Contest Winner!

by Betsy Ashton

Betsy Ashton, born in Washington, DC, was raised in Southern California where she ran wild with coyotes in the hills above Malibu. She protested the war in Vietnam, burned her bra for feminism, and is a steadfast Independent. She is a writer, a thinker, the mother of three grown stepchildren, companion and friend. She mentors writers and writes and publishes fiction. Her first mystery, Mad Max Unintended Consequences, was published in February 2013. The second in the series, Uncharted Territory, A Mad Max Mystery, came out in April 2015. In her spare time, she is the president of the state-wide Virginia Writers Club. She loves riding behind her husband on his motorcycle. You’ll have to decide for yourself if and where she has a tattoo.

June 29, 2009


Congratulations to three Lake Writers who won prizes at the 25th Annual Wytheville Writing Contest. It was the first time that three members of the same writers group won prizes.

Bruce Rae (left) won second place for his essay Dare We Bail Out Bad Businesses?, a political essay wondering why corporate CEOs who led their companies into bankruptcy and government bailout keep their jobs. Becky Mushko (second from the left) won second place in the short story contest for her work Rat Killing, a story about an elderly woman, dying of pancreatic cancer, who crashes her truck into a local ne’er-do-well. And yes, that’s me (at far right). I took third place in the essay contest for The Gift, a personal essay about life’s lessons and growing up in a household with three women. Dr. Rhonda Catron-Wood, between Becky and me, is the chairman of the program.

Congratulations to all of us — even me.

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2 Comments

  1. Clementine

    Yea! A clean sweep! I'm proud to know ya.

  2. Becky Mushko

    And it was fun being there!