Wow. I am amazed at the quality of writing out there by bloggers in Ottawa. This year’s post submissions were amazing – funny, sad, moving, and informative. It was almost impossible to narrow down the field.

However, our brave panel of judges somehow managed to pull it off, and the reader list for BOLO 2012 has been set. We’ll be announcing the readers over the next couple of weeks here on the blog.

In the meantime, I’d like to take a moment to thank the lovely ladies who gave up several days of their time to read all the posts, make careful and measured evaluations, and deal with my many, many frantic emails.

Tudor is an Ottawa-area professional writer who has won awards for her short stories and has plenty of fiction and non-fiction publishing credits under her belt. She writes a thoughtful, thought-provoking blog about the living writing life over at Pen to Paper. Her home on the web is a great place to visit for all wordsmiths, aspiring authors, and those who just love to read.

Julie holds the honour of having been the very first reader at the very first Blog Out Loud. She’s been cracking wise over at Thoughts of a Smother Mother for a few years and is an involved and caring member of the Ottawa blogging scene. Not only a sassy writer, Julie also has mad photography skills and has been a past exhibtor at BOLO as well.

After reading last year, Krista will sadly miss out on Blog Out Loud 2012, as she’s on a year-long work exchange in India. Her kind and heartfelt blog over at Life in the Hutch gives keen insights into parenthood and great stories about life abroad with two preschoolers. Her detailed descriptions combined with her lovely photos will make you feel as though you’ve been there yourself.

Lee Ann is a professional writer of magazine articles, short stories, and books. Her latest book, about the Muskoka Colonization Road, comes out this summer and she’s been documenting the writing and publishing process over at Work in Progress. It’s a fascinating inner peek at how creativity is only one part of the whole book industry, and how authors need to do more than just write to get a book from idea to bookstore.

Kathleen has been blogging, reading, and commenting around the ‘net for over three years. She writes at Treehouse Moosilaneous when inspiration strikes – and when it does, it’s sure to result in a warm, reflective post about her life in the trenches of working motherhood. She’s a brave and loyal blogger who gently explores her thoughts on the meaning of life.

Thanks again to the fantastic panel for all your hard work. Watch for reader announcements starting early next week.

This is it! The last day to submit to read at Blog Out Loud 2012 is upon us. You have until midnight tonight, Monday, May 14, to send your favourite post from the past year to lynnturtlehead@gmail.com. Hesitate no longer! Just hit the send key.

Just six more days to submit a reading for BOLO 2012. Send yours in today to Lynn at lynnturtlehead@gmail.com.

Just two weeks left to submit a reading for BOLO 2012! Get yours in now – send the link to your chosen submission to lynnturtlehead@gmail.com.

Just over three weeks remain to get your reading submissions in! Send them along to lynnturtlehead@gmail.com.

Also, Dani noticed a bug in the HTML code for the BOLO 2012 buttons. It’s fixed now – if you tried before and it didn’t work for you, grab the new code here.

Coming to Blog Out Loud 2012, or wish you could be there? Want to help us promote the event?

Grab a sidebar button for your own blog to help get the word out!

HTML:

<a href="http://www.blogoutloud.org/"><img src="http://www.blogoutloud.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/bigbutton.jpg" alt="Blog Out Loud June 14 2012" title="Blog Out Loud Ottawa 2012" width="200" height="200" /></a>

HTML:

<a href="http://www.blogoutloud.org/"><img src="http://www.blogoutloud.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/smallbutton.jpg" alt="Blog Out Loud June 14 2012" title="Blog Out Loud Ottawa 2012" width="200" height="75" /></a>

It’s official!

Blog Out Loud 2012. Arrow and Loon pub (Fifth and Bank – with free wifi!). Thursday, June 14 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Please note that due to issues surrounding the long weekend in May, I have changed the due date for post submissions. It is now Monday, May 14. That gives you just six weeks to pick a post and send it in – so act now! Submissions can be sent to me at lynnturtlehead@gmail.com.

I’ve been waiting for official confirmation from this year’s location before making a formal announcement about BOLO 2012…and I still don’t have it. But since I am moving up the date this year (to the second week of June – I’m hoping for Thursday, June 14), it is more than past time to get the ball rolling for submissions.

So, let’s do this thing!

Blog Out Loud, 2012. Want to read? Here’s what you do:

1. Pick out your favourite post from the past year (May 2011 through April 2012). Note that you must have blogged at least 10 times in this time period.
2. Send the link to your selected reading to lynnturtlehead@gmail.com by Monday, May 14, at midnight.
3. Wait to be notified (via email) on May 21st if you are a selected reader. That’s it!

What kind of post should you pick? We like posts that tell a story, express an opinion, argue a point, capture a moment, inspire passion. All types of topics and subjects are welcome. Just pick something that has meaning for you.

Your selected post should be able to be read out loud in about three to five minutes (I’d suggest no more than 1200 words as a good guideline, but we’re flexible).

Please don’t send me an email that you’d like to read, but you’re not sure what. We need to know your selected post! Knuckle down and pick one. In the past, people have asked if they can submit more than one post. You’re welcome to submit up to a maximum of two posts, but any given blogger will only be allowed to read one.

There is a maximum of 21 reading spots available. The readers will not be decided until Friday, May 18.

How will the readers be decided? Half the spots are selected by a panel of judges (to a maximum of 11 spots). The remainder of the spots are selected by random draw. So don’t be discouraged – everyone has a chance! Everyone is welcome – small bloggers, famous bloggers, new bloggers, bloggers that have been kicking around forever. Come one, come all.

I am also looking for:

• Photographers! Last year Dani put together a fantastic slide show featuring local photo bloggers. If there is enough interest we will do the same again this year.
• Judges! If you’re interested in being part of the process but don’t want to read, consider being a judge – I am looking for four or five people. It helps if you have been to BOLO in the past and can imagine what kind of posts will read well.
• Volunteers! Each year I need people to work the door at the event, manage the readers, help set up and clean up, that sort of thing. If you’d like to help, please let me know!

Anyone interested in any of these roles can contact me at lynnturtlehead@gmail.com.

Hopefully, an official announcement regarding the date, place, and time is coming soon. In the meantime, start pouring over those archives and see what you can find!

I’m in the early planning stages of BOLO 2012, and as usual, I’m looking for date feedback. I’ve had requests in the past to not host this event at the same time as Bluesfest, which would mean pushing it back into June, or forward into July. Would it be a good idea to have it the same week as the Social Capital Conference, which is on Saturday, July 21? Or would it be best to keep the events separated by a few weeks?

In any case, hopefully I’ll have a date and a place to announce very soon.

In the meantime, if you are thinking about reading this year, why not take part in the Scintilla Project, which is a two-week daily blogging prompt event starting next week? Daily blogging often leads to an amazing flood of creativity – you’ll be just in time to write yourself a fantastic entry to Blog Out Loud.