Last week BookRix formally announced who the Get Published writing contest winners were! Congratulations to BookRix community members Michaelmpacheco, Felixthecat and Gooduklady! Their entries into the Get Published BookRix free writing contest were the winning works that the judges chose out of the final 11 entries for first, second and third places.

The grand prize “Get Published” package, generously provided by CreateSpace, was awarded to SUMMER TERROR IN TEXAS, written by Michael M. Pacheco, who has won a Total Design Freedom Publishing Solution, which includes all of the following services valued at $2,567:

Total Design Freedom Custom Book Interior
Unique Book Cover
One Round of Comprehensive Copyediting
Promotional Text Creation
Press Release Creation with Distribution
Plus a Complimentary Upgrade to Pro Plan

CreateSpace will also provide a free CreateSpace ISBN if needed, as well as the choice between the following sales channels through which he would like to enable the his book for sale: the Amazon.com website, a CreateSpace eStore, and the CreateSpace expanded distribution channel. Wow, what a great prize!

The second place winning book was The Redemption of Marvin Fuster, written by Patrick Sean Lee, aka Felixthecat, who will receive his prize of $500 in cash! Congratulations Patrick!

The third place winning entry, You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby!, was written by Valerie Byron, aka Gooduklady, winning a cash prize of $300. Congratulations Valerie!

And don’t forget, participants who read and voted for their favorites in the contest also had a chance at prizes as well, with 10 BookRix members each winning a $20 Amazon gift card!

Thanks again to all those who entered a book into the Get Published Contest on BookRix – we were excited to see so many qualifiying entries! To stay current with upcoming free writing contests offered by BookRix, visit the main Contest page on the BookRix website, www.BookRix.com.

Congratulations to BookRix member Gooduklady for winning the Worst Nightmares Mini Contest for her book, House of My Dreams.

E-book by Gooduklady on BookRix.com

Gooduklady won a Kindle in the Into the Darkness horror group’s first Mini Contest, Worst Nightmares, featuring scary nightmare stories. The book to come in second place was briandoswell’s The Running Man and third place went to himabindu.works8’s The boy in the striped pajamas.

If you like horror books, check out all the other stories entered into the Mini Contest on BookRix. Congrats again to Gooduklady for her win!

One of our most prolific (20 books) and popular writers, Valerie Byron, aka Gooduklady, recently shared some of her thoughts on writing with us:

I never considered writing until I found my late mother’s auto-biographical stories, which I transcribed and uploaded to Bookrix. My friends had asked me for years to write about my "interesting" life, but it was not until I found this site that I was inspired to start telling my story.

When I discovered the wonderful contests on Bookrix, I was spurred on to try writing more than an autobiography. I regret not having the imagination to make up wonderful stories of fiction, but do have lots of real tales to tell. I have suffered no writer’s block in spilling them out in a matter of hours ("The Lover," "Mr. Wrong," etc.). My pets have also been a source of inspiration, so I am now dabbling in short, funny children’s stories with a surprise ending ("The Bickersons," "A Morning with Tessa").

Since I was a very small child, I have always loved to write poetry. I never thought anyone would be interested, so I saved my poems for birthday cards and special occasions. Bookrix has encouraged me to shyly put forth my funny poems, and I have enjoyed writing in that vein for the smaller Battle of Words contests.

Now that I am older and have more time on my hands, writing has become more important to me, and there is even a sense of urgency in getting my story finished before I “check out”. I hope to complete "Valerie" (my memoirs) very soon and am already feeling a huge sense of accomplishment at having nearly completed my very first (and probably only) full-length book.

Valerie has been very successful in our writing contests. Check out some of her contest winners below:

1st Place, Poet’s Week:

3rd place, Worst Summer Jobs – Battle of Words X:

3rd place, Summer Nights:

4th place, My Best Fiction: