We are National Winners!

We won!!! 

We are the Eastern States Winner, open section!
and....
WE ARE THE NATIONAL WINNER, open section!!!

My writers group, Prana Writers have been awarded ‘National Winner’ and 'Eastern States Winner' for our book, The Coral Sea Monster, in the open section of the Write-a-Book-in-a-Day 2011 challenge!!!

Woo Hoo, Yee Haa!
In a single day, between 8am and 8pm, our Prana Writers team planned, plotted, wrote, illustrated, printed and bound a 16,500 word children’s book - The Coral Sea Monster.

and... raised $940 in sponsorship for the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane.

And we did all of this without a single meltdown!

The team that worked on the Coral Sea Monster were: Tom Betts, Rob Brown (my husband), Margaret Choinski, Rebecca Fraser, Janis Hanley, Kerry McGuicken, Helen Stubbs, Angela Sunde and Amanda Worlley  (We also acknowledge the assistance of my daughter, Daniela Sunde-Brown).

The Coral Sea Monster was illustrated by Angela Sunde (me)!

And here are the Write-a-Book-in-a-Day judge's comments:

“The Winner of the Open Section this year is the most beautifully illustrated as well as the best written story of the bunch: ‘The Coral Sea Monster’ by Prana Writers. 

"The team was given the challenge to include a podiatrist, a sheep shearer and a sea animal in their work, as well as to employ the setting of a motorway and the theme of love.
“The result is an amusing and engaging story of a 13 year-old sheep-whisperer, Jack, whose hopes of competing in the shearing event at the Ekka showgrounds are shot through when a truck overturns on the motorway into Brisbane, blocking the traffic in both directions. The truck in question is carrying a sea monster, of course, and Jack and his new found friend, a teen podiatrist (yes, there is such a girl!), set out on a fun-packed adventure to save the sea monster from the clutches of Lionel Measly, the greedy Ocean-World curator who hopes to make a million out of the endangered species.

“A competition like Book-in-a -Day challenges all of its competitors to take an imaginative leap, to work together against the ticking clock, to produce something extraordinary and new. ‘The Coral Sea Monster’ is a delightful example of the best kind of new work this competition is capable of producing." Judge (Open Section) - Julienne van Loon, (Vogel Award Winner 2004), Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Curtin University of Technology, Perth, WA.

In the words of Prana Writer, Janis Hanley (more photos of the day are on her blog): “Words that come to mind are cohesive, talented, creative, in tune – but that really doesn’t come near to describing it. Being there was like arriving and plugging into some sort of communal brain. We didn’t just network our laptops - we somehow networked our minds.” 
See more photos of our day here

So... just who are Prana Writers you're wondering...

Prana Writers are dedicated to the craft of writing. By supporting each other and sharing our knowledge with others we hope to develop, learn, and celebrate together, whilst also contributing to the community. Our work spans a range of genres including speculative fiction, children’s, young adult, chic lit, contemporary drama, literary fiction, short stories and more. We meet five times a year for a full day of workshops, free writing and critiquing and in between for coffee, drinks or special events.

Originally brought together through the Gold Coast City Council’s Creative Juices program, Prana Writers hope that winning the WaBiaD National Award will help to promote the Gold Coast as a centre for creativity and culture. 
Prana Writers are: Tom Betts, Margaret Choinski, Rebecca Fraser, Bridget Gray, Janis Hanley, Kerry McGuicken, Helen Stubbs, David Stringer, Angela Sunde, Nicola Tierney and Amanda Worlley. 

Find us on Facebook here.
And our blog.

Acknowledgements:
I'd like to thank Louise Cusack, who is not only our mentor, but also a close friend and lifetime member of Prana Writers. Louise worked with the Prana Writers group from 2009-2010 through the Gold Coast Council's Creative Juices development program in 2009 and the support of a RADF grant in 2010.

I'd also like to thank the Gold Coast City Council for bringing Prana Writers together through the Creative Juices Write That Book program in 2009. Three years on and we are great friends and writing buddies. We appreciate your support!

Thank you to the Katherine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre and the Write-a-Book-in-a-Day team for the opportunity to raise funds ($940) for the Royal Children's Hospital in Brisbane. With a twelve hour time limit it was tough going at times, but we knew it was even tougher for the kids in the hospital, and that drove us on.

Thank you to my husband, Rob, for all the muffins on the day, for taking photos and blogging throughout the challenge, for cooking sausages at lunch, for his cool calm serenity under stress as he and Amanda loaded all the chapters, placed the illustrations, formatted the book and emailed it off. Whew! I'm glad it wasn't me.

Thank you to my Prana Writers buddies. This last year has been so enriching and so much fun. I'm very glad to be on this journey together with you.

And finally, congratulations to all the teams who entered Write-a-Book-in-a-Day. The real winners are the many children we have helped through raising funds for children's hospitals around Australia.