Bridge in the Snow, Fujifilm X-T1 | Claire Lu, 13 (Portola Valley, CA), published in Stone Soup December 2021 A note from Sarah Happy weekend! I hope everyone is having a calm and restful December. If you haven’t had a chance to read Anya Geist’s Born on the First of Two, which was published on the first of this month, I want to direct you to the excerpt we published from the novel in our December issue (you can also scroll down to the end of this email to read it). We also have a lovely interview on our YouTube channel with Anya and Abhi Sukhdial, (which you can view above) where Abhi and Anya talk about character development, the worlds that Anya created in the novel, real-life inspiration, and so much more. If after watching the interview you find yourself hungry for more, there is a longer, more exclusive look inside Anya and her process writing Born on the First of Two that you can view, here. Coinciding with the interview, we have also launched a book page for Born on the First of Two that includes the interview as well as April Yu’s five star review of the novel. Keep visiting the page for other news—reviews, awards, events—regarding Anya and Born on the First of Two! Anya begins with a powerful prologue that draws the reader in by vividly describing a character’s troubling recurring dream. Without knowing any specifics about the plot, the reader learns of the dream (or is it perhaps a memory?) that plagues this character. As readers, we begin to wonder: what could this mean? Who are these dark figures? And why did her parents leave? This compelling beginning of Anya’s novel reminded me of a recent topic covered by William in one of his Saturday Workshops: origin stories. In William’s workshop, the young writers were challenged to imagine the beginnings of a character who might go on to do significant things. In the post summarizing the workshop, you can find examples from participating writers to serve as examples, if you need them. My challenge for you this weekend is to combine the dream concept from Born on the First of Two and the idea of origin stories. First, come up with a character’s life arc, from beginnings that could be considered quite modest, through a life that takes a surprising turn and challenges the expectations for this character’s trajectory. But crucially, have this character be followed by a memory or dream, whether faded or lucid, of an event that happened in the beginning of their life. How does this dream continue to haunt the character? And what does the dream reveal to the reader about the character’s beginnings? Perhaps it is a tragic dream or memory, as in the case of Born on the First of Two. Or maybe it is simply embarrassing– school children laughing at one of their peers. Think about what you want to convey about the character’s motivations and how an event can shape a person’s life. If you’re inspired to create anything based on this weekend writing activity, please consider submitting it to Stone Soup—we love to read your submissions. Until next time, Congratulations to our most recent Flash Contest winners! Our December Flash Contest was based on Creativity Prompt #181 (provided by Molly Torinus, Stone Soup contributor), which challenged participants to write a creation story for a fictional world of their own imagination. For the third consecutive month we set a record for number of submissions, all of them worthy of recognition. Molly’s ingenious prompt led to a breadth of creativity, with creation stories for fully realized worlds containing mathematical sets with biblical influence to anthropomorphic clouds to a dance recital gone wrong. In the end, we selected our usual five winners and five honorable mentions. As always, thank you to all who submitted, and please submit again next month! Congratulations to our Winners and Honorable Mentions, listed below. You can read the winning entries for this contest (and previous ones) at the Stone Soup website. Winners “Darkness” by Kimberly Hu, 9 (Lake Oswego, OR) “Adventure to the Lost Kingdoms” by Tang Li, 9 (Palmetto Bay, FL) “The Beginning, the End, the Rebirth” by Lui Lung, 12 (Danville, CA) “The Fearful Cloud” by Julia Ma, 11 (Portland, OR) “The World of the Grand Staff” by Maya Mourshed, 10 (Silver Spring, MD) Honorable Mentions “One Dance” by Audrey Billington, 10 (Hillsboro, IL) “Math: The Origin” by Lucas Hinds, 13 (Lenoir City, TN) “The Creation of Warland” by Sophie Li, 11 (Palo Alto, CA) “Eternalia” by Brooke Negin, 11 (Kanata, ON, Canada) “The Fourth Dawn” by Divya Srinivasan, 12 (Sammamish, WA) Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Super reviewer April Yu, 13, couldn’t get enough of Anya Geist’s debut novel Born on the First of Two! Don’t miss the latest Book Club Report from Laura Moran, which details the group’s meeting with acclaimed author Lucy Worsley! Young Blogger Ismini Vasiloglou, 12, wrote a glowing review of Tristan Hui’s novel The Other Realm, which won the Stone Soup Book Contest 2020. From Stone Soup December 2021 An Excerpt from Born on the First of Two By Anya Geist, 14 (Worcester, MA) Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. The girl’s breathing was labored and fast, the way it always was when she had this dream, this memory. It was a strange dream; it seemed to linger in her mind, tickling its edges like light in her peripheral vision. She’d had it for as long as she could remember, but she never became quite used to it; every time it came to her in her sleep, she found herself unsettled. The sky was light blue, and the sun radiated its warmth down on the Earth. Birds chirped contentedly in verdant, leafy trees while bees hummed along as they flew from flower to flower, careful not to damage the soft, delicate petals. The girl—then just a baby—sat on the
About
Stone Soup Author Interview: Anya Geist
Stone Soup contributor and winner of the Stone Soup Book Contest 2019 Abhi Sukhdial, 13, talks with former contributor and Stone Soup ’20—21 intern Anya Geist, 14, about her novel Born on the First of Two, which was selected as the Editor’s Choice for the Stone Soup Book Contest 2020 and published on December 1, 2021. The two talk about Anya’s valuable experience as a Stone Soup intern (including her year-long stint as the main interviewer for the Stone Soup Author Interview Series), her intention in making her setting—The Land of the Clouds—as normal as possible, and her unique implement of time travel by way of going underwater. If you’ prefer a more streamlined video, please visit Anya’s book page. 0:34 — Could you tell us more about yourself? 1:00 — What was your favorite part about being a Stone Soup intern? 1:23 — What are some of the things you’ve been working on/have worked on as an intern? 2:08 — How would you compare working for Stone Soup to contributing to Stone Soup? 2:54 — Is fantasy your favorite genre? And if so, why? 3:19 — Is Born on the First of Two your first Fantasy novel? 3:43 — What are some of your favorite fantasy novels? 4:28 — What inspired you to write this kind of fantasy/adventure story? 5:14 — How did you approach the process of world-building? 6:00 — How did you come up with the personality for your main character, Maya? 6:30 — How did you come up with the name “Maya” ? 6:49 — Over the course of the narrative, how does Maya change? 7:34 — How did you come up with personality traits of your secondary characters? 8:22 — How would you describe the relationship between your protagonist and secondary characters? 8:52 — Were any of your characters’ personalities based on people you know? 9:28 — How focused would you say you were on world-building vs. character development? 10:28 — Why did you choose to include the element of time travel in your novel? 11:17 — How did you create the mechanics of time travel within your novel? 12:21 — What is the central message you’d like your readers to take away from the novel? 13:05 — How would you describe your writing process? 14:42 — Is there anything else you’d like to say?
Book Club Report: The Austen Girls, Lucy Worsley
An update from our thirty-first Book Club meeting! On Saturday, September 11th, our final Book Club meeting of the year, we were so very fortunate to be joined by renowned author and historian, Lucy Worsley, to discuss her book, The Austen Girls. The session was small, which meant that we were able to have thorough in-depth conversations with Ms. Worsley about The Austen Girls and the process of writing it, and also about her vast knowledge about life in the Georgian era in England. Participants came prepared with many questions and Ms. Worsley was lively and thorough in her responses. Our Q and A session lasted for the entirety of the book club. What was most notable and interesting to me about the Austen Girls was the immersive detail about daily life which was woven into the fabric of the narrative about two young girls, Jane Austen’s real-life nieces, Fanny and Anna, at the cusp of being “presented to society” with the expectation that they would find husbands. The book covers many weighty and important themes spanning feminism to the criminal justice system, but in doing so, we get what feels like a true window into life during this time, with each scene opening at one character or another’s breakfast table, or sitting room, or library, etc. Our discussion with Ms. Worsley shed further light on the daily experiences of her protagonist with her vast knowledge of the historical record and the very documents that inspired the novel. For instance, Ms. Worsley told us of a series of letters she’s read from Jane Austen to Fanny and Anna sharing her advice about their various marriage prospects, urging them to “avoid this one, he seems a bit shady” or, instead, “maybe look into this one…” What better fodder for a novel!! Ms. Worsley was as generous with her questions for Book Club participants as she was with her answers, prompting engaging discussions about the types of historical fiction participants have read or would perhaps like to write about. Finally, she shared her plans for her next piece of historical fiction which we all look forward to reading. I hope everyone enjoys a warm and festive holiday season and we look forward to welcoming you to our next session of Book Club meetings beginning on January 29th, 2022. I have truly enjoyed leading the Book Club for the past year and half, but I will be stepping away from this role in order to focus my time on my primary role at Stone Soup as the director of the Refugee Project. I’m so excited for you all to meet Maya Mahony, who will be taking over as Book Club facilitator in January. Maya is a graduate student at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and she specializes in Young Adult fiction. I’m sure she will bring so much knowledge to the table as Book Club facilitator and I hope you’ll all join her! Maya’s first Book Club session will cover Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis. Our Next Book (to be discussed on January 29, 2022): Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis
