Last Friday, my creative writing class had the wonderful opportunity to meet Lauren Karcz, the author of The Gallery of Unfinished Girls. This is a young adult debut novel about an artist who is struggling to find any inspiration. It has a little bit of magic and mystery and a whole lot of lovable characters and plot. Anyway, she came to visit our school for Virginia Festival of the book and talked a bit about the process of writing and publishing a novel. I was intrigued. It was a very interesting topic for me, personally, because I am interested in writing and publishing a book someday, but Karcz was also a great speaker! I could tell the whole room was hanging onto her every word. She talked about everything from coming up with characters, to finding an enthusiastic agent, to the long and tedious process of publishing, to finally seeing her book on the shelves at Barnes and Noble. Something I found very interesting was the fact that she had come up with the characters in her book long before she began writing it. I want to say she decided she was going to write a story when she was ten? Anyway, her main characters in The Gallery of Unfinished Girls were supporting characters in this first story and in many stories after that! The most helpful advice she gave was don’t give up. I know it might sound cheesy, and it’s what everyone says when you’re trying to reach a goal, but it’s true, especially when it comes to writing. Anything is hard when you first start. Any goal seems impossible at the beginning. Despite all this, you have to believe in yourself and keep trying no matter what the odds. I am going to take this advice to heart and think about it whenever a seemingly impossible task arises. Anything is possible with enough determination. Peyton Beaumont Western Albemarle High School Library Communications and Outreach Intern
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To Our Future by Sadie Carfagno I walk down the dark, undulating path of the road, lost in the last labyrinth of trees stretching on both sides of me. All the layers of dirt marking the years of the world beneath my feet shake angrily at being ignored By people rushing across its surface to nowhere and back, Or racing to fight to rip it open to feed on its insides rather than give it a chance to give and be understood The wind takes its time to tumble and creep down each tree in slow motion and possess the dead, crackley leaves which slither across the road ahead of me. I glance back The sky's stomach rumbles and I see the rain like a swirling wall in the distance and I know soon it will be our turn to be consumed. I try to gain my balance but every pretty stone to stand on has been taken by my elders to keep, and every ugly stone taken by my elders to throw. Everyone who had watched the consequences lurking only now begin to panic and look for a place to go, each still carrying something of which they need to let go and running from something they don't understand, unknowingly to a darker place, ignorance. If they had talked deeply there was the chance they could've opened another group's wounds so they were completely silent when they could speak and mend the wounds instead, a fire that would burn them later. I look for somewhere to go but they have dismantled every place searching for something missing that was carelessly forgotten in a pocket in their old jacket which their kids are wearing now but they continue to search blindly I have no place to go, they put us in a cage but kept everything else in here too. But I still run, from the nauseating patterns of the past which make a quilt some are comfortable in. I run from the situation at present. With small legs and wide eyes I run with something in my jacket pocket which was never found, so instead they stole what I run to. But being human I still run to nowhere. "Justice or Just Us" media contest: The Rumi Forum Way back in October, a friend of mine suggested that she, I, and another friend of ours should make a short film and submit it to this competition being held by Rumi Forum, an organization that focuses on bringing people of all backgrounds together. The theme was “Justice or Just Us”. My friend had written a beautiful poem called “To Our Future” that fit extremely well with the theme of social and environmental justice. We planned out the video, rented some fancy and expensive film equipment from UVA, and got to it. We asked one of our neighbors to star as the little girl in the film and pretty much just filmed her running around the trails behind our neighborhoods. We got some really beautiful shots with the camera. After filming, we edited the videos together and my friend read her poem as a voice over. Our original ideas were a lot more elaborate than our final project, but we were all super proud of it when it was all edited and put together. We submitted it to the contest, and to be perfectly honest, I kind of forgot about it. A lot of time passed, and I had other things to focus on. School had started picking up along with the fall play and spring musical. Then one day in February, I got a text saying we’d won first place. I don’t want to say I was surprised, I mean our film was great and exactly what we’d wanted it to be, but I was! We all got an invitation to attend a semi-formal dinner and awards ceremony. The ceremony was last night, and it was amazing. I walked into the room, and there were tables set up with place settings, salads, and assigned seats. The room was so diverse and I met so many new and awesome people. Letters from senators were read, Heather Heyer’s mother spoke about her foundation and what its goal was. People from Rumi got up to speak about their idea for the contest and how the young people who participated were our future. It was extremely inspirational and touching. There was an art contest for middle schoolers and the video contest was for high schoolers. They showed each of our videos, and I was impressed. The 3rd place winner was a great video about healthcare and 2nd place went to a video about Hijab and what it means to people. We all got pictures together and it was just a really great experience that I am very glad I got to take a part in. The news was there and the newscaster asked to interview our group about our ideas for the film, so we were on tv that night! I’m so happy I got to participate in an event for such an amazing cause and I look forward to making other small differences in the future. Read more about it here: http://rumiforum.org/peace-and-dialogue-art-and-video-contest-award-ceremony-dinner/ and see the next post for the poem and video. Peyton Beaumont Western Albemarle High School Library Communications and Outreach Intern It’s rare that you get to go on a field trip to your place of work, but when you work somewhere as cool as the CVille Escape Room, it’s totally plausible.
I’m taking creative writing this year, and at the beginning of the year, I let it slip that I work at the Escape Room downtown. Well, all the creative people in the class and Ms. Burnette, the wonderful creative teacher thought it would be a great idea to go down, do the rooms, and maybe draw some inspiration from the experience. I talked to my boss and she agreed that it would be really fun. We went on a Friday and it worked out well because Creative Writing is my last class on Fridays, so I could just stay downtown and keep working after everyone else left. We got there and I ran up the stairs, disappearing into the employees-only section while my classmates funneled into the briefing room. When they next saw me, I was no longer the quirky high schooler in the corner of the room that they all knew, but a black-lab-coat-wearing, mature employee who had that look of “I-know-something-you-don’t” glinting in my eyes. I locked them in their respective rooms (Half did the Archaeologist’s Adventure and half did the Mad Scientist’s Laboratory) and ran behind the desk to watch their progress. Reading back over that sentence, I realize it’s not normal to lock your classmates in a themed room and watch as they solve puzzle, trying to get out. For the benefit of anyone who doesn’t know, and so the cops aren’t called, an escape room is basically a decorated room with a bunch of locked boxes and puzzles to solve. You unlock the boxes to get more puzzles and use the acquired information to solve the mystery. We give a quick briefing before putting people in the rooms, to put them in the right mindset for immersive puzzle solving. It’s a wonderfully engaging way to spend an hour, and we don’t actually lock you in, so there’s nothing to worry about. I had so much fun watching people I knew solving the puzzles I know by heart. I ran in whenever they had a question and rooted for them when they were so close to the right solution. I felt weirdly omnipotent in a way. They all escaped and I’m happy to announce that my creative writing classmates not only had a whole lot of fun, but also got some inspiration for a couple of stories. Peyton Beaumont Western Albemarle High School Library Communications and Outreach Intern A few years ago, the Teen Advisory Board at the Crozet Library held a Yule Ball. I was in eighth grade at the time. I didn't help run it, but I did attend the event and I remember thinking it was amazing. The decorations were stunning, the activities and events were all super fun, and all of the Harry Potter vibes were bringing me back to my childhood. At the first TAB meeting afterwards, I wanted to tell all of the leaders of the Yule Ball what a wonderful job they had done and that I couldn't wait to do it next year. However, that was not how the leaders saw it. They simply said that they were never doing that again. What I had not seen from the sidelines was all of the hard work and stress that was put into the event, the late nights, the constant questions and deadlines. Also, glitter got everywhere, which was a nightmare to get out of the carpets.
I was super bummed. I had had a great time, but our presidents were adamant: The Yule Ball was a one time thing. Now, a few years later, our beloved presidents have graduated and I have taken on their responsibilities. Over the summer, we had run a Camp Half-Blood event for all of the Percy Jackson fans in the area. It went swimmingly (Percy Jackson pun not intended) and had a great turnout. At our next meeting, we were ready to run another Yule Ball. We had new leaders. Those who had Yule Ball PTSD had graduated. It was time to throw another one. I was put in charge of this giant undertaking. I was so happy that we were getting a chance to learn from the first Yule Ball and make the second one even better. We got a committee together and planned, starting in August. We laid a few ground rules from the beginning, to try and fix some of the issues from the first Ball. First, we weren't letting anyone younger than a sixth-grader come. Attendees had to have an invitation to validate the fact that they signed up for the event. And, lastly, but most importantly: No Glitter! We kept many events we all remembered from the first Yule Ball to keep the heart in the event. After months and months of planning, mishaps, and road bumps, the big day finally came. We went down to the very last minute before everyone arrived to set up all of the decorations, finalize events, and get everything in order. We unlocked the doors (which looked like Platform 9 ¾) and waited to be bombarded with young kids and glitter. But, much to our appreciation, we weren't! All of the attendees were so fun, polite, and fair. They followed the rules, didn't make a mess (for the most part) and everyone really seemed to enjoy it. No one complained when they weren't chosen to participate in events and everyone encouraged their team-mates. The food was great, the music was amazing, and the overall atmosphere was nostalgic. When it came to the end of the event, I was exhausted. We had a lot of cleaning up to do and I understood why the prospect of another Yule Ball was so daunting to our past presidents. However, I had a blast and I would totally be willing to do it again next year! |