Red Planet: Winner!

We have a winner folks! Simon Winstone (Head of Drama, Red Planet) and Tony Jordan have just made the announcement on the Red Planet website:

"Joanna Leigh is the inaugural winner of the Red Planet Prize for her vivid story behind the creation of the first English dictionary 'Sam J'.

Tony Jordan says, "Joanna's script had everything the competition was trying to find, a unique voice, great characters and a remarkable story well told."

Though Joanna is the Prize winner, all the finalists set a very high standard, and over the next few days we will be offering some the chance for workshops and mentoring. We will also try to offer feedback to all finalists if required. The Red Planet Prize will return this summer, so get writing!"

Huge congratulations to Joanna, a really big achievement. Along with the feedback, I think there's going to be a couple of workshops (initially thought to be just one with the final shortlist), which is amazing: the prize really has outreached my expectations, and the generosity and passion of Tony Jordan and Red Planet has been truly inspiring.

This is also my 400th post so it comes with a small amount of pride as, essentially, there would be no Red Planet Prize if it weren't for the blog or the blogging community. To quote a certain Fat Boy Slim: "We've come a long way, baby". And lots of busy and exciting things spinning away, so currently pretty pleased with the way things are going (and yesterday, I found out that I, along with co-writer Sam, have been shortlisted for the Times/Chicken House Children's Book Prize: down to the last 5 out of 2,000! Oh my God! I mean... oh my God!)

I'm beginning to like the sound of 2008...