Older Writer’s Grant

Did I mention that I was selected as the 2013 winner of the Speculative Literature Foundation’s Older Writer’s Grant?

Yep.

K.C. Ball, the previous year’s winner, tipped me off.  And then I received an incredible email from Malon Edwards, the administrator of the grant.  Let me show it to you:

SPECULATIVE LITERATURE FOUNDATION
PO Box 1693
Dubuque, IA 52004-1693

info@speculativeliterature.org – http://www.speculativeliterature.org/

For Immediate Release: June 10, 2013

SPECULATIVE LITERATURE FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES OLDER WRITERS GRANT WINNER

The Speculative Literature Foundation is pleased to announce that its
tenth annual Older Writers Grant is to be awarded to Jude-Marie
“Kelly” Green. The $750 grant is intended to assist writers who are
fifty years of age or older at the time of the grant application, and
who are just starting to work at a professional level.

Born March 17, 1960, Green is, in her own words, a child of the 60s
who prefers tie-dye and doesn’t wear makeup.

Growing up, she read her brother Steve’s cast-off comic books,
including Doctor Strange and Weird Tales, and her mother’s cast-off
novels, Valley Of The Dolls and The Godfather. Runaway Robot, another
hand-me-down from her brother, was the first science fiction novel she
ever read.

While Green doesn’t read science fiction and fantasy exclusively these
days, it’s not surprising that those two genres are, as she puts it,
most likely to delight her.

Writing success for Green has been relatively recent. Though she has
been writing all of her life, she says she only began applying herself
in 2004. Soon after, she sold her first short story to the anthology,
“Say, Why Aren’t We Crying?”. Two years later, she sold her second
short story.

In 2006, Green applied to both Clarion and Clarion West, but was not
accepted. Determined, she applied again to Clarion West in 2010, and
gained acceptance into what she calls a horde of splendid writers.
Green likes to think the Clarion West experience has improved her
writing, and it was there she “rethought everything, from what
constitutes entertainment to why some words are too much for a given
story structure.”

Now, a mother of three children in their 20’s – two who are science
fiction fans – Green writes about women, the intersection of first and
third world living, aliens, technology, romance, and hell.  The judges
for the Older Writers Grant appreciated the mix of a lead female
character, technology and romance in her writing. Grant Administrator
Malon Edwards said of Green’s entry, “A Three Percent Chance He’ll
Ever Know I Lied”: “The story is a compelling one, and I was on edge
until the very end. The narrative, heavy with sadness, is spun out
well to get the right amount of emotion. This is a well written,
high-quality piece of fiction.”

Honorable Mentions for the Older Writers Grant go to Lynne MacLean,
Janice Croom, Lise Brody, John Walters, and Ina Claire Gabler, who
made the selection of the winner a very competitive but enjoyable
process.

—————-
The Speculative Literature Foundation is a volunteer-run, non-profit
organization dedicated to promoting the interests of readers, writers,
editors and publishers in the speculative literature community.

“Speculative literature” is a catch-all term meant to inclusively span
the breadth of fantastic literature, encompassing literature ranging
from hard and soft science fiction to epic fantasy to ghost stories to
folk and fairy tales to slipstream to magical realism to modern
mythmaking–any literature containing a fabulist or speculative
element.

More information about the Speculative Literature Foundation is
available from its web site (http://www.speculativeliterature.org/) or
by writing to info@speculativeliterature.org.

So, there’s that.

If you have a chance to support the foundation, please do so.  They’re all good eggs.