Contest Winner - Carol Saucier

Welcome to the Winners’ Circle where we celebrate the success of our ICL and IFW Contest winners. Today we’re celebrating winner Carol Saucier! Her article “Lucy and the Asteroids” came in Second Place in our Nonfiction STEAM Article Contest.

What contest was your winning entry submitted to?
ICL Nonfiction STEAM Article
 
How many writing contests have you entered?
None.
 
Please give the title of your entry and a short summary of the article.
“Lucy and the Asteroids”

A NASA project to visit the Trojan asteroids of Jupiter is named for the most famous Earth fossil ancestor, Lucy. The NASA Lucy mission will look for the origins of our solar system as the fossil Lucy tells us about our human origins.

What inspired your winning entry?
I am on the board of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University founded by Dr. Donald Johanson who discovered Lucy. Don is also a personal friend with whom I have traveled to Africa several times.

How has entering this contest helped your writing?
Preparing for this contest helped me be more precise in my language for the word limit and I focused more on active verbs.

How did the critique in the Winners’ Workshop help you?
The critique made me feel more confident that I had accomplished what I set out to do.

Are you a full-time writer? If not, what is your “day job”?
I am a retired pediatric nurse and now I spend most of my time writing.

How long have you been writing?    
10 years

What will you do with your piece now that it’s been recognized?
I would like to submit my article to science magazines for children, but these magazines are so limited by their monthly themes that I have not found one to send it to.

Any fun plans for the prize money?    
I bought a pair of earrings that are made from fossil coral.

What do you do when you’re feeling discouraged or blocked? Do you have any tips for your fellow writers?
I belong to a nonfiction critique group. These fellow writers are supportive and offer good advise.

If you could go to the yard sale of any character in the history of children’s literature, whose would you go to, and what would you buy?
I would love to visit The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, but not to buy anything, just to enjoy the experience of being there.

Anything else you’d like to say about your experience with ICL?
Thank you for taking my writing seriously and providing me with a boost of confidence.