We announced this year’s Short Short Story Competition (maybe it will be an annual thing!) yesterday. There are some great prizes and here are some photos of them.
These are the books:
And inside them is … Darren Shan’s signature! I want them but I can’t as one of you guys will get to win them.
Only authors are allowed to write in books! And sometimes librarians.
And as well as the books there is a t-shirt and a bunch of movie passes to see Cirque Du Freak : The Vampire’s Assistant when it opens on January 7th 2010.
Here’s a photo of the lot! Thanks, Paramount!
All this could be yours! Only if you enter the competition. All the details are here.
[Ed: some of the bunch of movie passes will go to excellent short stories that weren't the winner but were fabulous anyway]
Are you aged somewhere between 13 and 18? Can you write a good short story?
It’s back! The 2009 Short Short Story Competition is here: write an excellent short short story and you could win a Cirque du Freak prize pack, including signed copies of the first six books in The Saga of Darren Shan series, a limited edition t-shirt and movie passes (thanks to the people at Paramount). It’s a fantastic prize, and it’s all very simple really.
So what do you have to do? Write a short story, not more than 350 words (it can be as short as you like), that includes each of the following three words (think outside the box: is the word a noun only, or can it be used another way? Can it be added to, for example -ish or -ed?):
Your story can be about anything. We will be particularly impressed if:
Send your stories to teenblog@wcl.govt.nz before 5pm on Monday 21 December 2009. Please include your name and your library card number (very important!). The winner will be announced early in the new year.
Small print:
You must be aged between 13 and 18 to enter. You must also be a Wellington City Libraries member. Judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into etc etc., although we do like getting emails and comments. The winning story and any others that are particularly special will be published on the teen blog, so if you send a story in be prepared for it to be published.
Good luck!
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, in cinemas January 7 2010. Go to www.thevampiresassistant.co.nz for movie info.
The cast of the Twilight films lead the polls (the best actor, best actress, break out actor, best film, and some others) for the 2010 People’s Choice Awards. The People’s Choice awards are voted for by the public (well, the US public), hence their name. They are awards chosen by people, for the people.
I have two posters of the potential 2010 winner of best break out actor (as chosen by some people), Taylor Lautner, to give away! As much as I’d like to have them I simply haven’t the space for any more. If you want one write a haiku (explained here) about Taylor in the comments below. There are only two posters so the first two haiku will get one! Eligible only for WCL YA cardholders. Please add your full name [we won't publish your name]. The posters have folds in them sorry.
E.g.
Taylor Lautner plays
a werewolf in highschool. So
did Michael J. Fox.
We are planning another competition. It has great prizes! We can’t go into too much detail right now, but it’s not too far off. Anyway. Here’s a couple of clues.
1. We ran a similar kind of competition late last year.
2. It may involve vampires! Not romantic ones though.
If you’re 13 to 19 and a bit of a writer, we have the perfect competition for you : “Re-Draft” – which is run by the Christchurch School for Young Writers. The best entries each year are published in the school’s annual publication ’Re-Draft’, and your work might be chosen as the title of the book. That’s right your words, in bright bold colours on the front of the book…
This competition is open to all, and you can enter up to three pieces of work on any subject matter, poems or stories. Jump onto their website for info on the competition and details on how to enter.
We’ve some winners for a few recent competitions we ran. Hannah wins a copy of Sam Stern’s Cooking Up A Storm for her recipe;
Completely Unspecified Chocolate Chip Pancakes
Chocolate Chips, Milk, Baking Powder, Eggs (Remove shells if you feel that it is a good idea), Anchovies (No, that’s not a typo.), Salt, Sugar, Butter, FlourPut as much as you want of basically everything in a bowl. The anchovies add a somewhat fishy quality to the mixture, so just remember that. Cook somehow. Don’t ask me how.
Failing that, just use the leftover milk and get the weetbix, sugar and the unlabelled can out of the pantry (Make sure it is fruit or something pleasantish before you slop it on your weetbix) and have that instead. Probably more nutritious at the very least.
Sounds delicious, doesn’t it?
And Melissa and Rachel have both won a library DVD voucher for completing our recent Magazine Selector. I will post them out sometime later! I promise!
Library Week is now over, and people have won prizes and reviewed and written and created art, and here are some results from the competitions we told you about:
The Graphic Novel competition, 13 to 18 year olds, and for 19+ year olds.
The video competition (voting is open until the 23rd of August).
Also, here’s how the interactive story panned out.
Te Papa have given us some double passes for Our Space to give away, so we’ve thrown together a little quiz to do. It’s really easy, although I wrote it so I probably just think it’s easy. It might actually be quite hard. Anyway, all correct (or mostly correct) entries will go in the draw for one of the double passes. We’ll draw the winners next Friday, the 21 of August.
All entries must be WCL YA cardholders! Sorry but there it is.
Update (a couple of days later, namely on Tuesday the 25th): C’est fini! Congratulations to Zach who will be getting some passes in the post as soon as Simon comes back from his day off.
NZ’s Library Week (the 10th to the 16th of August) is nearly upon us, and there are some competitions that you can take part in now. The first is a graphic novel competition;
Artists have a week to illustrate and upload their own 4 frames to follow on from the story posted to the website so far. A winner will be chosen at the end of each week and their frames will be made the next permanent line of the story. There are 2 age categories (13 – 18 yrs and 19 yrs +) for this competition meaning there will be 2 versions of the story.
and the second is a video competition;
We’re asking amateur film makers of all ages to make a short film in the style of a movie trailer telling us why you love your library or just promoting libraries in general. Videos could incorporate music, comedy, dance or interviews but should be no more than 3 minutes long.
There’s also a writing competition for year 6, 7, and 8 students.
The Urban Survival Series is almost here… The first seminar ‘Food Glorious Food’ kicks off on July 23rd at the Central Library 4-5pm.
It’s all about how to cook a mean feed without blowing the budget and the types of food you should be eating to keep looking good and healthy.
Wow us with your kitchen skills by sending us a recipe for our cooking competition and win yourself the best teen cookbook ever (it even has recipes for impressing your GF/BF).
Think you know how to cook? Or are you just keen to give it a go and get creative? 
Create a sumptuous recipe for us and the best entry will win Sam Stern’s cookbook Cooking up a Storm: The teen survival cookbook.
Entries close 5pm on August 7 2009 (you must be aged between 13 and 18 and have a Wellington City Libraries card to enter).
Entries have closed! Thanks.
Instructions
Pantry Contents
(Remember to use at least two of these)
Salt, Pepper, Sugar, Cooking oil, Butter, Flour, Water, Soup Mix, Weetbix, Marmite, Lemon juice, A can with no label (with food in it), Sultanas, Curry powder, Chilli flakes, Maple syrup
Competition rules
Entries close 5pm, July 22nd 2009
To be eligible for the prizes, entrants must be:
- Aged 13-18 years
- A member of Wellington City Libraries (Not a member? Go to your local library to join up!)
The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
Acceptance of prize gives permission to Wellington City Libraries to display winner’s details in the libraries or any media. No payment will be made in any such case.
Your information will be kept confidential by Wellington City Council and not disclosed or sold to any other party.
and win 3,000 bucks!
The Buy NZ Made Campaign is running a Video Ad Competition to raise awareness for buying NZ Made products and to provide base material for members to use to advertise their NZ made products. Entrants are being asked to submit a 15, 30 or 45 second advert about buying NZ Made and will need to upload their videos onto the Buy NZ Made Channel on the website Youtube. The most viewed video on Youtube between 1st June and 31st August 2009 will win a $500 prize. For the overall competition the ads will be judged with a first prize of $3000, second prize $1500 and a third prize of $500. For more information on the competition please visit the purpose-built website.
This NZ Music Month we’re running a NZ Music Month Quiz for teens. Try it! You may win some vouchers.
Do take a gander at our NZMM09 page for more about upcoming events.
Inside Girl, by J Minter. And the crowd goes wild (except for the people who were in the Morganville camp – who knows, the library may end up investing in this series too in the future).
Thanks for playing. We’ll draw one lucky Inside Girl supporter to be first in the queue for when the series arrives!
Postscript: message from Paula the Selector – “think I might order the vampires as well, they seem [...] fun!” So there you go.
It’s Inside Girl versus Morganville Vampires! What to pick, what to pick?
Do Texan vampires have a show at defeating Flan Flood? Will the fangs come out, and if they do will the vampires cope?
So, readers, you get to choose which series the library will purchase: it’s the vampires whose peaceful towny existence is disrupted by the arrival of the evil Bishop versus a rich kid who used to attend an exclusive academy but decides to rub elbows with students at a typical high school (proper descriptions are here).
You’ve got until next Tuesday to decide: this is the final round, so get voting! One lucky voter will get the chance to be first in the queue for the winning literary treasure.
ps congratulations to Rachel for picking up the voucher for 2 free DVD rentals.
Here’s the line up for round two: don’t forget to vote (descriptions here). One lucky round two voter will win a voucher for two free DVDs (rental value of $8!!) – this should make the last days of holidays more interesting.
What’s Selector? Read this for more.
Five series have survived the cutthroat first round of Selector. The series walking the plank are:
Drama!, by Paul Ruditis
Fabulous Terrible, by Sophie Talbot
Fashion-Forward Adventures of Imogene, by Lisa Barnham
Divas, by Victoria Murray
Gert Garibaldi’s Rants and Raves, by Amber Kizer
Tis a shame but there can be only one winner!
Those still in the running are nervously awaiting your Round Two votes:
Drama Club, by Peter Lerangis is wondering if it’s a bad sign that another Drama series didn’t make the cut; Vampire Kisses, by Ellen Schrieber is quietly confident, since there’s both vampires and kisses in the title – how could that not be a winner?; Queen Geek Social Club, by Laura Preble would like to remind you that geeks are chic; Morganville Vampires, by Rachel Caine again points out that vampires are hot, hot, hot; and Inside Girl, by J. Minter says it’s a bit different, since the story is about a rich girl going to an average high school.
Those are your choices (fuller descriptions are here), so get voting. You’ve got until next Tuesday, so remember, if you don’t vote your favourite may go south!
Hello, happy Easter. Just a quick reminder to check out Selector, your chance to choose the next YA series the library purchases. You’ve got until Tuesday to vote in the first round – we’ll let you know which series has made it through to the next round next week.
If you liked the Almost Amazing Race (or wanted to do it) check out the City Safari, which will take place on the 17th of May. It’s an all-day orienteering competition around Wellington that utilises public transport. School teams may enter. Take a look at the website for more information.
We have a lot of book series in our collection, and many of them are very popular (proving that you can’t have too much of a good thing). So if you like vampires you will thrill to the ongoing Vampire Beach/Vampire Diaries/Buffy the Vampire Slayer series; if you like the rich and fabulous you will delight in the many Gossip Girls-type series; fantasy fans enjoy the Quentaris Chronicles; and action buffs can tremble with anticipation as the latest Alex Rider/CHERUB/etc. book is released.
There are a number of book series written for teens that the Wellington Library doesn’t get, however. Here’s a list of them. The recession means that we can’t get them all, unfortunately, so we’ve decided to make a game of it. A game we have decided to call Selector. We even made a logo an illustration!
The rules are this; read through the list on this page and decide which series you think that the library should get. The four that receive the most votes by April 14th (that’s the Tuesday after Easter) will go into the final. The final four will be voted out, one-by-one, each following week. The one that wins will be purchased, and one lucky person will get to read it before anyone else does.
Once you’ve read through the list, vote in the form below.
Round two has started; vote here.
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