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Daisy Pettles Prize Winners – July 2020 Grants

May 19, 2020 By DaisyPettles Administrator

Daisy Pettles, https://www.daisypettles.com, Indiana author and philanthropist, is pleased to announce the winners in the July 2020 residency and funding cycle in the Daisy Pettles Contest for Women Writers, https://www.daisypettleswritingcontest.com.

The prize competition, with a top award of $1,000 and a free, month-long residency in the Daisy Pettles Houses for Women Writers, https://daisypettleswritingcontest.com/womens-writing-residency/, a vintage bungalow located in Southern Indiana,  is open annually to older women writers, aged forty or over, published or unpublished, working in any genre (other than poetry).

Prize Winners – Older Women Writers

Grand Prize & July 2020 Writer in Residence – Sharon May – Columbia, South Carolina
Working on a southern Appalachian memoir and novel, “Hillbilly Crazy and Mountain Queer”

1st Runner-Up – Karen Ahn – Sebastopol, California
Working on a Novel, “The  Music Lesson,” where a 16 year-old musician struggles with her talent only to be haunted in her 30’s by misconceptions and doubts about past life choices.

2nd Runner-Up – Shari Benyousky –  Warsaw,  Indiana
Working on a Mystery Novel, “Then Shall the Dust Return,” a literary and historical mystery and ghost story based on a 1920s unsolved crime in Atwood, Indiana

July 2020 applicants included both published and unpublished women writers working in genres ranging across children’s musical plays, fantasy novels, literary novels, radio plays, creative non-fiction memoirs, and commercial mysteries. The writer’s grant program , open to women regardless of citizenship or residency status, attracted applicants from sixteen states in the United States as well as Sweden, Scotland, and South Africa.

A notable number of entries were submitted from older women writers and retirees in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. The Daisy Pettles Writer’s House and awards program is located in Southern Indiana, close to Indiana University, Bloomington.

In addition, the following writers, all finalists in the competition, were awarded honorable mention for excellence in writing:

Women Writers Prize Finalists July 2020 Grant Cycle – Daisy Pettles House

Christina Cha – Oakland, California
Working on a collection of essays, Creative Non-Fiction, “Chaste While You Wait,” detailing family relationships and the use of memory and language to deal with grief over trauma and abuse

Brit Monica Maria Gustafsson – Sweden
Working on an English update and translation of a Swedish spy thriller novel, “The Asset”

Devin Kenney – Morristown, New Jersey
Drafting “All the Kings Horses,” a collection of non-fiction essays on addiction, mental health recovery, and single-parent mothering

Amy Lyons – New York, New York
Short story and flash fiction writer. Working on a short story collection, “Marginalia and Other Stories” with a central theme of women’s desires and regrets

Juliet Lockwood  – Grants Pass, Oregon
Working on a Speculative Fiction Novel, “The Coven,” which tells the interconnected stories of 12 benevolent witches in a Pacific Northwest coven by blending the horror, science fiction, supernatural, and dystopian genres

The majority of entrants for the July awards had yet to be published by traditional presses, yet submitted works in progress that ousted many of their top prize-winning peers. More than half of the entrants were retired from careers as diverse as factory worker, marketer, painter, retail clerk, lawyer, social worker, teacher, choreographer, lobbyist, librarian, journalist, medical researcher, English professor, business manager, and copy editor.

Grand Prize: $1,000 Cash Prize, PLUS Free 30-day  Residency as Writer in Residence at the Daisy Pettles House in Bedford, Indiana, USA, a vintage 1920s bungalow, equipped with all the amenities a women writer needs to write her heart out, undisturbed, for a month

1st Runner-Up: $250 Cash Grant; PLUS Award Certificate as Finalist

2nd Runner-Up: $100 Cash Grant; PLUS Award Certificate as Finalist

Grants were awarded based on writing talent, along with consideration of which particular writers might benefit most from the awards given the details they chose to share with the judges in their application profiles.

The Daisy Pettles Women’s Writing Competition is sponsored by Hoosier humor and mystery writer Daisy Pettles (Vicky Phillips: https://www.vickyphillips.com), in honor of her mother, June, an avid reader. June passed away in the spring of 2019, leaving her home in the care of her daughter.  Daisy is working with a team of women writers and Indiana historical preservationists to convert the home, a vintage 1920s bungalow located in southern Indiana (Lawrence County, south of Monroe County, Bloomington), to an ongoing retreat for older women writers.

The goal of the Women’s Writing House project is to discover, nurture, and reward diversity in writing and the arts by showcasing older women’s voices in literature. The project can be supported through Go Fund Me, https://www.gofundme.com/f/daisy-pettles-women-writers-house

When not occupied by a writer in residence, the Daisy Pettles House is currently open to monthly rental by any woman seeking a personal and private writing, artistic, spiritual, or meditative retreat, as well as women in groups of up to three for girlfriend retreats. For more on the house’s rental, rates, and availability, contact Cindy@Daisypettleswritingcontest.com

DONATE to the Women’s Writing House > https://www.gofundme.com/f/daisy-pettles-women-writers-house

LISTEN and Laugh along, to the free Daisy Pettles’ comedy podcast, the complete audiobook, “Ghost Busting Mystery,” Book 1 in the award-winning, humorous, Shady Hoosier Detective Agency. > https://daisypettles.com/cozy-mystery-podcast/

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Finalists Announced in Daisy Pettles Grants for Women Writers June 2020

February 25, 2020 By DaisyPettles Administrator

writing contest for women june 2020 finalists | daisy pettles house

Bedford, Indiana (Lawrence County); Bloomington, Indiana (Monroe County); Southern Indiana arts and entertainment news

Date: February 25, 2020

Daisy Pettles, Indiana author and philanthropist, is pleased to announce the grant finalists in the first annual Daisy Pettles Contest for Women Writers. The competition is open to women writers, aged forty or over, published or unpublished, working in all genres, except for poetry.

The competition, with a top cash prize of $1,000 and a free month-long residency in the Daisy Pettles House for Women Writers, was steep.

Applicants included a Fulbright Scholar, a Pushcart prize nominee, and several published novelists. Entrants came from diverse backgrounds and genres, ranging from political columnists to commercial romance authors.

A notable number of applicants had yet to be published, yet submitted works in progress that rivaled top prize-winning peers. Applications flowed in from across the United States, Iran, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

The judges have, in round one, narrowed the possible prize winners down to the top seven applicants.

Writing Contest for Women, Finalists – June 2020

Below is the official list of the June 2020 writing contest finalists, in alpha order.
  • Teri Carter – Lawrenceburg, Kentucky|
    http://www.tericarter.net/home.html
    Working on a Memoir … “The Real Mom,” about the step-parenting experience.
  • Marie Drake – Golden, Colorado
    Working on a Memoir … “Crack through My Heart,” a memoir of growing up in the 60s and 70s with a drug-dealing, hippie mother, and a full-colonel CIA agent father.
  • Diane Hartman – Plainfield, Indiana
    Working on a Memoir … “And All Shall Be Well: Driving the Backroads of Ireland and Finding Myself,” a retired woman gathers her courage and goes in search of her ancestry.
  • Robin Israel – Scottsdale, Arizona
    https://robinisrael.com/
    Working on a Novel … “Leave the Frigging Marshmallows,” a coming-of-age story about an adolescent girl growing up in a dysfunctional Jewish family in the 1980s.
  • Celena Janton – Vail, Arizona
    Working on a Fantasy Romance Novel … “The Dreamers,” based on a reimagined Greek myth.
  • Mehrnoosh Khorsand – United Kingdom
    Working on a Novel … “How I Rescued My Daughter,” about an Iranian girl forced into an unhappy arranged marriage for self-serving reasons by her father. Story based on author’s experiences.
  • Robin Lovelace – Plainfield, Indiana
    https://www.indianawriters.org/blogs/news/member-spotlight-robin-lee-lovelace
    Working on a Novel … “The Hextens of Jackson County,” a historical reimagining of a family of witches living in rural Indiana in the late 1940s

The top three women applicants, chosen from the above finalists, will be announced on March 15, 2020. They will receive the following support grants and recognition for their written works.

#1 – Grand Prize: Free Residency –  Writer in Residence at the Daisy Pettles House in Bedford, Indiana, USA, a vintage 1920s bungalow, equipped with all the amentities a women writer might need to kick back and write her heart out, undisturbed, for a month … PLUS a $1,000 CASH grant.

#2 – 1st Runner-Up: $250 Cash Grant; PLUS Award Certificate as Finalist – Writer in Residence at the Daisy Pettles House for the year awarded; PLUS if for any reason the Grand Prize Winner is unable to attend the writing residency the residency immediately passes to the 1st Runner-Up.

#3 – 2nd Runner-Up: $100 Cash Award Grant; PLUS Award Certificate as Finalist – Writer in Residence at the Daisy Pettles House for the year awarded.

The final grants and free residency will be awarded based on writing talent along with a consideration of which women writers might benefit most from the awards given the details they chose to share with the judges in their application essays.

REMINDER to WOMEN WRITERS: the next women’s writing competition, for a July 2020 residency and supporting grant, is still OPEN to applicants. 

Submissions for the July prizes and residency close on April 15, 2020.

Older women writers (aged 40 or older) are invited to apply.

Women Writers Contest Finalists Announced in Indiana

The Daisy Pettles Women’s Writing Competition is sponsored by the Hoosier writer and philanthropist Daisy Pettles, in honor of her mother, June, an avid reader. June passed away in the spring of 2019, leaving her home in the care of her daughter, Daisy.

Daisy is working with a team of women writers, artists, and Indiana historical preservationists to convert the home, a vintage 1920s bungalow located in southern Indiana (Lawrence County, south of Monroe County, Bloomington), to a retreat and residency center for older women writers. 

The goal of the Women’s Writing House project is to discover, nurture, and reward diversity in women’s voices and literature.

The Women’s Writing House can be supported through donations at Go Fund Me.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Why Set a Mystery Series in Rural Southern Indiana?

July 15, 2018 By Daisy Pettles

QUESTION: Mystery novels often feature exotic settings. But you’ve chosen to set your debut cozy series, the Shady Hoosier Detective Agency, in a tiny river town in the hills of Southern Indiana. Why?

DAISY’S ANSWER: Believe me, there is no shortage of quirky and exotic characters in rural Southern Indiana. I grew up in the sixties in the tiny river town of Medora, Indiana (population about 600). No matter which way I turned as a child I bumped into people who popped with quirkiness. That included most members of my own family.

People have always seemed very mysterious to me, no matter their locale, and I thoroughly enjoy the humor and lack of pretension that pervade small town life.

QUESTION: The town where The Shady Hoosier Detective Series is set, Knobby Waters, Indiana, is not a real place. Was it inspired by a real Indiana town?

DAISY’S ANSWER: True, you’ll not find a town named Knobby Waters on any Indiana map. This fictitious town is a composite of all the tiny rural towns I visited when growing up.

In Book 1, the Ghost Busting Mystery, I have the lead character and narrator, Ruby Jane Waskom, refer to Knobby Waters as “a small town, big enough to make it onto the map, but small enough that it’s barely a pimple of a speed bump in the asphalt on State Road 235.”

I place Knobby Waters in the same exact geographic location as the town where I grew up, Medora, Indiana. Like Medora, Knobby Waters has a brick plant, a tavern, a covered bridge, a lot of corn, melon and soybean farms, and a “knobs” or hilly area that overlooks sandy bottomlands which flood often in the Spring. Like Medora, Knobby Waters is located on the East Fork of the White River. The town also used to have a plastics factory that until the late 1970’s employed most of the population.

Taken as a whole Knobby Waters is a composite of the towns that surround Medora in Jackson and Lawrence counties as well as towns in neighboring Washington County and Orange County: Brownstown, Vallonia, Seymour, Ft. Ritner, Leesville, Freetown, Tunnelton, Sparksville, Bedford, Oolitic, Mitchell, Orleans, Salem, Clearspring, and so on. All of my biological family still live in Southern Indiana. For me, the farms and rolling hills along US 50 from Seymour to Bedford will always be “home.”

QUESTION: What types of references do you make that readers from Jackson or Lawrence Counties might recognize?

DAISY’S ANSWER: Quite a few. For example, an old root cellar threshold stone, made of carved limestone, is a key item in the Ghost Busting Mystery. If you’re from Lawrence County you know that Bedford and its sister city Oolitic (which is a type of limestone) are the undisputed Limestone Capitals of the World.

In Book 1 there is a lot of speculation about a Civil War train robbery and gold shipment that went missing. Some locals believe it might have been buried around the Knobby Waters area. This is my nod to the world’s first train robbery in Seymour, accomplished by the Reno Gang. The stories I heard as a child about the Reno lost gold fed my imagination for sixty years. My mind turned that lost gold into a sub-plot in the Ghost Busting Mystery.

Medora itself is famous for being the home of the longest three-span covered bridge in any one state. Much of the action in the Ghost Busting Mystery takes place around a mysterious purple Gremlin car that is camped on the banks of the White River by the Knobby Waters’ covered bridge.

QUESTION: Who are your favorite authors?

DAISY’S ANSWER: I think they number in the hundreds. Mark Twain, Fannie Flagg, Garrison Keillor, Carson McCullers, and Flannery O’Connor sit at the top of my heap of great entertaining story tellers. What they all have in common is the ability to tell a story that sounds like something you’d hear sitting on a porch on a summer day. My aim with the Shady Hoosier Detective Agency Series is to create that same type of feeling.

QUESTION: Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?

DAISY’S ANSWER: I certainly do. My maternal grandmother had only an 8th-grade education but she was an avid reader. She began reading to me very early on as she read in the evenings after supper for entertainment. I wasn’t even in school yet when she tossed me a book and said, “You read to me.”

The first books I remember reading with her were The Bears of Blue River, and The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore.

The Bears of Blue River by Charles Major is a true Indiana classic. That book is about a pioneer family that built a cabin along the Big Blue River in eastern Indiana. My grandmother had camped and hunted along that very same river as a child.

I remember being fascinated by the very idea of a bear and life in a house made of real trees. The boy in that book befriends a one-eared bear. For the longest time I wanted a bear as a pet. I got my first teddy bear out of that deal after much begging.

The “Bobbsey Twins” was a popular children’s adventure book series, created in the early 1900’s. Of course we lived in landlocked Indiana so it would be a long time before I saw a real seashore or the state of Maine. The idea that there was a seashore far away that I might never see enchanted me.

Reading was like riding a magic carpet for me. I was hooked from that very first word. If anyone wanted my attention all they had to do was wave a book under my nose. Nothing else worked. That’s still true.

QUESTION: The detectives in your novel seem unusual in several ways. First, they are women, and second they are both over sixty. In addition, both have lived in the same small town literally in the middle of nowhere all their lives.

DAISY’S ANSWER: True. I chose to craft my lead characters along dimensions that are less frequently found in what is called the “cozy mystery” niche. Cozy mysteries are those that often take place in a small town or village and which lack the blood and gore of a traditional thriller. Many are light-hearted or humorous. I turn sixty this year, so I’m naturally interested in how older women experience life, especially in rural areas.

Mystery books in the “cozy” niche today commonly feature lead characters in their thirties, college-educated, many returning to their home communities following a failure to launch into urban life.

Being a baby boomer I thoroughly enjoyed pulling in elements of the sixties and seventies, like the purple Gremlin that appears in Book 1 and the ’60 Chevy Impala that the oldster detectives drive. The first car I remember my family owning was a ’63 Chevy Impala.

QUESTION: Humor is a core factor in The Shady Hoosier Detective Agency mystery series. Why?

DAISY’S ANSWER: I really love to laugh. I don’t think there is enough clean humor in entertainment today. Much of today’s humor tends to be mean-spirited. I think America has an unfed appetite for clean, down-home humor about life and family matters. Mark Twain was a tremendous humorist who captured the spirit of rural America. It’s no coincidence that his key writings are about everyday people who labored and farmed in Missouri and along the Mississippi.

I think there is a renaissance going on in American humor today. People are trying to find and reclaim the can-do spirit of Mid-America and ordinary people. Look at “The Middle,” a sitcom set in Indiana (modeled after Jasper, Indiana) and “Parks and Rec,” a quirkier sit-com also set in small town Indiana.

I think people in the Midwest have the best sense of humor or ability to laugh at themselves. The Hoosier lack of pretension I grew up with is refreshing. It’s the one thing I missed the most when I moved into urban life where everyone is heavily credentialed; often so serious about themselves and their opinions that it can make your heart ache.

QUESTION: One reviewer said The Shady Hoosier Detective series was a flashback to the sit-coms of the sixties such as “Andy Griffith,” “Petticoat Junction,” and “Green Acres.” Is it?

DAISY’S ANSWER: Yes, the series is a deliberate attempt to tap into memories of a time when people weren’t afraid to laugh at themselves (or their neighbors). It’s also a nod to the notion that small town life is as full of drama as life anywhere in the universe.

I like to think The Shady Hoosier Detective series captures that feel-good notion that used to pervade American life (and still does, I think). If Knobby Waters had a town motto it would be: “A Small Town Where Everybody Knows Your Name (Unfortunately).”

QUESTION: The Shady Hoosier Detective Agency is designed to be an ongoing series. Book 1 is a sort of ghost story complete with a lost Civil War era treasure. Will there be more books?

DAISY’S ANSWER: Certainly. I have already completed Book 2, the Baby Daddy Mystery, where everbody in town develops a bad case of hanky-panky pants. It will be released before Christmas. Book 3, the Chickenlandia Mystery, is almost completed and involves chicken rustling, a chicken dance competition, and a lot of flying feathers. I aim to keep writing as long as I have an audience interested in going along with me and the lead characters, Ruby Jane and Veenie, on mysterious barnyard adventures.

Mystery Author Daisy Pettles Round Logo

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 60s Sit Coms, Baby Boomer Lit, Bedford, books set in Indiana, Cozy Mysteries, Hoosier Authors, Humorous Mysteries, Medora, Seymour, Shady Hoosier Detective Agency, Small Town Mysteries

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Author Daisy Pettles writes humorous cozy mysteries and crime comedy novels set in the small town of Knobby Waters, Pawpaw County, Indiana.

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