Hope Clark Two members of the same tiny writers' group have been selected as quarter finalists in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Amazon limited submissions to 10,000 during the first week in February and narrowed the semi- finalists to 2,000 then the quarterfinalists to 500 on March 16, 2009. Mickey Burriss and C. Hope Clark were selected in the categories of Historical Fiction and Mystery,

respectively. Last week The

Columbia S tar featured Mickey Burris.

Hope Clark is a retired Federal employee and lives in Chapin, but twice a month, she and Burris meet in the West Columbia Public Library and work with about ten other friends in refining stories. Hope has never published fiction but has published nonfiction for magazines and her online web site www.FundsforWriters.com.

Their group is the Columbia Chapter One of the South Carolina Writers Workshop, which has several chapters around the state. www.myscww.org. To read samples of their submissions visit

Mickey- www.amazon. com/dp/B001UG3BPO

Hope- www.amazon.c om/dp/B001UG39AG