COMMENDATIONS - Author Bio Page
This page gives comments/bios supplied by our Commendations authors who did not win placings. For commendations of authors who also won placings, see winner's pages for bios. The stories themselves will appear in our Anthology, hopefully towards the end of 2008 (this will also include the best stories of the March 2008 competition).
The following are in no particular order, other than as they came up in my inbox! :-)
Ginny Swart, Meadowridge, South Africa: What Is This Thing Called Love? and The Great New Voice of Katy Watson - "I started out as a graphic artist. I wanted to be a journalist actually, but my sister was already working in Fleet Street and my Mom said, "We've got one of those in the family and you can draw, so do art!" That's how I chose my career. I stayed with graphic art for a bit, then taught art. Later I ran a business doing quarterly newsletters for 14 different companies, taking the pics and writing the articles. So I got to be a journalist after all, just 30 years later. When our three children were grown up and flown away, we had a great time living and working in London, Sydney and Hong Kong and I did all sorts of odd jobs ( designing book jackets, charring, tutoring English) but when we came home to Cape Town in 2001 I joined a writer's circle, thinking this would encourage me to write at least one story a month. I found I couldn't stop writing. Now I'm at my keyboard almost full time; mostly for women's magazines, although I've had stories in textbooks and literary mags in the USA and Canada. I won the Real Writers Award in 2003 and went to England to accept it. That was definitely the high point of my writing life up till then. I've had a book for teenagers, Nosipho and the King of Bones, published by Macmillan; two of my serials have been turned into romance books, but! The big South African novel is yet to come. The problem is by now, my geriatric brain is programmed to write 2000 word bytes and it's hard to get out of that way of thinking. But every now and then I get an irresistible urge in the direction of a novel."
Debbie Roome, Christchurch, New Zealand: Casey-Jane - "I was born and raised in Zimbabwe and later spent fifteen years in South Africa. In 2006 I moved to New Zealand with my husband and five children. Writing has been my passion since the age of six and I love to write stories that touch people’s lives and turn them towards God. After fifteen years of owning a toy store, I am now working full time at my writing and have never been more fulfilled. My major writing achievements include the trophy for Runner up to the Writer of the Year, South Africa, 2004 and placing second out of 8000 in the FaithWriters.com Best of the Best contest for 2007."
Scott Michaels, Whitchurch-On-Thames, England: To Journey's End - Originally from Oxfordshire, Scott Michaels currently lives in Shanghai, where he flaps about in the IT industry. He is a father of three and husband of one. Writing is the only sin he admits to and over the last few years he has been lucky enough to build up a small portfolio of published stories in a variety of UK magazines. He is currently scripting a radio play for broadcasters to fight over in 2008. For further details please view www.scottmichaelsonline.com
CJ Mouser, Cortez, FL, USA: Prosperity Circle -
CJ Mouser is a freelance writer and newspaper columnist. Her short stories and articles have appeared in newspapers and magazines across the United States and in Canada. A native Texan, Mouser now lives in Cortez, Florida and her first book, "Ghosts of Interstate 10" will be released at the end of 2007 by Quixote Press. Visit her Web site at www.cjmouser.com
George Marshall, Brighton, England: The Farmer's Daughter -
"Childhood on a small family farm in Lancaster. Spent most of my working life as a probation officer in Lancaster. After retirement became a student at Sussex University, obtaining BA in Cultural Studies and MA in Creative Writing. Married, with children and grandchildren. Living in Brighton. In 2006 I published a children's novel, 'Earth Cell', with Pen Press, and in 2007 'The Accrington Folly', a multi-genre, mainly biographical work. My first novel for adults is almost completed."
Janet Butler, Huntington, USA: Callie's Angel - "Janet W. Butler, a member of ACFW, is a nonfiction book production editor with Our Sunday Visitor, one of the nation’s leading Catholic publishers, by day and a 'small soprano' by night. She is a Golden Heart Winner, has published 'the best little book no one’s ever heard of,' and is a born 'ham' who loves helping writers succeed. After being 'transplanted' from the suburbs of Chicago, she now lives in a 100-year-old house in small-town Indiana with one husband, one daughter, and two spoiled-rotten cats. Her son, the 'phenom', lives in Illinois."
Julie McGowan, Usk, Wales: Yes, I'm Gonna Be A Star!, and Deliverance - "Writing for competitions is such a good discipline, but also gives one scope to write the sort of story which wouldn't necessarily fit the requirements of commercial magazines. And reading the high standard of the winning entries makes one delighted to be included anywhere in the list! I am also very impressed with all the advice to writers given by Sunpenny in the Judging pages - never had that sort of general feedback from a competition before!" - For full details about Julie and her writing, see her Sunpenny author's page here.
Sanjay Chopra, Mumbai, India: Turaché - Sanjay Chopra is a pilot with an international airline, having flown for the past 15 years. This has given him the opportunity to travel the world and explore his interest in the history of various cultures. He spent enormous amounts of time, as a child, with his grandfather who was an amazing story teller and an avid reader and both of which he inherited. What particularly caught his fancy were the gaps in history; the unknown little details, which then become fodder for his fiction. He decided to polish his writing skills by training at the London School Of Journalism. A couple of his short stories have been published and short listed for anthologies. Authors he reads and rereads are Stephen King, Wilbur Smith and Len Deighton. He lives in Mumbai, India with his actress wife and they are currently working on a film script together. He is planning to start work on a novel about terrorism in Kashmir in the next couple of months.
Kate Monson, London, England: Aged Lines - "I'm 22 and graduated this summer from Exeter University with a degree in English Literature. I am presently spinning madly in the real world like a compass that can't find it's North! I have always loved reading but writing anything properly, other than essays of course, only really became a part of my life in my second year at uni when I took a creative writing module on a whim. I haven't looked back. I don't claim any great calling to creative writing. I wasn't penning masterpieces in the corner of the playground. But I love words. I am interested in people, particularly strangers. I am always asking questions. I am not always satisfied with the answers. And that's me."
Jane Amherst, Ledbury, England: Revelation (PHOTO TO COME) - "Brought up in a musical home, my childhood memories were of my mother polishing the floors to Beethoven (much to my father’s disapproval, who thought all music should be listened to without any diversions), family bike rides and long walks in the countryside. Now at fifty six, with two grown up children, after a theatre training in my twenties, teaching in state and private schools, living on a small holding and working in a family run country pub, I live quietly in a cottage not far from the town, near the hills, and write when I can. I spent three years on The Malverns roaming the hills at sunrise with my dog, and it was thus that I found the old branch which was the inspiration for the dragon in my story."
STILL TO COME:
Anne Goodwin, Mansfield, England: "Madonna And Child"
Elizabeth Burton, Morehead, KY, USA: "The Bridesmaid's Prayer"
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