Friday 2 November 2012

HOLIDAY BREAK AND A BLOGFEST

Hello out there, fellow RFWers (and other visitors).  A warm welcome to new followers and members! As previously announced, Romantic Friday Writers will be on hiatus for the month of November due to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and other writing commitments of your hosts. Are you participating in NaNo this year? Have you got your NaNo buddy? Signed up at the Official Site? We wish you good luck with your writing project, or whatever else you will be doing during RFW hiatus.

However, we couldn't finish out the year with all that spookiness of Halloween, so we're planning one more BIG BIG celebration to finish out 2012 and get us ready for a fresh New Year.

Memoir, Fiction, Recipes, Traditions...and more

THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED
For this Holiday Spirit blogfest, we are looking for excerpts of up to 800 words involving fiction or non-fiction stories of family tradition, favorite/unique recipes, inspirational articles, etc.; that involve the essence of the holiday spirit.  (Recipes and news articles do not have to adhere to the 800 word limit.)

RFW, and the blogsphere itself, include a multitude of countries, cultures, and citizenry of the world.  Not every culture celebrates Thanksgiving, Christmas, Yom Kipper, Hanuka or any variety of holidays of the “giving spirit” during the same season.  Because the RFW hosts are a part of western civilization, we choose this month for our yearly celebration, Christmas, and would like you to post whatever passes for the Holiday Spirit in your neck ‘a the world.

Your submission does not need to include an element of romance; however, we at RFW acknowledge that ANY writing involving family (their values, traditions, and conflicts) is a Romantic writing. What is more romantic than Family?

Because of the special nature of this Holiday Spirit blogfest, we are allowing up to two submissions; however, they must be in two separate categories. Meaning, you could post your favorite recipe AND an inspirational 800 word excerpt; or a link to an inspirational news/magazine article and a recipe or true story; but not two of each (two recipes, two memoir posts, two articles). If you are posting two separate submissions, please add your blog link twice and add to your name/link what it contains - eg ; Donna Hole, 1, Recipe- so participants know to look for two separate posts.

The linky will open on December 12 and remain open thru December 31 to encourage linking to the direct post. However, if you decide to link then schedule a post (or two) later, just leave a comment to let everyone know when your excerpt will be available. The RFW hosts will be checking the comments and links, and if a direct link is available, we will edit your link(s) if you haven't done so.

Please join us in celebrating life, love, presents, good food, and of course Family Traditions of all types within all cultures.

This is not a competition - it is a sharing. We hope we'll all get to know each other better!

We hope to have the Holiday Spirit wrap up posted by Jan 4 and post the link for the first 2013 RFW Challenge by Jan 7.

Happy Holidays everyone; and best wishes for your NaNoWriMo projects. Let us know how you go. Leave a comment any time. Your hosts will be checking in from time to time when they need a procrastination activity!


16 comments:

  1. Come one, come all! We hope you and many others will join us for this fun blogfest. No pressure. No winners. Just reciprocal learning amongst us all! We'll so look forward to your entries - remember you can add two this time!
    Watch out for the linky!

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  2. It a beautiful idea! Looking forward to it after this month is over, and we've all finished NANO with a win!

    HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

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    1. Hi Yolanda. Of course we're all going to complete NaNo with a win. We'll all have to share our NaNo stories here when we finish. Just had that idea. Thinking out loud. Perhaps before we post for Holiday Spirit.

      I love hearing what everyone has accomplished, for NaNo or not.

      :D

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  3. Hi Donna and RFWs .. it's got as far as my brain - and is resting in my Reader .. so I'll be back when the brain has kicked into gear or fallen in love at the backstory Christmastime ... cheers for now - Hilary

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    1. Hilary, what a lovely time to see your happy face visiting RFW. Hasn't it been one cracker of a busy year! I hope you feel moved to post something about Christmas traditions at your house. Love to get to know you better!

      :D

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  4. Norrkoping, Sweden, November 2nd, 2012
    Dear RFWers,
    I have my recipe-post already scheduled. I don't know if I will post a story. I feel all "storied-out" right now.
    I'm writing a novel for Nanowrimo. Good luck to all who do the same!

    Best wishes,
    Anna

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    1. Hi Anna! Of course you're writing a novel for NaNo! Jenny and Paul? I can't wait to read it. Also...just saying...I'd love to read about some Swedish traditions for the holiday season. I know in Scandanavian countries there's heaps of creepy stories?? Or is that just Norway??

      Looking forward to your recipe. I love to cook over Christmas. Pretty busy the rest of the year so I go all out with my wonderful creations. Then January starts and I have to get back on the straight and narrow, ha ha.

      Cheers Anna.
      :D

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    2. Dear Denise,
      Thank you for your interest in Scandinavian recipes.

      If you like creepy Scandinavian stories, I actually wrote one set in Sweden just before Christmas and it is perhaps more sad than anything else. I decided not to post it and wrote the presquel about Jenny at Jack's birthday party with all the food that Jenny would dream about later on instead.

      Did you notice my Nano-widget on my side bar with your pages numbers pit against my pages numbers?

      Thank you so much for your kind words about my Halloween story for the Spooktoberfest. Maybe I should have had the story about Drusilla for the Halloween contest! If it had been longer.

      Getting back to Creepy stories from Scandinavia, yes the Norwegians are very clever. But I have found a spooky chapter in Selma Lagerlofs's debut novel Gosta Berlings Saga.

      Sekma Lagerlof has also writtena spooky chapter (that works like a short story) in a novel called Marbacka, about 17 ginger cats who take revenge on a farmer who kept drowning cats on his farm. A score of ten on a creepiness-scale.

      Best wishes,
      Anna

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  5. I'm planning on doing this one. Sounds like lots of fun.

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    1. It will be lovely to have you Kathy. I'll be so interested to see what everyone comes up with.

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  6. Happy NaNo to all taking on the challenge! I'll see how I go for December :)

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  7. Hello Donna, Denise and RFWers,

    Hope your month and writing projects/challenges are going well. The blogfest sounds lovely and of course I hope to be back to share something about my festivals.

    http://nilabose.blogspot.com/2012/11/at-end-of-parade-my-entry-for-get.html

    - the bare bones of the romantic story I have been working on :) do please stop by when you can spare the time. Would love to have your opinions/feedback.

    Have a great week.
    Warmest regards,
    Nilanjana.

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  8. Hey Y'all;
    Thanks for stopping by. Please note we've updated the Holiday Spirit post by eliminating the word count. Who can put a limit on Holiday Spirit? Sheesh, not RFW.

    Hope all your NaNo projects are about completed. See everyone in a couple weeks :)

    .......dhole

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  9. November 29th, 2012

    Dear Denise, Donna and other REWers,

    Hope you all are well and happy!

    As for me, nothing has turned out as I had hoped and planed.

    I have posted my recipe for REW and would be very grateful if someone linked it when you put the linky up. I will be traveling very soon and in December and don't know know whether or not I will be able to get to a computer. Maybe. Maybe not.

    My post is at:

    http://annas-adornments.blogspot.se/2012/11/annas-recipe-for-holiday-spirit-blog.html

    Best wishes,
    Anna

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    1. Glad I came by Anna. Of course we will link your post when we put up the linky.

      I'm sorry nothing has turned out as you hoped and planned. I hope your December is special.

      Denise

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  10. Sounds awesome! I am definitely in. I have missed this group!

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