Flash contest #19: Write a backwards story The week commencing August 3 (Daily Creativity Prompt #96) was our nineteenth week of flash contests, with a prompt that asked our entrants to write a story that goes backwards. The entries we received covered a broad range of topics, from family to animals to weather to space travel to time travel to friendship, and much more, even including a few poems. We greatly enjoyed reading all of the entries we received, and loved how the plots of the stories were slowly revealed as they traveled backwards. Well done to all of our entrants for taking on the difficult task of telling a story backwards, and particular congratulations to our Winners and Honorable Mentions, listed below. Read on past the list of winners to experience the Winners’ work for yourselves. Winners The Project by Katie Bergsieker, 12 (Denver, CO) Surprise by Scarlet He, 9 (Scarsdale, NY) Once and For All by Joyce Hong, 10 (Oakville, ON) This Day Has Come Too Soon by Ella Pierce, 12 (Hudson, WI) Sea of Souls by Daniel Wei, 13 (Weddington, NC) Honorable Mentions Jewish Friend, Backwards End by Becca Jacobson, 11 (Montclair, NJ) Falling by Vaishnavi Kumbala, 12 (Metairie, LA) The Irrefusable Offer by Kyler Min, 9 (Vienna, VA) On Top of the World by Mihika Sakharpe, 11 (Frisco, TX) Last Thoughts by Ismini Vasiloglou, 11 (Atlanta, GA/Athens, Greece) Katie Bergsieker, 12Denver, CO The Project Katie Bergsieker, 12 “Sophie! Thank goodness you’re here! Look!” my best friend Kylie cries, pointing. I follow her finger. She is pointing to a boy that has my hair color, eyes, skin tone, and more. He looks almost identical to me. “Stephen?” I breathe, unbelieving. “I’m told that I belong to the McGrafty family? I was taken by a van while playing with my sister, you see…” His voice is deeper than I expected. “Stephen,” I say as he pauses for breath. “I am your sister.” My eyes, and his, fill with tears. I should start from the beginning. And my beginning actually starts with a very perturbed me. No. “I’m not going to the carnival, Mom,” I say, exasperated. “I know, but honey, can’t you take a break?” Mom says. “You know that you don’t have to be working on your… ahem… project every second of the day, right?” “I do, actually,” I mumble. “I can’t go to the carnival because… oh, Kylie invited me to come over to her house.” That wasn’t true, but Mom couldn’t have guessed. I spend a ton of time with my BFF, Kylie. At least I did, before I got sucked into my important project. Mom raises one eyebrow. “Fine. I’ll go to the carnival with George, then. Have fun with Kylie. Do you need me to drive you?” “No, I can walk,” I reply. “Kylie lives a block away, so what’s the point of driving, anyway?” “Okay,” Mom says, turning to pick up my baby brother George. “Be back by six. And what is your “project”, again?” Mom always asks about the project. Now it’s my turn to raise my eyebrow. “Mom, I told you already. I’m not going to tell you!” I swore to secrecy that I wouldn’t tell anyone. I’m not about to break that promise now. Mom, as usual, takes forever to pack all of George’s things before finally heading out the garage door. “Bye, Sophie!” she calls over an upset, screaming George who doesn’t want to go into his stroller. Instead of going to Kylie’s house right away (I didn’t say that I was going to, did I?), I plop down in front of our computer. I open up a new browser and type: Sophie McGrafty. My name. The internet gives me many articles that I can type on. They’re all the same as usual though. Sophie McGrafty looking for missing twin. Twin missing. Where is Sophie McGrafty’s twin? Explorers search for thirteen year old girl’s twin. No twin found for Sophie McGrafty, 13. I should explain. Five years ago, when searching in my mom and dad’s closet, I found a shoebox. There was a birth certificate inside. Stephen King McGrafty, it said. Born February 2. My birthday. Digging around in the shoebox some more, I had found a faded newspaper article. Stephen McGrafty, 2, reported missing, it said. I scanned the article. ‘Two year old Stephen McGrafty was playing with his twin sister, Sophie, when a van drove up to their house. Sophie ran into the house, but Stephen stayed, hypnotized by the beautiful dog in the van’s window. By the time Sophie’s parents realized Stephen wasn’t home for dinner, the van, and Stephen, were gone. The search continues, and if you see this van, please call 123-HELP.’ Of course, I didn’t remember any of this happening. I don’t even remember Stephen. Mom and Dad never talk about him. When I looked at this article, I made it my vow to try to find Stephen. After all, it was totally my fault. What kind of twin leaves their sibling behind when a creepy van pulls up in front of their house? I’m getting close. The other day, I found an article saying that a couple in Utah, only a few hours away from our house in Colorado, have a kid that they found on the side of the street. They picked him up and named him Bob. And another article said that someone named Bob Dah could be the Stephen McGrafty that we had been looking for this whole time. So I am on my search for Bob Dah. But first I have to walk over to Kylie’s house. For real. I need to ask her for a favor. I lace up my sneakers and head out. When I get to Kylie’s house, I see paparazzi, police cars, vans, and more parked outside. I push my way through and see my best friend sitting in the back corner. I look and see a boy identical to me.
Book Club Report: Paint the Wind, by Pam Muñoz Ryan
An update from our sixteenth and seventeenth Book Club meetings! Over the past two weeks, the Stone Soup Book Club has been reading Paint the Wind by Pam Muñoz Ryan. The novel is about a girl, Maya, who has lived a very sheltered life with her grandmother after her parents’ death–that is, until she goes to live with her mother’s family in Wyoming, people who love horses and the great outdoors. Both of our sessions started with a “social breakout room,” inspired by the ARTT room in one of our previous books, Harbor Me. Since we have very fascinating discussions in Book Club, we figured that it would be nice if we could get to know each other better. In these breakout rooms, participants are in groups of 2 or 3, and are welcome to just talk to each other for 5-7 minutes. Most everyone seems to enjoy these social breakout rooms. Our first week of discussions included breakout rooms in which we talked about character and setting in Paint the Wind, both what we think about them and what role they play in the plot. We decided that the characters seemed to mirror the setting they were in, and that the settings provided a strong contrast between a sheltered life and an open life. Next, we talked a bit about the role of wild horses in the book. The horses play important roles, as they are something that connects Maya to the mother she never really knew. We also talked about how the horses, who live in the wild, relate to the fact that Maya wants to live a more open, less rigid, life. In our second week of discussions, we first split into two breakout rooms to discuss the end of the book. There are several dramatic situations near the end of Paint the Wind, and we talked about how they caused Maya to grow as a character, as well whether we found those situations plausible. Furthermore, we brainstormed about themes for the book, which we shared out in our whole group. We came up with: family, freedom, and change. Next, we read sections of an interview with Pam Muñoz Ryan about Paint the Wind. It was fascinating to hear the author’s thought process. Finally, since the idea of change, and of expanding our horizons, is so important in Paint the Wind, we all thought about times when we had tried something new and expanded our horizons, and then shared out. It was cool to hear what everyone had to say! We will begin discussing our next book (see below) on August 19. Our Next Book (To be discussed on August 19 and August 26): The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley The Stone Soup Book Club is open to all Stone Soup contributors and subscribers, age 9-13. We meet every Wednesday at 1 p.m. PST (4 p.m. EST) for one hour via Zoom to discuss our chosen book. Join us!
Weekly Writing Workshop #19, Friday August 7, 2020: Writing Inspired By An Archival Photograph
An update from our nineteenth Weekly Writing Workshop! A summary of the workshop, plus some of the output published below Our conversation on August 7 was joined by young writers from across the US, as well as in Canada, the UK, and France. This week, our topic was using archival photographs to inspire our writing. After looking at a few archival photographs, we then began to discuss the ways in which we could use an archival photograph. Do we create a fictional story around the photograph? If we know the true story around the photo, do we recount that tale? Do we use the photograph as a connection between real life and a story? For an example of how we can utilize photos, we read an excerpt from Ransom Riggs’ book Hollow City, which is the second novel in his series Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Riggs incorporates archival photographs into his books, using them as footage of the peculiar things that occur. We also read an excerpt from a short story published in Stone Soup in the May/June issue in 2002: “Kisses from Cecile” by Marie Agnello. Agnello uses letters that were sent to her great-grandmother by a French penpal to tell a story. After this, we set to writing our own stories inspired by archival photos. Via Screen Share on Zoom, we were provided with several photos to use, though many participants used archival photos of their own family, instead. Keep reading to experience some of the powerful writing we were given a glimpse of in this session. The Writing Challenge: Use an archival photograph to inspire a story. The Participants: Lucy, Maddie, Shreya, Peri, Ever, Suman, Liam, Tilly, Madeline, Kanav, Simran, Abi, Charlotte, Aditi, Vishnu, Nami, Janani, and more… The Two Men Araliya, 11 Araliya, 11Sandy Hook, CT Two young men were walking on the road They both were carrying large bags In one was clothing for both of them But in the other bag was something unexpected The bag had a foul odor and odd shape No one knew what was in it. People supposed it was an old guitar But little did they know that it was a dead body Haunted Help Peri Gordon, 10 I stand outside the house the way I do every day when I take a walk. I think it’s just cruel that people like me have to live in tents, homeless, while a house stands uninhabited. They say it’s haunted, that no one in their right mind would go in there. Peri Gordon, 10Sherman Oaks, CA Suddenly, I’m compelled to go in. I know better, but I ignore that. I guess I’m not in my right mind, I think. I walk to the door. It’s locked. I climb in through the window. And oh my goodness, I’m inside a house! A house! I’ve only been in a house once, for the town festival the mayor holds every decade. And no one even talked to me. I limp around, taking in the big windows, the comfortable parlor, the kitchen. Then I come to the stairs. I have never seen stairs before. Not indoors, anyway. The festival was restricted to one room; I would’ve found the stairs then if I could. But the mayor wouldn’t want poor people on his staircase, would he? It’s a marvel he invites us at all. I sigh and slowly make my way up the stairs, holding on tight to the banister. At the top, I relax my fingers and let go, then drift around upstairs. Everyone was wrong; there are no ghosts here. None at all, though if anyone found me they’d be convinced I was one. I must be pretty creepy, roaming around here, touching the sturdy wood of the walls, playing with the lights, even taking a bath. But now I know: The rumors are false. This is a perfectly normal home. It must have been abandoned long ago and never bought, never sold . . . and I doubt anyone with money plans to inhabit this “haunted” house anytime soon . . . it’s far too big for just two people, but, gazing at the town, I wonder if maybe, just maybe, it would be just big enough to be a home for the homeless . . . I run back to my tent and tell Mother we’re moving in. Madeline Kline, 12Potomac, MD (Somewhat) Empty Alley Madeline Kline, 12 The alley was deserted when the man came with a camera to snap a picture. The flash startled everything there scaring the rodents back into their holes, and causing the birds to flutter up into the air. All the unseen life truly deserted the alley until the scent of food drew them back. Dark as shadow and unseen by the man and the flash, the creatures inhabit the alley once again. Lucy Rados, 13Buffalo, NY Untitled Lucy Rados, 13 He clutched his child close. The imposing background provided a drastic change in landscape from what the father and son were used to. Elliot had been raised here at Manchester by the Sea in his family’s mansion, but as soon as he could, he had left for the country, where his heart and mind could roam free. Soon, however, his father had called him back to the mansion, for his mother had been taken ill. Elliot had gone ahead, leaving his young son with his wife in the country. Tragedy struck not too soon after Elliot’s arrival: his mother passed away. Then, a few weeks after the funeral, his father died as well from pneumonia. Now, he, as the oldest child, was the heir to his mansion. His family was sent for, and they moved from their simplistic life to one of glamour. He hadn’t wanted to subject his family to this closed life where one seemed to be trapped with no escape, but it was his duty to his parents’ memories, and so he prepared for everything to change. “Welcome,” he
