Congratulations Winners of Tour de Writing! Woo-hoo and Huzzah!

Thanks to everyone who made the Tour de Writing an awesome success! I am so impressed with the progress that everyone made in a short amount of time.  And I know how fickle writing and muses can be.  One thing that I have learned this year is that if I sit down with an open word document, then I will make progress.  I may call it The Practice Room, or unplugging, or ignoring the kids, but it is all forward motion.  And I have also learned that taking breaks and having fresh eyes is just as important.  Thanks R, for the reminder!!

And I am so thankful to be writing in kidlit, where community (writeoncon!) is everything.  If you want to see some writers starting the conversation about hard topics, check out Jon's interview with Marybeth over at Know Diversity.  We are a gifted and empathetic group of people--kidlit is wonderful.

On to the business at hand.  I have some PRIZES to give out!!

Drum roll...

The GRAND PRIZE WINNER of the YELLOW JERSEY is TOM with 61,844 points!

He wins the Tour de Writing!!  Woo-hoo!  Champagne and applauds under the Arc de Triumph for Tom!!

Krystey Belle has won the GREEN JERSEY for most DRAFTED words, with a total of 57,053 points.

Awesome drafting, KB!!

Patricia has won the POLKA DOT, revising jersey, with a total of 56,353 points!

Yay, Patricia, you blew me out of the water!!

And the winner of the WHITE JERSEY, signifying highest points in revising and drafting is Taffy, with 46,606!!

Congrats Taffy!

Congrats to all the participants--Dianne, Marisa, Lily Cate, Jon, Robert, Sarah, Kate, and Tina, and all others who cheered and lurked.  It was an extremely close race, and I'm excited for the atmosphere of writing energy around here.  Thanks for participating!  Please let me know if I didn't tally things up correctly, and I'll make changes.  What a convoluted system I created for my game... (it's been a challenge to get the standings in the correct order.)  I'm already trying to come up with a more straightforward system for the next contest.  :)

Thanks everyone!  Winners, please email me with your address and top two prize choices, and I'll get them in the mail!!

I encourage everyone, in the spirit of writerly community, to go to the winners blogs and get to know them.      Follow them.  Congratulate them!

Check back Friday, where I have a special, where-are-they-now addition of my Friday Feature interviews!

And, how's everyone doing?  I apologize for my spotty posting during my vacation/writeoncon/summer-black-hole-that-I've-fallen-into.  I'm looking forward to September and getting back to my regular posting/commenting schedule!