‘I’m not a Demon’, by Sophia Mokhtari, 13 A note from William Rubel Last week I mentioned that we want you to document your Halloween. And just look at the fabulous painting Sophia Mokhtari, 13, has sent us! We couldn’t resist using it in this week’s Newsletter. Although it has a very Halloween-y feel, Sophia emphasises that her painting “is not a demon. It’s of a person that cannot express themselves vocally. It’s all in the eyes!!” It certainly is… Next week we will post a wider selection of your Halloween art submissions on the website. Emma Wood, our Editor, will also consider them for the magazine. Costumes, magnificent pumpkins, baskets of candy, houses that are decked out in Halloween scariness are all fit subjects. And, like Sophia, you may think of something else. Upload your Halloween submissions in the art/photography section of our submissions page. Tips for writers: get it finished! As longtime readers of this newsletter know, I am a writer in my life outside of Stone Soup. I write articles for magazines, I have written two books, and I write book chapters for edited anthologies. I have been in London for two weeks and have another to go. I am here staying with my partner. And, except for a little Stone Soup work, all I am doing is writing. The River Thames is less than half a block away and the lights of the city are right outside the apartment window. There are lots and lots of things do and see, but so far I have been leaving the sights to others and I’ve writing about eight hours every day. I am in the finishing stages of a book I started in 2002. That is a long time to be working on a single project. I am not sure what the analogy is—let’s say it’s like a very very long race. What makes writing different from a race is that you know you finished the race when you cross the finish line. But, when is a story or a poem or a book “finished?” There is no line to cross. Creative projects are finished when we set the pencil down or stop typing and say, well, it’s done. There is a saying: “Perfection is the enemy of the good.” Which is to say, if you strive for a perfection that cannot be attained you’ll never get done. We are always learning and growing as artists and there gets to be a point when you have to declare what you are working on finished and then move on to the next piece. This is probably the struggle that I am in now. I need to stop writing new material to focus on the hundreds of pages of writing that I have already done that needs shaping. For those of you who are working on longer works or who have one or more stories in various states of completion there are times when you have to take a hard look at what you have, and then make tough judgments. You may decide that some pieces are not worth pursuing because you are no longer interested in them. That is fine. But, if you have something that is almost done, or could be almost done, set aside some time and get to work. I think every author has his or her own rituals. As a rule, authors who are successful (meaning they get work finished), often have a routine they follow. Like, they write at the same time every day or every few days for a certain amount of time, or until they’ve written a certain number of words. For those of you who are serious about your writing, I encourage you to find way to fit it into your life, no matter how busy it is. If you are an early riser, then getting up Saturday morning before your family, fixing yourself some breakfast, and writing for an hour might be a pattern you could start now that would serve you well for your entire life. Which brings me back to Stone Soup. Whenever you have a story or poem you think is finished, and that Emma might be interested in, please upload it to our submissions page! Join the Stone Soup Blogger Community We’ve been thrilled to read the comments on our first bloggers’ posts! If you want to get more involved with Stone Soup than an occasional story or poem then please consider blogging for us, too. We are keeping open our call for more bloggers, and we are open to any subject you might be interested in. Get inspired by our first group of blogs, accessible via the links below. Have a read, and leave your comments on our website! Leo Smith: Sports Sarah Cymrot: Books Lukas Cooke: Nature Jessica Crocker: Sewing Until Next WeekWilliam From Stone Soup September/October 2000 The Healer’s Apprentice By Laurel Lathrop, 13 Illustrated by Chavaya Beebee-Galvão, 13 Murmurs and whispers buzzed through the darkened hall. No one had any idea why the elders had called a meet, but that did not hinder them from thinking up reasons. Some believed that it was merely a routine meeting to discuss the upcoming harvest celebration, though they could not explain why it was conducted in such secrecy. Others stoutly maintained that the worst had happened; someone outside the Arborus clan had learned the sacred healing-knowledge and they were called to meeting to discuss how to react to the threat. A group of girls near the front of the hall were particularly talkative, whispering and giggling loudly among themselves. One of the girls participated little in the conversation, but listened and smiled at the exuberance of her friends. She was one of the few not targeted in the girls’ good-natured teasing; for a reason no one could explain, Keris was off limits. Though she was well-liked to an extent, the girls seemed to understand that she was somewhat different; Keris had always been on the edges
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Saturday Newsletter: October 21, 2017
“I envied the owl. It could go wherever it wanted, and I was trapped in a ghost’s boat on the river” Illustrator Noel Lunceford, 9, for A Lasso for Adagio by Julian March, 12. Published September/October 2003. A note from William Rubel A few weeks ago I put out the call for Stone Soup-aged bloggers. Several of you responded and so I am very happy to announce our first young bloggers live on the Stone Soup website: Lukas Cooke, today writing about nature; Jessica Crocker, who brings us a sewing blog beginning with a tutorial on how to sew a book cover; Sarah Cymrot, writing today about Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451; and Leo Smith, who is writing about sports, beginning with what he wrote at the end of the summer regarding the trade options for Kyre Irving. Welcome, bloggers! All of us at Stone Soup love to see your first blog posts and look forward to what you will be sharing in future. And, there is always room for more. Blogging can offer some of you writers a venue for writing on a much wider range of subjects than we publish in the monthly issues of Stone Soup. If others of you are interested in blogging, let us know by posting a free submission or suggestion to our blogging category. Meanwhile, do please visit our new bloggers and leave them a comment. Teacher bloggers wanted We are also interested in hosting blogs by teachers with strong creative writing programs. If that is you (and you know who you are) please write to me or post a proposal to the blogging submissions category above, and we can talk about blogging possibilities. The main thing we ask is that you be consistent with posts–something like once per week to once per month. Halloween contest! When I was a child, Halloween was for little kids. This is no longer the case. Where I live, in Santa Cruz, California, about 8,000 adults gather in the downtown on Halloween to show off their costumes. It is amazing! Pumpkin carving has also developed from the very simple triangle-shaped eyes to fantastically evocative or elaborate pumpkin creations. Get ready to document your Halloween. We want to see your pictures of your creations, your costumes, and your experiences of Halloween 2017. I’ll remind you again next Saturday and, of course, the contest will end on November 1, so please take this as a first reminder and an invitation to start sending us your pictures for a special Halloween context gallery on our website. Just send them into our Artwork submissions category and include the words ‘Halloween 2017’ in the title. Until Next WeekWilliam From Stone Soup July/August 2007 Ellie’s Market By Alice Mar-Abe, 11 Illustrated by Emina S. Sonnad, 12 “Alexandra! Alexandra!” came the excited voice of my younger cousin Clara from the hallway. “You get to take Max and me shopping for Halloween costumes!” I smiled at her seven-year-old excitement as I stepped out into the crisp autumn air, filled with leaves in a hurry to get to the ground. Halloween was coming, and that meant lots of shopping to be done, and that meant I would get to go to my second favorite place in the world: Ellie’s Market. A delicious aroma of pumpkin spice wafted out as I pulled open the door and the cheery jingling of bells met my ears. I had arrived at my second home, and at the counter was my best friend, Cecil, who owned Ellie’s Market with his brother Harry You couldn’t exactly romp and play with Cecil the way two kids would, and that is what many people remember doing with their best friends, but in a way Cecil was even better. He was almost like a grandfather. Oh yes, I had other kid friends, but hanging out with Cecil was fun…/more
Saturday Newsletter: October 14, 2017
“Just then the Rose appeared with her rosellas” Illustrator Cameron Osteen, 13, for Fort Cuniculus by Ralph Kabo, 11. Published September/October 2005. A note from William Rubel Well, this week has been a strange week. I was supposed to go to Napa to give a talk on the history of bread. The conference was to begin on Tuesday and I was to speak on Wednesday. On Monday, only vaguely aware there was a fire near Napa, I was surprised by a call from the conference organizers saying the conference was cancelled. The speakers were then asked to go to San Francisco to meet for a couple of hours to at least talk. The city was covered by a haze. The smoke was dense enough to make one’s eyes sting. One of the speakers had been staying with friends and on Sunday night, a couple of hours after the fires started, was awakened by his friends who told him he needed to pack up and leave. By the time he got to the bottom of the country road he was driving through fire on both sides of the road. Yes. Scary. Today, Friday, there is a haze and distinct smell of smoke where I live, in Santa Cruz, 130 miles from the fire. Strange and even frightening times. If any of our readers were evacuated, lost houses, or live in the San Francisco Bay Area and know the area well we’d like to read your writing about the fire, whether non-fiction or fiction, or see your art. Writing about conflict My colleague, Jane Levi, sent me a link to an article about Bana al-Abed, an eight-year-old Syrian girl who tweeted about her life in Aleppo. Now as a refugee in Turkey, she continues to tweet about the war in Syria. I recommend this article from the New York Times that introduces her to the many of us who have not been following her twitter feed. Her book,Dear World: A Syrian Girl’s Story of War and Plea for Peace was just published and is available in bookshops and at Amazon.com. If you read the book, then please submit your review to Stone Soup. We would like to read and publish art and writing by children who are caught up the many conflicts around the world. If you might be interested in helping us to give a voice to children who are living through difficult events in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Sudan, or elsewhere, please reply to this newsletter. This goes for Stone Soup-aged readers or adults. I am flying to London on Monday to work on my book for three weeks (I plan on writing most days) so I will not promise a prompt response, but please write, anyway, and I promise I will get back to you. Several of you answered our call for young bloggers. Thank you. We should have several new blogs up and running to announce next week. I also received a letter this week from Ruth Nakazibwe, who lives in Uganda. She who wrote a wonderful story, ‘The Magician and the Birds, that we published in 1997. It is always a pleasure to hear from Stone Soup authors. Do keep writing to us! So, until next week, William Using objects in place of dialogue La fille mal gardée – Pas de ruban from Act I (The Royal Ballet) 188,665 views La Fille mal Garde is a wonderful comic ballet. It was first performed in the 1780s which makes it one of the oldest ballets that is still performed. The scene I include here is a duet between Lise and Colas, the man she loves. They dance with a ribbon. They wind and unwind the ribbon tying and untying each other. The scene takes place very early in the ballet—very early in the story as their relationship begins to take a more serious turn. As a ballet is a story told without words, this ribbon can be thought of as taking the place of dialogue. I want you to imagine what they would be saying to each other if this were a story told with words rather than a story told through movement. I feel pretty certain that they’d be having a fast moving, flirtatious conversation. You can tell the same story in many different ways—for example, through images, words, music, dance, and video. I am including this here today to get you thinking about how you might tell the same story differently as you shift from one story-telling format to another. From Stone Soup March/April 2000 A Puzzling Story By Erin Brock, 13 Illustrated by Nikkie Zanevsky, 13 Rachel loved puzzles. Jigsaw puzzles. Thousand-piece clear-blue-sky and flowery-meadow puzzles. Cute little puppy-dog-face puzzles. Any kind of puzzle suited her fancy. She loved the challenge of putting one together, piece by piece. Discovering the piece that fit was always thrilling and a small victory over the manufacturer who had labeled the puzzle “difficult.” For her thirteenth birthday, Rachel received a package in the mail from her Aunt Lola, who shared her passion for puzzles. When she ripped open the box, she found a one-thousand- five-hundred-piece puzzle with a painting of a colonial farm and the surrounding forest on it. It was very detailed, with a mother working in the garden while two girls hung up the wash and a boy led the cows out to pasture. A farmer worked in the fields and a large wooden barn stood off to the left. At the edge of the field was a forest and a gravel road running through it. The farmhouse and various animals were also included in the busy scene. Rachel sat working on her puzzle: “Colonial Farm: A Painting by George Smits.” She put together most of the puzzle pieces and was working on the forest. Being the imaginative type, Rachel thought the girls didn’t look like they were having much fun. She wondered if those colonial girls could ever have fun like she had, perhaps in the forest. She thought, That
