The Summer 2019 Brave Enough To Writeshort story contest asked writers and would-be writers to submit their stories of ten thousand words or less in any genre except erotica. Up for grabs, Two $1,000 top prizes for the best story by an author 17 years old or younger and the best story by an author 18 and over.
Proceeds from the contest benefit nonprofit Brave Enough To Fail Inc. America’s #1 student motivational program which inspires young people with the courage to achieve their dreams by providing free motivational presentations and scholarships to high schools nationwide.
Nearly two hundred authors from across the nation as well as from Italy and Great Britain answered the challenge.
Winning back-to-back championships is not easy. Yeah, Tom Brady may make it look as if its not that hard, but it is truly difficult. Only eight teams have actually won the Super Bowl back-to-back. According to the late coach of the 49ers, Bill Walsh once said that winning a first Super Bowl is enormously easier than winning a second or third.
Well folks, Sarah Tehuiotoa of Pahrump Nevada is making winning look easy. For the second time in row she has taken first place in the Brave Enough To Write 18 and over category and scored a check for $1,000!
And she did it with a totally different panel of judges, none of whom knew of her or her previous work. Which makes the accomplishment that much more spectacular!
The 22 year old graduate of UNLV is currently working as a substitute English teacher. She thanks her fellow writers and a crazy but awesome creative writing professor for pushing her to become a better writer. Sarah offers a bit of advice for other writers,
“I think everyone has doubts about what they’re supposed to be doing, but I’ve learned to keep on going and growing and learning (you can never learn too much). And I’ve learned to trust that God has a plan, and He’s put a passion in my heart for writing for a reason.”
Panel Judge David Glass, Senior Creative Director, Viacom Comedy Central, MTV said,
“Give the gold to “The With Woman” it is incredibly well written, finely crafted, with a fantastic ear for dialogue.”
The Summer 2019 Brave Enough To Writeshort story contest asked writers and would-be writers to submit their stories of ten thousand words or less in any genre except erotica. Up for grabs, Two $1,000 top prizes for the best story by an author 17 years old or younger and the best story by an author 18 and over.
Proceeds from the contest benefit nonprofit Brave Enough To Fail Inc. America’s #1 student motivational program which inspires young people with the courage to achieve their dreams by providing free motivational presentations and scholarships to high schools nationwide.
Nearly two hundred authors from across the nation as well as from Italy and Great Britain answered the challenge.
After much deliberation and razor-close vote, 31 year old Alexis Peralta of Methuen Massachusetts took second place in the 18 and over category and grabbed a $100 prize.
Alexis says he loves creating a well crafted story with impact, meaning, and that overall stays with the reader long after the last word is read.
He certainly accomplished all of that and more in the delicious piece of darkness that is called, “Butterfly Grange”.
Panel judge Tom Glass, former director at The Wall Street Journal said,
“It captured me from the get go and never let go. Butterfly Grange left me thinking of a Steven King approach to story telling”.
Alexis says his writing goal is to have at least one piece of work completed in each form such as poetry, flash fiction, short story, novella, non-fiction, and a novel.
The Summer 2019 Brave Enough To Writeshort story contest asked writers and would-be writers to submit their stories of ten thousand words or less in any genre except erotica. Up for grabs, Two $1,000 top prizes for the best story by an author 17 years old or younger and the best story by an author 18 and over.
Proceeds from the contest benefit nonprofit Brave Enough To Fail Inc. America’s #1 student motivational program which inspires young people with the courage to achieve their dreams by providing free motivational presentations and scholarships to high schools nationwide.
Nearly two hundred authors from across America as well as from Italy and Great Britain answered the challenge.
In the 18 and over category, third place and a $50 prize went to Debra Shepherd-Border, of Lawton, Oklahoma for her short story, “One Night in Abilene”.
Mrs. Border, an Army wife, is retired from federal government service where she worked as an auditor, technical writer and business manager for 30 years. Her passions are horses, genealogy and writing, in no particular order. She has a daughter and two grandchildren who inherited her love of horses and live on a ranch where they raise warm blood horses and Welsh ponies. She has a self published novel, “The Passionate Line”.
If her short story is any indication, Debra’s novel must be outstanding.
Panel judge, Richard Amill, former Educational Publisher Random House McGraw Hill & Company had high praise for “One Night in Abilene”. He called it and excellent narrative that flows well, and holds the reader’s attention and interest. Good character development, attention to historical detail, with some suspense thrown in for good measure.
The Summer 2019Brave Enough To Writeshort story contest asked writers and would-be writers to submit their stories of ten thousand words or less in any genre except erotica. Up for grabs, Two $1,000 top prizes for the best story by an author 17 years old or younger and the best story by an author 18 and over.
Proceeds from the contest benefit nonprofit Brave Enough To Fail Inc. America’s #1 student motivational program which inspires young people with the courage to achieve their dreams by providing free motivational presentations and scholarships to high schools nationwide.
Nearly two hundred authors from across the nation as well as from Italy and Great Britain answered the challenge.
17 year old Haylie Moseley of Elwood Nebraska beat out the competition in the 17 and under category and won first prize of $1,000 with her short story called “Born to be Queen”.
Haylie calls herself a very creative person who loves to create new worlds. She says her favorite part of writing is the fact that you can evoke certain feeling within a reader. which is my favorite part about writing. Haylie also believes that the key to writing a really good story is “showing” and not “telling”. She thanks her creative writing teacher for that lesson.
Apparently that and other lessons were very well learned. Judge Isabel Adams, one of the 2017 top prize winners, called “Born to be Queen” very dramatic, true to it’s time period, and fraught with fear, traitors, and lies.
The Summer 2019 Brave Enough To Write short story contest asked writers and would-be writers to submit their stories of ten thousand words or less in any genre except erotica. Up for grabs, Two $1,000 top prizes for the best story by an author 17 years old or younger and the best story by an author 18 and over.
Proceeds from the contest benefit nonprofit Brave Enough To Fail Inc. America’s #1 student motivational program which inspires young people with the courage to achieve their dreams by providing free motivational presentations and scholarships to high schools nationwide.
Nearly two hundred authors from across the nation as well as from Italy and Great Britain answered the challenge.
17 year old Kurtay Ozuner of Morland Hills Ohio placed third in the 17 and under category with his story entitled “Peace”. He earned a cash prize of $50
Kurtay is a senior in high school and loves writing and also partakes in many activities outside and inside of school that further develop his writing skills, like the Speech & Debate team and the Podcast club. His goal is to continue to develop his writing skills in high school and beyond.
Kurtay hopes that he can continue to write on the many personal issues that affect him and his family everyday.
That is exactly what he did with his gripping social commentary that could very easily be taken from today’s news headlines. Judges called Kurtay’s entry not only well written but an important story as well.
David Moore of St. Charles Missouri is a darn good writer! Let’s get that right up front!
In fact, David Moore is such a good writer that he came within one single vote of winning the $1,000 top prize in the 18 years old and over category of the Brave Enough To Write, short story contest of 2017 .
While David didn’t win, he didn’t give up on his dream of becoming an author, and guess what? His determination paid off and his first novel is now available online!
Being a Router means facing death. Tara Flemming, a seventeen-year-old girl from the small fort known as St. Andrew’s, is one such Routers. The Routers are the messengers for the forts, delivering everything from notes, to small packages, to trade route information. All while they face bandits, slavers, and wild mutated animals left by the plague that killed much of humanity. It’s during a very important delivery that Tara finds herself thrust into a world of blood, death, and fear of an enemy she thinks she knows. She must save her friends, family, and fort from this growing threat, but will she be able to face what is to come and what she must become?
The short story that first brought David to our attention, “Love, Life, and Bacon” is a really cool story about…well, Love Life and Bacon, but not in the way you think. To say any more would spoil it for you.
And by the way, David’s personal story is so compelling and inspiring that we posted it in it’s entirety below. Read it and be inspired to go after your dream, whatever it is!
My early education was, in the simplest of terms, lacking.
Before I had changed schools, I had been in a less than reputable school closer to the St. Louis area. The school had been so bad that when I had entered the second-grade in my new school I was behind and had to attend a special class that was meant to help me learn to read and write on the same level as the other students in my grade. Through these special education classes, I was able to become a better reader but was never quite able to get on the same level of the other students in my same grade. This was a problem that followed me out of elementary school and led to me being required to attend more special education classes through middle school and into high school.
It was in these classes that I found a passion for writing. We would write little stories which were intended to help us gain a better understanding of how sentences were structured as well as introduce us to new words. Writing these short stories had always been one of my favorite exercises but having as much trouble as I had with reading and writing a career as an author seemed absurd. The short stories I had written were never intended to get me anywhere. They were simply something I did because I liked to do it. In fact, the idea of being a professional writer was so far out of my mind that in my entire academic career I have only ever had one creative writing course that I attended my senior year of high school. The only other writing courses I had ever had were those that came as general credit courses in college. (English comp, Technical writing, etc.) But, even with the idea of being a writer far from my mind I never stopped writing. Short stories and half-finished novels of distant worlds, medieval towns under siege, and many other tales of woe and triumph. They were always for fun and always just for me.
It was many years later while I was working as a marketing designer and listening to the Harry Potter audio book series (for the fourth time) that I found a sudden burning inspiration in me. I felt for some strange and unknowable reason like I could be a writer if I really wanted to. So, I began writing again but with more intent and more passion for being a writer, not just as a hobby. I am now wrapping up the final edits to my first novel, which will be book one of a three to four book series that I hope will be my path to a career as an author.
Having a career as an author isn’t just for me. It’s something that I hope to be able to show my daughter when she gets older. Something I can hold up and say “Look I followed my dream. I worked for it and it came true.” and maybe, if I’m very lucky, I can one day inspire her as much as she inspires me to keep going every day.
By David Moore
Brave Enough To Fail Inc, America’s #1 Student Motivational Program is a 501 (C) 3 nonprofit and provides free presentations and scholarships to high schools nationwide. Learn how you can support our mission to raise student achievement and cultivate a new generation of leaders, creators, and achievers. www.BraveEnoughToFail.org
As we celebrate the birthday of the United States of America on the 4Th of July, it is fitting that we remember those who worked so hard to found a nation based on the principle that all men and women are created equal and sacrificed so much to secure our God-given rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
For many Americans the Independence Day celebration may be dampened by fears that America’s founding principles are in danger of being replaced by something else. With more voices speaking against those principles, more divisive messaging in our media, and surveys saying more young people than ever are open to accepting socialist ideas, those fears are understandable. How can we turn all that around?
We can turn it around by increasing the number of young people that have a sense of their own self worth. Historically, socialism, communism and other systems that have tried to make everything “fair” and make everyone “the same”, have always ultimately failed because it is impossible to totally stamp out the God-given desire for individual achievement. The Declaration of Independence says, “All men are created equal”, which is absolutely true… But, we are NOT all created the same. We each have individual dreams and destinies that are endowed to us by our creator. We turn things around by reminding our young people about that!
Motivated people with the courage to pursue their dreams have always been a problem for socialists. Which brings us to another reason to celebrate. There is an organization who’s mission is inspiring such people.
Brave Enough To Fail, America’s number one student motivational program, is a 501 (C) 3 nonprofit that provides free presentations and scholarships to high schools.
Our mission is raising student achievement by inspiring students with the courage to achieve their dreams. By doing that, we create a new generation of Leaders, Creators, & Achievers. Inspired and motivated young people who have the attitude of…Why settle for what the government might hand you, when you can get much more by using what God has already given you?
Individuals who are more likely to support ideas like fiscal responsibility, constitutional principles. and less intrusive government.
Since 2016 BETF has reached over 10,000 students many of whom are now new voters, and has scholarship winners currently attending great schools like Liberty University, Oral Roberts University, and North-Point Bible College.
Brave Enough to Fail 