The Contest Challenge

I think you mean The Poet's Place Cafe. I see it says there are contests in there. However, I can't count your entry there since it's a closed group ("closed" as in not everyone has access). Sorry about that. But don't sweat it! Yes, it sucks that an entry isn't counted, but it's okay. There's no race. You only need entries for 12 consecutive months to finish. I'll do my best to count them, but may only count about half for this year (and whatever I can count, I'll add to other years as available). That way I'm not being totally unfair to you for all your effort, but also not unfair to others who entered the contests they were supposed to have.

I see you've been working REALLY hard this month. Just a heads up, in case you have any interest in catching FULLY up from February 2017 so you can be in the Giant January Celebration in 2024, I'm considering quitting the challenge after that. It will have been 7 years. I can't say for sure. I might try to keep going to 10 years, but it's a lot, not to mention, expensive. lol We'll see. I haven't figured it all out yet. But if you want to be in the January 2024 Giant January Celebration it would be awesome to have you there! The prizes are AMAZING!

To catch up, aside from ensuring you note the month you are catching up for so you get the correct credit (for example, a forum title might be "The Pet New Contest--April 2017"), you also want to ensure you are checking the dropnotes title "Previously Highlighted Contests (insert year)" so you are doing the correct contests. Some months, nothing will be open. If it's a month like December and I highlighted mostly holiday contests, just be patient, if you can wait. Do other contests/months in the meantime. If it's a month that has contests, but everything is closed, try reaching out to see if the owner plans to open the contest. Sometimes they've been considering it and just need that little nudge of knowing someone wants to enter. If no one wants to open a contest for that month, I'll find you a replacement. Though it looks like you seem to favor poetry. If the only thing open is a short story contest, yes, you have to enter that. Sorry. Remember, this challenge is supposed to STRETCH you. There was a time when not all the months even had a poetry option so the poets had to suffer until someone brought it to my attention. Now, to be fair, I try to make April, National Poetry Month, only poetry contests so the short story people have to suffer.

To recap, check the Previously Highlighted Contests dropnotes to see what contests to enter. Enter using the CURRENT prompt (not a recap, but just to clarify since I have had a few folks dig through the forums and post an entry with an old prompt). Title your forum post with me to include the title of the contest and the month/year you are catching up. Include a link to the forum post in the contest forum showing you actually entered with {post:XXXXXXX}. Feel free to skip around and do whatever months strike your mood and have something available. I'll do my best not to get so far behind in the future.

GOOD LUCK! YOU GOT THIS!!!