Four Donan Berg Writing Entries Win

Author Donan Berg’s three winning stories dominated the 2014 short/long series romance category at the 9^th Annual Dixie Kane Memorial Writing Contest. Coordinator Nicholas Genovese of the sponsoring RWA SOLA Chapter announced the results today.

Author Berg’s entries were “Twice Tempted,” second place; “Ashley - A Lake Series Romance,” third place; and “Love in Lilac,” honorable mention.

For inspirational novels, Author Berg’s “Rosemary’s Awakening” won third place.

In “Twice Tempted,” shrewd businesswoman Cherry Everex inherits a New Orleans hockey club. An acrimonious annulment from the team’s star forward, Shane Hull, is nullified by a state law change. It wrecks havoc with their personal relationship and clashes with their divergent ideas for whether to sell  the hockey team.

“Ashley - A Lake Series Romance.” Ashley Ulrich saves Peter Edwards from drowning and they fight a ruthless real estate developer for love and money.

“Love in Lilac.” Connie Nunnley fights to save her dementia-inflicted grandfather’s newspaper from bankruptcy. She falls in love with new advertiser, Lucas Knowles, whose business interests conflict with Connie’s.

“Rosemary’s Awakening” is a fictional account of a courageous young Iowa woman’s battle to regain life and love after a competitive horse race mishap confines her to a wheelchair.

“I’m honored to be in a great circle of talented writers,” said Berg. “The Dixie Kane competition annually ranks as one of the premier United States writing contests. To be recognized for a third year in 2014 is a great thrill.”

Author Donan Berg has five murder/mystery novels, a stand-alone short story and a short story collection in print and electronic formats, published by DOTDON Books, Moline, IL. He previously cracked the Dixie Kane winner’s circle in 2010 and 2013.

CASI, Davenport, IA, Book Club selected his novel, Adolph’s Gold, a murder/mystery police procedural, as its October 2014 selection.

His 2009 debut novel, A Body To Bones, debuted at number 27 in the top 50 most popular books, all genres, at AuthorsDen.com, an online literary community visited by a million plus authors and readers every month. A year later on September 19, 2010, his novel held its top 50 ranking as the 32nd most popular. His novels are in libraries nationwide, including Davenport, Iowa City, Moline, Rock Falls, and Rock Island. A Writer’s Digest judge wrote: “Donan Berg writes a nice, clear, consistently readable prose, and he manages to create a winning character in Sarah Hamilton.”

Following A Body To Bones, he’s authored The Bones Dance Foxtrot (2009), Bubbling Conflict and Other Short Stories (2010), Abbey Burning Love (2011, E-book only), Baby Bones (2012), Amanda (2014) and Adolph’s Gold (2014).

The Dixie Kane Memorial Contest is named for the late New Orleans writer Linda Kay West, who wrote under the pen name Dixie Kane. The sponsoring New Orleans chapter is a non-profit literary organization dedicated to the craft and business of writing book length fiction with a focus on romance.

Donan Berg Lands in Dixie Kane Winner's Circle

Three Novel Entries Earn Judging Accolades

Author Donan Berg landed three times in the winner’s circle at the 8th Annual Dixie Kane Memorial Contest. Announcing the results today was Nicholas Genovese, coordinator of the sponsoring Southern Louisiana Chapter of the Romance Writers of America.

In the inspirational novel category, Author Berg’s two entries, “Rosemary’s Awakening” and “Amanda,” shared a tie, both being awarded second place.

“Rosemary’s Awakening” is a fictional account of a courageous young Iowa woman’s battle to regain life and love after a competitive horse race mishap confines her to a wheelchair.

In “Amanda,” the reader follows a Chicago woman, paroled after being falsely imprisoned in Louisiana, who struggles to reclaim her life’s equilibrium, to achieve personal justice, and to find love on a journey to familiar and unexpected places.

In the novel with romantic elements category, Author Berg earned his third runner-up award with his novel entitled “Alexa.” The central character, Alexa, a single mom with a two-year-old son, lives and works in Chicago as a court probation officer. After a physical assault, she fights to restore her shattered life in an escalating, dramatic tale of murder, mystery, and rumored gold, sought by others after Alexa inherits her Iowa grandmother’s farm and searches for her grandmother’s special cookbook recipe clue that must be deciphered to reveal the gold’s buried location.

“I’m extremely honored,” said Berg. “The annual Dixie Kane competition is one of the premier writing contests in the United States. To be included among the talented and dedicated entrants who have graced and been recognized this year and in years past is a thrill.” Author Donan Berg has four murder/mystery novels and a collection of short stories, in print and electronic formats, published by DOTDON Books, Moline, IL. He’s previously, in 2010, been in the Dixie Kane winner’s circle.

His 2009 debut novel, A Body To Bones, debuted at number 27 in the top 50 most popular books, all genres, at AuthorsDen.com, an online literary community then visited monthly by more than a million authors and readers. A year later on September 19, 2010, his novel held its top 50 ranking as the 32nd most popular. His novels are in libraries nationwide, including Davenport, Iowa City, Moline, Rock Falls, and Rock Island. A Writer’s Digest judge in February 2010 said, “Donan Berg writes a nice, clear, consistently readable prose, and he manages to create a winning character in Sarah Hamilton.”

Following A Body To Bones, he’s authored The Bones Dance Foxtrot (2009), Bubbling Conflict and Other Short Stories (2010), Abbey Burning Love (2011, E-book only), and Baby Bones (2012).

The Dixie Kane Memorial Contest is named for the late New Orleans writer Linda Kay West, who wrote under the pen name of Dixie Kane. The sponsoring New Orleans chapter is a non-profit literary organization dedicated to the craft and business of writing book length fiction with a focus on romance.

Adolph's Gold by Donan Berg to be released March 13, 2014 in e-book format.

On March 13, 2014, Donan Berg's latest novel, Adolph's Gold, will be released in e-book format. As of late January it is anticipated that retailers Apple, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble will offer pre-order buying opportunities.  Readers wishing to sample this detective mystery can do so at the following link: http://www.smashwords.com/extreader/read/398225

  

Forget Flattery; Be Yourself

Imitation may be flattery and many a budding writer envies Herman Melville, William Faulkner, or fill in the blank ________ without a complete understanding of what made that writer's prose great. Far be it from me to invade the minds of great writers, but their writings give wannabe and striving writers more than enough to think about.

(While I think, you, the reader, should know that this author, me, Donan Berg, has just been informed that he landed three times in the 2013 winner's circle at the 8th Annual Dixie Kane Memorial Writing Contest. When the official results are announced, look for them here.)

Let's start with Mr. Melville. A previous blog teased you with his opening line of "Call me ______." If you didn't correctly fill in the blank, no matter. Beginning writers have often tried, unsuccessfully, to imitate the style or voice of past writing masters. What is not grasped is that the greats changed over time. Or, more accurately, they adapted their voice or style to the nature of their story.

Mr. Melville wrote a novel entitled Omoo, which often ends up as a crossword answer. Those crossword geeks love words with multiple vowels. Anyway, the story starts very simply:

"It was the middle of a bright tropical afternoon that we made good our escape from the bay. The vessel we sought lay with her main-topsail aback about a league from the land and was the only object that broke the broad expanse of the ocean."

Please note, no big dictionary words. Yet, there are questions. Escape from what? Or whom? Why the referenced vessel? If this was a bay, why only one vessel? Are we near a town or marooned? The hook for reading more is deeply planted.

Later in his writing life, Melville began his classic Moby-Dick as follows: (You can repeat out loud this often-quoted verbiage.)

"Call me Ishmael. Some years ago-never mind how long precisely-having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world."

Had Melville changed? Some would say yes. But it's more than that. It's voice. Moby-Dick is arguably more authoritative in style and voice. Omoo didn't require the Moby-Dick voice, at least, Mr. Melville didn't believe so.

I attended a reading by Alice Sebold a few years ago and she read the first chapter of her well-received and engaging novel entitled The Lovely Bones. It begins:

"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."

Does that harken back? Maybe yes, but not as straightforward as J.D. Salinger's A Catcher in the Rye reference to Charles Dickens and David Copperfield.

My goal is not to flog masterful writing, but to point out different stories require serious thinking to match the character with the voice presented.

William Faulkner developed his style in service to his stories as other great writers have done. Compare his daring point of view and tense that serves the Bundrens well in As I Lay Dying with the simpler, more straightforward style in his The Reivers.

However you try to style your story, the goal is to not overwhelm your reader and bury the story in an avalanche of stylistic voice copied from a person that doesn't inhabit your skin. If the voice becomes the end all, all your characters will begin to sound alike, spouting diction so similar the reader glosses over the points you wish to make. Sure, I can envision an urban street corner where everyone begins a sentence with "yo dude." Would that enhance my story or distract? Probably distract.

If you give high tension to every character, none will stand out as major or memorable. You may think of all your friends as major influences in your life, but aren't they all slightly, maybe even markedly, different. Treating them as different is not a snub. They're not robots who attended the same Star Wars training school. Come to think of it. Is R2-D2 the same as Hal the computer or that other annoying robot. I think you know the one I'm referring to. No, it's not named Ishmael or Salmon. Think of beginning with the letter C.

The main point is to be yourself. There's nothing wrong with the following in the right circumstances:

"Oh no," the pizza man shouted. "He's been fighting wid his old lady. I ain't gonna get no tip outta this pie."

Nor the following:

"Don't call me Jacob."

Think of yourself, your story. Now, go to it.