Are You Hooked? Entry #4

TITLE: Spider Silk
GENRE: High Fantasy (mostly; think Narnia -- Earth kid goes to another world)

I slouched in my chair and stared at the puckered white line on the back of my hand. The clock ticked. Rustling pages chased each other across the therapist’s desk. Every so often, a pen squeaked against Dr. Rush’s lined yellow notebook.

We looked up at the same time; the doctor’s glasses reflected my eyes, and his greying eyebrows arched above the frames.

I dropped my gaze to the stack of paper on the desk. A hundred forty-two pages of memories no one believed.

“Well,” Dr. Rush said.

I didn’t say anything, which happened at a lot of my therapy sessions.

“Well.” Dr. Rush leaned his seat back and propped his feet up on the desk. His bony ankles peeked out from his old-man shoes. He pursed his lips. “It’s done then."

I half-shrugged a shoulder. “Five years… Don’t know what more I can do with it.”

“Ah, yes.” The old-man shoes bobbed up and down on the desk, ruffling the top sheets on the pile. “Today is the anniversary. Five years since…”

 “Since that,” I said through gritted teeth, nodding at the stack of paper.

 “Right,” said Dr. Rush. “Not your kidnapping. Your disappearance into another world. The ‘Toppling Kingdom’. And David, I’m not being condescending. If you believe this…” He gestured at the papers. “I’ll believe too. However, this account did leave me with some questions.” He smiled thinly. “Do you mind?”

 “Of course not,” I said under my breath. “You’re a shrink. I expect it by now.”

Are You Hooked? Entry #3

TITLE: The Slavemaster
GENRE: Epic YA Fantasy

Mahran dropped the dagger from the throat of his invisible opponent, hiding it behind his back as the scuff of footsteps entered.

Kessa rolled her eyes.  "You are such a child."

“‘You are such a child.’ So what does that make you, little girl?”

She grabbed the sack of clothespins off the wall and left the shed, muttering under her breath.

Mahran returned to his battle—the enemy he’d killed had allies, and they wanted revenge. He slashed through the humid air, dodging their nonexistent attacks, and his short blade connected with the center post, metal biting deep into its wooden victim. Tugging the dagger out, he examined the edge for injury.

“Rajmahran, son of Rajmah, you get here now!” Ma called.

He sighed and sheathed the blade, trudging outside. The sun pounded his head immediately after leaving the shelter of the storeroom, and he squinted to see his ma hanging a pair of trousers on the clothesline.

“Yes?”

“You were being—” Kessa began.

“Kessati, quiet. Both of you, be good to each other. What does the Great God want us to be?”

“Good,” Mahran muttered, Kessa echoing him.

“Yes, good. Now go—visit your friend down in the village. I have a box of needles for you to play with if you run out of dangerous things to do.” She paused. “Go on—go.”

Mahran groaned and started walking. “Come on, Kessati. Do you have money?”

“Yes. You could pay for once.”

“Aph is my friend. That would be…weird.”

Kessa said something he didn't hear and followed.

Are You Hooked? - Entry #2

TITLE: Extraction
GENRE: Ya dystopian

When Logan finally arrives, he's holding a flower that could kill me.

I stop tapping my nails on the fence and stare at the green stem, at how the petals glint silver so they almost look like metal.

“What the hell's wrong with you?” I shove his arm away and back up so fast I ram into our shack's windowsill, but the pain doesn't faze me 'cause I've felt worse.

It's been eleven years since I've seen petals like that. Silver aster flowers are genetically manipulated to calm the mind, but I’m severely allergic to their pollen.

Logan chuckles.

Leaning down, I sift my fingers through the dirt, find a rock, and throw it at his shoulder. Hard.

His laughter dies. “Jeez, Clementine.” He lifts a calloused hand and tears off a flower petal. Thin silver wrappings fall away, leaving behind the blackening blue of a common aster. It’s grimy, of course.

Everything’s covered in grime on the Surface.

My cheeks grow hot.

He smiles. “You didn’t seriously think I’d sneak into the Core to find a silver aster for you? God.”

“Oh shut up, Logan. You’re such an idiot.”

He tosses me the perfectly ordinary flower. I scowl, but sniff it. Smells like dust, same as everything.
“You ready to go?” he asks.

I snort and flick a red-orange curl out of my eye. Of course I’m ready. I’m wearing my only dress, light blue with faded pink flowers speckled across its fabric. I’m even wearing shoes.

Are You Hooked? - Entry #1

Title: Sparked
Genre: YA Science Fiction

The only thing that stood between me and absolute, unhindered freedom was one thousand miles of desert and mountain in every direction. Aside from that little geographical obstacle, I was practically home free.

A hand touched my shoulder. I turned and saw Aunt Beverly standing there, wearing a housecoat that might have once been a shade of lavender but was now sunbleached white. “Daydreaming again?” she asked, brushing a wisp of blonde hair back.

I nodded. “As always.”

She sighed. In the distance, I saw huge black masses floating, suspended in thin air--or space--looking curiously flat and obtuse. The planes--giant steel behemoths--often liked to ruin my view. When you live in the realm of space that I do, though, the view is the last thing you worry about.

Aunt Beverly crossed her arms. I glanced over my shoulder to see her, her eyes focused far in the distance and mouth drawn tightly. After a moment, she said, “Your aptitude results arrive tomorrow. Are you nervous?”

I shrugged, “No. They don’t determine anything. They’re a compass, not a predestination.”

She smiled, her eyes sparkling from the setting sun. “True.” she paused. I could sense that she wanted to say more, but didn’t.

We stood and watched the sun slowly slip beyond the boundary of the earth. When it passed, she touched my shoulder again, “I need to deal with some dough. Come in before it gets too dark--there’ve been rumors of Duskers sneaking around lately.”

ARE YOU HOOKED? -- Entry window CLOSED!

The entry window is now CLOSED! Thank you everyone for your submissions! Entries will be posted on the blog tomorrow morning. 

Please remember that we ask all participants to critique a minimum of 3 other entries. 

Have fun!

Tiny change

There's been a slight modification to the rules for the ARE YOU HOOKED? crit round. You must now include your AGE beneath your screen name, just so you can verify that you are among our awesome teen group. It won't be posted on the blog.

Happy entering!

ARE YOU HOOKED? -- ENTRIES OPEN!

Ready to get some feedback/critiques? ARE YOU HOOKED? critique round entries are NOW OPEN! Take a moment to review the rules and then GET SUBMITTING!

• The submission window is now open! It will close on Friday December 16th at 7:00PM EST or when we have 15 entries--whichever comes first. (We'll be sure to notify you via a blog post.)
• You may only submit if you're 13-19 years old. Sorry, grownups!
• You may submit the first 250 words of your novel, whether it is a completed work or a work-in-progress (WIP).
• You may only submit one entry.  Subsequent entries will be disqualified.
• All entries will be posted anonymously.  (Your age will not be included, either.)
• By entering this critique round, you are giving implicit permission to have your work posted and publicly critiqued.
• By entering this critique round, you agree to critique a minimum of 3 other entries.
• Send your submission to writeon.submissions@gmail.com.
• You will receive a reply email with your post number.  Please be patient; unlike the critiques on Miss Snark's First Victim, this contest is NOTautomated.  Mad will be taking care of submissions by hand.
• Format your entry EXACTLY AS FOLLOWS:

SCREEN NAME: (type it here)
YOUR AGE: (type it here)
TITLE: (type it here)
GENRE: (type it here)

(type your first 250 words here)

Good luck!

FROM THE TRENCHES-- MAD

I learned a lesson this week, when my GED results came back, and I think it resonates very well with us as writers.

Here goes…

I’ve been waiting for my GED for months. I took it mid-October, and here it is, early December. Needless to say, I was biting my nails over it all, because even though I had taken my time, and at the time of the test, I’d felt pretty good about how I’d done, during the waiting period, I let that little voice get the best of me.

You know. We all have one. It’s that voice that says we didn’t do well, that we’re not good enough. It’s that voice that tells us that we’re foolish to think we’ll ever make anything of ourselves.

That has been my pitfall since I got my scores back. I walked around thinking I was going to have to retake the tests. I thought I didn’t do very well. I was really depressed about it. I was beginning to doubt my intelligence, and trust me, you don’t want that. (No one is stupid. I don’t care what anybody says.)

Then my scores came, and I realized that my worries were unfounded all this time. I passed everything; I had worried too much, and it was a worry fueled purely by my lack of confidence, and the ever-encroaching doubt I had in myself.

I felt so good about how I did that I stuck a copy on my fridge and I still find myself stopping in front of it many times a day just to look at my scores because I’m proud of how I did. But, I also know it makes me no better than anyone else; test scores aren’t everything. That’s where the keeping-yourself-in-check part comes in.

So I think there’s a real delicate balance that we need to strike between being confident in ourselves, and being proud of our accomplishments, and letting our egos taint that. Everyone should be able to feel good about times when they do well.

The trick is not letting it go to your head, and I think if we, as writers, constantly try to keep our heads on straight, and stay humble throughout the praise we’ll all get eventually if we keep working hard, we’ll have better careers and we’ll be setting better examples for everyone around us.

That’s my two cents. :)

Second In-House Critique -- ARE YOU HOOKED?

Are you ready for some honest feedback? Want to know if your opening paragraphs are strong enough to draw in a reader, make them crave more? 


Now's your chance to find out! Get some feedback/critique on the opening page of your novel in our second Write On! ARE YOU HOOKED? critique round!


Rules:

• The submission window will open on Monday December 12th at 7:00AM EST, and will close at Friday December 16th at 7:00PM EST or when we have 15 entries--whichever comes first.
• You must be a teenager! 13-19 years old.
• You may submit the first 250 words of your novel, whether it is a completed work or a work-in-progress (WIP).
• You may only submit one entry.  Subsequent entries will be disqualified.
• All entries will be posted anonymously.  
• By entering this critique round, you are giving implicit permission to have your work posted and publicly critiqued.
• By entering this critique round, you agree to critique a minimum of 3 other entries.
• Send your submission to writeon.submissions@gmail.com during the submission window.
• You will receive a reply email with your post number.  Please be patient; unlike the critiques on Miss Snark's First Victim, this contest is NOT automated.  Mad will be taking care of submissions by hand.
• Format your entry EXACTLY AS FOLLOWS:

SCREEN NAME: (type it here)
YOUR AGE: (type it here)
TITLE: (type it here)
GENRE: (type it here)

(type your first 250 words here)

There will be another post on December 12th to repeat the rules and announce the start of submissions. Any entries submitted before 7AM on December 12th will be deleted. Please only submit within the timeframe given!

Any questions? Leave 'em in the comment box below.

Happy manuscript-preparing!

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