Some of you may recall that my unpublished manuscript, SEEKING SYDNEY, was the recipient of the Royal Palm Literary Award for First Place in November at the Florida Writers Association Conference in Orlando.  I've always been a firm believer in giving back.  Therefore, I've volunteered to be the Chairperson for the Royal Palm Literary Awards for 2008.  I won't be entering my work this coming year and felt it was a good chance to give back to other writers.

It will be a very time-consuming job, but it will also be a challenge and I'm sure I'll enjoy it.  I've been in touch with the Conference Director, Chrissy Jackson, and we've already had a very informative telephone meeting to start preparing for November.  The first of many meetings to come. 

In order to be eligible to enter the contest, one must be a member of Florida Writers.  You don't have to live in the state of Florida to be a member.  Annual membership is $35.  If you think you might be interested, please visit the website at http:www.floridawriters.net  Information about membership is there along with lots of other information. 

I know I have many writers that visit Island Writer, in addition to many avid readers.  One of my duties as Chairperson is to find judges that will be helping to choose the winners of the Royal Palm Award this year.  Each entry must be read by three judges.  We have a wonderful set of rubrics to guide the judges in their scoring.  Rubrics consist of all the criteria to be considered when giving scores to each piece of work.  Writers and readers will easily be able to make fair and intelligent choices based on these rubrics.  And it is the scoring of the judges that will determine the winners.  Also, judges remain anonymous.  If you feel you'd like to participate as a judge, please contact me privately at my email address:  ParisTJD@bellsouth.net

Entries will begin being submitted March 1 and must be postmarked by August 1.  The entries will be tracked by me, given a number (no names are allowed to be on the work) and sent blind to the judges.  Return postage will be provided for the judge to return the scored work back to me.

Not everyone likes to read the same things and some writers or readers may feel more qualified in certain genres.  Judges will choose which genre they'd like to read.  Here's the list of categories for the 2008 Royal Palm Awards.

FICTION:

• Mainstream

• Horror

• Children's

• Young Adult

• Romance

• Women's Fiction

• Humor/Satire

• Sci-Fi/Fantasy

• Mystery

• Thriller

• Flash Fiction

• Short Story

NON-FICTION:

• Educational/Informational

• Biography

• Memoir

• History

• Essays

• Humor/Satire

• Travel

• Poetry

If you think you'd like to enter the contest in one of the above categories, please visit the Florida Writers website to become a member.  Contest entrants do not have to be present at the Banquet to receive an award.  For many beginner writers this is a wonderful opportunity to get your work "out" there, be critiqued with constructive feedback and possibly win an award.  Awards open doors to climbing up that very difficult ladder in a writing career.

If you think you'd enjoy being a judge, please do contact me via my email address above. 

And as you can probably see.....I have my work cut out for me in the coming year.  But I guess I thrive on staying busy and staying involved and doing something like this also gives me a sense of satisfaction. 

See you here next time.........