When West Boca visited BAM!, one of our students won the Flash Fiction Challenge. 

The BAM! Flash Fiction Challenge was a panel held at 11 AM. Stephen Kozan was the author speaking at the panel.  After everyone settled in the Celatis Room in the Mandel Library, Kozan talked about his contest. 

When Kozan would visit schools on his book tours, he would hold the same contest for elementary schoolers and middle school students. They would get a page to write a short excerpt of a story they’ve already written, one they made up, or list out details about a story they have in mind. 

This is how his independent publishing company, ReadyAimWrite Kids, finds new young authors and helps them start publishing their work. So far, they have 198 authors. All of the winners of Kozan’s Flash Fiction contest sign author/publisher contracts. The winners earn royalties on their books, which means they make money from their books. 

He held the same flash fiction contest for BAM!, except that participants were allowed to write two pages if they wished. He also explained that he would contact the winner later that day so that an announcement of the winner could be made at the festival.

When West Boca junior Karla Zalamar found out that she had won the contest, she was “really shocked, like really shocked, jump scared” by the call Kozan gave her. She hadn’t expected to win, saying that she was there for the “silly funsies”, after skipping the animation panel she was supposed to attend instead.

When asked about the progress of her book, Zalamar said that she hadn’t made any progress. Her author/publisher contract had only been sent a few days ago, so she decided to start working on her after all her testing is over. 

Zalamar’s book is about witches, which she briefly wrote about and left on a cliffhanger to win the contest. She decided to write about witches because of her disappointment with how little books there were about witches that interested her. 

When Karla finishes her book, she will not be able to write a sequel or take it to another publishing company without gaining permission from Kozan. As well, she will make about 50% of the money the book makes after its release.

Zalamar’s main thoughts about the whole experience were that it was “Amazing, I loved it, I loved spending time with my best friends at BAM, the experience was wonderful, I loved the author panels, the art outside, the people selling, everything”.