Hudson author making waves in film with fiction work

HUDSON — Local author E.A. Comiskey didn’t think she had much chance of winning the Southwest Airlines Co. Storytellers on The Rise writing contest, but she entered anyway, and it has changed her life.

In 2021, Southwest partnered with Wattpad, a leading web-novel platform, to host the contest by calling upon the Wattpad community to share stories of kindness rooted in travel.

Southwest received hundreds of stories. Written by Comiskey, the winning story, “Alone in Tombstone,” is a coming-of-age tale about life, love and loss. It tells the story of a young woman searching for her place in life when faced with a surprise visitor. 

“Wattpad has something like 80 million international users, so I didn't actually think my odds were great,” Comiskey said. “Still, the original prize included airline vouchers and I really love to travel, so I thought about it for a couple of weeks and, the day before the deadline, I decided I really had nothing to lose by entering. I wrote ‘Alone in Tombstone’ while my son was in his dance class and submitted it.”

Comiskey was ecstatic when she found out a few weeks later that she had won but had no idea how big of an event it would become.

Southwest worked with Tongal, a global creator community that connects emerging talent to opportunities, to adapt the story into a short film. Comiskey was hired as a consultant and spent about a year with the film crew on set in Benson, Arizona working on the script, casting and editing.

Comiskey was part of a panel at the "Alone in Tombstone" film premiere at New York City’s Roxy Theater May 10 along with the film’s director Kelsey Taylor and representatives from Southwest, Wattpad and Tongal.

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“From day one, when I started writing fiction, the dream was to see my work on screen. Having the opportunity to see how the process works has really helped me understand what roles I'd like to fill in future adaptations,” Comiskey said. “I'm having regular conversations with studio executives and screenwriters. They know me and they know my work and we're talking about what the future might hold.”

Comiskey grew up in Blissfield and graduated from Blissfield High School, then studied theology at Huntington University in Huntington, Indiana. After college, she traveled spending extended periods of time in Washington D.C., Santa Fe, New Mexico and Arizona.

She met her husband in Arizona and the couple returned to Blissfield in 2007. In 2021, Comiskey’s husband became a licensed pastor with the local Blissfield United Methodist Church and then was appointed to the Hudson church and the couple now resides in Hudson. The couple has three adult children, a 12-year-old son at home and one grandchild.

Comiskey has been writing since she was a child. Her journey into becoming an award-winning author and syndicated blogger started with a blog called, “The Lazy Hippie Mama” in blogging’s early days. That led to a regular space in Parade Magazine.

She received her first award for fiction in 2018 when her book, “Curmudgeon” was selected as the winner of the wild card category in Wattpad's Watty Awards. Under the title, “Some Monsters Never Die,” the book went on to be the first of a series with Scarsdale Publishing. That same year, she won Marriott Bonvoy's Solo Travel Contest. She won a second Watty Award in 2021.

Comiskey writes speculative fiction, a broad term she said for any kind of fiction that asks, "What if?" Horror, high fantasy, science fiction, paranormal fiction and mystery all fall in this category. She is most drawn to mystery adventure.

“If there's one thing that ties all those different works together, it's that my work is extremely character driven,” Comiskey said. “I love to take a journey with a group of characters who have the kinds of rich, multi-level personalities my favorite real-life humans have.”

To watch "Alone in Tombstone," visit youtube.com/SouthwestAir. To read “Alone in a Tombstone,” visit the Southwest Airlines profile on Wattpad. Comiskey’s work can also be found at eacomiskey.com, amazon.com/stores/E.A.-Comiskey/author/B01L4CXWB6, wattpad.com/user/eacomiskey, facebook.com/eacomiskey, instagram.com/eacomiskey and threads.net/eacomiskey.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Hudson author making waves in film with fiction work