Blast from the Past

I am trying to organize my office and came across this clipping from 1987 from The Loft, a writers' center in Minnesota.

I went there for a conference in 1986 and saw a notice for their Children's Literature Competition (for manuscripts of children's stories). The deadline was my birthday, January 16.

I sent in a chapter of The Riddle of Penncroft Farm, but only put D. G. Jensen on the entry.  As my story's main character was a 13 year old boy, I didn't want the judges to know if I was a man or woman.

About a month before the announcement of the winners, I received a phone call from the Loft.

"How do you spell your first name?" was the question.

I thought "Rats!" my cover is now blown. "Why do you need to know?" I asked.

Then the Loft person said "So we know who to make the check out to. You won."

"D-O-R-O-T-H-E-A," I quickly replied.


(By the way, I'd completely forgotten that I started out using my maiden name, Johnson, as my middle name for writing children's books. Eventually I decided that Dorothea Johnson Jensen sounded a bit silly so I went back to using my regular middle name, Graham.)