When multiple talents combine, a truly incredible work can be the result. Just ask Marina Brown, the Published Book of the Year winner for the 2020 Royal Palm Literary Awards. She’s been a professional ballerina, a journalist, a deep water sailor, a nurse, a cellist, a watercolorist, and much more. She used her unique world knowledge and experiences to help build the story behind The Orphan of Pitigliano, her winning entry. For the 2020 RPLA Showcase, Bill Opperman will be … Read More »

The results are in, and we have the finalists all rounded up! We had incredible entries this year, proving that writers in our organization are truly talented. On behalf of the RPLA team, we’d like to congratulate all our finalists and semifinalists. Winners will be announced at the RPLA ceremony during the Florida Writers Remote Conference October 15th – October 18th from the comfort of your home. 2020 Royal Palm Literary Award Finalists *Pen names used when given A. R. … Read More »

A true dramatist lives and breathes his craft, even when doing interviews. Today we have the showcases of Walter Joseph Schenck, Jr. His answers the usual questions with his humor and flair for prose. His play, Blemished, The Stage Play, won Gold in the 2019 Royal Palm Literary Awards. Read on to learn more about Walter and be entertained with his witticisms. Walter’s Writing Journey On the moment of conception my consciousness awoke with the grand vision of writing epic … Read More »

Snippets of life’s experiences can make for realistic scenes in a fiction book. That was certainly the case for David Ryan. His years as a journalist gave him behind-the-scenes knowledge of sports and police work. These details and experiences made their way into his book Dead Odds. It won Gold for Thriller or Suspense in the 2019 Royal Palm Literary Awards. David talks journalism, staying the course, and marketing in this week’s RPLA showcase. David’s Writing Journey My journey started … Read More »

An unpublished book won a third place RPLA. Many authors would likely call it a success and move on to the next phase of publishing. Not Janet Franks Little. She knew she had a good novel, but she wanted to make it great. So she pushed up her sleeves and made significant revisions and entered the manuscript again. This time Glass Promises won Gold in Romance in the 2019 Royal Palm Literary Awards. Janet talks about the power of reworking … Read More »

Creativity is a wonderful gift where ideas spring up from the lush jungle of the mind. But it can also be a heavy burden, drowning a person in hundreds of ideas and precious little time to work on them. Charles Cornell is very familiar with this struggle. His mind is flooded with many colorful, fantastical ideas. Luckily for us all, he’s been able to get many of these on paper. One of his recent novelettes, The Orchid Man, won Gold … Read More »