, Rita Lorraine Hubbard, Carrie L. Clickard, Kerri Kokias and Melissa Stewart for their words of wisdom as well as their thoughtful replies to everyone’s wonderful comments!

I hope everyone had a great last day for our 2018 event. Please post in the comments about your Day 7 experience and/or your overall thoughts on your progress for this year!

My Day 7 update: As a professional violinist, I have surprisingly only played under a half dozen women conductors in my lifetime. It is appalling how few women – and men of color – conductors are out there in the classical world. The numbers have improved recently and we are seeing great progress in the number of rising women and diverse people of color conductors, so I decided to write about a little girl conductor to reflect this positive change! It’s an idea that was inspired recently after an orchestra performance I did with a wonderfully diverse group of musicians. But because I am a little burned out having had to host this NAPIBOWRIWEE event AND juggle my other TV work and book deadlines, it was hard for me to write today, even though I had a fun idea. So I ended up writing another outline summarizing what I thought would be the beginning, middle and end of this little girl conductor’s emotional journey and storyline. I think this would be a fun poem to write, so when I can carve out some free time, I can’t wait to go back and rework this!

So overall, I wrote 5 books and 2 outlines…

… BUT… in being completely honest, as I reviewed my books, I realized my Day 2 book read more like a summary than a book (because it’s another non-fiction book that needs way more research). So I am REDUCING my number of books to FOUR full drafts and 3 outlines.

LOL – it’s like I am a strict judge at an Olympics ice skating competition reviewing the video and changing my score based on a technicality. Haha! But we are about the Honor Code system in this event so even your Fearless Leader does her own due diligence. 🙂  I hope my honesty and book count inspires those of you who did not write 7 picture books in 7 days! Congratulations to those who did! (I have written 7 picture books in 7 days in previous NAPIBOWRIWEE events, but there are some years where I struggle. This year was one of them! But that’s okay, because I still wrote every single day!) 🙂

And now… a few housekeeping notes before we reveal our contest winners!

  1. CONTEST WINNERS: I will be emailing you later today to get your contact/address information to make arrangements for your prize delivery.
  2. FUTURE BLOGS: The next blog will be posted tomorrow May 9, 2018 at 9 AM EST/6 AM PST with an official announcement about our 2019 NAPIBOWRIWEE event!
  3. COMMENTS: I will be closing the COMMENTS section by June 2018 and will re-open them in early 2019 (this is a preventative measure to avoid spammers taking over my website). I’ll make an official announcement about this on Twitter @paulayoo and on our Facebook NAPIBOWRIWEE page. (I know some of you like to continue commenting on this blog after NAPIBOWRIWEE wraps, so I’ll keep the comments section open for the rest of May.)
  4. FUTURE UPDATES: For the rest of the year, any updates on NAPIBOWRIWEE will be posted on the Facebook page and on Twitter. You can keep up with my latest news at my author website: https://paulayoo.com
  5. NEW CONTEST RULES: FYI, because we have many familiar faces who have won in the past, my new “rule” is that NAPIBOWRIWEE participants cannot win again within a three-year period just to keep things fair and to spread the wealth and joy. Hee hee! 🙂 So if there are any repeat winners this time around, you can rest assured that you did not win in the past 3 years.

Finally… if you want souvenirs from our event, please visit our store here which is open all year round!

https://www.cafepress.com/paulayoonapibowriweeclassic

And now… on to our CONTEST WINNERS!

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2018 NAPIBOWRIWEE CONTEST WINNERS

OFFICIAL CONTEST NOTE: All winners were chosen fairly and randomly from this website: https://www.miniwebtool.com/random-picker/

WINNERS – I WILL BE EMAILING EVERYONE TODAY TO MAKE ARRANGEMENTS FOR YOUR PRIZE DELIVERY, SO PLEASE KEEP A LOOKOUT IN YOUR INBOX! 🙂

WINNER OF AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF HELENA KU RHEE’S THE TURTLE SHIP

EMMA WOOD

WINNER OF AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF COLLEEN KONG-SAVAGE’S THE TURTLE SHIP

DEBRA SHUMAKER

WINNER OF AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF RITA LORRAINE HUBBARD’S HAMMERING FOR FREEDOM

JOANA PASTRO

WINNER OF AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF A CARRIE L. CLICKARD BOOK

(Note: The winner can choose one of Carrie’s three books – Victricia Malicia ( 2012 Flashlight Press, illustrated by Mark Meyers), Magic for Sale (2017 Holiday House, illustrated by John Shelley) or Dumpling Dreams (2017 Simon & Schuster, illustrated by Katy Wu)

BARBARA RENNER

WINNER OF AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF KERRI KOKIAS’ SNOW SISTERS

LAURA PURDIE SALAS

WINNER OF AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF MELISSA STEWART’S CAN AN AARDVARK BARK?

LAYA STEINBERG

WINNER OF AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF PAULA YOO’S THE PERFECT GIFT

ROSEMARY BASHAM

WINNER OF AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF PAULA YOO’S WANT TO PLAY?

DONNA MARTIN

WINNER OF AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF PAULA YOO’S LILY’S NEW HOME

TERESA TRAVER

WINNER OF AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF PAULA YOO’S TWENTY-TWO CENTS: MUHAMMAD YUNUS AND THE VILLAGE BANK

GREGORY E. BRAY

WINNER OF AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF PAULA YOO’S SHINING STAR: THE ANNA MAY WONG STORY

TARA TRUDEL

WINNER OF AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF PAULA YOO’S SIXTEEN YEARS IN SIXTEEN SECONDS: THE SAMMY LEE STORY

DANA JACKSON

WINNER OF AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF PAULA YOO’S GOOD ENOUGH

KAY KUDLINSKI

WINNER OF THE OFFICIAL NAPIBOWRIWEE NOTEBOOK

CHARLOTTE OFFSAY

WINNER OF THE OFFICIAL NAPIBOWRIWEE MOUSEPAD

REBECCA ARENT-DRAPER

WINNER OF THE OFFICIAL NAPIBOWRIWEE BUTTON

KATIE FRAWLEY

WINNER OF THE OFFICIAL NAPIBOWRIWEE TRAVEL MUG


LAURA HARTMAN

WINNER OF THE OFFICIAL NAPIBOWRIWEE COFFEE MUG

ANNE SIBLEY O’BRIEN

WINNER OF THE OFFICIAL NAPIBOWRIWEE TOTE BAG

CLAIRE NOLAND

WINNER OF THE OFFICIAL NAPIBOWRIWEE MESSENGER BAG

TRISHA FRITZ

WINNER OF THE OFFICIAL NAPIBOWRIWEE T-SHIRT

http://www.cafepress.com/paulayoonapibowriweeclassic

LISA TOLIN

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Well, Oreo and I are exhausted from this year’s intense 7 days of writing 7 picture books in a row… so we are both going to take a very long nap now! LOL! 🙂

Again, I can’t believe how fast these seven days flew by! I hope everyone had a lot of fun and learned a lot from our Guest Authors and our Flashback posts. Thank you for taking part in my tenth annual National Picture Book Writing Week! It is an honor and privilege to be a part of such a wonderful kid lit writing community.

Please keep me posted on your writing progress and how your 7 picture books in 7 days fare for the rest of 2018! And if there are any success stories (like one of your drafts ends up getting you signed to an agent or sells to publisher or wins a contest), PLEASE TWEET ABOUT IT and include the hashtag #NAPIBOWRIWEE and tag me @paulayoo so I will know about it!

Stay tuned for my final blog tomorrow announcing info for next year’s 2019 NAPIBOWRIWEE event. Until then, HAPPY WRITING! WRITE LIKE YOU MEAN IT! 🙂

Sincerely,

xoxo

Paula Yoo

16 Comments »

  1. Phew! This has felt like an epic week, but a fantastically rewarding one. Thanks to your enthusiasm and virtual poking with a sharp stick, I have written every single day of NaPiBoWriWee and have spent more time writing during the past seven days than I have ever done before in a seven day period … which I am chuffed about. Now it’s all about polishing up those diamonds in the rough (okay, I may be a little bit optimistic here, but that’s what this week has done to me … yeah!). Time to dig out my shammy leather! Roll on 2019.

  2. Congrats to all the winners…of swag or just having finished the challenge…and all the attempters who showed up to play!

    I am extremely happy with the 7 drafts I completed. They were better than most of the ones I did in the past for this challenge…which was surprising since I didn’t even decide to join in this year until the day before. So, yay me! 🙂

    Thanks again, Paula!

  3. Paula – you are so generous!!! The beach bag is perfect for me as I head to the beach to read as often as possible. And, I just had an easy reader published set at the beach.

  4. Hey, I won something! Wow! But I agree with Joan that the real benefit is that I spent time writing every day, no matter how busy I was. Now I have seven drafts, and if even one of them turns out to be solid, that’s a huge victory! Thanks! I really enjoyed this challenge. Hope to do it again next year!

  5. I’m really happy with the 4 drafts I finished, and re-energized to tackle the rest of the ideas on my list! Thank you PAULA and all the guests, presenters and blog commenters for the encouragement and enthusiasm to keep writing! Congrats everyone!

  6. Hey Paula,
    Thanks again. Last night I finished #7. My hubby wondered why I entered the room with an arms-over-the-head power pose. Tada!
    And I won Melissa’s book–hurray!
    Happy writing and revising everyone!

  7. Congrats everyone! FYI I just emailed all the CONTEST WINNERS so operators are standing by for your contact info… 🙂 xo Paula

  8. Thank you for the challenge. I didn’t meet my goal of writing 7 picture book drafts, but the opportunity gave me lots of ideas and a better feeling of dedication. Congratulations to all authors.

  9. YEA TO EVERYBODY who worked SO HARD this past week! I TOTALLY agree with Paula that even if we didn’t finish all 7 books we “still are [winners] . . . for writing on a daily basis and not giving up.” Yesterday was a TOUGH one for me. I wrote my fist sci-based story, and with ONLY an hour and ten minutes to midnight! Still, I finished in record time . . . with SEVEN MINUTES TO SPARE!!! And it turned out even better than I had imagined! I am SO LOOKING forward to continue working on this story and all of the others I wrote during this week!

    I hope everyone else agrees that the real prizes are having these AMAZING stories FINALLY down on paper! This week, I traveled to SO MANY different places, met LOTS of new friends of many different species, and even created brand new worlds. WHAT AMAZING ADVENTURES!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH, Paula, for including us in your fight against procrastination by developing NAPIBOWRIWEE and encouraging us at the end of each post with words of love and inspiration: “HAPPY WRITING! WRITE LIKE YOU MEAN IT! ? !!!” I needed that extra push each and every day! THANK YOU!!!

    This was my third year, and the FIRST time I was able to COMPLETE ALL SEVEN BOOKS!!!! I learned SO MUCH, especially about myself: that I can write whenever (not just during my usual writing time), with many distractions, on a short time frame, while not feeling well, and while not feeling like writing. Now I REALLY DON’T HAVE ANY EXCUSE NOT TO WRITE EACH AND EVERY DAY!!! I hadn’t been writing since December (mostly because of MAJOR CONTINUED ISSUES with my computer since Christmas morning! *sigh*, causing me to get out of my morning habit of writing), and NAPIBOWRIWEE was JUST THE TICKET to get me to BREAK THROUGH the MANY barriers and walls I had let sneak up around me. THANK YOU SO MUCH, PAULA!!!

    And THANK YOU to all the WONDERFUL blog posters who shared their INCREDIBLE wisdom and talents to inspire us along the way. You REALLY kept me going! And it was SO LOVERLY that you took time out of your own busy writing schedules to give individual feedback to each of us! YOU REALLY MADE IT A SPECIAL experience!

    And to ALL of the other participants: we shared this journey together, and your comments TRULY inspired me to keep on writin’ on! THANK YOU, and GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL with continuing to write throughout the rest of the year–turning your PRIZES of stories into even better ones! SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!!! HAPPY WRITING!!!!

  10. Congratulations everyone! It was a whirlwind, but I got 6 1/2 stories done. Love NAPiBoWriWee!

  11. 5/19/18: Hi everyone. Thank you again for ALL your very kind comments and all your insights and progress reports for this year’s event. I really appreciate it. Prizes have been delivered to the winners (a couple books are delayed because they will not be released until later this year so I’ve alerted those about that). I’ll be shutting down the comments section this week and please follow me on Twitter @paulayoo for future blogs later this year about our 2019 event and our future guest line up. Until then, Happy Writing! WRITE LIKE YOU MEAN IT! xo P.