ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 22, 1994                   TAG: 9403220171
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-6   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Short


STORY BY NRCC INSTRUCTOR IS CHOSEN FOR ANTHOLOGY

A story by Charles M. Saplak, who teaches English at New River Community College, has been selected for inclusion in ``The Year's Best Horror XXII,'' an annual anthology which will be published later this year by DAW Books.

The story, ``Lady's Portrait: Executed in Archaic Colors,'' was a third-place winner in the 1992 L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest and was published last year in the annual ``Writers of the Future'' volume from Bridge Publications.

Saplak, who started writing for fun in grade school while growing up in West Virginia, has also sold stories to Expanse, Tomorrow and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery magazines.

He has made nearly a dozen sales since placing in the contest, which has qualified him to join the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, a professional writers' organization.

He recently attended the L. Ron Hubbard Awards ceremony held each year in Hollywood. ``I came home enthused and with new strategies, new skills and lots of new friends and associates,'' he said.

Information on the contest is available by sending a stamped self-addressed envelope to Writers of the Future Contest, P.O. Box 1630, Los Angeles, Calif. 90078.



 by CNB