State of the ShakesQuill

Hello ShakesQuillers. First off, let me thanks everyone on making the first week of ShakesQuill a hit. We've had some great submissions both by our team of ShakesScribes and by many different guest writers. In our first week alone we've featured poetry, book excerpts, music, sonnets and short stories.

A couple ShakesQuill news items. First off, let me thank Chet Scoville for taking over the Grammar section, and thanks to Deeky for handling Word of the Day duties. If any readers wants to get involved with producing a grammar article or a Word of the Day submission, please write to me and I'll get you in touch with Chet or Deeky.

Second, the first Weekly Story comes to an end tomorrow. So head on over there to get any last-minute additions to the story you'd like to pen. As for now, all bets are off as far the Weekly Story, and anyone can contribute as often as they like, but try to avoid back-to-back submissions.

As for this week, we'll have another Weekly Story (e-mail me if you want to write the opening few paragraphs) plus later today we'll have the "Monday Wake-Up Exercise." This will be a writing game based on reader ideas for ways to get you up and writing and get the creativity flowing.

Finally, for contributors, if I haven't gotten your submission posted, it's not because you've been rejected. We had a lot of submissions this first week and we're hoping for more. If I haven't posted your submission and haven't written back to you, feel free to send me a reminder e-mail.

In leaving, let me reiterate how pleased I am with the ShakesQuill debut. It's been a great start and the spirit of has been wonderful. This is a place to share, improve and help others, as well as a great get away for those who are just looking for some good reading material.

For those reasons we're not going to have any contests here at ShakesQuill. We'll highlight other writing contests you might be interested in, but here is not a place to be judged. It's a place for writers (and other artists) to share their work and a chance for readers to enjoy that work and see and help writers grow.

Thus far, ShakesQuill has been everything we've hoped, and thanks to all of you, it's just going to get better.

Bill