BY MICHELLE MILLER
STAFF WRITER

One local girl’s passion for writing has resulted in becoming a grand prize winner of the first ``Be a Famous Writer” contest hosted by MrsP.com.

Isabella Penola, 12, was one of two grand prize winners of the contest, which received entries from 23 states and had two age categories, 4-8 and 9-13.

Penola, who says she has always liked to write, won the 9-13 category with her story of an elderly gardener, ``Spattered Mud and Crushed Petals.’’

``I was excited when I found out about it (winning),’’ said Isabella. `` I am really happy about it, it’s exciting.’’

Isabella, of Cooperstown, said she has been writing most of her life. She said writing comes naturally to her and she is not really sure how she comes up with story ideas.

``They just flow out,’’ she said.

Her father, John, said he has been asking her for years how she comes up with ideas to write about, but she can never really explain. He said her writing inspiration has always been self motivated.

Isabella, who is home schooled, said this is not the first writing competition she has entered. She said her mother, Lora, is always looking on the web for contests she can partake in.

Isabella said she recently won a science fiction contest with a rather ``dark’’ tale that takes place on another planet. The story is about a person who grows a plant that kills people, according to Isabella.

``My mind kind of went nuts, I’m not sure where that story ideas came from,’’ said the 12-year-old.

Isabella said she won $100 dollars for submitting the exotic tale, and received a ticket to attend a scientific convention in Philadelphia.

``I liked that story better than this one (Spattered Mud and Crushed Petals)’’ said Isabella.

Isabella said she has also entered essay and poetry contests and participated in National Novel Writing Month (November) where participants meet a word-count goal and write a novel from scratch in one month’s time. She said her word count goal was 35,000.

``Spattered Mud and Crushed Petals’’ is about a gardener who really wants to win a competition but his garden gets ruined, according to Isabella. She said the story is about 100 words long and took her approximately three to four hours to write.

According to mrsp.com, grand prize winners will have their stories produced as videos, with Mrs. P reading them aloud from her online Magic Library. The videos will be posted for a limited time beginning in March on the free, interactive digital website for viewers all over the world to watch and enjoy. Mrsp.com stars television actress Kathy Kinney, who played Mimi on the Drew Carey Show.

Isabella said she is excited, but also a bit nervous about having her story on the website for all to see. She said she has never had that kind of exposure before.

Award-winning illustrator, Robin E. Kaplan, has begun bringing the stories to life by creating photos for the tales. Isabella said she had seen one illustration so far, and is eager to see the finished product.

Winners of the contest will receive a bound copy of their story and illustrations as a keepsake, according to mrs. p.com. Powell’s Books, sponsor of the contest, will provide the grand prize winners and the eight finalists with a gift certificate to its store.

Finalists were selected by a panel of celebrity judges.

Things considered by judges in their selections included originality, creativity, compelling narrative, humor and development of a theme or point of view. According to a media release sent by, Mrs. P Enterprises, LLC, judges also thought about which stories would be entertaining to hear Mrs. P read aloud and which stories would stick with readers.

``Technical proficiency is great, but if a story didn’t move us or make us laugh or give us insight into another person’s life, it did not make the cut,’’ said Dana Plautz, a spokesperson for the Mrs. P. Enterprises, LLC.

Plautz said one of Mrs. P’s goals is to encourage children to use their imaginations. She said Mrsp.com launched in November 2008 and plans to continue the writing contest as an annual event each September.

Isabella said not only does she love writing, but she also enjoys reading and playing soccer. She said she has played the piano for about six years and has begun learning how to play the violin.

Isabella, who hopes to one day make writing her career, said she likes to read ``Harry Potter’’ books, is interested in ``The Mysterious Benedict Society’’ series, and is intrigued by the ``Alex Rider’’ series.

Trenton Lee Stewart is one of Isabella’s favorite children’s novelists.

She said she has written to him and received letters back answering many of her questions. Isabella said Stewart is a real nice man and an inspiration to her writing.