Hey Everyone!

Hey guys! 

Dvora, being the awesome person she is, already posted the best Weekly Wednesday Writing yet! lol We have the journals (which are absolutely GORGEOUS by the way) and they are bound to make an awesome prize! Thanks to Paperblanks we are able to give away the prizes for FREE, so if you win one of the contests we will mail the prize to you! However, before we can send out any prizes we have to get some contests started! That's the great thing about this weeks challenge! We want you guys to come up with some contest ideas of your own, so that we know that you will enjoy doing the contests! I'm going to go into a little bit more detail about this challenge; specifically about choosing the winning contest idea! 

First; like Dvora said before there should be at least a 25 word minimum length for the works written for the contest. There won't be a maximum, but again be reasonable, the contest won't be open for too long. (the length of time depending on the number of active members. The more that participate the longer you will have!) 

Second; these competitions need to remain friendly! Any rude or offensive content will be removed from the site, the member responsible will be sent a warning about proper blog conduct and disqualified from the current competition. The contests are meant to add a more exciting aspect to the blog and add some inspiration to write! If things start to get out of hand the contests WILL be discontinued. 

Third; To chose which contest idea will be chosen, Dvora and I will look through EVERY contest idea submission; we will then pick out a top 5 or 6 (depending on how many submissions there are) and we will then put up a poll ( like the one on the home page for your favorite piece to write) where everyone can then VOTE to pick out the winner. That way it is fair to everyone; and we can stay non-dictators on the blog! lol 

Fourth; remember this is supposed to be fun and exciting! Be creative and have fun not only with the contest ideas, but with the submissions FOR the contests once the contests are started!  Once we have the contest ideas sorted and chosen; we will post the contest on the home page, along with the guidelines and rules for submissions! 

Last thing! I wanted to apologize for being away for so long; we just had a lot come up all at one time. However, we are back now and want to get things in full swing, so write it up!! 

Be creative! 

Jen 

Word of the Day: Madcap

Madcap(adjective): wildly or heedlessly impulsive; reckless; rash. 

sentence: The thieves put together a madcap scheme; it was impulsive and reckless, no wonder they were caught! 

Wonderful News/Weekly Wednesday Writing

Hello, everyone!
Jen and I have some wonderful news to share with you all: we have managed to acquire fifty beautiful journals for contests that we'll be holding! The journals were a gift, a donation from the wonderful company Paperblanks (www.paperblanks.com). Ms. Faye Mallett handled the donation, so many thanks to her!
We will be holding our first contest very soon (the date depends on when we get more active members, so please tell all of your Keystone friends!), and the special thing about the first one is that you guys get to choose the topic! For example, the contest can be to "write a short story about an adventure that you wish you went on" or something like that. Make it creative, add a suggested word length, and post it to the Weekly Wednesday Writings section of the forum (this is our Weekly Wednesday Writing; it was Jen's idea). You can suggest a poem, a story, a song- anything! The suggested length must be a minimum of 25 words (if you choose to propose a micro fiction piece). There is no maximum, but please be reasonable because each contest will only be open for about 1 - 3 weeks. Jen and I will choose whichever contest idea we like best. We'll then tweak it (if necessary) and keep you posted about when the contest will be open to submissions! The number of winners will depend on how many people participate in the contest. 
Please email me or Jen with any questions or suggestions! And please continue to spread the word about Keystone Writes!
Once again, thank you, Paperblanks, and thank you Ms. Mallett for your wonderful gift!
Have fun, everyone!

Word of the Day: Tawny

Tawny
(adj.)
Of a dark yellow- brown color.
(n.)
A shade of yellowish- brown.
Parent language: Middle English
Sentence: Instead of buying a beautiful golden Labrador from the breeder, we opted to adopt a tawny mixed breed from the local shelter, and despite her unattractive appearance, she is the best pet we've ever owned.

Word of the Day: Periphery

Hello everyone!
Sorry for our temporary absence; we're back now, though!
I'd like to present the first Word of the Day since January: periphery.

Periphery
(n.)
The external boundary of any area (from dictionary.com)
Sentence: The periphery of the village was dotted with guards; the month before, it was surrounded by thieves, and the government wanted to ensure that no more robberies would occur.
Parent language: Latin and Greek