Holiday fiction contest

It’s the holidays, time to curl up under the Christmas tree, sip a cup of hot cocoa and be maudlin. OK, OK, the maudlin part is optional, but this year’s edition of The Gazette’s holiday fiction contest certainly brought out a melancholy streak in local writers. The photograph of two old bikes buried in snow inspired 175 people, from ages 6 to 85, to write.

The most common story line involved an older couple, one of whom had died, leaving the survivor to look out the front window on Christmas morning and see the bikes they used to ride together in happier days. There were also several stories about twins, some of whom were dead.

There also were brighter tales of flying bicycles, magical bicycles, poor parents finding a way to buy bicycles, and, thanks to first-grader Alex Cregan, mean aliens who force bike-riding people to eat brussels sprouts.

The bikes were ridden by friends, by lovers, by parent-andchild duos, by Mr. and Mrs. Claus, and by the sisters who star in our winning story, for whom the bikes were a symbol of a rusty relationship that needs a little mending . . .

CONTEST WINNERS

1ST-3RD GRADE

- Gavin Thompson, 3rd grade, Cheyenne Mountain Elementary School, “The Curser 2,000”

- Alex Cregan, 1st grade, Fremont Elementary School, “How the Bikes Got Stuck”

4TH-6TH GRADE

- Alaenna Bieganski, 6th grade, “Christy’s Christmas”

- Lauren Agee, 5th grade, Foothills Elementary School, “The Friendship Field”

- Kennedy Felice, 6th grade, Eagleview Middle School, “A Christmas Cure for Cancer”

7TH-9TH GRADE

- Mia Lynch, 7th grade, North Middle School, “The Ride to Freedom”

- Alyssa Stanbery, 9th grade, home school, “The Miracle of Hope”

- Matthew Sullivan, 8th grade, North Middle School, “The Gift”

10TH-12TH GRADE

- Grace Friend, 11th grade, The Colorado Springs School, “Christmas Miracle”

- Shelby Remillard, 11th grade, Cheyenne Mountain High School, “Daddy’s Angel”

- Will Seaton, 11th grade, The Colorado Springs School, “A Christmas Story”

ADULT

- Sydne Dean, “Two Rusted Bicycles in the Snow”

- Sue Van Namee, “Santa’s Flyers”

- Adam Woloszyn, “Our Spot”

PRIZES

First-place prizes courtesy of Hooked on Books, 3918 Maizeland Road: Adult winner received a $100 gift certificate to Hooked on Books, youth winners received $50 gift certificates to the store. Secondplace winners each received four tickets to Cinemark theaters.

JUDGES

Adult winning entries were chosen by: Mary Ciletti, 25-year owner of Hooked on Books, the largest independent bookstore in Colorado Springs, and Jim Ciletti, president of Poetry West and named 2003 Poet of the Year by the Pikes Peak Arts Council; his most recent collection of poems is titled “Sunfire.”

Student winning entries were chosen by: Stacy Smith, children’s librarian at the Pikes Peak Library District, and Tara White, adult and teen librarian at the Pikes Peak Library District.