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Friends and Fellow Travelers:
Each one of our lives, from birth to death, is an adventure. And, each adventure brushes by, touches, stays briefly or adheres longer with countless others' adventures. We are to marvel and be marvelled at, you and I. I'm speaking to you... and to you... and to you... as individuals. At some point, the paths of our adventures crossed. With you, we may have smiled in passing. With you, my dear friend, my wife, my son, my daughter... our paths may have joined to a wider highway. With you I may have stayed but an hour and laughed... with you the hour was spent in tears. With you our paths well may cross again. Have our lessons not been learned well enough? Do we need more time? May this offering be a way -- not the only way, certainly not the best way, perhaps, but a way -- of reaching out...
Newsletter Dated: 5/5/2003 1:16:42 PMSubject: . . . AND THE WINNER (S) IS (ARE) Fellow Travelers:
It was a tie! The "tag on the ending to Unfinished Rhapsody" contest has come and gone, but not without leaving a splash of fame on the Authorsden website!
And in this corner the winner was the formidable Lynn Barry, with two novels under her belt.. And opposite her, pounding on her gloves, anticipating the fray -- herself no lightweight in the publishing game -- the other winner, Joyce "the Toyce" Scarbrough.
What follows are the two winning entries. To see them in their most powerful context may I suggest you read the 4/16/03 newsletter that contains the "Unfinished Rhapsody." Without further ado:
Lynn Barry's entry:
"I cleared my throat and rubbed my nose nervously again. "Crazy Bains..."
My wife settled in looking comfortable and interested.
But, nothing came out of my mouth. I was frozen in time and thought.
She stared at me. "Well?"
But, only tears welled up. And words stuck in my throat as if cotton balls.
"So, what's her story?" Her shoulders rose up.
I looked away, unable to go one.
A rush of hot air exhaled from her expressive mouth, and she said, "I guess we'll just say, 'The End,' and put a period to 'Crazy' for the day."
As she left the room, I knew why I loved her so; some weeds don't have to be pulled, just left alone.
Now, lets take a gander and Toyce's entry:
"But if you knew that she had an IQ of probably 200 and was also frequently seen talking to trees, you'd understand why she's so hard to categorize. And then there's the whole murderess thing. Did she or didn't she kill her cheating husband and bury him in our garden, and even if she did, should that have disqualified my mother's tomatoes at the county fair?"
My wife's lovely mouth falls open momentarily before she gets that determined look she often wears. "Okay, Buster. Don't even think about stopping! There's a HELL of a story there and you're gonna tell it to me right now."
She knows I love it when she calls me Buster.
Well, there you have it, travelers. Do me a favor, will you? If you are on the PublishAmerica Author's Board, won't you congratulate these two? They are each winners in every sense of the word. Of course, Both will be receiving a signed copy of "The Dead Of Winter" when it comes out... hopefully by the end of the Summer.
And may I just finish this offering by thanking all of you for taking the time to send in your entries. I hope you had fun doing it. I wish I could have awarded all of your entries a first prize.
Until next time....
Always upwards,
Jay
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