Author in Residence Beth Kephart: Then and Now Challenge

Our very first Author in Residence, Beth Kephart, is a critically acclaimed, gracious writer who will be on the rgz team through December. Check out her mini-issue at the rgz website. Welcome this author of HOUSE OF DANCE, UNDERCOVER, and NOTHING BUT GHOSTS!

Last month's winning entry has been published on Beth's blog, so go read the lovely words of Q's "Tinged with Regret."

Here is the third of Beth’s monthly entries about writing, Then and Now:

"In this readergirlz challenge, the premise is simple (and does not involve a video). Find a photograph of yourself as a young child on the verge of some new knowledge or turning point. Write a paragraph about that photograph/that moment in present tense, as if you are experiencing that moment for the first time. Then write about that photograph/that moment in past tense, with the gift of retrospection. Ask yourself what you gain from working in the present tense, and what is gained by reflection; include your thoughts on this with your submission.

"Send your entry to me at kephartblogATcomcastDOTnet by November 25, 2009. The author of the winning entry will receive a signed copy of NOTHING BUT GHOSTS, a novel about a young girl who, in learning to live past her mother’s unexpected passing, involves herself in decoding the mystery that envelops the recluse down the road. The past and the present collide in GHOSTS."

Thanks, Beth, and good luck, readergirlz!