Drum roll! The scores are in, and the finalists have been named for the 2017 Royal Palm Literary Awards competition. RPLA is a service of the Florida Writers Association established to recognize excellent in members’ published and unpublished works while providing objective and constructive written assessments for all entrants. More than 40 genre-categories are recognized, including youth (youth winners’ announcements are separate). The categories cross the broad areas of fiction and nonfiction—short works and book-length, as well as poetry, plays, … Read More »

Look around you. Writers organizations of all kinds have either presented or are preparing to present a writers conference. Some of them specialize in certain genres, such as children and juvenile writing (SCBWI), mystery (MWA), thrillers (ITW) or romance (RWA). You might say conferences are as common as fairy rings after a summer rain. Confused by the many offerings, and wondering which one to attend? The trick is to look for the uncommon conference, like our Florida Writers Conference, for … Read More »

My biggest conundrum upon attending my first FWA conference in 2011 was “Where do I begin?” I’d written for many years, but had learned my (questionable) craft from reading novels. The dizzying head-hopping that was the bane of my editor’s red pen? I picked that up from Nora Roberts. My characters grunted, laughed, moaned, and snarled. They never actually just “said” anything. That came from reading Robert Ludlum novels. At the FWA conference, faced with more writers’ workshops than I … Read More »

Colby Wynan always thought of himself as a man with three hearts—the one he showed to his loved ones, the one he showed to his friends, and the one he never showed to anyone. It was not that he was hiding anything; it was just that he didn’t know himself what resided there. Was he saving it for a special purpose, or to protect himself in case the first heart was broken? It was a mystery, but Colby knew it … Read More »

Note: This short story was one of Mary Bostwick’s top 10 picks for the 2015 edition of The FWA Collection.  “What do you mean, you’re not making fried chicken tonight?” Rudy had just walked into Stella’s house which, this evening, lacked the usual Saturday night aroma of frying chicken. “You always do fried chicken on Saturdays.” “Watch my lips, Rudy. I am not making fried chicken tonight. In fact, I’m not cooking tonight at all. I’m going out to eat.” “Well, la-di-da. … Read More »

After umpteen seasons of watching CSI on TV, I’ve often fantasized that I’m just one more bloody crime scene away from being fitted for my own, CSI windbreaker. I know all about arterial spray…blood spatter…the purple-blue glow of Luminol and lifting fingerprints from anything that has a surface. I like to think I could add a little something to the team. Maybe jump inside the TV and lend the CSI pros a hand. Join in a little brainstorming session with … Read More »