Studio Blog
Welcome to the Demand Studios Blog – a resource for writers, contributors and freelancers alike! Come here for answers to your questions, Studio news, writing tips and more.
Studio Blog
Last week we invited our community to submit their best summer haikus for a chance to win some new DMS swag. We received a lot of great entries but we left the voting up to you. After collecting all the votes and reviewing the entries we are excited to announce the winner! So, without further ado...
Congratulations to Courtney Watson!
Her winning haiku:
Oh, kite, you aren't free /There's that tiny length of string /That binds you to me.
Her winning haiku:
Oh, kite, you aren't free /There's that tiny length of string /That binds you to me.
We have some honorable mentions we'd like to feature as well. These haikus received a number of votes but were a few pages into the contest entries. In case you missed them the first time around-- the following were some of our favorites:
Michelle Stone wrote,
Michelle Stone wrote,
Restless and barefoot/ Exploring the sensations/ I savor summer
Diana Braun wrote,
Fireflies flicker / Midnight stars glisten so bright/ I love summertime
Chad Phares wrote,
A summer haiku/ How many syllables are/ in a summer hai--
Thank you to everyone who submitted a haiku.
Congrats again to Courtney Watson!
Congrats to this month’s Grant winners!
Our Professional Resources grant goes to titler Don Bolen. During a hospital stay in December 2010, Don’s IV line became tangled with a cup of juice. The spill fried the laptop on contact of course, and Don no longer has an accessible computer (he’s been using his son’s computer for 6 months now). Don’s new laptop will allow him to get back to writing on the go.
Our first Work/Life Balance award goes to writer and CE Patricia Reed, who looks at her garden as a “source of practical experience for my work, exercise and hands-in-the-dirt therapy.” The grant will be used to purchase much needed tools, soil amendments and mulch.
Patricia's garden
The second Work/Life Balance grant goes to writer and CE Laura Garren. After her husband suffered a stroke in 2007, she’s balanced caring for him while writing and editing for DMS. As Laura put it, the experience “has been the most challenging and stressful of my life.” Laura will use the grant to attend a yoga retreat to help her heal, relax and recharge.
Our third Work/Life Balance winner is writer Rebecca Brogdon. After falling in love with Central America during countless trips, Rebecca and her husband adopted a Guatemalan girl named Ellie in 2005. In order to pay for the legal and travel fees, Rebecca and her husband have sacrificed family vacations since the adoption took place. Rebecca will use the funds to take her family on a beach vacation before the summer ends.
Ellie and her brothers
The final Work/Life Balance award will go to writer Kimberly Kunaniec. August 10th is her anniversary, but life for her and her husband has been consumed by work lately. Kimberly and her husband will use the funds to spend a romantic weekend on the coast
Finally, our Short Film grant goes to writer Ocean Malandra for the short film, “Cali-City of Salsa.” This documentary will explore the city of Cali, Colombia, which is famous for its salsa dancers and music.
Remember, if you didn’t win this time, you can apply twice more with the same application. It was a tough decision to select just six applications, so don’t get discouraged.
Please join us in congratulating the winners!
Digital Dilemmas: We're all searching for something
Posted by KendraO | July 21, 2011 | Comments (3)
happy searching!!
We have received a lot of great applications over the last few weeks and it is inspiring to see how passionate many of you are about your craft. As mentioned previously, we will be announcing All Access winners on a rolling basis. We've selected a winner from our first batch of applications and we're thrilled to share her story:
Please join me in congratulating Studio writer, Sheri Ann Richerson!
A home & garden fanatic, Sheri will be attending the Garden Writers Association Symposium in her hometown of Indianapolis. At the symposium she'll be able to network with other garden writers, attend educational seminars, and see what is new in the gardening world. She hopes to improve her writing skills and be able to better educate others through the written word. Sheri has been waiting 8 years for the symposium to come to Indianapolis and we are thrilled to help her get there!
For more details on the program and information on how to apply click here.
We know many of you are eager to get your t-shirts, so we worked all day today on the finishing touches. Over 375 of you participated in our survey, which means 375 packages to stamp, label, stuff and ship out!
We're pretty sure we depleted the Post Office of their entire stamp inventory
It wasn’t easy to load them all up. With only my tiny Nissan Sentra in tow, Associate Community Manager Jordan fit quite comfortably in the car with the packages…
Road trip, anyone?
Once we arrived at the post office, we unloaded our stash and shipped them off.
The cardboard box "graveyard"
Despite some questioning looks from the employees, your packages are on their way! Thanks again to all of you who participated in our survey – not only for your participation, but for your patience as we prepped them for your doorstep. All of you should have your t-shirts next week (except for our international friends), so post some pics on Twitter or Facebook of your new Demand gear!
Jordan, me and marketing intern Eric. I swear I'm not short -- they're just really tall...
We like to give kudos to those DMS community members who go above and beyond what is asked of them to make our community great. We want to spotlight those who are active and positive contributors in our forums, on our Blog, as well as on Facebook and Twitter. It's our creators who make us great and you deserve to be recognized!
This week we want to give Community Kudos to Studio writer Nola Moore.
Nola is a great addition to the DMS community. She is an active and positive contributor on our forums and is a key part of the Demand Motivation forum in particular. She recently introduced the '6-Week Challenge' to fellow community members and encouraged others to take part. For 6 weeks Nola is challenging herself to 'focus on habits' rather than the outcome and see where it takes her. Setting both personal and professional goals, she is tracking her progress in the forums and checking in on others who are doing the same. It is inspiring to see someone take such a leadership role and we are thrilled to see her inspiring others as well.
If you see Nola in the forums be sure to give her kudos of your own. Thanks and congratulations, Nola!
PM us with your contact info & we'll send you a DMS T-shirt & some other goodies to say,
Thank You!
If you see Nola in the forums be sure to give her kudos of your own. Thanks and congratulations, Nola!
PM us with your contact info & we'll send you a DMS T-shirt & some other goodies to say,
Thank You!
We asked, and you answered! What is your favorite genre for summer reading?
Here is what you told us!
Drama: 12.9 %
Historical Non-Fiction: 8.1 %
Suspense: 16.1 %
Chick Lit: 14.5 %
And the winner by a landslide!
Other: 48.4 %
Based on the earlier blog post featuring the Studio editors' books of the season, we're guessing lots of you are reading "Game of Thrones." Are we right?
Let us know!
Here is what you told us!
Drama: 12.9 %
Historical Non-Fiction: 8.1 %
Suspense: 16.1 %
Chick Lit: 14.5 %
And the winner by a landslide!
Other: 48.4 %
Based on the earlier blog post featuring the Studio editors' books of the season, we're guessing lots of you are reading "Game of Thrones." Are we right?
Let us know!
