Taylor wins four Press Club awards

SAN DIEGO—Nathalie Taylor has continued her tradition of writing excellence with four San Diego Press Club awards. For 2015 she was designated a Press Club Honorary Committee member as well. Since 2004 Taylor has won 51 writing awards.

This year, she garnered one first place, one second place, and two third place awards. Three of the awards were for stories published in the Village News and one was for a 2015 Greater Fallbrook Area Sourcebook magazine article. She also took the majority of the photographs that accompanied the stories.

Taylor took first place in the Review: Live Performance category with her story entitled, "Golden Boys' concert electrifying – Frankie Avalon, Fabian, and Bobby Rydell sing with gusto!" published in the Village News Aug. 21, 2014. The story had a personal, heart-felt angle since Taylor had attended a Golden Boys concert 30 years prior and had been following their careers.

An excerpt, "I have attended many concerts in my life, but this had a different aura about it. It wasn’t just a concert with wonderful music, it was a step back in time with three of the most popular entertainers of the late fifties and sixties. It was also a glimpse into the character of each of these talented singers. They were genuinely happy to be there and genuinely grateful for the support of their fans, not just tonight but throughout their long and illustrious careers."

In the Review: Restaurant category the writer took second with "Be a 'Taste Adventurer' at Tekila Cocina Mexicana!" (Village News – Feb. 19, 2015). Comparisons of Yucatan cuisine and the River Village restaurant’s cuisine brought an international flair to the story. "There is nothing like a hand-made corn tortilla bursting with savory 'barbacoa' beef to set the stage for a culinary journey to the Yucatan."

Taylor also placed third in the Review: Restaurant category with "Exquisite seafood entrees await guests at Pala Casino’s Oak Room," (Village News – July 31, 2014). The story, accompanied by Taylor’s stunning photographs of lobster and crab with a crackling fire in the background, was written with passion.

An excerpt, "There is a certain allure to seafood – especially lobster. The thought that it is compactly contained in a shell and once inhabited cold, unfamiliar waters, is enticing. Discovering the succulent meat inside the vibrant red shells is like discovering a treasure. I have savored lobster from the Atlantic Seaboard to Sweden, but some of the most delicious lobsters I have ever eaten were enjoyed at Pala Casino’s Oak Room."

Taylor was also honored in the highly competitive Magazine division of the contest with her 2015 Sourcebook magazine story, "The Brown family of Rainbow ride for history," which took third in the History category. The story highlighted the Rainbow, California family who have ridden horses as "extras" in Hollywood films – and have made their own period costumes.

An excerpt, "Riding horses in old west costumes, shooting rifles from atop a horse at full run, driving a stagecoach – do these activities sound like a page from a history book? Yes, for most of us, but "no" to the Brown family of Rainbow…"

Taylor, who holds a bachelor of arts degree in English from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, also sits on the advisory board for Cal Poly’s College of Liberal Arts. As the principal at Krona Publications, Taylor’s writing focuses mainly on public relations and free-lance print media features. In 2014 a piece that she wrote entitled, "Johan Thunberg – Creating Poetry on Canvas" was published in a book about the Swedish artist – "Johan Thunberg Konstnär," which made it to bookshelves in Sweden and other European countries.