Good News!

I am honored, humbled, and ELATED to announce that my story, "Why Dogs Beg," has won first place in the Children’s Writer Fantasy/Folktale Contest! The story has been published in the March issue of the Institute of Children's Literature's newsletter, Children's Writer.

I got the news on January 5th in a phone call from Deborah Vetter, ICL instructor and editor for the Cricket Group, but had to wait to make the annoucement. The news has been burning a hole in my britches.

But now I can shout it from the roof-tops!

"Why Dogs Beg," is a retold Jamaican Anansi story. For those of you who may not be familiar with Anansi, he is a spider, a trickster character who traveled across the Atlantic from Africa with the slaves and made his home in the Caribbean. His stories are fluid, changing from island to island and from storyteller to storyteller. Growing up in the Virgin Islands I heard Anansi stories and have always enjoyed them.

An interesting note is that in the United States, the Anansi stories evolved into the Uncle Remus stories of Brer Rabbit and company.

Still doing the happy dance....!