fairy skeletons.: A Very Pinteresting Birthday

It's my birthday! (Not really; my real birthday is in a few days.) But it's my birthday month, at the very least. I've been thinking a lot about how I've been alive a whole decade and a half and that's pretty cool. I've also been thinking about how this blog has been my outlet and place of comfort here on the Internet for over three of my fifteen (!!!) years.

I can't ever stress this enough: this blog has gone on for this long because of you, my readers, and I'm so grateful.

So instead of demanding birthday presents and virtual cake like I totally would normally, I'm making an effort to give back to this wonderful, inventive, brilliant, kind community that has given so much to me.

I've decided to open up a Pinterest contest for writers, inspired by a similar contest run by writer Amanda Foody last year. It is going to be super fun.

[via]

How it works

So if you're like me, you've seen a lot of people's inspiration boards for their novels-in-progress or writing projects on Pinterest. (If you're like me, Pinterest has basically taken over your life, but, y'know, whatever.) And more than once, you've looked through someone's board and wanted to tell them, "THIS BOARD IS AMAZING. THEREFORE YOUR BOOK MUST BE AMAZING. FINISH WRITING SO I CAN THROW MY MONEY AT YOU."

I want to reward the ingenious and inspiration-rich minds behind these boards. I want to point at these people and say, "The aesthetic is strong with this one." And I want to give writers the opportunity to receive some creative goodies to go along with their projects to fuel their brains and make them happy.

The good news? It's super easy to enter, and if you win, I will make ALL THE THINGS for you. (Seriously. There are some pretty snazzy prizes up for grabs, if I do say so myself.)

Rules

• Submissions are open from the moment this post is published to 11:59 pm EST on July 31, 2015. So, roughly a month.
• Since this contest is meant as a thank-you to my blog readers, you must be following this blog on either Bloglovin or GFC to enter. (No worries if you don't already follow; you can do that right now by finding either the Bloglovin or the GFC widget on my sidebar and folowing!)
• This contest is for specific project inspiration boards, not general writing boards.
• You may submit as many boards as you like, but please submit them one at a time.
• Your entry will be judged based on the Pinterest board alone, so please do not submit any part of your manuscript, as I unfortunately won't be reading it.
• Since I won't be reading any part of the manuscript, this doesn't need to be a board for a finished project! In fact, you don't even have to be currently working on it. (Goodness knows I have way too many boards for projects still in the planning phase.)
• No erotica on the boards, please.
• Your board should have at least thirty (30) pins on it. If the board has over 250 pins, you may still submit it, but I probably won't look at the entire thing.

Prizes

First place:

• (Optional / If you have a Blogger blog) Blogger design featuring responsive template (not coded by me, but customized by me), possible header, and any other bits and pieces you might want to flesh out your blog.
• An interview here on the blog
• A fanmix (at least eight songs) inspired by the board
• A poem (at least three stanzas) inspired by the board
• A book cover (whatever dimensions you'd like!) inspired by the board
• A graphic inspired by the board featuring a quote I feel is relevant

Second place:

Pick three of the following:

• A fanmix (at least eight songs) inspired by the board
• A poem (at least three stanzas) inspired by the board
• A book cover (whatever dimensions you'd like!) inspired by the board
• A graphic inspired by the board featuring a quote I feel is relevant

Third place:

Pick two of the following:

• A fanmix (at least eight songs) inspired by the board
• A poem (at least three stanzas) inspired by the board
• A book cover (whatever dimensions you'd like!) inspired by the board
• A graphic inspired by the board featuring a quote I feel is relevant

Honorable mention(s):

(I will only pick honorable mentions if I get at least 20 entries.) Pick one of the following:

• A fanmix (at least eight songs) inspired by the board
• A poem (at least three stanzas) inspired by the board
• A book cover (whatever dimensions you'd like!) inspired by the board
• A graphic inspired by the board featuring a quote I feel is relevant

Enter! Enter! Enter!

The contest is now closed to entries. Many thanks to everyone who sent a board in!

Entries received

I'll be posting links to boards that have already been submitted here, so that a) you can see examples of novel inspiration boards and b) you can confirm that I've gotten your entry. In addition, if you include a link to a blog/website, I'll link that down below as well, so that people can visit your site. (Entries are posted in the order they were received.)

1. I Wish I May | Adelyn Sterling [blog]
2. hail the pumpkin king | Samantha Chaffin [blog]
3. 100 Levels of Immersed | Jamie Terry [blog]
4. The Startling Fragility of Eternity | Topaz Winters [blog]
5. Fragments of Aurora | Topaz Winters [blog]
6. Never, Never | Cait [blog]
7. Winner Takes All | Alyssa Carlier [blog]
8. Witches Black and Silver | Alyssa Carlier [blog]
9. The Tenjima Series | E.R. Warren [blog]
10. Because I'm Irish | Sky [blog]
11. Petrichor | Sky [blog]
12. Angel Veins | Sky [blog]
13. Matroyshka | Alyssa Carlier [blog]
14. The Voyage of Rowena Roundabout | Alex McCarron [blog]
15. 986 | Anne Brees
16. Chasing Royalty | Anne Brees
17. Thorn Among Fleas | AnQi Yu [blog]
18. The Summer of Little Ox | AnQi Yu [blog]
19. The Foxmont School for Boys and Girls | AnQi Yu [blog]
20. When I Am Weak | Opal [blog]
21. Hidden in the Shadows | Morning [blog]

Ahh! Best of luck to you all; I'm so excited to see what kinds of entries come in. (Also: I'm fifteen. I could be actual YA novel protagonist material now. What.)