Taylor places third in writing contest

FALLBROOK — Nathalie Taylor, features editor for the Fallbrook Village News, placed third in the 2008 Erle Stanley Gardner Mystery Writing Contest and was presented a certificate and cash award.

The contest, which accepted entries from writers throughout the nation, was won by a Florida resident.

Taylor’s story, “Mystery of the Front Room,” is based on a historical fact regarding a robbery that took place in Temecula in 1857, but her story is set in modern times. With her imagination, she turned an old water tower on Front Street into a bed and breakfast where her heroine, a budding mystery writer, has adventures that tie to the 1857 robbery. The story content needed to be comparable to a “G” rating.

This is only the second short story that Taylor has written since her time as a student at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in English. Her previous story was a first place winner in the same contest in 2006.

Since both stories featured the same heroine, Taylor has decided to write a short story trilogy based on various historical events in the Temecula Valley and is now working on the third piece.