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Follow the whole nine yards here (a 95 part series) :- Half Marathon Blog
Why I am running:- West Coast Eisteddfod Bryn Seion Church
For details of how to sponsor see this post
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Not much news on the running front today. I spent the day in a delightful small town called Corvallis, just off I-5 half way between Portland and Eugene. When I discovered that I was going there I naturally checked to see if they had a marathon or half-marathon. And they do....or rather they did. The run was held on April 15th and you can find out more at the link below:-
It looks like a great course but I'm glad I didn't register for that one as I wouldn't have been anywhere near ready. Indeed I seem to have hit something of a 'plateau' very early in my training schedule. This is doubtless attributable to the fact that I have not yet completely quit smoking. BUT I hope to make some dramatic announcements next week. Gaabriel has sportingly offered to chain me to a wall in the cellar to help get me over the last lingering nicotine cravings. Sounds like a reasonable plan
Meanwhile the big news of the day is the first draft of the 2012 Portland Lovespoon. Here it is:-
I'm sure all our readers will want to join me in thanking Dave, Laura , Jen and Chris for their contributions to the spoon so far and I for one can't wait to see how the design develops over the coming weeks. How does this relate to running you may ask?
Well as I mentioned in an earlier post we plan to launch a Kickstart appeal ( on Tuesday ) for sponsorship of my half marathon effort. One of the prizes will be tickets for the Lovespoon draw. So....please sponsor for a chance to win this superb and unique work of art
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Personal Sponsorship
$1/mile e-copies of Gaynor Madoc Leonard stories
$2/mile tickets for Dave Western Portland Lovespoon 2012
$3/mile level both of the above
$4/mile all above plus signed event posterWebsite/Commercial or Community Sponsorship
$5/mile spot ad on event pages
$10/mile free admission to event and larger ad on event pages
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2011 West Coast Eisteddfod Online Short Story Competition - We Have A Winner!!
By Ceri Shaw, 2011-09-28
We are pleased to announce today that the winner of the West Coast Eisteddfod Short Story Competition for this year ( 2011 ) is Gaynor Madoc Leonard. You can read the story here:- The Last Cottage . Our judge Lloyd Jones ' adjudication can be found below, Llongyfarchiadau/Congratulations to Gaynor Madoc Leonard and many thanks to all our contestants for your excellent submissions. Details of the 2012 online short story competition can be found further down the page .
Adjudication by Lloyd Jones
The quality of the short stories which came to hand was considerably higher this year. Congratulations to everyone!
I needn't tell you that literary adjudication is almost entirely subjective, so entrants who haven't made the cut mustn't feel rejected; on the contrary, I urge you all to continue writing.
In the end it all comes down to personal taste, and I tend to shy away from depictions of violence, mainly because we get so much of it on our screens. I also think it's an easy option for writers and film-makers. Sentimentality is also a recurring problem.
Lots of good writing this year, but my choice as winner is Gaynor Madoc Leonard with The Last Cottage . Nice touches here, and she just about manages to stay on the right side of sentimentality, always difficult with a story like this!
Second is Gillian Morgan with Dusk over Pentre Scagal , although I think she should tweak the ending a bit.
Highly commended: The Sheep-Whisperer of Llangendeirne by Gaynor Madoc Leonard; Number 1 Hilltop by Samantha Priestley; Omnevillia by Maude Larke; The Bear's Breath by Kate-Lyn Therkelsen.
The rest of you can put those knives away! The only reason Ceri chose me as judge is because I live a few thousand miles away, and contract killers are quite expensive on this side of the pond.
Seriously though, well done everyone. And as for those who didn't get a gong this year, good luck in 2012. Failing that, send a serious amount of money in a brown envelope to Lloyd Jones , Wales, c/o Paradise.
2012 West Coast Eisteddfod Online Short Story Competition
The short story competition starts today. The theme of your story need not reference Wales in any way. You may submit your entry in either Welsh or English. Basically you will need to write a short story between 1000 and 3000 words in length and submit it in accordance with the rules for site members or non-site members outlined below. Accompanying graphics ARE permitted but your entry will be judged solely on its literary merit. There is a US150 dollars (approximately 100GBP ) prize for the winner. and US100 dollars ( approximately 65GBP ) for the runner up. The final submission date is Sept 15th 2011 . We are immensely proud and pleased to announce that for the fourth consecutive year, author Lloyd Jones will judge the entries in the West Coast Eisteddfod Online Short Story competition. Lloyd is the author of two novels, 'Mr Vogel' and 'Mr Cassini' and a collection of short stories - 'My First Colouring Book' . He has also written the extremely popular Welsh language novel - 'Y Dwr' . You may submit up to four entries.
This is an exciting opportunity for aspiring short story writers to achieve recognition and publication and we would like to repeat that there are NO registration fees.
The winner and his/her work will also be featured on this site on what we hope will be a heavily trafficked page.
How To Submit Your Story
Members
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Simply join this Group and post your story (and any links) as a separate discussion in the group forum ( see "Gangsta Lorem Ipsum" example below). If you wish to include a link to your website or blog please do so but remember you must link back to us. Please DO NOT submit attachments...cut and paste your story into a discussion dialog box. Add your title and attribution as per the 'Gangsta Lorem Ipsum' example in the Forum.
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Post your story on your website or blog and post a link to the relevant url as a separate discussion in the group forum ( see "Lorem Ipsum" example below).. Once again you will need to link back to us.
Non Members
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Post your submission on your blog and email us with the url ( americymru@gmail.com ). We will include it on the Group page. We would appreciate a link to this page or to the blog home page.
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Email your submission to us and we will post it on the group page and credit you as author. ( in this case mutual linking is an option but not required )
The Fine Print
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There is no entry or submission fee for this competition. The requirement to backlink if you are posting on your own blog and linking here ( or submitting a link to your blog on this page ) is obligatory and designed to be mutually beneficial.
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Any materials submitted in this group will remain the sole property of the author. We guarantee not to display any story or any portion thereof on other pages or sites without the express permission of the author. Likewise materials submitted here or linked here can be removed or unlinked at any time by the author or at his/her request.
- Cash prizes will only be awarded in the event that there are a minimum of 12 competiton entries. This applies equally to the Welsh and English language categories. It should be pointed out that we have not, in three years, failed to achieve this target for English language submissions.
A message from Catrin Brace at the Welsh Assembly Government office in New York:-
The Welsh Government has just published a guide to Welsh food and drink products available in the USA and how to buy them. The guide can be downloaded and printed from the Visit Wales website as below. Please tweet this information to your friends and put it on your Facebook pages. Thanks!
http://americas.visitwales.com/news-and-features/food-drink/
We were very proud and pleased this year ,to be able to offer as part of our fund raising prize draw, a collection of original artwork by Swansea artist and illustrator Jeff Phillips . The draw was held in Oberon's Welsh Pirate Bar at the West Coast Eisteddfod on Sunday afternoon and Peter Freeman picked the lucky winner.
And the winner is.?.....AmeriCymru member Wild Canary . You can congratulate her on her AmeriCymru page here .
A thousand diolch's to Jeff for donating these superb illustrations to the cause and llongyfarchiadau to Wild Canary.
SUBMISSIONS FOR THE 2013 WEST COAST EISTEDDFOD ONLINE POETRY AND SHORT STORY COMPETITIONS ARE NOW CLOSED - WE WILL BE DISCLOSING DETAILS OF OUR 2014 COMPETITION SHORTLY - THE ADJUDICATION WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON OCTOBER 14th AND THE WINNER POSTED ON THE SITE AND NOTIFIED BY EMAIL - DIOLCH YN FAWR TO ALL OUR CONTESTANTS AND POB LWC/BEST OF LUCK
Reproduced with kind permission from David Western's Portland Eisteddfod Lovespoon Blog
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Jen Delyth contributed a beautiful "Tree of Life" design for our fourth West Coast Eisteddfod lovespoon! I'm very excited about it as I have always wanted to try carving one of Jen's stunning Celtic designs in wood and now have my opportunity! This year's spoon will be quite the collaboration and will focus around both the 4 theme (as it is the forth year of the Eisteddfod) and the theme of 'Celebrating Your Roots'. I have taken a bit of time and have embellished Jen's Tree with a nice, simple Celtic 'heart' knot, which I think is most apt for a lovespoon. I've also included the theme "Celebrate Your Roots' in both Welsh and English in Celtic font. The resultant 'rosette' feels and looks pretty sweet and is going to be a lot of fun (and hard work) to carve.
With this part finished, I am going to send the design down to Laura Jenkins Gorun to see what kind of wonderful magic she can add to the overall idea. We've discussed a couple of ideas already and Laura is ready to try a couple of design themes out. So next week, we should have a better idea of how the entire handle and bowl arrangement is going to play out.
I've also received word from Ceri and Gaabi over at the Left Coast Eisteddfod that we've got yet another exciting announcement to make about this year's lovespoon draw!! From Ceri: "This year there will be an additional prize. The winner of last year's Poetry and Storytelling Competitions, Chris Chandler, will be a judge at this year's event and will be composing a short poem on the theme 'Celebrate Your Roots' which will be printed, framed and presented along with the spoon to the winner of this years draw."
It was Chris who came up with our Celebrate Your Roots theme and if you are familiar with his work, you'll know that this poem will be a corker!
With four very talented contributors to this year's spoon, we have a very deep well of artistic talent to draw from! I am hoping that you will be inclined to stop by and visit everybody's work at their websites, which follow below!
To see Laura Jenkins Gorun's gorgeously delicate lovespoons, visit: www.jenkinslovespoons.com
Be dazzled by Jen Delyth's Celtic art at: www.celticartstudio.com
Hear Chris Chandler's word craft (including my personal fav Beyond Pollution) at http://chrischandler.org
Me? I'm at: www.davidwesternlovespoons.com
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Winner Carey Dietrich pictured with the West Coast Esiteddfod Lovespoon 2011
Carey said:- " I am thrilled to be the winner of this unique & lovely piece. Thank you and all your colleagues for the Eisteddfod weekend. It was a massive undertaking and I hope you are enjoying a well-deserved rest! "
Both AmeriCymru and the WCE organisers would like to express our deepest gratitude and appreciation for all the work that David Western has done to help make the 2009, 2010 and 2011 West Coast Eisteddfodau possible.
