The Chris Evans Breakfast Show - 31/01/2011

This morning on the Radio 2 Breakfast Show we launched 500 WORDS. 500 WORDS is our first ever short story competition in which anyone aged thirteen or under can enter. As part of the BBC Year of Books, the Chris Evans Breakfast Show wants to get the children of the UK firing up their imaginations and putting pen to paper, chisel to stone, quill to parchment, or just finger to keyboard. If you are aged 13 or under, you are invited to write a short story of 500 words about any made-up subject you like and send it to us via the BBC Radio 2 website. All the stories we receive will be read carefully. Then we will pick a Top 50 and invite them to watch the Chris Evans Breakfast Show being broadcast live from the Hay Festival on Friday 3 June 2011. We will also be giving the Top 50 stories to our expert panel of authors who will pick five finalists and an overall winner. So if you have lots of ideas and just love writing stories then why not enter now? We will be speaking to one of our wonderful judges each day on the show. And this morning we spoke to ANTHONY HOROWITZ. He told us how he got started and why he never has a problem with blank sheets of paper. A video of Anthony's top tips is currently available on the Radio 2 website. And if you're a teacher, Your breakfast show needs you! We want you to help us judge these amazing tales. If you would like to volunteer to read a batch of short stories then please visit the Radio 2 website to send us your details, and the name of someone who can act as a referee for you. As a token of our appreciation, your name will be entered into a draw and we will randomly select 25 names to receive a pair of tickets to come and watch the Chris Evans Breakfast Show live at the Hay Festival on Friday 3 June 2011.