Booker, McGinley win Writers’ Guild awards
By Gayle Page – Staff Writer
David E. Booker — lost in the cosmos, as always.
Booker, a Jefferson City native, won a first place for the second chapter of a science fiction/fantasy thriller that he calls a “work in progress.” This was not Booker’s first Writers’ Guild win. He won last year for a short story in the mystery genre.
Booker has written and published several short stories, and he has been a contributor to a few area newspapers, including the Morristown Citizen Tribune.
He earns his living as a writer, currently doing technical writing for Y-12. Earlier, he did technical and promotional consumer writing for Phillips Electronics (formerly Magnavox), and has done some promotional writing for Log Home magazines, as well. For the past three years Booker has served as editor of his neighborhood newsletter, and he continues working on his novel.
About writing Booker says: “It’s what I enjoy doing, even though sometimes I sit frustrated in front of a blank screen.” He is a long-time member of the Knoxville Writers’ Guild, and invites other interested writers to join and enjoy the support of an active, dedicated and diverse writing community.
Mark McGinley, another former resident of Jefferson City who is now Assistant Professor of Theater and Technical Director of Stage Design at Lincoln Memorial University, is also a winner of the Knoxville Writers’ Guild 2014 contest.
McGinley’s writing primarily focuses on his work as a playwright. His winning entry “Still Waters,” is a one-act play set in the Tennessee hills in the 1930’s, with a ragtag cast of characters and a moonshine theme. It hasn’t been performed on stage yet, but whenever that happens, the 32-page script will take actors about 30 minutes to execute.
He has had one play entitled “Sold” performed by a theater workshop group (now disbanded), but McGinley still has plenty of other ideas and plays he hopes to produce. It’s possible that one of his plays will be performed at the Tiger Lily Theater in Knoxville, in April.
McGinley earned his undergraduate degree at Carson-Newman University, and while he lived nearby he worked for the Comedy Barn in Pigeon Forge and doubled as a massage therapist. Today he stays so busy he only has time to concentrate on his primary vocation, which is theater. He received his graduate degree, a masters in theater design and stage combat, from Louisiana Tech.
About writing McGinley says: “It’s hard work until you come up with an idea that burns inside of you until you put it on a page. Then it’s more work, work, work.”
Of course, he would never want to do anything else.
Finishing first earned Booker and McGinley $100 each in prize money. Aspiring writers who might be interested in joining the Knoxville Writers Guild are invited to go online to http://www.knoxvillewritersguild.org and see what they have to offer, or write to them for an informational brochure, at Knoxville Writers’ Guild, P.O. Box 10326, Knoxville TN 37939-032.
Booker's Blog 
The Darwin Awards: The true blathering idiots
On days when you don’t feel as bright or with it as you normally do, consider these folks, nominees and winner of the Darwin Awards. The Darwin Awards is given annually to the person who did the gene pool the biggest service by killing himself in the most extraordinarily stupid way.
Some of these may make you both laugh and cry.
Semifinalist #1
A young Canadian man, searching for a way of getting drunk cheaply, because he had no money with which to buy alcohol, mixed gasoline with milk. Not surprisingly, this concoction made him ill, and he vomited into the fireplace in his house. This resulting explosion and fire burned his house down, killing both him and his sister.
[Editor’s comment: at the price of gas, wouldn’t cheap mouthwash have been a better choice?]
Semifinalist #2
Three Brazilian men were flying in a light aircraft at low altitude when another plane approached. It appears that they decided to moon the occupants of the other plane, but lost control of their own aircraft and crashed. They were all found dead in the wreckage with their pants around their ankles.
[Editor’s comment: This is not what is meant by the moon over San Paulo.]
Semifinalist #3
A 22-year-old Reston , VA , man was found dead after he tried to use octopus straps to bungee jump off a 70-foot rail road trestle. Fairfax County police said Eric Barcia, a fast-food worker, taped a bunch of these straps together, wrapped an end around one foot, anchored the other end to the trestle at Lake Accotink Park, jumped and hit the pavement. Warren Carmichael, a police spokesman, said investigators think Barcia was alone because his car was found nearby. “The length of the cord that he had assembled was greater than the distance between the trestle and the ground,” Carmichael said. Police say the apparent cause of death was “Major trauma.”
[Editor’s comment: clearly a case of gravity assisted suicide. If only the earth hadn’t gotten in the way.]
Semifinalist #4
A man in Alabama died from rattlesnake bites. It seems that he and a friend were playing a game of catch, using the rattlesnake as a ball. The friend – no doubt a future Darwin Awards candidate – was hospitalized.
[Editor’s comment: clearly the snake was being a spoiled sport.]
Semifinalist #5
Employees in a medium-sized warehouse in west Texas noticed the smell of a gas leak. Sensibly, management evacuated the building, extinguishing all potential sources of ignition; lights, power, etc.. After the building had been evacuated, two technicians from the gas company were dispatched. Upon entering the building, they found they had difficulty navigating in the dark. To their frustration, none of the lights worked. Witnesses later described the sight of one of the technicians reaching into his pocket and retrieving an object that resembled a cigarette lighter. Upon operation of the lighter-like object, the gas in the warehouse exploded, sending pieces of it up to three miles away. Nothing was found of the technicians, but the lighter was virtually untouched by the explosion. The technician suspected of causing the blast had never been thought of as ”bright” by his peers.
[Editor’s comment: Clearly an example of a career-limiting move.]
And Now, for the winner of this year’s Darwin Award –
(As always, awarded posthumously):
The Arizona Highway Patrol came upon a pile of smoldering metal embedded in the side of a cliff rising above the road at the apex of a curve. The wreckage resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it was a car. The type of car was unidentifiable at the scene. Police investigators finally pieced together the mystery. An amateur rocket scientist had somehow gotten hold of a JATO unit (Jet Assisted Take Off, actually a solid-fuel rocket) that is used to give heavy military transport planes an extra ‘push’ for taking off from short airfields. He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert and found a long, straight stretch of road. He attached the JATO unit to the car, jumped in, got up some speed and fired off the JATO!
The facts as best could be determined are that the operator of the 1967 Impala hit the JATO ignition at a distance of approximately 3.0 miles from the crash site. This was established by the scorched and melted asphalt at that location.
The JATO, if operating properly, would have reached maximum thrust within 5 seconds, causing the Chevy to reach speeds well in excess of 350 mph and continuing at full power for an additional 20 – 25 seconds. The driver, and soon-to-be pilot, would have experienced G-forces usually reserved for dog-fighting F-14 jocks under full afterburners, causing him to become irrelevant for the remainder of the event.
However, the automobile remained on the straight highway for about 2.5 miles (15-20 seconds) before the driver applied and completely melted the brakes, blowing the tires and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface, then becoming airborne for an additional 1.4 miles and impacting the cliff face at a height of 125 feet, leaving a blackened crater 3 feet deep in the rock. Most of the driver’s remains were not recoverable.
Epilogue: It has been calculated that this “rocket scientist” attained a ground speed of approximately 420-mph, though much of his voyage was not actually on the ground.
[Editor’s comment: Apparently, some things still do take a rocket scientist.]
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