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IRENE ADLER PRIZE
http://www.lucasaykroyd.com/scholarships
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline April 30, 2019. Pays $1,000 to a woman pursuing a degree in journalism, creative writing, or literature at a recognized post-secondary institution in the U.S. or Canada, based on an essay competition. Submit a 500-word essay in English on one of the following three topics:
“Why are you studying journalism, creative writing, or literature?”
“Which woman inspires you to write despite not being principally known as a writer herself?”
“If you could live anywhere outside North America, where would you go and what would you do there?”
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Since I'm not enrolled in any college, university, or trade school course I'm obviously disqualified from the scholarship contest, but these prompts appeal to me.
("Who is Hope Clark?" someone might ask. Hope Clark is the pen name of a mystery writer on whose mailing list all aspiring authors want to be. Here's an Amazon link to her new novel...this "stand-alone" detective story teams two characters who appeared separately in earlier novels.)
Out of respect for our readers overseas I'll mention, and then tactfully drop, the fact that I personally wouldn't want to leave North America. The hills of Britain and Ireland appeal to my eyes, and the fundamental weirdness of Iceland is something I might like to visit once, but as a place to live, the only alternative to these United States that I can imagine would be Canada. I like snow. I don't mind rewriting everything in a language I can read but not actually speak. I liked my temporarily Canadian husband enough that I'd have to beware of resenting the rest of the country for not being him. But it wouldn't be home, which is one particular ridge and no other in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
So let's go with the question about the inspiring woman...that'd be Grandma Bonnie Peters, who chose that screen name when she was a proud new grandmother of a child who's now old enough to vote. She warbled about wanting to write a business blog for years. She even sold a few pieces to Associated Content; she was the one who invited me to that site. She never quite got the business site going, and although she's fed me topics over the years, she's never written her own blog.
Nobody is perfect. GBP has faults. I'll mention that to avoid sounding fangirly, and move on.
GBP was an undiagnosed celiac up to the age of 45 or 50 or thereabouts. She was awarded a scholarship to go to college based on her grades in high school, but had an opportunity to go straight into business, instead, and took it. As an empty-nester she went to college and graduated near the head of the class there, too, with a degree in geriatric nursing. She had been a home nurse without the degree and continued to be one with the degree.
She has always made time for a lot of serious fun too. As a Seventh-Day Adventist she taught "Sabbath School" and led "Pathfinder" troops, which are similar to Sunday School and Scouts, in hiking, camping, and swimming. As a diagnosed celiac she taught both vegan and gluten-free cooking schools, branded "Allergy-Ease Foods," some of which were frozen, shipped, and sold around the Eastern States, and briefly sold gluten-free vegan meals in a "Test Kitchen." Decorated with informative fact sheets on the walls instead of pretty pictures, entertaining diners with instructional videos rather than music, the Test Kitchen offered the best meal deals in Tennessee. Sometimes they were even served by the child whose redrawn baby picture was part of the Allergy-Ease logo.
As a home nurse I was GBP's apprentice but, as an adult, I never worked as either a partner or a competitor with her. Her "miracle cures" (she was credited with several) were accomplished by correcting patients' diets; mine (I've been credited with a few) were accomplished by trigger-point massage and exercise. That's not to suggest that GBP didn't walk and work out with patients, too, or that I never showed people how to cook special diet foods. Both approaches will cure some conditions that people have "just had to live with, taking expensive meds that have side effects," for years until they try diet and/or exercise. GBP is generally more wary about touching patients than I am, and I'm generally more wary about recommending food.
She's also been an active grandmother, active member and recruiter for a Senior Hiking Club, farmer, gardener, interior decorator, and lead soprano in multiple church choirs--Seventh-Day Adventists are allowed to attend other churches on Sunday, and through old friendship and barter, first a Baptist church and then a Presbyterian church got GBP to sing in their choirs. She has occasionally dated, since her husband died, but says anyone she'd date "would have to be a card-carrying Adventist."
All the best recipes on this web site are GBP's. She has some good stories, too, if and when she makes a final decision to post them.
What I've written for other publishers has been my own, or theirs, or a combination of both...but this web site is officially at least half GBP's. If she's not written more of her own posts or edited or vetoed more of other people's, that's been her choice.
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