Scream YA Short Story Anthology Cover
Comments (1)The cover has been released for Scream–a YA horror short story anthology published by Bridgehouse Press (UK). The book should be out in a few weeks.
My young adult paranormal romance short story, “Ghost in the Batting Cage,” is included in the collection. In the story, seventeen-year-old Max is a run-away and living in a high school batting cage. However, in the cage, he meets and falls in love with ghost, Angelina. She helps him to tell the truth and get out of the cage.
Cover for Scream--A YA Short Story Anthology (Bridgehouse Press/UK)
Teen Poetry From Denney Juvenile Justice Center Poetry Workshop
Leave a CommentEach year, the Blanche Miller Art Exhibit Program has hired me to be a writer/mentor for the youth at Denney Juvenile Justice Center. Besides from the volunteer work I do in running the weekly poetry workshop with the youth, I also am hired to work individually with a select group of kids. The Blanche Miller Trust also pays to publish a collection of the youth’s poetry.
The books are published under the guidelines that first and foremost they go back to the youth included in the poetry book. They are also handed out each week in the poetry workshop to the youth who are in detention. The books also go out to lawyers, judges, educators, counselors, and anyone who might work with the youth.
I have been working on editing our fourth book of poetry, Please Brave Me: Dry These Tears. The following two poems are included in the collection.
Powerless–Poetry by Denney Juvenile Justice Center Youth
Leave a CommentTeen Girl
POWERLESS
They think I’m Powerful
Because I do whatever I want
Because I tell everyone to screw off
Because I don’t listen to anyone
Because I run for months and I am never spotted
But, I am Powerless
Because my friends are backstabbers
Because I can’t trust anyone
Because I was raped
Because I was jumped
Because my Mom doesn’t want me in her house
Because I cry everyday
Because I’m an addict
Because I miss my old, happy life.
Youth Poetry from Denney Juvenile Justice Center Book Four
Teen Girl
MY NAME IS POWERLESS
My name is Powerless
I live in a corner
In a broken house
My last name is Fear
My middle is Doubt
My parent is Addiction
My sister is Revenge
My brother is Fury,
They go to no end.
My eyes are empty
I have no heart or soul
Knowing me really takes a toll
You won’t be able to fight me
Once I’ve been around
Soon you meet the whole family
We’ll drive you in the ground
You’ll learn not to ask questions
Soon you’ll be like me
Powerless has no end
Good luck getting free.
Marysville Young Writers Class with Trudi Trueit
Do you know a kid with a natural funny bone?
Trudi Trueit, author of sixty children’s books including the Secrets of a Lab Rat (Simon and Schuster) and Julep O’Toole (Penguin) series is teaching a workshop for young writers on how to write humorous fiction. There will be games, prizes and a free autographed copy of Julep O’Toole: Confessions of a Middle Child for each participant. The workshop is set for Saturday, November 7th, 2009, from 11 am to noon at the Marysville Library, 6120 Grove Street, Marysville, WA 98270. Grades 3 and up. Space is limited so pre-registration is required. Call 360-658-5000 to register.
Art….EVERYWHERE!
I am often asked what inspires you? The creative process can be mysterious. But, when I am working on drafting a story–as I am now–I find that like my artistic characters…I too, like to create art…EVERYWHERE!
Artist Trading Cards
Who Are These Juvie Kids? PART ONE
The following is an excerpt from a work-in-progress about working with the kids at the juvenile detention center:
After I am cleared through the metal detectors, leave my car keys in a metal locker, and give up my driver’s license in exchange for a plastic “volunteer” badge, the guard escorts me down the brightly lit hallway to the girl’s unit. The double doors to the unit click open and I step inside. I’m glad to see the girls are already seated at tables in the large, open unit room. Sometimes, I have to wait until the girls are released from their small, individual cells which line the large room. When the small cell doors open, I always have to turn away while my heart pounds in my chest. Just looking at the small, enclosed space makes me feel claustrophobic.
Today, it’s a large unit with fourteen girls and they are very chatty. The guard in the unit is someone who I have worked with often. Sometimes he will join us at the table and write with us. But today, he is not smiling. Today the guard is frowning, and I know it’s going to be a long hour with the girls. “Good luck,” he says to me from his perch at the front of the room.
Trying to think positively, I pull out a chair at the table. The girls grumble and shuffle over to make room for me. The chairs are light-weight, but the tables weigh 100lbs in order to prevent them from being tossed in a fit of anger. Behind us, a long wall of glass windows overlooks a courtyard. In the open courtyard, surrounded by barbed wire, boys toss a basketball into a hoop. Occasionally, a girl looks down at the boys. She giggles until the unit guard tells her to stop looking or she’ll be sent to her cell.
As I pull out my poetry books and yellow writing tablet from my canvas book bag, I try to make small talk with the girls. But, before I can begin to explain the purpose of the poetry workshop, the unit door swings open. A girl enters carrying the Detention Center’s mandatory blue bed blankets. She is thin, walks with her head down, and heads directly for her cell as if she’s been here before and knows the routine. Immediately, her presence sends the girls at the table into loud chatter.
“Guess she got caught.”
“Couldn’t stay out there forever.”
Curiosity gets the best of me. I lean over to ask the young lady next to me, “Who is she?”
“Drug dealer,” the girl says, and shrugs. “She sold to most of us.”
Sometimes when a new detainee is admitted to the units, the guard will ask if they want to write with us. This new girl gets no choice. She remains in her cell. Later, I find out the detention center is full and there is only one unit of girls. One unit of girls means all girls are placed in a unit together–the drug dealers and the drug buyers.
The girls continue to mutter about how when this new girl finds out that one of the big gang leaders is also booked into this same unit there is going to be trouble. The girls are gleeful about this trouble.
I hope I’ll be gone long before trouble starts.
Writing Opportunity for the Youngest Writer
BOOK HIVE
http://www.bookhive.org/beeanauthor/
—
Create a 6-page story about Zinger the Bee to view online,
print to create your own storybook, or email to a friend!
Step 1: Create a username and password. This will allow you
to log in and work on your story. Step 2: Choose 6 pictures
from Zinger’s Gallery and add captions to them to create a
story. Step 3: Give your story a title and save it. (For
young ages – lower elementary.)
More Flash Fiction With Youth In Juvenile Detention
Often when I am writing with the youth in juvenile detention, we use some type of structure to get us started in either our poetry or our Flash Fiction. For example, we may read a poem and use a similiar first line. I usually ask the youth to draw on their life experiences when they are writing.
However, we also have three guidelines:
1. No glorified or grandiose writing. I explain that glorifying a crime or addiction takes away from the emotion of the piece. And we want others to connect through the emotion of our poems and writing.
2. No glorified violence or sex.
3. Watch the swear language. It’s often hard to totally limit all swearing out of their writing, although I tell them that swear words limits the chances that the writing will be published in our yearly chapbook of poetry.
As often as possible, I try to write with the youth and share my own writing. For example, the following is a piece of flash fiction I wrote based on my life using the flash fiction piece, “Nine Days” which was written by Suzanne LaFetra and published in Brevity Issue 24/Summer 2007 .
Misspellings
Number Of:
Times she’d been in trouble: 0
Years of school: 12
Age: 17
Small pink note delivered to her Independent Living class by an unsmiling student office assistant with her name and instructions to see the Senior Principal—NOW: 1
Open walkway hallways from her Independent Living Class to the office: 2
Double doors to open: 2
Boys waiting outside the office: 3
Girls waiting outside the office: 0
Vinyl red chairs in the outer waiting area: 6
Cushioned green chairs inside the assistant principal’s office: 2
Diplomas on the wall: 3
Large deep cherry wood desk: 1
Handwritten note with one misspelled word—Excuse: 1
Days of In-School Suspension Received: 5
Swim Coach who advocated for her: 1
Suspension afternoons allowed at the pool where she watched her team practice: 2
Lanes in the pool: 6
Bleachers were she sat and timed practice 100 Freestyles: 1
Meets missed: 2
500 Meter Swim Event Missed: 2
400 IM Medleys Event Missed: 2
Marlboro Light 100 Cigarettes smoked on the drive home: 2
Air freshener sprayed in the car when she pulled in the driveway: 1
Prayer she made for high school to be over: 1
