Our authors tell Stone Soup contributor and 20-21 intern Anya Geist, 14, their favorite things about writing. 0:24 – Tatiana Schrayer, 12 1:07 – Liam Hancock, 12 1:24 – Georgia Marshall, 11 2:07 – Analise Braddock, 9 2:26 – Lucy Rados, 13 2:57 – Shelby Miller, 11 3:10 – Tilly Marlow, 11 3:40 – Katie Pausin, 11 4:03 – Enni Harlan, 13 4:19 – Sasha Miller, 8 4:26 – Lena Aloise, 11
Stone Soup Author Interview: Katie Pausin
Stone Soup contributor and 20-21 intern Anya Geist, 14, talks with Stone Soup newcomer Katie Pausin, 11, about her unfinished picture book about a traveling penguin, how Erin Hunter’s Warrior Cats series inspires her to write in different points of view, and the importance of quiet in breeding creativity. 0:19 – How were you introduced to Stone Soup? 0:47 – Do you subscribe to Stone Soup and if so for how long have you been a subscriber? 0:54 – Have you ever submitted anything to Stone Soup? 1:12 – Do you think you would want to submit anything in the future? 1:35 – What is your favorite part about the Writing Workshop? 1:55 – Which Writing Workshop was your favorite? 2:16 – What is your favorite part about Book Club? 2:44 – What was your favorite part about the Summer Camp? 3:10 – What was your picture book about? 3:36 – Are there any specific books, authors, or artists that inspire your writing/art? 4:30 – Are there any artists whose work you particularly like? 4:55 – Do you get artistic inspiration from your own life? 5:17 – Do you prefer to write in the genre of personal narrative? 5:45 – What kind of stuff do you like to draw? 6:10 – What is your favorite thing about writing? 6:37 – Do you like to include descriptive language in your writing? 6:45 – What is your favorite thing about art? 7:12 – How much time do you spend writing/making art? 8:18 – Is the art you do for fun different from the art you do for school? 9:23 – Do you think the writing you do for fun is different from the writing you do for school? 10:42 – Do you have a favorite place to write or draw? 11:25 – Is there anything else you want to say? 11:39 – Do you have any advice about art for your peers? 12:58 – Do you have any writing advice for your peers? 13:36 – If you could tell somebody about Stone Soup, what would you say?
Author Adam Rex reviews Abhi Sukhdial’s novella Three Days Till EOC
We sent Adam Rex, the author of so many wonderful books himself, a copy of Abhimanyu Sukhdial’s Three Days Till EOC, the winning work in Stone Soup’s Book Contest 2019, published last September. We were so thrilled to receive this incredible review of the book from him. Thank you, Mr. Rex, and congratulations, Abhi! There are a lot of stories about the end of the world, and almost as many fictional methods for bringing that end about (zombies, war, fairy invasion, alien planning committee to build a hyperspace bypass). Not a few of them are about the very real prospect that we’ll do ourselves in with global warming. That we’ll drown beneath the weight of all the stuff we thought we couldn’t do without. I’ve seen these stories before. Every one of them has been written by a true believer—an author who warns us that we have to change course for the sake of our children, or our children’s children. But there’s something especially arresting about a story of global warming catastrophe written by an author who just may be young enough to see it come about in his own lifetime. Three Days till EOC is special because author Abhimanyu Sukhdial makes you feel an urgency he no doubt feels himself. And because, after walking you to that edge, he also has the wisdom to imagine a way we all might take a step back. Climate scientist Graham Alison is one of only a thousand or so people left alive in the year 2100. And while his fellow humans are resigned to abandoning Earth and starting fresh on Mars, Alison remains hopeful that the coming climate cataclysm can be turned back. He sets upon a journey that’s equal parts survivalist adventure and classic science fiction, building upon the work of humanity’s best and brightest to travel through space and time. And when Alison finds you can’t change the course of a river by throwing a few stones, author Sukhdial leads him to a solution that could only exist in the most hopeful science fiction: a massive social media network that actually does what it’s supposed to do—make the world a better place by giving us a common purpose. At 12, Sukhdial already understands what many of us never learn: that often the only hope of reaching someone is to pull them close, find a personal connection, and tell a story. For hero Graham Alison, it’s how you save the world. But for author Sukhdial, it’s also the way to his readers’ hearts. Three Days Till EOC by Abhimanyu Sukhdial, published by Children’s Art Foundation–Stone Soup Inc. (2020) Buy your copies at all good book stores, from Amazon, or from the Stone Soup online store here.
