Dear Michael Cantor,
Hello, I posted a message of the Dream Quest One Poetry & Writing Conest last summer and I remember our discussion. I thought you had got the point of the true merits of this competition. But apparently, you and your staff at the time didn't. Because it was one of you who deleted the announcement and replies to the previous contest. You were having problems inside the AbleMuse and some of your staff appeared to be upset about somethings going on as far as how you run the AbleMuse. Those members posted a message for all about leaving and quit. I hope you remember that. I proved the merits of my contest and I had to give your moderator a reality check on how to be professional. You should always do some checking of your facts before you call someone or something out of it's name. You may lose respect of others and a potential friend if your proven wrong. Well, you are wrong about this competition. All prize monies have been paid to all contest winners. You have seem to applied contempt before investigating your accusation of Dream Quest One being a scam or fly-by-night operation. You aren't the first to jump to conclusions, nor will you be the last. So it doesn't bother me anymore. What bothers me is that you didn't ask me about the previous contest winners or any questions about Dream Quest One before jumping on the bandwagon on discrediting this competition. I believe that was very unprofessional. However, recently I wrote a letter in response to an email to the Portland Writer, which may help you better understand Dream Quest One and what it's purpose is, as follows:
Dear Shannon,
Hello and Hi! I hope this message finds you to be of good health and cheerful. First, I want to thank you for your prompt and cordial reply to my request. I can understand your concern about Dream Quest One Poetry & Writing Contest being a bad apple amongst the bunch. However, I must begin from it's roots. My name is Andre West, creator and founder of Dream Quest One, a poetry and writing competition. I am a writer, a poet and a dreamer who believes in his dreams and works toward making them reality. Every since early childhood I have been an avid reader, writer and lover of poetry, dearly. My mission and purpose of Dream Quest One is to inspire, motivate and encourage anyone with the desire or love or poetry and writing to continue doing so without fear of failure or success, regardless of negative criticism from ourselves or others.
On March 17, 2005 Dream Quest One went live online. It is not a large contest but a labor of love that I nurture even with my own personal resources. It is based upon integrity and honesty. For I believe, without those two components any endeavor business or otherwise will fail. However, I have been going strong and meeting my goals ever since the beginning until this day. All prizes monies collected goes to the prizes winners, and I have received some of the most beautiful letters of appreciation one can hope for. Dream Quest One uses some proceeds to maitain the website and materials need to continue running. There is no such thing as a free lunch so someone must pay down the line. I also pay taxes. Some of the previous contest winners are accomplished poets and writers to those who just started writing by inspiration and motivation. I am proud of this competition.
No one survives the web alone, I was once told. We are all in this together to be held by links. My links are strong. When I mention that WinningWriters.com has me listed in their Poetry Contest Insider, it's by reason to let you know that they don't just list any contest. Only those whose credibility checks out to be clear. I am also familiar with the Editor of Oncewritten.com, Monica Poling and Michael Shenton at PrizeMagic.co.uk. There are many other authors, poets, website owners, webmasters, and editors whom I have become familiar with throughout the past couple of year. A previous writing contest winner, Terry Weide, author of Dream of Power, Dream of Glory has won Third Prize. He has posted information about his writing works on his Author's bio section at
http://www.doubleedgedpublishing.com...php?user_id=17 Also, CJ Mouser won Second Place in the 2007 Summer Writing Conest for her story titled, Mrs. Coleman and the Map of the World. She mentions it on her website at
http://www.cjmouser.com/. I usually hold a contest bi-annually and the next one after the current one should run a Deadline of July 31, 2008.
Attached to this email message is a newspaper article that the previous Dream Quest One Poetry Contest First Prize Winner of $250 -Summer of 2007, Jesus Martinez, Jr., sent to me along with a letter of appreciation. An interesting thing to note is that the letter of thanks was also a poetry contest entry that he sent to Dream Quest One. Now that is outstanding, Shannon! This article was written by Claudia Hill, Staff Writer at the Del Rio News Herald in Texas, USA.
I would be honored and grateful to have announcement of the Dream Quest One Poetry & Writing Contest included in your blog. Thank you very much for your time and consideration.
Best regards,
Andre L. West, editor
www.dreamquestone.com
'When you let go of your dreams it can take the better part of a lifetime to catch them again. It makes more sense to never let them go in the first place. Even If they eventually pass away, at least they were yours to hold onto all the while. Better is one day with an impossible dream planted firmly in your heart, than a thousand days spent in regret over the one you gave up on.' ~Ray Basile
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From:
theportlandwriter@comcast.net
To:
alwest56@hotmail.com
Subject: Poetry/Writing Contest
Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2007 21:08:16 -0700
Hi Andre, thanks for sending me the info about your writing contest for inclusion on my blog. I'm always a little leary of adding random contests I have never heard of (nothing against you personally), so if you have some type of references I can check out, that would be great.
Thanks!
Shannon L. Cheesman
http://theportlandwriter.com/
[This message has been edited by Andre West (edited November 01, 2007).]