They Want To Hear Your Stories

So often we need a dose of affirmation about our work. It’s wonderful to receive some feedback from our peers, which is why Scribophile.com is a great resource for writers. On this special episode of The Author Inside You, we interview two writers who have both recently won online writing contests. Darlene Peters won first place in the Holiday Poem contest and Adam Down won first place in the First Chapter of a Novel contest. Both Adam and Darlene have great stories to share about their experiences finding support within writing groups.

Scribophile.com

Christmas Mixes -Darlene Peters

In the stores, Christmas mixes Thanksgiving, and Halloween; On the street, Christmas mixes Santa with a Nativity Scene.

Around my feet, Christmas mixes dirt with snow; Around my mouth, Christmas mixes cold air with hot cocoa.

In our home, Christmas mixes you and me; In their home, Christmas mixes newborns and elderly.

In my heart, Christmas mixes hope and fear; On my face, Christmas mixes laughter and tear.

In my closet, Christmas mixes solid with plaid; In my mind,

Christmas mixes good with bad.

In my family, Christmas mixes mom and dad; In my memories, Christmas mixes happy and sad.

Outside the house, Christmas mixes sleet and fog; Inside the house, Christmas mixes alcohol with egg nog.

On their faces, Christmas mixes smiles and frowns, In many places, Christmas mixes ups and downs.

By the tree, Christmas mixes silence with noise; Under the tree, Christmas mixes socks with toys.

Christmas mixes our memories, with a vinaigrette of lights, tinsel, and ornaments, Ugly sweaters, pretty clothes, and events.

Tis the season, in December, again. We find the reason To remember again, as Christmas mixes.

interview transcription

You're listening to the author insides you podcast, a weekly podcast designed a, motivates you to finish writing a book, choose a publisher, and have your work build an audience. Keep listening if you're looking to get propelled into the next chapter of your life. And now it's the author inside you podcast with your host, Leah and Matt Rafferty.

Hello and welcome to the author inside your podcast. I'm Matt Rafferty and I'm Leah Rafferty. On this episode of the author inside you, we have two guests. Both winners of writing contests from our sponsor scuba file. Adam down is the first place winner of chapter one of a novel contest. We will speak with him shortly, but first we were asked to judge the poetry contest and it wasn't easy, but we picked the winner and the winner is Christmas mixes by our first guest today, Darlene Peters.

Well, Darlene, first off, congratulations on winning the poetry contest. What a feeling. Thank you so much. I was really shocked and thank you for interviewing me and being a sponsor prescrip of file. I was really in amongst a lot of talented people and . A lot of great entries. So I know it had been hard for you to select one.

It was difficult reading over the entries and picking one that we thought was the best, like yours did stand out. I'm glad. And a lot of that is because of the help of the people on the site. I came across, scrub a file by researching different writing, worst workshops, cause I have some writing projects that I'd like to finish, but I needed some kind of accountability for my writing projects.

So I found this site. And it's free and it's easy and everybody is so welcoming that you're just kind of drawn into it. And everybody is real encouraging. And it works on a karma system where you critique someone's work and then once you weren't so many karma points, you can share a work and there are codes of conduct that you follow for critiquing and for, you know, being a part of the discussion forums.

So it's, it's moderated, which is great. It's fantastic that there really is communities like that online that can be, you know, self-governing and people respect each other. It's nice to hear. It's so encouraging. Everyone is so encouraging. When you get critiqued is very constructive and it's very encouraging.

It's almost like everybody wants everybody else to succeed and that's, that's what I found in this because I'm real guarded when it comes to my writing. If I come up with a poem. You know, I think, Oh, is this good? I'm kind of not that confident about it. How about you tell us about Christmas meal? Well, there's a prompt for the poem that, you know, they ask you, what does it mean to you?

And so when I started thinking, I just had this phrase in my mind that it's December again, and we'll remember again, because when you think back to different holidays and you think about. Maybe a death in the family, and we've come into the holiday missing someone, or, my little sister was born at Christmas around Christmas.

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