2011 Royal Palm Literary Awards

Florida Book News Congratulates all those honored with Royal Palm Literary Awards at the Florida Writers Association Conference last weekend.

Published Book of the Year

Fabulous in Flats: Putting my Best Foot Forward by Mary T. Wagner (Autobiography/Memoir)

Still juggling her career as a prosecutor with creative writing, the author follows up her two award-winning essay collections with yet another, finally admitting that spike heels and power tools don’t mix.

Mary Wagner is a prosecuting attorney and award-winning essayist and photographer in southeastern Wisconsin.  A journalist by nature, she still can’t tear herself away from the keyboard.   

Unpublished Book of the Year

Finding Amy by Sunny Serafino (Women’s Fiction)

A mother’s search for her missing daughter leads her on a chase through three states, sinister characters and false leads before she finds the heart-wrenching truth and a surprising love.

Sunny Serafino inspires readers with stories about courageous women.  Publishing eleven novels, three of which were awarded literary awards, she also published a humorous memoir. Check out—www.sunnyserafino.com

Book-Length Fiction

Fantasy (Unpublished)

First Place

Livinity by Bria Burton. The life of a king hangs in the balance, and a fairie hiding her identity in his court may be the only one who can save him.

General Category (Unpublished)

First Place

Mile Marker Zero by Mark Reasoner. What happens when you come to the end of the road? Matt Ridgeway’s about to find out as he hits his own version of the famous signpost, Mile Marker Zero.

Second Place

A Divided Duty by Carol White. Set in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, a modern day “Othello” pits Charles and Jerry Tobias against each other in a tale of business, love, jealousy and revenge

Third Place

Religious Sisters by Carol White. Two sisters harbor diverse religious plans presenting upheavals to their Jewish family. Mimi and Alison must reach a rapprochement in regard to religion, family, marriage and with each other. 

Historical Fiction (Published)

First Place

The Kaiser’s Yanks by Gary Warne. Americans fly and fight for Germany in World War One

Historical Fiction (Unpublished)

First Place

Finding Victoria by Lee Summerall. Morocco, 1906: British agent battles German takeover plots. Psycho foe kidnaps beloved for auction to tribal warlords. Heroics! Histrionics! Pyrotechnics! Plots fouled; betrayers avenged; love conquers all? Perhaps, more later.

Second Place

Blue Water Red Blood by D. L. Havlin. Two men battle time, nature, and bureaucracy as they develop the machine and tactics needed to defeat the Japanese in their island strongholds during World War II.

Third Place

First to Fight by Chuck Dowling. Forest "Starchy" Glenn, a grizzled, crusty, bantam rooster of a Marine colonel begins what he believes will be his last command. He does not know whether his premonition is based on his past history of "stepping on toes" or something more sinister.

Horror / Dark Fantasy (Published)

First Place

Inherited Evil by Michael Brim (penname Michael Goldcraft). Harrison Van Gilter is back: cold, cunning and cruel.  And all the good in Panama City, Florida may not be enough to contain him.  Harrison Van Gilter has inherited evil!

Humor / Satire [Fiction] (Unpublished)

First Place

The Butler Did It Every Chance He Got by Helen Parramore. 1920s England.  Two orphaned infant girls arrive at Oddsen End, one the heir of the estate, the other a bastard.  They look alike, are switched often.  The butler’s in charge.

Second Place

Never Expect the Pied Piper to Lead You to a Good Place by Ann Meier. A theme park consultant desperate to repair her damaged reputation races to save an attraction by unmasking a counterfeiter, turned killer, who is flooding the park with bogus bills.

Mainstream (Published)

First Place

Wicked Good by Joanne Lewis. Wicked Good tells the story of Archer Falcon and her 15-year-old adopted son who has Asperger's syndrome and searches for his birth parents.

Mainstream (Unpublished)

First Place

An Orchard in Bloom by Joan King. Gracie Timmons wants a father to replace the one who abandoned her.  She chooses Sam, a Gypsy.  Her father returns from the war a broken man and wants her back.

Second Place

Hooker’s Point by Gloria Taylor Weinberg. Set in 1950, “Hooker’s Point” centers on one week in the life of 8-year-old Victoria Bayle, with flashbacks that shape the destinies of two families, the Bayles and the Magruders.

Third Place

The Promise by Lona Smith. Frank Garrison leads a double life to keep a promise he made. When an accident almost costs him his life his secret is discovered and threatens to destroy his family.

Mystery (Unpublished)

First Place

Skean Dhu or Die by Gerry Wolfson-Grande. Bagpipes, tartans, cabers and murder – welcome to the Mid-Florida Scottish Games.   Musician Kit Innes becomes involved in the investigation when an unpopular member of the local Games community turns up dead.

Second Place

Dead Like Me by Kelly Miller. Detective Kate Springer investigates the death of a thirteen-year-old troubled teen who is discovered strangled and dumped in a remote part of Tampa, Florida.

Third Place

Secrets in the Ice by Rick Gangraw. When bodies are found frozen in a lake, a visiting couple teams with locals to discover ghosts are a murdered family’s revenge.

Romance (Published)

First Place

The Pirate’s Lady by Johanna Bolton. In 1690, Lady Morgan finds herself allied to the most notorious buccaneer on the Spanish Main, and realizes she has no choice but to make the best of it.

Romance (Unpublished)

First Place

Ethereal Desire: Caleb Macaffrey by Mary Ann Bator-Gray. Susan doesn’t believe there’s life on other planets, but Caleb’s determined to get her to love him for all that he is, human as well as an alien.

Second Place

Letters from Uganda by Sherri Webber. After losing her parents and husband, Gray has little reason to exist. She volunteers for a relief project in Africa, thrusting her out of her comfort zone and dangerously close to the project’s engineer..

Science Fiction (Unpublished)

First Place

Broken Diamond by Carol Jones. Earth is marked for destruction. When the spaceship crashes and a young woman dies, she wakes on board in a different body, then searches for ways to save her world.

Second Place

Genesis by Amelia Waters [writing as Jade Kerrion]. The Gene Child – genetically designed to be perfect – escapes from his laboratory prison, and triggers a cascade of events that will forever transform the lives of humans and mutants alike.

Thriller / Suspense (Published)

First Place

Deborah Schlian/Linda Reid by Devil Wind. With Y2K looming and “devil wind” threatening to turn LA into an inferno, radio talk show host Sammy Greene must stop a sinister plot that could claims thousands of lives.

Second Place

MOSQ by Loren Leith [writing as Shepherd Graham]. CIA operatives pursue a mission that means life or death to millions—finding a secret laboratory in Zambia, and the meaning of M-O-S-Q, written in a slain senator’s blood.

Thriller / Suspense (Unpublished)

First Place

Dead Stick Dawn by Sharon Menear. Airline pilot Samantha Starr’s summer vacation in the Scottish Highlands turns deadly when she is caught in a web of international intrigue, kidnappings, and murders in this heart pounding thriller.

Women’s Fiction (Unpublished)

First Place

Finding Amy by Sunny Serafino. A mother’s search for her missing daughter leads her on a chase through three states, sinister characters and false leads before she finds the heart-wrenching truth and a surprising love.

 Second Place

What Matters Most by Bette Lee Crosby. What Matters Most is the poignant, yet sometimes comical, story of three women who struggle with the irony of role reversal as they learn to embrace faith, love and friendship.

Third Place

Rain by Melissa Kosciuszko. A young woman is kidnapped by the son of a mobster, and comes to find he knows more about her past than she does.

Juvenile Fiction

Children’s Picture Books (Published)

First Place

Beatrice and the Best Birthday Present-Ever! by John White. When Beatrice’s Aunt Penny gets sick, Beatrice gives her the best birthday present ever

Children’s Picture Books (Unpublished)

First Place

Alice in Transylvania by Mark Newhouse. Alice, warned 1000 times about such things, flies off with a bat who wants to be a prince, to Transylvania, meets strange creatures, and learns actions have consequences.

Second Place

Who Loves a Starling by Judy Fishel. Professor Crane, Phoebe Finchley, and the whole Martin Family including the dao all love birds. When they discover an injured Starling, we learn the true meaning of love.

Third Place

Daisy’s Hat by Helen McIntosh Ritchie. It’s the perfect spring day for a straw hat but Daisy, the goat, can’t find hers.  Follow Daisy as she searches all over the farm looking for her hat.

Chapter Book (Unpublished)

First Place

Bayocor’s Adventures—The Secret Cave by Su Gerheim. yellow Labrador puppy, born at and purchased from a pet store learns about life, with new family, environment, responsibilities, friends and told from his point of view.

Second Place

Finding Home by Shellie Posey. Wanda and her family live out of their car until a road trip takes them on a journey home.

Middle-Grade Fiction (Unpublished)

First Place

Anything’s Pawsible by Robin Renna. Family dog, Kumba, and his stubborn cat sidekick run away and find the city streets ruled by a dog gang. Kumba crafts a plan to overthrow the gang’s bullying leader.

Second Place

A Neighborhood to Die For – How the Ghost Stole Cincinnati by Barbara Fisler and Linda terBerg. Cassie Thomas and brother Boo moved next to an abandoned cemetery.  Cassie can see ghosts.  Boo can’t – but helps solve a mystery when a cranky ghost kidnaps their dog.

Third Place

Finn’s Ship by Serena Hoermann [writing as Serena Schreiber]. When you were fourteen, did you stowaway on a ship, impersonate a fairy tale character and seek a fortune in Nazi gold? If your name is Finn, you did.

Young Adult (Published)

First Place

You Never See Fat Vampires by Mark Newhouse. Esme will risk almost anything to outwit three ghoulish bullies, even if it means becoming a member of the evil Dr. Ghoulash’s Midnight Diet Club.

Young Adult (Unpublished)

First Place

Dragon Bones by Dennis Cooper. An expedition looking for the greatest dinosaur fossil ever turns into a race to save the lost treasure of Ghengis Khan’s tomb.

Second Place

Escape from Iran by Veronica Helen Hart. Sixteen year old Janice Parker visits her archeologist father in the Iran during winter 1977.  When her father disappears, she must save him and together they must escape from Iran.

Third Place

The Werewolf’s Daughter by M. R. Street. If Lani Morgan can’t track down and kill her werewolf mother before her
sixteenth birthday, she will become a werewolf herself.

Short Fiction

Flash Fiction (Published)

First Place

“The Visit” by Betsy Stoutmorrill. In an instant, an old woman turns a young girl’s shame into acceptance.

Flash Fiction (Unpublished)

First Place

“Christmas Morning” John White. A child has to choose between three identical Christmas boxes. If she chooses correctly, she’ll have the best Christmas of her life.

Second Place

“Exactly” by Kate LeSar. Grandmother gives teenage granddaughter a surprise lesson in aging: Sex is like reading. You can enjoy it forever. You may need bifocals to improve the process, but it’s still pleasurable.

Third Place

 “The Angel” by Judy Weber. A seven year old girl visiting her terminally ill mother meets a nun who has come to console the family – or is it an angel?

Short Story (Published)

First Place

“Abuela” by Kristi Cheyney. “Abuela” is the story of a cigar-smoking old woman who goes to the shoreline to make contact with her late husband.

Second Place

“Fish Tale” by Virginia Nygard. A chance encounter with a strange young man begins to work a series of miracles in the lives of Tucker Scarborough, his wife, Elsie, and their granddaughter, Cassie.

Third Place

 “Close to Heaven” by Jo Conard. “Close to Heaven” is the story of a woman’s struggle to fulfill her brother’s wish to be with him, as he prepares for his death.

Short Story (Unpublished)

First Place

“The Twin” by Diane L. Mutolo. Jack is not like other five-year-olds.  He has a secret that began in the womb. His parents struggle to comprehend his odd behavior in this eerie tale of preternatural attachment.

Second Place

“The American Scream” by Jeff Swesky. Jerry Lamb, husband and father of two, suffers the mounting pressures of work and home. Convinced of his wife’s infidelity, Jerry unravels and acts upon his emotions with tragic results.

Third Place

“Through the Window” by Joan King. Alan Stilman, a recovering alcoholic, goes to the hospital to see his dying father. When he arrives, his father is comatose and Alan must face him in a one-way confrontation.

Novella (Published)

First Place

“Mind Warp” by Richard Hebert. A deranged author goads a drinking buddy into serving as his fictional foil. Their convoluted contest of wits ends when the author, trying to soar, falls flat on his face.

Second Place

“Protecting the Cittern” by John Cammalleri. An old man’s failing health causes his family to relive bitter memories, leading to the ultimate discovery of his long held secrets, and the mystery behind his beloved cittern.

Novella (Unpublished)

First Place

The Emporium by Laurence Davis. After a young man is kidnapped to a planet more than two light-years from home, he discovers a world of biologically inspired robots and the family he never knew.

Second Place

Unhinged by Gary McCarragher. Unhinged is the story of Dr. Richard Chase, a prominent New England physician who is betrayed by a jealous colleague and becomes obsessed with seeking revenge.

Book-Length Nonfiction

Autobiography / Memoir (Published)

First Place

Fabulous in Flats: Putting my Best Foot Forward by Mary T. Wagner. Still juggling her career as a prosecutor with creative writing, the author follows up her two award-winning essay collections with yet another, finally admitting that spike heels and power tools don’t mix.

Second Place

Path to Freedom: My Story of Perseverance by Conrad Taylor. Path to Freedom has a simple proposition, fly-or-die. It takes a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction arc from the Amazon Jungles of South America to the wind-swept plains of West Point - and back.

Third Place

The Voice of the Dolphins by Hardy Jones. The story of thirty years of filming wild dolphins, working to save them from slaughter and revelations on the high levels of contaminants in dolphins and humans.

Autobiography / Memoir (Unpublished)

First Place

My Million Dollar Donkey by Ginny East When some people go through their midlife crisis, they buy a Porsche. Me, I bought a donkey. I suppose that says something about me, but I’d be afraid to learn exactly what.

Second Place

Black Diamond by Anne Davidson. White and wealthy, I identified with the black servants who helped me survive child abuse. Losing them at five, I forgot their love, remembering it through therapy, flashbacks, and reunion.

Third Place

Weapons of Mass Distraction by Heather Nickodem. Caught between "Iraq and a hard spot," a recovering control freak worries about her son in combat, while grieving over her sister's death and caring for her eccentric, elderly mother.

Educational / Informational (Unpublished)

First Place

Eating an Elephant by Patricia Charpentier. The only way to do this wrong is to not do it at all.  Write your life story, one bite at a time, and give the gift of a lifetime.

Second Place

How to Become an Escape Artist by Jackie Chase. Smooth the bumps in the road on the way to discovery of exotic landscapes, unusual wildlife and foreign cultures with secrets for every aspect of travel imaginable.

Travel (Published)

First Place

SEAsoned: A Chef’s Journey with her Captain by Victoria Allman. SEAsoned, a delicious travel adventure, takes readers on a journey aboard a yacht into the heart of working for your husband and staying afloat during the first year of marriage.

Travel (Unpublished)

First Place

Rolling Stoned by Cristina Kessler. These are tales from a journey with no itinerary or timetable, beginning in the Seychelles, turning around in Antarctica. It is based on journals covering 3½ years on three continents.

Short Nonfiction

Creative Nonfiction (Published)

First Place

“Mink Recycling” by Mary Wagner. The author reflects on the fact that even at the age of, ahem, “a certain age,” you can still have fun in a prom dress and a third-hand mink stole.

Creative Nonfiction (Unpublished)

First Place

“Nun Too Certain” by Lori Norman. Can I divorce when I believe I am a “bride of Christ?” As a nun, I struggle with celibacy and community living. Stay? Leave? My life depends on the answer.

Second Place

“DC Hill” by Jack Petro. As a young boy, I meet and become friends with the first black classmate I had ever seen. We both learn something from each other.

Third Place

“Like an Orchid” by Joan Levy. Hanna, a 13 year-old girl, prays nightly for breasts. She believes God answers through a “how to grow breasts” teen magazine article. An unlikely source provides a life lesson.

Essay (Unpublished)

First Place

“Survival of the Fittest” by Victoria Humphrey. Survival of the Fittest humorously describes the author eluding “predators” at her local gym.

Poetry

Poetry (Unpublished)

First Place

“On the Hip” by Vicki Riley-Fischer. A mother recalls her grown daughter as a toddler through visions of other children in public places.

Second Place

“Still Life” by Vicki Riley-Fischer. A daughter discovers lessons learned from her mother apply to life, art and death.

Third Place

 “Grandma Jackson” by Judy Roney. Grandma Jackson was a huge woman who could hold the world at bay with her hugs. She could fi