Recognitions

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Recognitions

Judy Hunt

Welcome to Recognitions, a column dedicated to proclaiming the writing successes of Writers' Village University members!

Kathy Stowe was thrilled to get paid for her writing after her short story, "Oh Sure, I Understand Honey," was published in the fall issue of Virginia Adversaria, a literary magazine local to the Virginia area. It was a long time coming. The story was written and accepted by Virginia Adversaria more than a year ago.

Describing the unusual conception of the story and its impact on her, Kathy said, "The entire story came to me in a dream at 2 a.m. and I had finished writing it (almost in exactly the form it stands today) by 6 a.m. Rarely does a dream provide a coherent story ЦЦ and rarely is a story written this easily. That's what I learned from WVU, that learning to write is work ЦЦ but that I can do it. I don't have to wait for a dream to hand me a story. At WVU I realized that given an assignment, I can sit down and craft a story. This has been very empowering. My output has increased logarithmically over this year."

This is evidenced by Kathy's other publishing accomplishments in the past year, which include a poem in T-Zero, an essay in the Mystery Readers Journal and two short pieces at www.Einkwell.com.

Kathy has taken a wide variety of WVU courses since becoming a member in December 2001. She said, "The peer feedback has been great ЦЦ very supportive and very insightful. I have enjoyed the camaraderie from the Mystery Readers Group. I will definitely re-enroll at the end of this year. I would feel lost as a writer without the support of WVU."

Kat Yares claimed she is surprised to find when someone likes what she has written. She was in for another surprise then when her short story, "Bed Rocks," was accepted for publication in the October issue of Thirteen Stories, a print 'pocketbook' published in Canada. The story was workshopped in the WVU ShadowLands study group, where Kat has been a member since joining WVU in April 2001. She worked with her study groupmates on her first short story published this year, too; "Lost Souls" appeared in the February issue of Quantum Muse.

Writing since her teens, Kat said, "As I got older, I found it was cheaper than therapy and began writing with more serious intent." She discovered WVU after taking the free F2K class and, "found the most supportive group of people in the online world. I belong to many online writers groups and at one time belonged to a professional genre association, but my two study groups at WVU, ShadowLands and Word Slingers, are where I tend to feel most at home."

Taking as many diverse classes as time permits, Kat's interests are varied. She writes short stories and is now working on three novels simultaneously.

Kat has high praise for her writing support system. She said, "Without the friends I have made in my two groups, I doubt I would have the confidence to even submit a short story to a publisher, let alone attempt a novel. I credit WVU and its members for pushing and prodding me along to reach a personal dream."

Congratulations, Kathy and Kat! Our hats are off to you. We are confident we will see you featured again in a future Recognitions column. Your commitment to your writing is inspiring.

We look forward to reading about your writing accomplishments in this column. If you or someone you know has received recognition for writing, please send the information to recognitions@wvu.org. Let us know!