Delta, B.C.--September 27, 2011--This summer, young writers from around the province were invited to send in stories for Delta's fourth annual Junior Authors Short Story Contest. A record number of 80 entries were received from sixteen municipalities ranging from Vancouver Island to the Cariboo.

Contest organizer, Laura Thomas of Ladner, said, "I have to admit that I didn’t do my usual amount of promotion for the contest this summer because I was busy taping my new Delta TV show, Money Moment. That’s why I was totally blown away by the fact that we had almost double the number of submissions this year."

Last year, 46 stories were submitted by young authors from thirteen communities with Delta and Prince George leading the way. This year, 53 of the 80 entries are from Delta (25) and Surrey (28). Thomas said, “The Surrey Library contacted me at the end of the school year wanting details about the contest to put up on their web site which explains why that community was so well-represented.”

Thomas believes that Prince George writers were well-represented in 2010 because the Prince George Citizen published her press release about the contest. She said, “Once aspiring young writers hear about the contest and find out they can write about anything they want-and that it’s free to enter-the response is excellent.”

Aside from getting the word out in more B.C. communities, Thomas’ goal for next year is to encourage more boys to enter. “We did better this year,” said Thomas. “About 20 of the 80 stories were written by boys, mostly in the tween category. This is a huge improvement over previous years but I would like to see the gender ratio get closer to 50-50.”

Contest judges, including Ladner author Darlene Foster, former Macmillan editor Joanne Ashdown and Thomas, are currently scoring the submissions on four criteria: description, story structure, title and style. Results will be announced on Friday, October 7th. Prizes donated by Ricki Willing, the Ladner Business Association, Tutor Doctor and NetClimber Web Design will be presented shortly after the announcement.

The winning stories for the teen and tween categories will be published in The Delta Optimist and the top six stories for each category will be available for reading online on Thomas’ web site www.agentstory.net. For more information please contact Thomas at contest@agentstory.net or visit her web site.

Junior Authors Short Story Contest results will be announced October 7, 2011.

Laura Thomas
contest@agentstory.net

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