{"id":6443,"date":"2015-11-01T07:00:53","date_gmt":"2015-11-01T07:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=6443"},"modified":"2015-11-01T07:00:53","modified_gmt":"2015-11-01T07:00:53","slug":"from-the-judges-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=6443","title":{"rendered":"From the judge\u2019s chair"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"With<\/a>
With winner Julie Roberts and third place getter Claire Dyer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few weeks ago, I was asked to judge a writing competition.<\/p>\n

I accepted because I love the chance to see new writers developing their craft \u2013 and I know how great it is to win a contest.<\/p>\n

I took the judging very seriously \u2013 because a person\u2019s dreams should always be treated with respect.<\/p>\n

Twelve\u00a0members of Reading Writers submitted stories \u2013 or rather, 11 of them did and one submitted a poem.<\/p>\n

I read each one three times. The first time I read as any reader would \u2013 from start to finish and I scored each on my immediate reaction to the story. The second time I read each story, I looked with a more editorial eye. And the third time\u2026 well that was because the stories were all so close in quality, I was having a hard time deciding on the winner.<\/p>\n

The stories covered a wonderfully wide range of topics, and relationships, and emotions and locations. I was a real delight to read them.<\/p>\n

I was equally delighted to attend the group meeting and meet the authors. I got to hear each author read their work aloud. It is quite amazing how the words really come to life when read by their author.<\/p>\n

Congratulations those writers \u2013 I believe that each and every written story adds something to the world we live in \u2013 a piece of creativity and joy.<\/p>\n

And extra special congratulations to the winners\u2026.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Claire Dyer (3rd<\/sup> place) for a poem that made me remember how much I wanted to be part of James Dean\u2019s world.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately Charles Whittaker wasn\u2019t there to receive is second place award for a story about a lifetime of love.<\/p>\n

And the winner\u2026. drum roll please \u2026 Julie Roberts for a story with delightful imagery and both sadness and joy. The Grandfather Clock was a touching piece that I really enjoyed.<\/p>\n

Thanks so much for inviting me, and good luck everyone. Keep writing those stories and making your readers smile.<\/p>\n

\"Reading<\/a>
Reading writers – thanks for making me feel so welcome.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago, I was asked to judge a writing competition. I accepted because I love the chance to see new writers developing their craft \u2013 and I know how great…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7g6jm-1FV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}