2016 Short Story Award‬

The Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC (BWG), founded in 2006, is a community of mutually-supportive, fiction and nonfiction authors based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The members are as different from each other as their stories, spanning a range of genres including: children’s, fantasy, humor, inspiration, literary, memoir, mystery, paranormal, romance, science fiction, women’s fiction, and young adult.

Congratulations to our‬

‪2016 Short Story Award Winner‬

First Place‬

ELEANOR INGBRETSON, PIKE, NEW HAMPSHIRE

‪“STICK TO THE BYPATHINGS”

This is true. I did win. I’m still in a bit of shock, but good shock.

My story is pure fiction; a fantasy about a little boy who may or may not have abilities far superior to the abilities of others around him. It all depends on your outlook.

Shakespeare, Job, and Voltaire, among others, were convinced that there is so much more, here, in this world, that transcends what we mere mortals can perceive, believe or imagine.

We have to look beyond what we can see, aim to have a wilder imagination and a broader faith. We need to access that  so-much-ness, and sink into it with our writing teeth (should I mention that J. Ff. already has a lot of that on his plate?).

I do want to thank the members of my writing group, some of whom blog here with me: Mike, John, Linda, Mike, Karen and Heidi. They are, as Lewis Carroll might say, a much of a muchness. And who could ask for anything more from one’s critique partners? Without them I’m sure the sum total of my writing would still be my ubiquitous shopping lists. And if I never succeed again, they will still be a much of a muchness.

The Bethlehem Writers Group’s anthology, ‪ ONCE UPON A TIME: SWEET, FUNNY, AND STRANGE TALES FOR ALL AGES,  ‬will be coming out the end of October. Yes, I’m anxious to see it, but I’ll never mention this again, in this blog, lest my head begin to swell.‬