Monthly Archives: November 2014

Event Recap: Summer Lovin’ 2.0 Tour

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summerlovin2.0Over the summer, I had the pleasure to meet four amazing authors at the Mission Viejo Library as a part of the Summer Lovin’ 2.0 Book Tour. These authors include Suzanne Young, Sarah Ockler, C.J. Flood and Jody Casella. Although I haven’t read any of their books yet, I got two at the event (Bittersweet and #Scandal) and I cannot wait to read them! I along with other people asked questions about how they became authors, where they get inspiration and how it affects their day-to-day life.

One question that stood out to me was “How long did it take for you to write your books?” because the answers vary so greatly depending on who you are. For example, for Jody Casella (who used Nanowrimo) took a full year to complete. Meanwhile Sarah Ockler finished her hit #Scandal in 4 years. Jody Casella’s Infinite Sky took three to four years to complete. The funny thing about writing is that its like riding a bike (yes, I know such a cliché simile but yes, I’m going to use it!) at first you’re wobbling, its hard to keep your balance and takes forever. But once you get the hang of it, its a much smoother ride that takes much less time. Just like the simile, Suzanne Young wrote her first book in 4 moths and now it only takes one month for her to finish a writing.

We then asked what these four writers do when they’re not you know, writing. Jody Casella’s only job is to write books although she was once an English teacher at a high school. Sarah Ockler is also a full time writer, as well as CJ Flood. Suzanne Young is a high school English teacher.

More questions followed and so did more answers. These four women are such inspirations for aspiring authors and its amazing to hear each of their stories. At the end of the event, we were given pizza and soda. Quite the way to end such a fun event. These writers were awesome to meet and I’m so glad I went.

-Danielle T., 8th grade

Event Recap: Teen Writing Workshop with Shannon Messenger

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shannon_messengerMany of you heard Shannon Messenger speak at the Mission Viejo Summer Lovin’ event last summer.  On Thursday, September 14, 2014, there was another event at the Rancho Santa Margarita Library.  Her teen writing workshop drew over 60 middle schoolers.  Messenger taught us some of the fundamental steps for beginning writers.  She explained characterization and world building as well as plot methods.  Within an hour, I began to feel like a better writer and reader.

One of the first things she recommended was to know your characters and to treat them like real people.  From her personal experience, she advised that you shouldn’t care what people think of you for saying in a conversation, “I want my character to do this, but she won’t let me!”  This cracked everyone up.  As Messenger continued, with a smile, she said we need to know our characters like we know ourselves by asking our character five questions:

  • What does your character want?
  • What does your character need?
  • What is your character afraid of?
  • How does your character feel about himself/herself?
  • What is your character hiding?

The next topic she addressed was building your story’s “world”–big or small, rich or poor, or even fantastic or realistic.  You also need to add in the history, culture, technology, transportation, and government.  The history can be pretty easy.  If it is a fantasy story, you can just make it up, but in a realistic fiction or historical fiction, you may need to research the location.  Culture consists of art, music, fashion, and sports.  The technology means acknowledging the inventions appropriate for your time period.  She advised that transportation can be tricky.  Is your character old enough to drive?  Or do you need to come up with some other means of moving from place to place? Finally, you need to define the type of government, laws, currency, language, and social structure.

The last big topic was “how to.”  Shannon Messenger said that adjectives are one contributing factor to a best-selling author’s success. Use your sensory words to describe different aspects of your town.  Such as, “She saw the blue sky and smelled the fresh scent of pine and evergreen.  As the aroma wafted to her nose, a memory flooded into her mind, and she heard her dad cutting down a Christmas tree for their house before he left for the army.  The scene brought tears to her eyes, and she felt one stray salty tear find its way into her mouth.  She tasted its bitter remembrance.” Using sensory language envelopes the reader in the scene.  In addition, Messenger recommended keeping an “idea journal” to keep track of your great ideas.  Messenger concluded by wishing us good luck and advising us to listen to the stories within us.

This was one of the most helpful writing workshops I have attended.  Shannon Messenger is one of my all-time favorite authors, and you can read my review of her Keeper of the Lost Cities series here.

-Maya S., 7th grade

Book Review: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

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“‘We came into this world so that we could meet. We didn’t realize it ourselves, but that was the purpose of us coming here. We faced all kinds of complications—things that didn’t make sense, things that defied explanation. Weird things, gory things, sad things. And sometimes even beautiful things. We were asked to make a vow, and we did.We were forced to go through hard times, and we made it. We were able to accomplish the goal that we came here to accomplish.”

1q84Haruki Murakami’s novel 1Q84 has it all: dystopian setting, love story, surrealistic fairy tale, crime, cult, murder. Surely the novel, with its more than 1100 pages, has the space to cover such a panoply of things, but what allows this tome to stand out is its ability to create a seamless yet engrossing narrative. Indeed, despite the novel’s length, I was able to read it in just under three weeks.

Set in Tokyo in 1984, the gist of 1Q84 is dominated by two independent plot lines following two different protagonists. The first surrounds the character Aomame, a thirty-year-old personal trainer who, outside of her regular work, conspires with an old dowager to assassinate men guilty of domestic abuse. The other surrounds Tengo, a thirty-year-old math teacher who works as a writer in his spare time.

While at first the jumping between the two different plots is tremendously confusing, as the novel progresses the reader begins to see hints of how the two plotlines and their characters are related. The general thrust of the novel is the publication of a work called Air Chrysalis. Written by quiet seventeen-year-old Fuka-Eri and reworked by Tengo, the book at first glance appears to be nothing but an enjoyable and unique fairy tale, but ultimately it holds secrets about a mysterious religious organization, Sagikake, of which Fuka-Eri’s father is the leader. Aaomame too becomes involved with Sagikake after the dowager gains information that the leader of the organization engages in the abuse of young girls, in accordance with the cult’s practices.

Yet Sagikake is not the only link between the two protagonists. Perhaps the more compelling aspect of the novel is the fact that Tengo and Aomame are deeply in love with each other, although they have not seen each other since the fourth grade. Ultimately 1Q84 is the story of two lost lovers, a tale told many times before, but the weird, wild journey of their attempt to find each other makes 1Q84 such a compelling read.

-Sebastian R., 12th grade

Juniper Writing Institute: A Life-Changing Experience

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photo by flickr user LMRitchie

photo by flickr user LMRitchie

I have been writing for more than half of my lifetime, but because my family moved to the US four years ago, I had to start over. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling to have to hold back something you know you have due to language barrier. For a long time, I begged life for a group of people to share the worlds I created with my pen and soul, but at the same time I worried that I wasn’t good enough to have one. As an international student, I felt that I’m locked, and buried alive.

That was why I was surprised to be accepted by Juniper Writing Institute. I knew this nine-day trip to UMass would greatly influence my life (cliché!), but really, I didn’t expect to receive so much from it.

After spending two months doing a writing sample but changing my mind last minute, flying across the whole country at night on my own with a crying baby on the plane, arriving six hours early and forcing myself to swallow a turkey sandwich that had too much mustard, how can anything be more satisfying and exciting than realizing that I finally met a group of people just like me? “What kind of writing do you do?” is how we start our conversation. Sitting under the shade of the fancy chapel and reading each other our own writings is how we relax. Snapping with big smiles when we hear juicy ideas get read out loud is how we enjoy life and appreciate our talent. I found “my people” for the first time, and even though we were only together for nine days, I found where I belong.

What I love the most was the writing workshop–we discussed each person’s writing sample for 45 minutes. For me, not only did I see many special and unique ideas and styles of writing, but also, I experienced something that changed my view on my own writing. My pod (our small group of twelve people, where I made great friends) surprised me by commenting that I describe things in an uncommon way. I never realized that combining writing style in my first language with English in fact resulted in something different and strong. Through this workshop, I found my strength and self-confidence to write more and better.

One of the most important things I realized from the experience with Juniper is that, a group like the Juniper writers is where I want to belong for the rest of my life. The vitality, intelligent, and possibilities within this group is what I was looking for all my life. Juniper Writing Institute helps me clarified my goal for the future. As young writers, we look at the same world but see differently and argue different sides–the energy from the crashes between angles is what pushes the future forward.

-Wenqing Z., 12th grade

 

Book Review: To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

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mockingbird_coverTo Kill a Mockingbird is about two young siblings, Jem and Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, and their father, Atticus Finch. Jem is the older one with a kind heart, and Scout is the younger sister who favors boys’ games and entertainment.  Their neighbors are the mysterious Radleys.  Jem and Scout always wondered what was with the Radleys.  During one summer they meet Dill, a young boy who comes to their town every summer.  From that day they played with scripts from stories.  They decid to try to get one of the Radleys out, Boo Radley.  They try many ways but fail.

Few months later Atticus gets a case about a black man raping a white girl. Jem and Scout eagerly join the audience in the court room as the case was discussed.  It ended up with the black man being found guilty, and he went to jail.  The father of the victim wanted revenge on Atticus for defending a black man.  So, will the man found guilty be released or not?  And will Jem and Scout ever get Boo Radley out of his home?

This book was really enjoyable. Once you finished the first chapter you are hooked and reeled in.  It is such a page-turner!!  I suggest this for thirteen and up because of the language.  The story really fits in with the title.  I hope you enjoy this book.

-Samantha S., 8th grade

Book Review: Relax, I’m a Ninja, by Natalie Whipple

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“So, what exactly do we, uh, do?”
“The usual- sabotage, espionage, smuggling, and such.”

relax_ninjaFirst of all, I want to point out this has to be one of the coolest titles ever. I think it pretty much sums up the entire book, but I’ll go on about it anyways.

As you probably already guessed, this book is about ninjas. It’s difficult to believe there could be ninja clans in San Francisco, but sixteen-year-old Tosh has been training in the secrecy of his father’s dojo for years. Why not hide in plain sight? A karate place is the last place you’d expect a real ninja. Everything changes when Tosh’s father recruits long-time-karate-student Amy, who happens to be the crush of Tosh’s best friend. Huge cover risk. Plus, completely off limits. At least that’s what Tosh tells himself, but neither he nor Amy can deny their connection.

Some ninjas are evil. There is a serial killer on the loose, nicknamed “The Ninja” by the media because of his costume, stabbing innocents with one of the most deadly ninja poisons; Dragon’s Bile. Teaming up with Amy to find this elusive killer may prove there are more secrets in San Francisco than even Tosh suspected.

What’s amazing about this story is the levels of secrecy. I should expect this from a secret ninja book, but there were twists I didn’t see coming. Sometime of the people Tosh trusts the most may have a secret he never would have expected. Or some person who should have no knowledge about ninjas, might already be one.

Plenty of action with the ninja fights, but there is a splash of romance thrown in as well. This well written novel kept is well paced and captured my attention the entire time. Definitely give this book a try as long as you don’t absolutely hate ninjas.

-Nicole G., 11th grade