The Secret Seed Society: Let You in on their Secret

On the 10th July 2009 the Secret Seed Society launched the first in a series of adventure packs that make growing and eating your own food simple and so much fun that it is quite literally child’s play!
Each pack in the series contains an illustrated storybook, seeds, growing instructions and a recipe so children can follow their food on a journey from plant to plate. The books tell the stories of the inhabitants of Seed City; an urban environment populated by vegetable beings.
The first pack comes with a membership card for children to sign up online to become Seed Agents. Seed Agents get emailed missions that involve growing and eating, as well as being supported and encouraged with prompts and tips on the website. Growing isn’t always easy and it requires a lot of patience in the early stages.
The Secret Seed Society will engage children - and through them their families and communities - in a move towards fresh, local, organic food that they have grown themselves, perhaps on an urban balcony or a rural allotment.
Who's behind the project? The Secret Seed Society is a social enterprise. The founding team brings together a teacher, an anthropologist, a filmmaker, a sustainability strategist and an illustrator. In March 2009, they decided to independently finance, publish and distribute these adventure packs.
“There aren’t many things that I’d launch in a recession but this pack makes so much sense right now. Growing your own food saves cash, reduces carbon and tastes delicious.” Shena Cooper, co-founder of the Secret Seed Society.
They have had huge amounts of support for the project - photographers, lawyers and designers have all pitched in and given their time, they have received a Millenium Grant from UnLtd, discounts from suppliers and the enthusiasm of a bunch of friends who worked through the night assembling 2,500 packs by hand.
More info
Visit www.secretseedsociety.com.
Contact Menka for more information, photos and a pack.
press@secretseedsociety.com
mobile: +44 (0) 797 070 6516
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Secret Seed Society is running its 3rd story writing competition, for a storybook starring a personified Onion!

If you’ve always wanted to be a published children’s author, put it on your to-do list: 700 words, for £700, by 5th October.
The stories are set in Seed City and are full of the challenge, adventure, the wonder of active urban living, and a sprinkle of fantasy.
Full details here: http://secretseedsociety.com/writing-competition/
Good luck!

Vote for Your Favourite UK Children's Author Website

At the bottom of this post are links to my top ten favourite UK children's author websites:

I'd like you to roam all the sites using the links below then vote for your favourite. To vote, just send me a comment with the name of the author whose site you like best and why. Don't forget it's the site you're voting for, not the author.

I will announce the winner at the end of October and post a blog featuring the winning site the first week of November. I'll also let you know which site or sites are my favourites and why. Please also let me know if you have any favourite author sites not included on my list.
Have fun and don't forget to vote!

Michael Morpurgo     http://www.michaelmorpurgo.org/    
         
Jaqueline Wilson        http://www.jacquelinewilson.co.uk/

Malorie Blackman      http://www.malorieblackman.co.uk/

Anne Fine                   http://www.annefine.co.uk/

Philip Pullman             http://www.philip-pullman.com/

JK Rowling                 http://www.jkrowling.com/

Darren Shan               http://www.darrenshan.com/

Eric Carle                  http://www.eric-carle.com/

Terry Deary\              http://www.terry-deary.com/

Julia Donaldson           http://www.juliadonaldson.co.uk/

SCPSW Annual Children's Short Story Competition

The Society of Civil and Public Service Writers is pleased to announce
THE W.F. and F.G. FROUD ANNUAL CHILDREN’S STORY COMPETITION 2009
SHORT STORY OF UP TO 2000 WORDS FOR CHILDREN OF ANY AGE

OPEN TO ALL
Prize: £150 (£100, £30 and £20) and publication in our magazine ‘Civil Service Author’ Entry fee £5 (£3 for members of SCPSW and refund of £2 for entrants who join now)
Results will be posted to website: www.scpsw.co.uk
No entry form required; enclose SAE for return of entry and copy of results
Closing date 31 October 2009
(One entry per person)
Entries in type, double spaced, on one side of A4 only Only pen name, word count and page numbers on manuscript.
Name, address and pen name should be attached on separate sheet and sent to:
Competition Secretary Nina Matter, 4 Redruth House, Grange Road, Sutton SM6 6RT
Cheques should be made payable to SCPSW. Competition is open to all but those interested in and eligible for membership i.e. serving or retired members of Civil Service, Armed Forces, National Health Service, Local Government or any Public Service, should send, please, an SAE to
Joan Lewis, 17 The Green, Corby Glen, Grantham NG33 4NP for details or email joan@lewis5634.fsnet.co.uk

Hero or anti-hero competition

Winter Witch Books have launched an exciting new competition, 'Hero or Anti-hero?' which is suitable for writers of both adult or children's fiction.

All entrants will receive a free week of the publisher's creative writing course on receipt of their entry.
The prizes are:
1st Prize: GBP250, publication of your full book & 12 week creative writing course with feedback
2nd Prize: GBP50, first chapter of your book published in the back of the winning book & online, 12 week creative writing course with feedback
5 Runners Up will receive a 4 week creative writing course with feedback
Closing date: 30th September, 2009

Competition details from the website are given below:

What does it take to be a hero? Do you have to battle against a terrible foe to rescue the love of your life, do you need to be kind to kittens or gentle with the weak? Do you need to be able to ride without a saddle and fight aliens with your eyes closed?
Is this why anti-heroes have such a bad press? Your average anti-hero is not interested in saving the world, the world should be able to save itself. If a damsel is in distress, she probably brought it on herself. As for the weak, well, you can imagine how the anti-hero feels about them. and aliens might just make life more exciting.
Kittens though, might be different, as anti-heroes are more likely to favour animals than humans. You know where you are with an animal.
For our new competition, we want you to focus on personality, in particular your hero or anti-hero. With a strong emphasis on your main character or characters, give us a good storyline, inhabited by believable and vibrant people. They don't need to leap off the page screaming and waving their cutlasses, but they should make you feel you know them by the time you've read their story.
Decide whether your main character is a hero or an anti-hero. Can a fictional character who gains a life of their own ever be one thing or the other? If they are a true villain, with no redeeming qualities, what is it about them that makes us love them so much?
Please note that we have used the male form of hero and anti-hero for ease only, feel free to have as many strong, scary, wonderful, kind and world-saving women as you want for your main characters!
Your work should be fiction but the genre and audience is up to you.
Please see our creative writing courses page for more details of the courses we have available.
For enquiries, please contact us on office@winterwitch.co.uk as we have had some issues with the Contact Us forms.
International entries are welcome.
Entries are GBP4.00 per entry, you may enter more than once. Please see below for full guidelines.
Enter Now! GBP 4.00
If you wish to pay by cheque, please make it payable to J. Findlay.

Guidelines
Entries cost GBP4.00 per entry, you may enter as many times as you like but there is only one free week of coursework per entrant.
Please note, there is no feedback available with the one week of free coursework.
The free coursework can either be sent to yourself or as a gift to someone else - please specify at the time of entry. Children's courses are available.
All coursework sent will be from our advanced courses, unless otherwise requested.
We would appreciate being able to send all coursework by email but if this is not possible, please provide a stamped address envelope of A5 size or above for your coursework to be posted to you. The coursework will be no heavier than 60g.
The coursework will be sent as a PDF attachment by email.
Please enter the first 1-3 chapters of your work, depending on the stage reached in your project. Your project does not have to be completed for you to enter. We would also like a synopsis and/or character biographies.
The length of your finished project is flexible, though we would prefer your final book length to be less than 150,000 words. Please contact us if this is likely to be an issue.
If your work is unfinished, please state the estimated final length of your book - this will not affect your chance of winning. If it is complete, the approximate word count should be included.
Please submit your entries in 12point font size or above and ansure all pages are numbered and labelled, in case they become separated.
If submitting by email, please send your work in the body of the email or as an attachment in MS Word, MS Works or as a PDF.
If submitting by post, please send to:
Winter Witch Books,
3 Stoneybeck Cottages,
Broughton Cross,
Cockermouth,
Cumbria.
CA13 0TX.
If you wish to pay by cheque, please make it payable to J. Findlay.

(The photo is my son Ben, my own little hero, playing the part of the Grinch)

Download the Munch Bunch stories

The six winning entries in the Munch Bunch Storytelling competition are now available on the Munch Bunch website. You can download each story as a podcast to listen to and print it off to read. The stories are:

Munch and the Missing Moo by Julie Hanratty


Munch and the Ghost of Davy Jones by William Adams


Munch Visits the Moon by Caroline Jones


Munch and the Disappearing Lettuce by Michael Murphy


Munch goes on an Adventure by Alex Dixon


and my own story,


Munch the Storyteller by Dorothy Massey


All six stories are narrated by celebrity mum Gail Porter. Go to http://www.munchbunch.co.uk/parents to download the six winning stories for free. Please let me know what you and/or your children think of them.
You can also watch the two Behind the Scenes videos in which my son, Ben and I are featured.

Interview on Book Bites for Kids

Recently I was invited by Children's Writing Coach Suzanne Lieurance to be interviewed for Book Bites for Kids on Blogtalk Radio. Suzanne and I talked about my prize winning children's stories and discussed the benefits of entering short story competitions. If you'd like to hear more about my exciting competition wins and get tips on how to win competitions yourself, click the arrow on the Blogtalk radio box on the right.

One World One Heart Promotion: Win a signed copy of Mini Mysteries and Kooky Spookies

As part of this year's One World One Heart event I'm offering readers of my blog the chance to win a signed copy of Mini Mysteries and Kooky Spookies, an anthology of twelve stories for children including my three Ghost Twin Tales. All you have to do is leave a comment on my post. Make sure you leave a link to your blog or an e-mail address so I can notify you if you are a winner. The winner will be announced here on my blog on Thursday February 12th. For more details of the One World One Heart event, in which you can enter to win lots more freebies and/or generate traffic to your own blog, click on the badge in the column on the right hand side.

I'm a Munch Bunch Winner

Yesterday I received an e-mail telling me that I am one of the winners of The Munch Bunch Storytelling competition. My short story, Once Upon a Munchtime, will be recorded as a podcast by TV presenter Gail Porter and will be available to download later on the Munch Bunch website. Next week I'll be travelling to London to attend the recording. I've also won a day trip to Lapland to meet Santa and his elves and take a husky-led sleigh ride on a frozen lake, so I've got that to look forward to at the end of the year. Next weekend I'll blog about my podcast recording experience and let you know who the other winners are.