Competitions recognise new writing talent

This year's HBWC competition is to continue a story started by Linda Buckley-Archer who was highly commended in the Branford Boase Award in 2007 with her novel 'Gideon the Cutpurse'.
The story must begin with her first paragraph and must be no more than 1,500 words.
The site says: "Your story may make its point in just 100 words... or 500... or maybe 973!"
The deadline is Saturday, June 14 and this year's judge is Kate Jones, the Director of Young Writer magazine.
Six winners will meet Jacqueline Wilson and other book related people at a special party. They will also be given copies of the shortlist and meet the authors. One of the HBWC winners on the night will also win £500's worth of books for their school library.

Here's the first paragraph - and it's a cracker!
They were still there when I came back from taking Fred for a walk in the dunes. Two huddled figures on the beach, wearing a school uniform that I did not recognise. They were watching the breakers pound the shore – they weren’t running around or talking or eating, they were just staring at the green-brown sea. And it was weird, I thought, because all the schools around here had broken up a couple of weeks ago. Fred trotted over to say hello and to sniff around. The girl ignored him and turned around to glare at me with dark, accusing eyes, while the boy, who was much bigger, continued to observe the murky waves. Suddenly Fred got spooked and started to growl. I trudged across the sand and grabbed him by the collar but even as I pulled him away he just kept on growling. It was then, in a flash of recognition, that I saw the boy’s face. I should have obeyed my first instinct and run, run like there was no tomorrow, but I didn’t.
“What you staring at?� snapped the girl.

Here are the six books shortlisted for the 2008 Branford Boase - let me know which your favourite is.
Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke edited by Averil Whitehouse (Walker)
Nathan Fox: Dangerous Times by L Brittney edited by Rachel Denwwod (Macmillan)
Waves by Sharon Dogar edited by Barry Cunningham (Chicken House)
Before I Die by Jenny Downham edited by David Fickling (David Fickling Books)
The Door of No Return by Sarah Mussi edited by Beverley Birch (Hodder)
Finding Violet Park by Jenny Valentine edited by Stella Paskins (HarperCollins)
Both 'Before I Die' and 'Finding Violet Park' have received a lot of publicity and are two books I've hovered over in book shops, once I've read my current pile I'll be reading them. The others I'm not familiar with - but I'll definitely be checking them out.
This year's judges include Julia Eccleshare, Children's Book Editor at The Guardian and Nikki Gamble of the writeaway site www.writeaway.org.uk which I've recently discovered.

The winning author receives a cheque for £1,000 and the writer and editor both receive an original beautifully hand-crafted box, inlaid with silver.
Past winners were Frances Hardinge, Meg Rosoff , Mal Peet, Kevin Brooks, Sally Prue, Marcus Sedgwick and Katherine Roberts. That's one very impressive list.
This year's Branford Boase Award winner will be announced at an awards ceremony at Walker Books in London (by invitation only) on July 9th, 2008. Six winners of the Henrietta Branford Writing Competition will also be invited and will be able to meet authors, editors, publishers and agents - what a fantastic prize for budding authors.

More details on both competitions are available at http://www.branfordboaseaward.org.uk