Live to Imagine - Scribes Valley 2004 Contest Winners

Live to Imagine: Imagine to Live

2004 Short Story Writing Contest Winning Stories

    We are all born with an imagination. It starts with the first intrusion of light into our newborn eyes, and then begins to grow and mature as we grow and mature. Your imagination dictates how you live your life and how you see the world. And it’s always been there to see you through the tough times, trials, and tribulations. How many times did you make it through some boring school class by letting your imagination take you away? How many times did you reduce your parents’ scolding voices to the level of crickets on a hot summer night while your mind was in the next galaxy? Live to experience all you can experience. Live to see the world through open eyes and an open mind. Live to realize there are no boundaries to your imagination. Live...to imagine

ISBN: 978-0-9742652-2-5
162 pages
Warning: some adult language

Paperback edition: $10.99 + shipping
Kindle edition: $2.99 

Meet the winning authors:

***  FIRST PLACE - Poetry  ***
   Jean grew up in Ithaca, New York, but currently resides in Poqouson, Virginia, on the Chesapeake Bay, with her Special Forces husband, who travels extensively, and their 10-year-old twin girls, who are both creative, artistic, and straight-A students.
   She has always loved to "fool around and write" in her spare time, as a child and as an adult. Her high school and college English teachers encouraged her to pursue writing. She wound up going to court reporting school and became a Merit writer recording, transcribing and editing legal transcripts. Although she has a passion for technical writing, it's not quite as liberating as writing from the heart.
   Jean's favorite pastimes include decorating, canoeing, tinkering around on the piano, and just reveling in a few moments of peace and quiet, all the while keeping the company of Mozart or Bach, or, perhaps, Bon Jovi, should the moment feel right.

Jean B. Speights
"HE", "STAND", "MILES"

***  FIRST PLACE - Short Story  ***
   Francis W. Porretto is an engineer, opinion-editorialist and writer of diverse fiction. He lives in a ramshackle ranch situated in one of the remaining rural parts of Long Island, NY, along with one wife, two stepdaughters, three dogs, five cats, and too many power tools to count.
   In his spare time, he operates the Eternity Road Website, a fount of libertarian/conservative/pro-American political and cultural opinion, from which redoubt he rains shafts upon the forces of creeping statism, moral relativism, and political correctness. He's been working for ages on his Realm Of Essences series, four fantasy novels whose central motif is that Creation was a subcontract job. Apart from his ability to use "sesquip! edalian," "vermiculations," and "anfractuosity" in a single sentence, there's essentially nothing interesting about him. Just ask his wife! 

Francis W. Porretto
NAMES

***SECOND PLACE - Short Story***
   Lenny Willoughby resides in Warren, Ohio. She is a truly passionate entrepreneur believing that discovery and exploration are gifts meant to be experienced. She has extensively traveled the world, living and working in many different cultures. She has owned and operated different business throughout her lifetime and hopes to do so again. She writes from her soul and loves it. She has written most of her life, and is currently completing a novel. “I feel privileged to be alive and experience what life has to offer.” --- spoken like a true entrepreneur.

Lenny Willoughby
SWAN SONG

   J.E.Moore (John) lives with his wife of eighteen years, Joyce, in Davie, south Florida. During the last five years he has written numerous stort stories and two unpolished novels.
   As to date, he is eagerly anticipating his eminent retirement from BellSouth Tel. Co. as an Electronic Technician and plans, forthwith, to tie-up his writings' loose ends.
   And then, to press forward to new frontiers, "Warp speed! Engage!

J.E. (John) Moore
THE SOUTHERN-MOST GHOST

   Born in Baltimore, Maryland, and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Karin Konoval currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her writing has been published in Exact Fare Only II (Anvil Press), Other Voices (Alberta literary anthology), Playboard Magazine, and The Courier. Her work has been broadcast on CBC’s First Person Singular, Radio 3, and Alberta Anthology. As a professional actor, Karin has appeared in lead roles at theatres across Canada, and received many honors for her work, most notably in musical theatre. On screen, she has appeared in principal and guest-starring roles in TV series such as X-Files, The Dead Zone, Stargate, and many others. Her numerous feature film credits include, most recently, the role of ‘Mary Leonard’ in Cable Beach for which she won a Philip Borsos award.

Karin Konoval
THE STAR CHILD

   Alicia began dabbling with the written word at age 12, when she started penning episodes of G.I. Joe for the amusement of her friends. She expanded her repertoire to include mushy love poetry and romance novels until a self-effacing and sarcastic style appeared in her mid-twenties, which she enthusiastically embraced as her true voice. In 2001, Alicia earned a master's degree in English & Publishing from Rosemont College and is currently the Director of Public Relations at a private school in Villanova, Pa., until she can afford to quit her day job.

Alicia Davis
4 PIVOTAL MOMENTS IN THE LIFE OF A GOURMAND

   Edith Thornton holds a BA from North Carolina State University in English Writing and Editing and is currently a graduate student at Fordham University pursuing a Masters in Teaching English. Residing in Long Island, Edith teaches at a local high school. “The Sensitive Guy” is her third short story to be published. Her first was “The Race” in Carolina Woman magazine and her second, “American Gothic Romance” published in Moxie magazine. Also an amateur photographer, Edith’s writing and photos can be viewed on her website at www.trianglewebdesign.com/edith

Edith Thornton
THE SENSITIVE GUY

   Ritch Brinkley spent his entire life as a professional actor on stage, screen, and television, from 1969 through 1999. Upon retiring from "showbiz", Ritch taught acting for the camera at The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point before moving to Florida's Emeral Coast, where he writes a biweekly movie column entitled, "Before the Lens" for the Beachcomber, an entertainment tabloid. He wrote and performed the one-act monodrama "Hemingway: In Earnest", and holds a BS in Communications from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MFA in Acting from Florida State University. He is best remembered for the decade he spent on television's Murphy Brown as the lovestruck cameraman "Carl". Grace Succumbs to Pressure is loosely based on an actual incident he learned about while touring the theatres of Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina in the early 70s.

Ritch Brinkley

GRACE SUCCUMBS TO PRESSURE   

   Tish Davidson has written for magazines and newspapers about topics affecting parents and children since 1989. Her most recent books for middle school readers are School Conflict and Prejudice (Franklin Watts/Scholastic Library Publishers, 2003) and Competition (2005). She has an advanced degree in biology and also writes medical articles for encyclopedias and textbooks. Tish lives with her family in Fremont, California. She and her daughter Susan are volunteer puppy raisers for Guide Dogs for the Blind. "The Bone Man" is a true story that occurred in 1993 during a five-month trip around the edges of the United States with her daughters.

Tish Davidson

VISITING THE BONE MAN   

   Gail published a collection of inspirational short stories entitled Tales From the Sunroom in 2001. It has been well accepted and acclaimed. Her new novel entitled The Bird House: A Gift of Hope was released in December, 2002. It is an inspirational story of a young family in New York during the Great Depression and their struggles to survive. Reviews on this latest work have been excellent. She resides in North Carolina with her husband of 32 years. They have a daughter and three grandchildren in Houston, Tx. She earned a B. A. in psychology and an M. Ed in education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Writing has been the realization of a lifelong dream, and she credits her success to the encouragement and support she has received from her family and many friends.

Gail Cauble Gurley

TOBY AND BEAU

   Elizabeth writes screenplays, plays and novels as well as short stories. Her first play, "Confessions of a Catholic Child" was a finalist in the Writer's Network Fiction Contest in Los Angeles, chosen for staged reading by The Long Beach Playhouse, finished fifth in a field of 9,000 in the 1998 Writer's Digest Playwriting Competition, and optioned by a Canadian producer to create a one-hour film based on the play. Her second play, "Moon Walkers" finished second out of a field of 300 in the Do Gooder Productions New Playwright Award Competition, was recognized as a semi-finalist in Writer's Network 1998 competition, was part of New Theatre Works Festival 99 in Santa Rosa, became a semi-finalist in the Writer's Network Screenplay & Fiction Competition and placed in the top ten plays out of a field of 19,000 in the October 2000 Writer's Digest Writing Competition. Her "Journal of a Common Man," won Dominican University's Festival of Short Plays. Elizabeth's novel, LESSONS FROM THE GYPSY CAMP was published to rave reviews by Scribes Valley Publishing in 2004.

Elizabeth Benton Appell
TIGER ROSE

   Carolyn Ann Aish was born Carolyn Ann Gundesen in the small town of Waitara, Taranaki, New Zealand in 1948. She was raised in New Plymouth and now resides in Inglewood beneath the spectacular Taranaki Mountain. Her hymn, "Sing God's Song," has been listed by the Guiness Book of World Records (1996 and 2003) as the longest hymn in history. She is a well-known author in New Zealand and has numerous stories, for both adults and children, in print.

Carolyn Ann Aish
A PROMISE IS A PROMISE

  Phillip lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, and describes himself as “a maniac with a word processor.” He has had a few items published, both in print and on the Internet; and has won a writing award or two in his time.

Phillip Lynne
TOMBSTONE WITHOUT A NAME

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