This got lost in the kerfuffle of my rough move to Perth…but I actually won third prize in the Solas Awards’ Young Traveler category for my story Why I Beat a Girl With a PVC Pipe. Not too bad, considering I entered it quickly without any time to edit it! As a reward, I get a certificate, free copy of a Traveler’s Tale (the company sponsoring the awards) book, and the chance that they will publish my story in an upcoming collection.

While we’re on the subject of writing, I’ve noticed that I haven’t mentioned IgoUgo in a while. This is probably because I took an extended break from writing because of the end of uni/Christmas break/my trip to New Zealand. Anyway, I’m back to writing and have started trying to make a dent on the 20+ journals I have piled up from NZ, plus 2 or 3 from Perth. The two I’ve written so far are Christchurch: The Gateway to the South Island and
New Zealand Essentials (which is still missing a few entries).

Also, while I was in New Zealand, I was chosen to be in the IgoUgo Hall of Fame. I was really excited about receiving this honor, since only the top contributors to the site are chosen.

IgoUgo also writes its own travel blog (and I made the list of their “Go-To Blogs”…yay!). In their weekly site update on Friday, they noted that my journal Stonehenge: Wiltshire’s Most Famous Pile of Rocks is now one of IgoUgo’s top 10 most-read journals.

A couple weeks ago, I entered a travel writing contest. I knew that the format was slightly flawed to begin with–the story with the highest user rating wins. While they did limit the number of votes per (computer? IP address?) to one, it was still a system asking to be abused, just as the IgoUgo Photo Feud Contest was abused in June.

I did enjoy reading many of the stories that were submitted, and voted according to how much I liked the story, regardless of the fact that my story was running against them. I didn’t even bug friends for votes. Unfortunately, some people were slightly more unscrupulous, and I found that, even after I and some of my family rated my story, my overall rating was still pretty low. It started out around 3/5 stars, and it slowly slumped, until it ended up at 1.44/5. Other stories boasted even lower ratings, mostly due to the fact that they were posted earlier than mine was. I started to ask more people, but this still didn’t offset the stream of “1″ votes I was getting.

I was starting to feel pretty rotten about my story. It was one that I wrote earlier in the year for Bootsnall that I got some nice comments on; the main reason I entered it in the contest as opposed to one of my favorites was a) it was less than 1,000 words, which was the contest limit, and b) I’m snowed under as the end of the semester swiftly approaches and didn’t have the time to revise/shorten/completely write anew a story. However, the announcement of the winner made me feel much better. Apparently, someone had found a way to constantly vote down all of the other stories, giving them all “1″s, all the while consistently voting their story a “5″. I don’t know who did it and I don’t care to find out, but the eventual winner, Rowena Love, is well-deserving of the $125 grand prize with her story Have Lie, Will Travel. So congratulations, and may the next contest be slightly less dramatic.

When I went to IgoUgo yesterday, I was really excited to see that I’ve been nominated for the Road Less Traveled Journal Award in the 2007 Ugo! Awards (IgoUgo’s annual writing and photography awards). If you’ve read my Three Peaks Challenge: 36 Hours of Madness journal (which, as the name says, describes my Three Peaks Challenge trip, which involved climbing the three tallest peaks in Britain in 36 hours), and you enjoyed it, please check out all of the other fantastic writers, journals, and photographers that have been nominated and then vote!