Wooden Sunset by Amelia Driver, 10 (Woodacre, CA), published in the July/August 2021 Issue of Stone Soup A note from Emma Today, I would like to talk about Nora Heiskell’s quietly beautiful and incredibly moving novella, Get Myself a Rocking Chair, which we published in full in our July/August issue. There is so much I love about her novella—from the way she draws inspiration from Norman Blake’s evocative song “Church Street Blues” to her transparent, careful sentences and perfectly paced plot. But what I would like to talk about today is the way Nora has built her characters and their world. Both are so rich and full that as I read, I became convinced that the characters continued to live their lives, and the sun continued to rise and set in their world, even “off stage” (or rather, off-page). It’s that feeling you get when you finish a great TV show or novel—that the characters are still out there and you are simply not getting the privilege of peeking in on their lives anymore. Whenever I have that feeling, I know a world and its people have been carefully, convincingly created. This week, I would like you to carefully read or reread Nora’s novella. As you do, think about this question of the characters and their world: what makes them so convincing? For me, it’s largely a combination of the small, specific details she includes, the unique language each character uses—they all talk in distinct ways—and the way we learn about them through their interactions, rather than through exposition or summary. What makes them real for you? You might also think about one of your favorite novels or shows. What brings the world to life? Finally, I would like you to invent a world and a set of at least three characters in it. Write up descriptions of the place and the people. Be as specific as possible. Then, write a short piece set in that world. Let all the details you invented surface, but don’t force them into the story! See how having this background knowledge (rather than inventing as you go) adds depth to your writing. If you read our submissions FAQ carefully, you will notice that we do not accept novella or book-length submissions during the year. Nora submitted Rocking Chair to our book contest, and we loved it so much, we asked her if we could publish it in the magazine. This could be you! Our book contest is ending soon, and we can’t wait to read your work. And remember, we consider all submissions for potential publication. Until next week, Book Contest 2021 For information on submitting to the Stone Soup Book Contest 2021, please click here. To submit your manuscript, please visit our submittable site. Congratulations to our most recent Flash Contest winners! Our July Flash Contest was based on Creativity Prompt #160—provided by Jane Levi, Stone Soup Director—which challenged participants to choose one proverb from a list of five ( “A stitch in time saves nine,” “The early bird catches the worm,” “A problem shared is a problem halved,” “A leopard cannot change its spots,” and “Absence makes the heart grow fonder”), and write a story in which the opposite was true. As we have come to expect from our brilliant participants, the individuality, creativity, and outright quality of the work was breathtaking. Stories ranged from humorous to serious to heartbreaking, taking us on journeys to the animal kingdom, the times of Greek myth, a college campus, and much, much more! In fact, the breadth of quality apparent in this month’s submissions was so great that we selected two stories—”The Early Bird May Catch the Worm, but it Is Never Too Late to Get in the Game” by Phoenix Crucillo and “A Vacation, an Idiom, and a Wedding” by Joyce Hong—to be published on the blog at a forthcoming date. As always, thank you to all who submitted, and please submit again next month! In particular, we congratulate 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 “Mortal Complex” by Arishka Jha, 12 (Redwood City, CA) “The Early Bird Doesn’t Get the Worm” by Nova Macknik-Conde, 9 (Brooklyn, NY) “Absence Makes the Heart Grow Bitter” by Pranjoli Sadhukha, 11 (Newark, OH) “A Trifle Shared Is… Big Trouble” by Daniel Shorten, 10 (Mallow, ROI) “Weighing Threads” by Eliya Wee, 11 (Menlo Park, CA) Honorable Mentions “Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder—or Not!” by Sinan Li, 11 (Allendale, NJ) “All for a Root Beer Latte” by Yutia Li, 12 (Houston, TX) “In Which Later Is Better” by Serena Lin, 10 (Scarsdale, NY) “How the Leopard Changed His Spots (with Apologies to Rudyard Kipling) by Ava Shorten, 11 (Mallow, ROI) “7 Days” by Chloe Yang, 12 (Cranbury, NJ) Chosen for the Stone Soup Blog “The Early Bird May Catch the Worm, but it Is Never Too Late to Get in the Game” by Phoenix Crucillo, 12 (Los Angeles, CA) “A Vacation, an Idiom, and a Wedding” by Joyce Hong, 11 (Oakville, Ontario, CA) Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Margaret, 13, reviewed the 1973 memoir Farewell to Manzanar, written by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston about Jeanne’s experiences in the Japanese internment camps during WWII. Aviva, 13, reviewed Blue Balliet’s 2004 mystery novel Chasing Vermeer. Ismini Vasiloglou, our newest regular blogger, wrote an inspirational personal narrative “Reflecting on a Fault.” Calling all 9-14-year-olds to Virtual Summer Camp! It’s not too late to join our summer classes with Young Inklings–we have a few spaces left in all our July classes. Each interactive writing camp runs for two hours per day, Monday through Thursday, with plenty of prompts and activities for you to take away and use outside class, too. Have fun writing and learning with us this month! July 19-22 (Starting this Monday!) – practice creative Food Writing with Jane July 26-29 – learn from two generations who have started journals before in Start Your Own Literary Journal
About
Saturday Newsletter: July 10, 2021
Ember Cube (oil pastel) by Cyrus Kummer, 10 (St. Louis, MO) and published in the July/August 2021 Issue of Stone Soup A note from Ryan A Little Bit About Me Since this is my first newsletter as the editorial intern for Stone Soup’s Editor-in-Chief Emma Wood, I wanted to take a moment to briefly introduce myself. I’m a rising junior at the University of Richmond, where I’m double-majoring in Journalism and Leadership Studies. I currently reside in my hometown of Chicago, a few blocks away from the mailbox where I submitted my first Stone Soup story, which appeared on the “Honor Roll” of the September/October 2016 issue. Aside from being a passionate writer and avid reader, I enjoy running in my neighborhood, playing soccer, and going on walks with my friends and parents. Writing Activity Now that the Fourth of July has come and gone, we find ourselves immersed in the middle of the summer. Characterized by its longer days and warmer nights, this stretch of the year is effectively captured by Cyrus Kummer’s pastel drawing Ember Cube—its vibrant orange tones evoke the sweltering heat of summer. There is something comforting about the heat, enveloping you in a warm hug the second you step out your front door. As you head out, I urge you to grab the latest edition of Stone Soup and flip the pages to the first few chapters of The Other Realm by Tristan Hui, the 2020 winner of the Book Contest. The novel, which chronicles two friends battling familial conflict and discovering the meaning of home, engages readers from the beginning with descriptive details of the rooms within their respective homes. This week, I invite you to write about your favorite place, whether it be a room in your home, a store in your town, or a family-favorite vacation spot, and capture the small details in the environment. Think about the sounds in the location—can you hear a whisper of voices nearby or the cars rumbling past? Notice if there are any specific aspects within the place that you wouldn’t find elsewhere—is there paint missing on the walls from hanging photographs or are there rings on the coffee table left behind by mugs filled with warm beverages? Write down everything you observe there. You can use your written description to fill in the setting for a longer story or novel, or it can stand on its own as a brief vignette or poem. Till next time, Book Contest 2021 For information on submitting to the Stone Soup Book Contest 2021, please click here. To submit your manuscript, please visit our submittable site. Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Ismini, 12, wrote a glowing five-star review of V.E. Schwab’s 2020 historical fantasy novel The Invisible Life of Addie Larue. Make sure to read April’s (13) review of Marissa Meyer’s 2016 novel, Heartless, a speculative prequel to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Priscilla, 8, wrote about her experience seeing Machu Picchu viscachas for the first time. Anirudh, 13, wrote a brilliant and fastidious essay on the history of socialism from the Age of Reason to the Cold War Calling all 9-14-year-olds to Virtual Summer Camp! It’s not too late to join our summer classes with Young Inklings–we have a few spaces left in all our July classes. Each interactive writing camp runs for two hours per day, Monday through Thursday, with plenty of prompts and activities for you to take away and use outside class, too. Have fun writing and learning with us this month! July 12-15 (starting this Monday!) – join our founder and original teacher William for his Playwriting class July 19-22 – practice creative Food Writing with Jane (grab a lemon and click the image on the right to try a sample activity) July 26-29 – learn from two generations who have started journals before in Start Your Own Literary Journal – with Stone Soup ’20—21 intern Anya & Jane July 26-29 – get a new perspective on Creative Writing Through Art with Jiang From Stone Soup July/August 2021 from The Other Realm By Tristan Hui, 15 (Menlo Park, CA) Illustrated by Rosemary Brandon, 10 (Nashville, TN) Chapter One Continued All About the Two Realms introduced the concept that there was more than one realm in existence, that there was another realm below the one in which Montero sprawled, made up of people similar to humans but not entirely the same. This was possibly the detail that sank the idea—no one in Montero was ready to welcome an alien race to their city. According to Dr. Colton, if you believed in both realms, it was possible to travel between them when a black moon coincided with a low tide—and in the lower realm, it was common knowledge that the upper one existed. Dr. Arnold Colton and his book were banned from Montero and the surrounding region almost immediately after its release, the publishers pulled out of their contract with the city’s library, and most anyone who had previously been fascinated by this new worldview stowed the book hastily somewhere dark and never spoke of their infatuation with it again—but Henry Morroe felt no shame in taking instruction from a banned book, and neither did his daughter. It was said that this realm held an island that provided the perfect star-charting vantage point, with spectacular views of a few planets not yet known to the people of Montero. The sleek black rock rose up out of the water and gave way quickly to dense forest—not a grain of sand to be found, despite the vast desert that stretched out across the strait. Apparently, this enclave was no tropical vacation spot but the trade capital of the realm and abuzz with all nature of activities. People of all shapes and sizes flocked to the isle to sell a variety of colorful, extraordinary goods, and many of them liked it so much that they simply stayed. The capital city
Saturday Newsletter: July 3, 2021
Night (acrylic)by Rosemary Brandon, 10 (Nashville, TN) and published in the July/August 2021 Issue of Stone Soup A note from Sarah The July/August issue is out! This issue looks a little different than most, since there are only two long stories: “Get Myself a Rocking Chair” by Nora Heiskell, 12, and an excerpt from Tristan Hui’s forthcoming book The Other Realm, which won our Book Contest last year. I want to draw your attention to the opening line of Tristan’s book. Tristan begins The Other Realm with a seemingly simple sentence, but one that leaves the reader wanting to know more: “The mind of Azalea Morroe’s father was coming apart.” What a way to start a story! There’s so much in this short sentence—who is Azalea Morroe? Why is her father’s mind coming apart? And how exactly? There’s only one way to find out, and that’s to keep reading (and once you finish the excerpt, you can pre-order the book to learn the whole story). With this sentence, Tristan starts off her book in a compelling way. It reminded me of the famous opening lines from literature. Maybe you’ve heard of a few, like “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen” from George Orwell’s 1984. Or, from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” There are so many great examples! Maybe you have some of your own favorites. For a weekend project, I suggest that you craft a list of many of these opening lines. Consider what details to include and what tone to use. What would make you want to keep reading something? This list could start as a jumping off point for a story, or it could be an exercise in and of itself. Please submit anything you’re particularly proud of to be considered for publication in Stone Soup. Until next week, Book Contest 2021 For information on submitting to the Stone Soup Book Contest 2021, please click here. To submit your manuscript, please visit our submittable site. Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Young Blogger BlueJay published three stunning time-lapse videos of food being eaten—Baked, Zest, and Heliotrope. Sierra, 11, reviewed Karina Yan Glaser’s 2017 novel, The Vandebeekers of 141st Street. Summer Classes and Events! Young Author’s Studio Summer Camps: we are offering a wide range of classes through the summer jointly with the Society of Young Inklings. Each camp runs for two hours per day, Monday through Thursday. All details and bookings via Society of Young Inklings. From Stone Soup July/August 2021 from The Other Realm By Tristan Hui, 15 (Menlo Park, CA) Illustrated by Rosemary Brandon, 10 (Nashville, TN) Chapter One The mind of Azalea Morroe’s father was coming apart. Gradually, and only at the seams, but coming apart all the same—and that was where the adventure began. Henry Morroe was not terribly old, nor terribly unhealthy. A researcher in an astronomical laboratory, he was both fervently passionate about his work and blissfully oblivious to his unpopularity at the place. Henry had always been of an eccentric manner, and because of this, no one really noticed that anything was wrong. For what was now out of order in his mind was assumed to have always been that way. Eccentricity was not a welcome or valued trait in Montero; the little family spent most of their time shut up in the little flat they shared, except for when Azalea went to school over the hill and her father to work—when he went to work. Lately, it had not been so. Lately, Henry Morroe was in his study from sunrise till sunset, combing over maps and taking notes from books, sticking tabs of paper to the walls, and perpetually adding to the jumbo fold-out poster board that was to save him from being laid off. In truth, it was more of a firing than a layoff, because the research company had never been a fan of Henry Morroe—although he did good work, they were much more preoccupied with their image than the accuracy of their research. They had finally found someone better—rather, someone much wealthier and more popular—to analyze and compare the data collected by the many enormous telescopes in the lab. Sure, the results might be sorely lacking in accuracy, but the image the lab projected onto the astronomical research industry would be brightened tenfold. It was a worthy switch. However, Henry Morroe had heard of this plan some weeks back—listening with an antique ear trumpet pressed to the keyhole of his supervisor’s office—and the news had derailed any other train of thought completely. They had granted him a temporary leave while they set the other guy up in Henry’s office, and Azalea’s father had taken that time to formulate a plan guaranteed to get his job back. This plan revolved around the information concealed in a dusty old volume, one that Azalea was reading while she stood in front of the bathroom mirror brushing her teeth. All About the Two Realms, by Dr. Arnold Colton, was a book with a history deeper than most. Eccentricity did not prompt celebration in Montero, and Dr. Arnold Colton had written a very eccentric book. . . . /MORE Stone Soup is published by Children’s Art Foundation-Stone Soup Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization registered in the United States of America, EIN: 23-7317498. Stone Soup’s Advisors: Abby Austin, Mike Axelrod, Annabelle Baird, Jem Burch, Evelyn Chen, Juliet Fraser, Zoe Hall, Montanna Harling, Alicia & Joe Havilland, Lara Katz, Rebecca Kilroy, Christine Leishman, Julie Minnis, Jessica Opolko, Tara Prakash, Denise Prata, Logan Roberts, Emily Tarco, Rebecca Ramos Velasquez, Susan Wilky.
