Winner Announced ~ 2008 Writing Goals and What Inspires You to Keep Writing Contest

Please join me in congratulating children's writer, Jessica Kennedy!

Her winning entry is posted below and at my website: http://www.donnamcdine.com/newsannouncements.html

"My ultimate goal for 2008 is to get my young adult memoir and a children’s picture book published. I’m inspired to strive toward reaching these goals because it supplies me with an identity separate from my disabilities. The fact that there is little else I can do and am lucky that I do it well drives me.

In 1998 I caught spinal meningitis, had a brainstem stroke and became a ventilator dependent quadriplegic. Day after day, of therapy, melted into another. My life had little meaning and I was its unwilling prisoner. Just a thing with no purpose or worth. After six years of merely existing, I felt my old independent streak trying to break free of the bonds of complacency.

I was no longer a 26 year old idealist pursuing a legal career, children and marriage. I did not know who I was or if and what it was possible to be or become. All I knew was I had to do something. The nothingness was killing me. The need to engage my brain and exert my independence overpowered me. I began to type out my frustrations. I started to write a memoir of my stroke and rehabilitation.

There was an online class called Write Your Life Story. I enrolled. The girl in a wheelchair and on a ventilator took a backseat to the student and writer I became. I talked with other students and received and gave writing advice. This was a beginning. My life had not ended, but took a new direction

I was inspired to write, because I could write. It only required assistance from others to place my computer before me. With a keyboard and computer, I am a writer. Reliant on no one or nothing, but the muse that fills my soul to be unleashed upon the page. I am inspired to write, because it makes me who I am."

She has also received the winning logo of the contest to post on her blog and/or website.

For more information on Jessica please visit her at: Jessica Kennedy