FLEUR - 2020-06 (CLOSED)
"Lavender"
42 entries
26 selected for Shortlist
Countdown to entry deadline
Our writing contests have become so popular that our volunteer staff needs more help to tend our garden. With your support, we can sustain our family-friendly floral writing site. We have recently begun asking for a subscription to enter a contest. If you won a contest in 2019, you earned a life-time subscription and are good to go! If you’re new to the site be sure and read our Mission page to see all the wonderful benefits you can enjoy. Thanks for your continuing support!
lavender flowers
reach above the picket fence –
Grandma is watching
Lavender
As spring turns to summer, we are slowly and carefully emerging from our homes to the outer world. Now is a great time to be outside enjoying the flowers! Member Sandra James has created a prompt for this month that is very appealing – a fragrant, lovely flower, a picket fence and above all, Grandma! We’re especially grateful for all the bees that are attracted to the scents of late spring and early summer. We hope you’ll be inspired by the wonderful picture and the prompt.
Remember that all stories selected for the shortlist will also be eligible to be included in our upcoming ZenGarden.club Kindle books.
Good luck to everyone!
Fleur Flash Fiction
We invite you to create a short short story – 350 words or less – inspired by the featured picture and haiku. What characters, background, stories and plots do you imagine?
Study the current picture and haiku, then write your story.
Deadline: Wednesday, July 1, 2020 5 pm ET. Please read the guidelines below before entering.
Two Ways to Win!
Public Voting will determine 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners
ZenGarden.club Judge will select the Grand Prize Winner and list of Finalists.
Some of you love public voting, and others enjoy getting feedback from a highly qualified judge. We now have something for everyone!
We’re very happy to welcome back Sherry Torgent as our judge this month. Sherry is a publishing editor, writer, published author and a delightful judge! She shared some wonderful insights during our Violet contest last March. Her comments are not only helpful for all of us writers, they are also literary gems! Sherry will select the Grand Prize Winner and the list of Finalists for this contest. Many thanks, Sherry!
Let our great writers inspire you! Each previous contest has links to the winning stories for that contest:
Fleur 2020-02 – Plum Blossom
Fleur 2020-01 – Crocus
Photo Flora 2019-03 – Garden Magic
Photo Flora 2019-02 – Scary
Photo Flora 2019-01 – Blue-White Stairs
Nutshell Narratives 2019-04
Nutshell Narratives 2019-03
Nutshell Narratives 2019-02
Nutshell Narratives 2019-01
Guidelines for entering:
- You must be a Subscriber to enter – Subscribe now
- Write a short story about the current picture in 350 words or less.
- Write your story, then fill out the entry form in the link below.
- You may enter as many times as you like with different stories, but each entry requires a separate entry form.
- Multiple entries of the same story will be disqualified. Please do all your editing and make all your changes before you send it in!
- Accepting entries until Wednesday July 1, 2020 5 pm ET
- Check this page for contest updates.
Helpful Hints:
- Title does not count toward total word count
- Hyphenated words count as one word
- Give your story a unique title that no one else is likely to use.
Prizes:
- Grand Prize – $100.00 plus permanent winners page, and permanent publication of the story on the site
- First prize (Public Voting) – $25.00 plus permanent winners page, and permanent publication of the story on the site
- Second prize (Public Voting) – permanent winners page, permanent publication of the story on the site
- Third prize (Public Voting) – permanent winners page, permanent publication of the story on the site
- All shortlisted stories are eligible for inclusion in the ZenGarden.club Kindle books.
Contest Rounds and Public Voting:
- Round 1 – Pending (ZenGarden Staff)
Pending items will either be disqualified or qualified.
Entries will be disqualified if they:
- Contain more than 350 words
- Contain excessive spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors
- Are not family-friendly
- Do not contain any reference to flowers or gardens
- Are repeat entries or corrections of stories already entered
- Round 2 – Qualified (ZenGarden Judges)
- ZenGarden judges will review all the qualified stories and select a short list.
- Only shortlisted stories will be eligible for our ZenGarden.club Kindle books.
- Only shortlisted stories will be available for public reading and voting.
- Round 3 – Short List (Public) published after entry deadline
- All shortlisted items are published “blind” – Title, age group and story only.
- The voting period will have a posted begin and end date.
- Public votes by clicking the “like” button within the voting period.
- Public can “like” as many stories as they wish.
- The highest number of likes will determine the first, second and third place winners.
- Our judge will select the Grand Prize Winner and the list of Finalists from the short list.
Double-check your story against the following check list, and make all corrections BEFORE you send! Multiple entries of the same story will be disqualified.
- Correct length (350 words or less)
- Correct spelling and grammar
- Family-friendly content
- Includes at least one reference to gardens or flowers