Here Come More Judges!

Here are more of the people who judged the short stories. I can never thank them enough for the time and energy they put into this little contest. Again, my comments are in blue after the bios.


Mary Edington
An Abridged Story of My Life: Mary Edington. So, how did a Yankee-born, Southern bred woman get to be a judge in a web based writing contest? It all goes back to my profession…..that of teacher. I am a veteran teacher with an undergraduate degree in Elementary Education, and a Master’s in Education with an emphasis in Mathematics and Science. I taught for many years in Florida, where I honed my skills in a variety of areas. Eight years ago, my career brought me to Arizona, where I eventually met up with the Laman family. As a teacher to one of the boys, Nadine saw my take on education and how being able to communicate coherently is integral to being an educated person. Nadine and I became friends, and the rest….as they say, is history.

What Mary doesn't say is that she is one of my beta readers. We will discuss her read over lunch at the Sweet Tomato and (get this) she will tell me what page and which paragraph she took issue. No big deal unless I mention that she does this without notes and will comment on things that I find later are not in her notes. Not only that, Mary checks EVERYTHING. When Kathryn goes on the commuter flight to San Francisco, Mary checked to see if there really were such flights at the time I said there were. I don't remember what she found, but was thankful that I had checked that at the time I wrote it. Mary is very good hearted about the whole thing of me being dyslexic. Mary now teaches at the one of the schools on the Navajo Reservation in northern Arizona. How's that for cool?


Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Carolyn Howard-Johnson's first novel, This is the Place, and Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered (www.budurl.com/TrueShortStories) are both award-winners. Her fiction, nonfiction and poems have appeared in national magazines, anthologies and review journals both online and in print. Howard-Johnson is a popular seminar leader at conferences like Dayton University's Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop, San Diego State's world renowned Writers' Conference and Sinclair Lewis Writer's Conference. She also appears in national TV commercials. She is an instructor for UCLA Extension's Writers' Program. She was named Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment by members of the California Legislature and her nitty gritty how-to book, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo), USA Book News' "Best Professional Book" and was an Irwin award winner. Her THE FRUGAL EDITOR (www.budurl.com/TheFrugalEditor) was also a USA Book News award winner as well as a Reader Views Literary Award winner and her marketing campaign for that book won the New Millennium Marketing Award. Her chapbook of poetry, TRACINGS (Finishing Line Press) (www.budurl.com/CarolynsTracings), was named to the Compulsive Reader's Ten Best Reads of 2005 list and her newest chapbook series of holiday celebrations coauthored with Magadalena Ball includes SHOW WORE EMERALD THEN (www.budurl.com/MotherChapbook) and CHERISHED PULSE (www.budurl.com/CherishedPulse). She loves to travel and has studied writing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, UK: Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Charles University in Prague. She has a completed screenplay commissioned by a now-defunct publisher now moldering in a drawer. Her website is: http://www.howtodoitfrugaly.com/. She blogs at Writer's Digest 101 Best Websites pick http://www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com/ and several others.Website: http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com/ E-mail: HoJoNews@aol.com

Carolyn is such an underachiever as you can tell from her bio. BTW, UCLA is the University of California, Los Angeles. She did briefly mention that she is a model and actress, but not that she was an editor for a big name magazine in New York City. Carolyn was also a participant in the Blog Party, always making time in her busy schedule for me and my little projects.