HEARTLAND WRITERS GUILD LOOKING FOR PRIZE WRITERS AT SIKESTON CONFERENCE

Jeanie Stewart always wanted to be a writer. But the former Cooter High School English and history teacher says, "It seemed like an unattainable goal."

Since 1994, Stewart has won prizes in the Heartland Writers Guild's Great Beginnings Writing Competition five times. And since 1996, seven of her novels have been published in the teen-age fiction Sweet Valley University series.

Now the head librarian at the Conran Memorial Library in Hayti, Stewart credits both the contest and the local writers organization with helping her become published. "It gave me support and encouragement after a long dry spell of nothing but rejections."

The Heartland Writers Guild is accepting entries for its next Great Beginnings Writing Competition. The contest is held in connection with the biennial Heartland Writers Conference to be held June 8-10 at the Sikeston Coach House Inn.

Meeting other writers was an important step in the process of becoming published, Stewart says. "When I heard about the guild it made it more real for me. I realized there were writers everywhere, that you didn't have to go to school at Harvard to live in New York City to be a writer."

In 1996, she sent a sample of her writing to the Sweet Valley University publisher. They sent back an assignment to write a sample in their style.

Now Stewart writes for hire. Her editor assigns a topic and a deadline for each of the books, which follow identical twin sisters Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield as they attend school in California. Each book starts where the previous one ends, and sometimes three or four people are writing on the series at the same time.

Large sums of money aren't their reward.

"I wouldn't advise anybody who wanted to get rich to pursue writing," Stewart says.

Neither does Stewart's name appear on any of the books she writes. All are attributed to Francine Pascal. That kind of recognition isn't important to her, she says.

"I wanted to write, and I'm writing."

The Great Beginnings Writing Competition has 12 categories, including fiction, book-length, short nonfiction, poetry, screenplays, young adult and children's picture book.

The entries are judged by trade professionals.

Book agents Evan Marshall, Seth Robertson and Sue Yuen will attend the conference in June. Editors will include Doris Booth of AuthorLink, Kate Egan of Scholastic, Barbara Kuroff of Writer's Digest Books, Genny Ostertag of New American Library, Shirleen Sando of Skyward Publishing and Steve Wilson of McFarland Publishing.

Publisher David Stewart of Guttenburg-Richter Press in Marble Hill will be a local publishing representative.

Ten published authors will present workshops. In addition, Becki Michael of the Missouri Film Commission will be on hand along with Internet researcher Warren Cork.

To receive a brochure about the contest and conference, contact Judy Stamm at (618) 687-2625 or send your name and address to: Heartland Writers Conference, P.O. Box 3701, Carbondale, Ill. 62902.

For information about the conference or to register online, go to the guild Web site at www.heartlandwriters.org.