Welcome back to Success Story Saturday.  As often as possible, we’re featuring Writers Forum members who have been published, won writing contests, or have otherwise found recent success as writers.  Writers Forum members, we want to celebrate with you so please send your success stories to writersforumwebmaster@gmail.com.  

Today we’re celebrating with Writers Forum board member Laura Hernandez.  Congratulations, Laura!

New Mystery Writer Wins the 2013 Helen McCloy/MWA Scholarship

New York, NY – May 9, 2013 – Mystery Writers of America announces the recipients of the 2013 Helen McCloy/MWA Scholarship for Mystery Writing: Laura Hernandez of Redding, CA, and Lee Summerall of St. Petersburg, FL. Each will use her $500 scholarship award to offset tuition for advanced classes to further develop her writing skills.

The talent demonstrated by Ms. Hernandez received one of the highest scores from this year’s panel of judges.  Laura Hernandez worked on a team to defend accused murderers during law school and　has written several stories based on her experiences. In her stories, the people in jail accused of murder are not always who you would expect them to be. She found the key to their defense, and the real mystery of each murder trial, was not about who had committed the crime, but why it had been done at all.

The purpose of this annual scholarship competition is to nurture talent in mystery writing. Each candidate qualifies by submitting a mystery-writing sample in the form of the first three chapters of a novel or nonfiction, or three short stories or a script. Candidates also provide details about the educational programs they will attend, 2 letters of recommendation, and an essay explaining their interest in mystery writing. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. No fee is required; neither is membership in Mystery Writers of America.

Applicants are judged by a committee of MWA members, each a published author in the field of crime. This year’s judges are: Julie Hyzy, New York Times bestselling author of 6 White House Chef Mysteries and 3 Manor House Mysteries, most recently Fonduing Fathers and Grace Among Thieves; Randy Rawls, author of 8 mysteries in 3 series, with Hot Rocks as his latest from Midnight Ink featuring South Florida P.I. Beth Bowman; Aileen G. Baron, archaeologist and author of The Gold of Thrace, an international hunt for antiquities thieves, and The Scorpion’s Bite, 3rd in the Lily Sampson archaeological mystery series; and editor Chris Roerden, author of the Agatha Award-winning Don’t Murder Your Mystery and its all-genre edition, Don’t Sabotage Your Submission. The scholarship program chair is Meredith Cole, award-winning author of Posed for Murder and Dead in the Water, and writing instructor at the University of Virginia.

Details and official application form for the 2014 scholarships are posted by July 4, 2013, on the website of Mystery Writers of America, http://mysterywriters.org. For frequently asked questions and tips for applying, email　McCloy.MWA@gmail.com.　Entries must be postmarked by February 28, 2014.