Contest Prize Winner: When She Fell

To my great surprise and utter joy, my (currently unpublished) short story, "When She Fell" was a prize winner of Children Writer's Young Adult Short Story contest. Here is a brief snippet from the March 2013 Newsletter article which discusses the contest and the winning pieces:

“The contest announcement further specified page-turning quality, interest to teens, character, and voice as judging criteria. With 1,200 entries, a winning story needed a strong beginning to keep it from landing in the no pile. Fourth-place story “When She Fell,” by C. J. Malarsky, exemplifies, beginning like this:

‘My world was a paper kingdom. It had been carefully constructed with heavy doses of whimsy and wonder. A patchwork daydream sprung to life. We made it together. It was our precious nothing, as we called it. But that was before.’

Paper kingdom? Patchwork of dreams? Precious nothing? Who made this world and what happened to change it? In just 40 words, the author piques our interest, planting enough questions in our mind to keep reading."

Writing this particular piece, which deals with a girl struggling to cope with the loss of her friend, pulled on my heart strings as it was inspired from the death of a girl in my community. It is an honor to have my work recognized in such a meaningful way and to have it selected as a prize winner out of all the many entries. To all my fellow prize winners, congratulations!

Lost but not Forgotten: More on The Lost Anthology

The Lost Anthology cover art by Jeff Himmelman

 

Years ago, a friend of mine by the name of JeffHimmelman started a journey toward making his own RPG. Myself, my husband and other friends (including fellow writer Shoshana Kessock) would gather with him to offer our advice and beta test the system. From a broken-hearted ballerina to an old homeless woman, I had a blast exploring the world my friend had created. The setting was rich with somber details and touching sentiments which examined the struggles of the homeless and the lost. It was a game unlike any other I had played and my hopes were high that my friend would find success with it.

And he did. His game, Kingdom of Nothing, went on to be published by Galileo Games. Being able to watch it develop and knowing I helped to contribute to my friends dream truly warmed my heart. So when Jeff announced that Galileo Games was accepting submissions for short stories for an anthology (The Lost) based off his game world, I jumped at the chance to participate once again.

As a huge fan of mythology and folklore, I found myself struck with the idea of doing a retelling of Han Christian Andersen's classic fairy tale “The Little Match Girl”. But where to set it? Then it clicked. Kingdom of Nothing was born in my neighborhood of Astoria, Queens, where Jeff lived at the time of writing the game. I was going to bring this story home. And thus I went to work writing my short story, "Burning Ember". Throughout Ember’s journey, she meets a number of colorful characters all of whom were inspired by local Astorians, including the streetwise cat, Gato (who is always eager for a little scratch behind the ears whenever my husband and I cross his path). Astoria is such an interesting neighborhood within Queens and I wanted to capture it in vivid detail, from Hell Gate Bridge to Athens Park. It was my ode to Kingdom of Nothing’s origins and I hope I did my friend proud by it.

Galileo Games is going a step further than just publishing this anthology, though. They are going to the very heart of the themes presented in both Kingdom of Nothing and the inspired The Lost. Those themes include loss, struggle and being forgotten. But Galileo Games has not forgotten. Kick starting a campaign fundraiser, proceeds of The Lost will be going to City Harvest – a charity dedicated to feeding the hungry of New York City. It was already an honor to be included in the anthology to begin with, but to be a part of such a generous campaign makes this experience all the more fulfilling.

I would encourage anyone interested in getting their own copy of The Lost anthology to visit the campaign funding site here at IndieGoGo. Not only will you be able to pick up a collection of wonderful stories, but you’ll also help to show that those who may feel lost and certainly not forgotten.