Stephanie Rohrbaugh places in national writing competition

Neoglyphic Entertainment created this artwork for Stephanie Rohrbaugh’s short story that placed in the top 20 of more than 4,000 entries in a national writing competition.

S.A. ROHRBAUGH

When Stephanie Rohrbaugh, a Colfax resident of six years, received a message from her mom last December with information about a national writing contest, she decided on the spur of the moment to enter the contest, which had a deadline looming.

“My mom Facebooked the contest to me, and it was 10 days away from being due,” she said.

Rohrbaugh got to work and submitted her short story, which she described as the first chapter to a larger book. A few months later, she was surprised to learn she had placed as a finalist in the competition.

“I was pretty shocked. I was really, really surprised,” she said.

Rohrbaugh is one of 20 people nationwide who placed in the writing competition hosted by Neoglyphic Entertainment, a company which “is a story company building advanced entertainment technologies,” according to a press release from Neoglyphic.

“Neoglyphic develops platform technologies for all types of storytellers to create and share their stories seamlessly across every medium, including the written word, visual art, music, film and video games,” the press release stated.

The competition saw more than 4,000 entries, and just 20 people were awarded as finalists and had their stories published in a compilation titled “Threads: A NeoVerse Anthology.”

“I heard that some people submitted multiple stories, and my one story made it into this book, and I did it incredibly fast,” said Rohrbaugh, who writes under the pen name S.A. Rohrbaugh.

Rohrbaugh said this competition appealed to her because it allowed her to write in her preferred brand – niche writing, which she explained as more of the fantasy, sci-fi and horror genres.

“There just aren't a lot of contests that accept that sort of thing,” she commented.

She also liked that she did not have to pay to participate and that she would receive a copy of the published book.

Her story, titled “The Magical Worlds of Theodore Erickson: A New Beginning,” follows two children who have recently lost their mother and moved with their dad from New York to Charleston, S.C. The children are restarting their lives when they have an encounter with a hippopotamus in the ocean and see a man talking to the hippo.

“It's literally an introduction to parallel worlds on earth for these kids,” said Rohrbaugh. “They really only have each other, and they're given new possibilities by this guy and this hippo.”

Rohrbaugh said some people who have read the story have wanted to know what happens next.

“It sort of has an ending, but it leaves this whole other world open,” she said.

Once she finished the short story, she got to work on finishing the overall book.

“The short story is basically the first chapter of a bigger book,” she said. “When I finished the story, I thought, 'well, gosh darn it! Now I have to write the whole thing!'”

Rohrbaugh described herself as a fairly quick writer, producing five to eight pages daily. She said her sister-in-law proofreads everything she writes to make sure there are no mistakes or plot holes. She spends two to four hours writing per day. She has now finished the remainder of the book.

“The book is ready to be sent out,” she said, noting she is still figuring out the process for that. “Most people have to go through an agent, but I don't have an agent right now. That's a step that makes me real nervous.”

She said she is also hoping that having placed in this writing competition and being published in the book will give her an edge as she seeks to get the book published.

“I'm super stoked,” commented Rohrbaugh.

Rohrbaugh and her husband Nathanial have two children. She has been a stay-at-home mom and also has been teaching pre-school part-time in Pullman. She is also trying to become a substitute teacher in the Colfax School District.

Her ultimate goal, though, is to be an author.

“What I wanted to do is get books published,” she said. “That's what I ultimately want to do.”

Rohrbaugh attended Washington State University and earned a degree in journalism as well as a double minor in history and anthropology. She worked for about 18 months at The Daily Evergreen at WSU starting in 2003 and completed an internship at the Moscow-Pullman Daily News in the summer of 2006.

“I've wanted to write since I was five or six,” she said.

After her internship with the Daily News, she decided she did not want to be a journalist.

“I had the writing down, but the interviews I didn't,” she said. “And the schedules journalists keep are crazy! I'm lucky enough to be able to pursue a different form of writing.”