The County Fair Week Contest!

Welcome one and all to County Fair Week here at "Seasons of Humility!" I'm so excited for all this week has in store, and I hope you are, too!

As many of you know, county fairs are filled with contests--with quilts, livestock, poetry, and so much more being judged. So in honor of County Fair Week, I'm going to host a fun contest for all you writers out there! Before I get into the rules, let me tell you about the prize package:

The winner will receive my gently used copies of Love Finds You in Romeo, Colorado and A Name of Her Own, along with some fair goodies I'm hoping to pick up at my own county fair this week. =) Here are the descriptions of the two books:

From Summerside Press: "Can one woman's tragedy turn into happily ever after? Claire Caspian is a first-rate professor, teaching even the most cynical student to find beauty in literature. But with her own personal story, she isn’t as successful. Having recently lost her husband, Claire returns with her young son to the tiny desert town of Romeo, Colorado, where she grew up. There she settles in with her feisty old Abuelita, the richest woman in the county, and attempts to rebuild her life. But love comes searching for Claire in the form of attractive local doctor Stephen Reyes. Will another tragedy prevent her from accepting love the second time around? Or will she embrace her new Romeo and finally find a happy ending?"

From WaterBrook Multnomah: "Based on the life of Marie Dorion, the first mother to cross the Rocky Mountains and remain in the Northwest, A Name of Her Own is the fictionalized adventure account of a real woman’s fight to settle in a new landscape, survive in a nation at war, protect her sons and raise them well and, despite an abusive, alcoholic husband, keep her marriage together.

With two rambunctious young sons to raise, Marie Dorion refuses to be left behind in St. Louis when her husband heads West with the Wilson Hunt Astoria expedition of 1811. Faced with hostile landscapes, an untried expedition leader, and her volatile husband, Marie finds that the daring act she hoped would bind her family together may in the end tear them apart.

On the journey, Marie meets up with the famous Lewis and Clark interpreter, Sacagawea. Both are Indian women married to mixed-blood men of French Canadian and Indian descent, both are pregnant, both traveled with expeditions led by white men, and both are raising sons in a white world.

Together, the women forge a friendship that will strengthen and uphold Marie long after they part, even as she faces the greatest crisis of her life, and as she fights for her family’s very survival with the courage and gritty determination that can only be fueled by a mother’s love."

Also, Ashley from After All....... Tomorrow is Another Day has offered to give away a personalized, homemade bookmark like the one pictured left to the winner! (And if she enters and wins, then the bookmark will go to the second place winner!) ;)


So what do you need to do to enter this contest? Here are the rules:

• Write a clean and appropriate romantic scene that involves some fair attraction, such as a ride or contest of some sort.
  

• Please keep the scene under 300 words if possible. I will still consider longer entries, but it would probably be easier on Blogger if we could keep the entries short and sweet. ;)

• Leave your e-mail address in your comment along with your entry, so I have a way to contact you if you win!
  

• If Blogger will not let you leave a long comment or if you would like me to check your scene's content to see if it works for this contest, feel free to e-mail your entry to me at: stokes[dot]a[at]suddenlink[dot]net.

• Entries will be accepted through Friday, August 20. The winner will be announced on Saturday, August 21.
  

• You must have a U.S. mailing address. (I apologize to any of my friends from other countries; this is due to higher costs. But feel free to share a scene with us anyway if you'd like!)

• Entries will be judged by me and one or two other people of my choosing.

Thank you to Tina from Seekerville for letting me "borrow" her contest idea! A couple of weeks ago they had a similar contest for "Slacker Tuesday," and Tina gave me permission to use a similar idea.

And I told you last week that I would give you my own example. I used the same characters from my entry for the "Slacker Tuesday" contest, so feel free to click HERE and read my entry for that contest in the comments section, if you're interested. Now, here's my example:

“What do you see?”

Looking into the multiple mirrors around her, all Christine saw were accusations and disappointment. Why did they call this place a “fun house”? Her dreams of being published were as unreal as the image she had seen in that wavy mirror a ways back.

“Would you like me to tell you what I see?”

She nodded. Let Rich try to put into words what she couldn’t bring herself to say. “I see a girl who doubts God.”

The images in the mirrors blurred, and Christine whirled around to face him. “What on earth do you mean?”

“I mean that you’re so worried about getting published that you’ve forgotten it’s all in God’s hands. If it’s His will, it will happen. If not, then maybe He’s just using this time to prepare you for something else that will be even better for you in the end. Why are you so worried, Christine?”

A tear fell, but Christine didn’t look up. She didn’t want to see the rainstorm brewing around her in her reflections. Rich placed both of his hands gently on her face, forcing her gaze to him. A rush of warmth shocked her. Those blue eyes…

Suddenly, a bunch of giggling kids ran past, practically thudding into the mirrors as they searched for the way out. Rich and Christine parted, glanced at each other, and laughed.

“Come with me?” Rich offered his hand, and Christine took it. Slowly, he guided her through the mirrors and out into the painful but beautiful light of daytime at the fair.

According to Microsoft Word, my example is 261 words long, and the scene takes place at a "fun house" (or "house of mirrors") at a fair. Hope you enjoyed the scene!

Now it's your turn! I can't wait to read your entries! And remember to tune in every day this week for some fun interviews and fair stories. (It's quite possible there will be a separate giveaway going on this week sometime, so this is my hint that you should keep checking in on a regular basis!)