Portland Press Herald from Portland, Maine • 37

QUICKHIT Maine State Music Theatre opens its season Wednesday with "South Pacific" $27 $47 8 pm evenings 2 pm matinees 7:30 pm June 725 8769 All shows at Pickard Theater at Bowdoin College Brunswick AT THE MOVIES: BREAK page AUDIENCE 1CalendarE5 Movie listirigsE9 BooksElO Sunday June 4 2006 MaineSunday Telegram TT SECTIONS Tabitha passion burns brightly The author is excited about gardening politics her charitable work and her new book her first in several years By BOB KEYES StaffWriter BANGOR Tabitha King dreams of day lilies first lady of fiction would love to take the time to turn the backyard of her Bangor home into a sprawling field of day lilies already cultivated several impressive garden beds and wants more also like to be a full time grand mother dedicate more time to her photog raphy maybe work in a libraiy and kayak more with her dog rodo But right now jg jujjSfflqHgaA she just have time King the wife of novelist Stephen King encroaches on the spotlight usually reserved for her husband with the publica tion this week of her first book in several years King 57 is actually the co writer of the Southern Gothic novel with Michael McDowell a dear friend who died in 1999 before he could complete what he hoped would become his masterpiece King considered McDowell a soul mate She finished the book for him rounding out the story he left based on an incomplete manuscript and voluminous notes tells the story of young Calley Dakin a Southern girl who inherited the gift of hearing voices in her head a modern day witch tale set in New Orleans and lorida and spiced with abundant Gulf Coast flavor King has high hopes for the novel must admit been in a bit of a said King who has had several books of fiction published but none recent ly been working I have a couple of novels in the drawer Maybe now I will be able to get a publisher really what I want I would like to be able to publish again as myself entirely my own work like to have that door stay open for The day lilies will have to wait As King talks she sits on the brick veranda of the magnificent Bangor home she shares with her husband rodo sits obediently at her feet One of her three cats whom she affectionately calls Please see KING Page E6 Staff photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette Tabitha King poses outside her Bangor home sBi Nomenclature STA ILLUSTRATION I ISHER Please see JENSEN Page 14 Please see ALBRIGHT Page 4 Cassandra Jensen Emma Albright By Cassandra Jensen Lewiston High School he crouched on the stool like a statue a statue ready to pounce In her clenched fist was the lid of a Tup perware cake platter The rim hovered inches off the floor Her gaze did not leave the small black abyss that separated the stove and the ground Her eyes darted back and forth straining to see into the dark cave beneath the oven Although she could not see it she sensed its presence Perhaps it shared her perception of life beyond what was visible and that is why it had not been seen But she knew it was there She had been perched woodenly on the couch an open book in her lap She could not Of the more than 200 high school juniors who embarked on Journey Into a gifted trio emerged as 2006 Young Writers of the Year My mother used to say that a name tells more about a person than would an hour spent in the same room with him you ever have children God she would advise them good strong names buy into this androgynous gar bage If a boy is named Leslie you might as well put him in a She classified my friends Susan and Marg aret without ever meeting them phony and a know it all you mark my words and were her definition of Channing names and I often wondered why called me an insipid moniker hree Maine high school juniors Siobhan Anderson of Newcastle Emma Albright of South reeport and Cassandra Jensen of Lewiston have won the 2006 Young Writers of the Year award Authors Richard Russo Linda Greenlaw and Wesley McNair judged the statewide contest for the Maine Community College Sys Journey Into program Anderson a student at North Yarmouth Academy in Yarmouth won for her poem Albright who attends reeport High School won for her story Jensen from Lewiston High School won for her story In all 214 high school juniors from 74 Maine high schools submitted short stories essays and poems for the contest open to all Maine high school juniors (Names and submissions of all eight semifinalists can be viewed online You can find the link at MaineTodaycom: 20 Below or the contest Web site at wwwmccsmeedu Click on: A Journey Into Writing) ollowing are the winning entries: A WINNING WAY WITH WORDS Mouse Hunt By Emma Albright reeport High School xl' MMr C''4 Or a fe IM Jr JL xz: zzx'wr jj 'r Ik 4 Siobhan Andcreon Chrysanthemums By Siobhan Anderson North Yarmouth Academy I drive through that certain section of town money on my mind rings on my fingers as 1 tap the leather steering wheel and turn onto rench Drive She stands in front of her trailer: purple leggings blonde xrm and all her aluminum rectangle of a home shining in the sun behind her The end of tire trailer has rusted away Red yellow toys strewn across the front lawn The grey door hangs ajar and a beastly satellite near the chain fence points to heaven She stands at the center of her acre near the mangled corpse of a tricycle a perfect square of brown churned earth before her where green rows of swaying buds rise to bathe in the sun She holds a hose and something darts among the flowers It lakes only a moment to see her little son is dancing between the chrysanthemums He laughs in his small red shirt while his hands slip oer the moist pinkness of the petals Her smile blooms as she sprays at his toes his little brown head thrown back as beads of water christen his lips eyes cars She is so breathless with felicity she raises the hose higher the hot sun sparkles on the trailer glimmers in the grass the mellifluous rain of the hose composes crystals on her neck and brow The mist of the sunlit water creates a haze between the lawn and I the satellite grow fuzzy the rust turns to a glorious red the tricycle bends abstractly the world Ixx omes dreamlike and water beads down like a sweet melody upon her beautiful son 1 take a deep breath Air seeps into my lungs as I stare with my heart and realize 1 have never been so thirsty 4 SECTIONS.