Category: Annual Online Events

General, Yule Ball

Yule Ball 2019!

emmarosewriter

Greetings fellow writers (sunglasses emoji) (sunglasses emoji) (finger guns emoji),

Welcome to 2019! We hope that the new year has been treating you well, but let’s be honest– no matter how well it’s treated you, none of us are ready to face the reality of Real Life ™. But, despite the crushing nature of our lives, there is a silver lining! That’s right folks, it’s time for…

*drum roll please*

The fourth-annual Ch1Con Yule Ball!

For those of you *LOSERS* who don’t know, the Yule Ball is an hour-and-a-half long live video panel. This year, it will be held on Thursday, January 24th from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM Central Time (8:00 PM to 9:30 PM Eastern Time).

Basically, it’s a mini, free, online Ch1Con! It features young authors answering YOUR questions about writing and publishing.

Interested in asking a question? You better be! Because all tweets using #Ch1ConYuleBall will have the opportunity to be answered by our panelists! We will answer as many as we have time for!

Interested in bidding on cool, bookish perks? We’ll be hosting a silent auction along with our online events where you can bid on critiques, books, and awesome gift boxes! All the proceeds will go towards funding the free programming Chapter One Events provides, as well as our yearly conferences.

Interested in watching the Ch1Con Yule Ball? You’ll be able to watch the panel live on our YouTube channel!

We’ll be announcing the speaker line up and posting the official link next Friday, so stay tuned!

2018-2019 Events, General, Mentorship Program

Mentoship Anthology Cover Reveal and Blog Tour!

emmarosewriter

Hello writers!

As you might already know, the Ch1Events team has been working with a mentee (the amazing Emily Woods) to create something pretty fantastic. A paranormal short fiction anthology!

This year, the anthology has a killer theme that’s sure to give you nightmares before Christmas. It’s titled FATAL FANTASIES: SHORT STORIES BY YOUNG WRITERS. Each story centers around the dead, the undead, and the mostly dead.

Image result for mostly dead

The official release date for our anthology is November 20th, but in the lead up to that date, the Ch1Con team is running a blog tour! The dates and links to each post will be listed on this post below as they are released.

Blog Tour Stops: 
Wednesday, Nov 14:
Anthology cover on the Ch1Con blog.
Scroll down to see it!
Thursday, Nov 15:
Interview with Emily Woods (ft. an excerpt of her short story) on Medium!
Link to come!
Friday, November 16: 
Content from Ch1Con team member Christel Thompson.
Link to come!
Saturday, November 17:
Content from Ch1Con team member Joey Brant.
Link to come!
Sunday, November 18:

Content from Ch1Con team member Emma Ryan.
Link to come!
Monday, November 19:
Content from Ch1Con team member Zoe Noble.
Link to come!
Tuesday, November 20:  Release Day!!!
We will be posting the buy links for the anthology right here on our blog!
Link to come!

For today’s installment of the blog tour, we will be revealing the cover of this years anthology. So, without further ado…

FatalFantasies@400x-100.jpg
Cover Art by Nicole Dowling   

 

Such spooky! Much pretty!

Thank you so much to Nicole Dowling for donating her time to create this amazing art. You can find more of her work here.

Thanks for reading! We hope you’ll join us for the rest of the tour!

Ch21Con, Mentorship Program

2018 Mentorship Program

Julia Byers

We’re thrilled to announce
the Third Annual
Chapter One Events Mentorship Program!

What?

  • This fall, the Ch1Events team will be mentoring writers ages 11 to 29 on all parts of the publishing process!
  • The entire Ch1Events team (as well as some guest industry professionals) will take part in the mentorship program, so you’ll learn about each step of how to get published from an expert in it.
  • Through one short story by each writer, the team members will step their mentees through everything they need to know about becoming authors: how to write a query letter, utilize editorial letters to strengthen their writing, read contracts, and more.
  • At the end of the program, the Ch1Events team will publish all the short stories in an anthology—available for sale online on Amazon, Barnes&Noble.com, and more!

When?

  • Now through September 15: apply to participate by submitting a short story!
  • October 1: mentees selected
  • Throughout October: mentors and mentees work together to perfect the selected short stories and learn all about publishing
  • Early November: anthology gets sent to the printers!
  • November 18: the anthology comes out!

Want to be part of it?
Visit this page to apply by September 15!

Writing Contest

2018 Competition Anthology: Available Now!

Julia Byers

We are pleased to announce that the e-book anthology of our 2018 writing contest’s winning entries is now available!

Perseverance cover
Look at this gorgeous cover!

You can now purchase Perseverance: Chapter One Events Writing Competition Collection, Second Edition from a number of e-book retailers, including Amazon and Blurb. It’ll also be available through Barnes & noble and iBooks, shortly. And in order to make the anthology accessible to as many readers as possible, for a limited time we’re pricing it at only $0.99! Hurray!

We absolutely love the poems and short stories that won our 2018 writing contest, and we hope you will love them too. Happy reading!

– The Ch1Events Team

Ch21Con, Writing Contest

2018 Writing Contest Winners!

Julia Byers

Hey, everyone!

We are thrilled today to announce the winners of our second annual Chapter One Events Poetry & Short Fiction Contest! All winning entries will appear in our 2018 contest e-book anthology, which will be available for purchase in mid-July.

You’ll note in the contest results below that we don’t necessarily award a full set of winners for each category. This is because we believe in rewarding quality over quantity, so we’ve limited our winners to only those entries we find fitting of this distinction. (Basically this means, if you won something, it’s because we really love you.)

Now, without further ado: drum roll please………

Ch1Con (Ages 11-20)

Poetry Winners
  • First Place: “Visions” by Miranda Sun
  • Second Place: “Mountain” by Emily Woods
  • Honorable Mentions: “Away with You” by Miranda Sun and “Looking Forward to Nineteen” by Emily Woods
Short Fiction Winners
  • First Place: “The Rosewyvern’s Curse” by Emily Woods
  • Second Place: “We’ve Hit an Iceberg” by Kori Johnson

Ch21Con (Ages 21-29)

Short Fiction Winner
  • First Place: “The New Corpse” by H. L. Cassel

Congratulations!!!

Thank you to all who entered the contest! We really enjoyed reading your entries and we hope you’ll enter again next year. And a HUGE congratulations to our winners!! All our winners this year will receive discounted admission to the relevant conference, as well as one free copy of the 2018 contest e-book anthology–which, again, will be available for purchase in mid-July.

Now go celebrate!

–The Ch1Events Team

 

Writing Contest

Poetry and Short Fiction Contest

Julia Byers

We’re thrilled to announce

the 2nd Annual Chapter One Events Poetry and Fiction Contest!

Want to attend the 2018 Chapter One Young Writers Conference (ages 11-20) or the Chapter Twenty-One Conference (ages 21-29) but need financial assistance? Want a free, professional critique of your work-in-progress? Want to see your writing published in an eBook anthology this summer?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, the Chapter One Events Poetry and Fiction Contest is for you!

Today (Thursday, March 15) through Tuesday, May 15, we’ll be accepting poetry and short fiction contest entries from writers who, as of the 2018 conferences on August 4, will be between the ages of 11 and 29. The contest is free to enter.

We’re separating entries this year into four categories:

  • Ch1Con (ages 11-20, as of August 4)
    • Poetry: no longer than 1 page, single-spaced
    • Short Fiction: 1,000 to 5,000 words
  • Ch21Con (ages 21-29, as of August 4)
    • Poetry: no longer than 1 page, single-spaced
    • Short Fiction: 1,000 to 5,000 words

Prizes include discounted conference admission to either Ch1Con or Ch21Con (depending on your age group), writing critiques from the Chapter One Events team, and publication in the 2018 Chapter One Events Writing Competition Collection!

For more details (including contest rules, info on the 2018 judges, and a full list of available prizes), please visit this page.

We’re so excited to read your wonderful writing!

CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE CONTEST

2018 Conference, General, Yule Ball

Yule Ball 2018 Speaker Announcement

emmarosewriter

Hello writers!

Today is the day we get to announce the 2018 Yule Ball speakers!

For those of you who do not know, the Ch1Con Yule Ball is an hour-and-a-half long live video panel.

This year, it will be held on Friday, January 26th from 7PM-8:30 PM Central Time.

Just follow THIS LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTX4lhaICTo

Basically, Yule Ball is a mini, free, and online Ch1Con, and we hope to see you all there!

So, without further ado, here are the young authors who will be answering your questions…

Morgan York

 

(@morganyorkwrite) 

Morgan is a YA fantasy writer living in New York City. In a former life, she was an actress who appeared in films such as Cheaper by the Dozen and The Pacifier. She enjoys reading, video games, traveling, and drinking all kinds of tea. On her blog, she discusses books, writing, social issues, and more at morganyork.com and tweets as @morganyorkwrite.

Sierra Elmore

(@SierraWritesYA)

Sierra Elmore is a young adult contemporary writer who studies sociology at Arcadia University. She created the Diverse Book Bridge project for underrepresented teens and edits YA Pride’s Teen Voices column. Her novels focus on teenage girls fighting trauma while wreaking havoc. When not writing, she enjoys Pilates, chasing after her cat, and working at her school’s career center.

Rachel Stevenson

(@whatshewrote)

Rachel Stevenson is a YA and MG author and reader seeking traditional publishing. She is the creator and host of #YayYA. It is her current goal to  read and review all of the Newbery Medal winners. Rachel, though from Philadelphia, hails from Oklahoma and attends college near Pittsburgh, PA, but most of her books are set in made-up places based on Ireland or Russia.

Feel free to get to know our amazing speakers on twitter before you see them LIVE at #Ch1ConYuleBall.

See you this Friday!

General, Mentorship Program

Mentorship Program: Year 2!

emmarosewriter

Hello, authors!

It’s that time of year again. Time to save our Word documents, emerge from our writing caves, and return to the classrooms. Ughhhhh.

Early fall has always been an anxiety-inducing time of year for me (New director, Emma). This is half because I am not a Fall Person™ (Pumpkin spice is overrated. There, I said it.) and half because school pressure usually causes me to set aside my writing, sometimes until NaNoWriMo.

Every single book I’ve ever read in the How To Write™ genre has emphasized habit. Writing every day and making that a part of one’s life is essential, especially for younger folks still finding our way. For many of us, programs like creative writing classes and clubs keep the writing habit alive year round. I know first hand, though, that this kind of structured support is not available to everyone through school or IRL community. Many, especially those who attend parochial school or home school, must make do with online communities and sheer determination. Building a habit this way, with so much else on one’s plate, is lonely and challenging. Absolutely no fun.

This is why last year, the Ch1Team schemed up the Ch1Con Mentorship Program. It’s designed to give you structure when you need it most, in that desolate drought between Ch1Con and NaNoWriMo. This year, we’ll endeavor to teach you more about every step in the publishing process. We’ll teach you how to use editorial letters to strengthen your writing. We’ll help you utilize copy edits, read contracts and decipher non-disclosure agreements. Even better, at the end of the program, you’ll get to hold your hard work in your hands in the form of a shiny new anthology!

Interested in joining us?

Deadline to enter is September 15!

Follow this link for more details!

https://chapteroneconference.com/other-activities/mentorship-program/

2017 Conference, Writing Contest

Competition Anthology + Session Descriptions!

Julia Byers

Hey there, awesome young writers!

We’re coming at you today to let you know two very exciting things:

  1. The anthology of winning poems and short stories from the First Annual Chapter One Young Writers Conference Writing Competition is now available on Amazon as a Kindle e-book! And for the next couple weeks, it’s only $0.99! We’re in love with the winning poems and short stories, and we think you will be too. Check the e-book out on Amazon by clicking here. And make sure to purchase it while it’s at this special sale price, only available until the end of July! (If you’d prefer to purchase the anthology in a different e-book form, it will also be available on Nook and iBooks come August.)
  2. 2017 conference session descriptions are available! We’re so excited about what all of our speakers are talking about at Ch1Con this year. You can check out the descriptions by visiting our Schedule page.

— The Ch1Con Team

Yule Ball

2017 Yule Ball Giveaways!!

Julia Byers

Today’s the day! Welcome to the second annual Ch1Con Yule Ball: a live video panel featuring young authors answering YOUR questions about writing and publishing!

The panel is taking place today from 8:00 to 9:30 PM EST. You can watch it at: www.youtube.com/chapteroneconference.

Or, we’re conveniently embedding the video in the post below:

The Yule Ball panelists are Hannah Moskowitz (Not Otherwise Specified) (and like a thousand other fantastic books), Christine L. Herman (represented by Kelly Sonnack of Andrea Brown Lit), Briana Morgan (Blood and Water), and Joan He (represented by John Cusick of Folio Literary Management). You can find information about all of them in the Ch1Con Yule Ball announcement post here.

Want to ask the panelists a question, or comment on what’s going on in the Yule Ball in general? Tweet using #Ch1ConYuleBall!

ALSO we’re giving away some pretty amazing prizes throughout the event, so check those out at the Rafflecopter linked below!

Prizes include:

  • A SIGNED copy of Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
  • A SIGNED copy of Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
  • A copy of Pawn by Aimee Carter
  • A copy of The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury
  • A copy of The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski

Enter to win signed books!

Put on your dancing shoes, because it’s time for the Ch1Con Yule Ball!

– The Ch1Con Team

P.S. Curious how the giveaway will work? We’ll draw five winners and you’ll be able to choose which book you’d prefer based on the order we draw the names.