My brother could sometimes be coerced into playing Barbies with me, but he wasn’t much fun. He would always have Ken strip her naked, then beat her up with the Barbie Sports Car, or hang her from the curtain rod. He now confesses that he found Barbie a huge turn-on. Lyttie Poe
This comment from From Coffee Maker, about my previous post regarding Barbie Doll’s 50th Birthday: “Barbie still looks pretty fit and trim for a fifty-year-old.”
You got that right. What do you suppose Barbie DOES all day to look that way? Did she or didn’t she? Did she get something tightened? Or just visit the gym every day of her 50 years? What about her emotional life? Does she have anything going on “upstairs?”
And get a look at her skin. Not a wrinkle in sight. I’m her age, and when I look in the mirror, that’s not what I see . . .
Exercise: Tell me the REAL UNTOLD STORY. What is Barbie’s past? Her present? Write her story through the eyes of: Ken, Midge, Scooter, or even Barbie herself. Or perhaps the same story through different eyes? This could be a hoot!
Keep it to a paragraph or two and I’ll post it here.
50 Years Ago . . . 1959, Kids and parents rushed to buy the hottest thing on the market. Barbie dolls! People tuned their black and white televisions to Bonanza.
Gas rose to a whopping 25 cents per gallon . . .
Exercise: 1. Take your time capsule. Set the dial. What will happen in the future? Write a story set in the future. 50 years from now? 100? You decide when. 2. If you were alive 50 years ago, write about memories from that time period. Where were you living? What were you doing? How old were you? Describe your house, your room, your lifestyle. A typical day? What were some differences between then and now? Share with some younger family members.
Please share with any middle school student, teacher, parent, or librarian that may be interested. Thank you! Liz Koehler-Pentacoff Writer suggestions and questions? See our website http://mtdiablowriters.org/
California Writers Club
Mt. Diablo Branch, Contra Costa County
YOUNG WRITERS CONTEST
A search for Young Voices who want to be heard in print.
PLEASE PRINT CLEARLY
Name_________________________________________________________________________________
Home Address__________________________________________________________________________
Number and Street City Zip
Home Phone_______________________________E-mail Address ______________________
School_____________________________________________________________Grade______________
First and Last Name of your English Teacher________________________________________________________________
Manuscript Title__________________________________________________________________________________
Manuscript category – please check one:
¨ Short Story (up to 5 pages typed, double-spaced) ¨Poem (up to 30 lines, need not be double-spaced)
¨ Personal Narrative/Essay (up to 3 pages, typed, double-spaced)
Mail submissions to: Young Writers Contest, California Writers Club, PO Box 606 Alamo, CA 94507
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
CONTEST GUIDELINES
1. Contest open to 6th, 7th and 8th grade students who live in or attend school in Contra Costa County.
2. Submit 2 copies of your manuscript. Do not include artwork or a cover. Your manuscript must be typed or computer generated at 12 point, double-spaced. No staples. Paper clips only.
3. Put your name in the upper left-hand corner of each page. Number each page.
4. Multiple entries are welcome. Each entry must be accompanied by a separate application form (above) or 3×5 card noting Name, Home Address, Home Phone, School, Grade, E-mail Address, Teacher, Title, Category. 5. Deadline for submission is 4/01/09. Winners will be announced when judging is complete.
6. INDIVIDUAL SUBMISSIONS BY STUDENTS PREFERRED. TEACHERS: PLEASE ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO SUBMIT THEIR STORIES AND POEMS THEMSELVES.
PRIZES: Winning short stories and poems from each grade level will receive $100 for first prize, $50 for second prize and $25 for third prize. The Betty Tenney Essay Award of $100 will be given to the best personal narrative/essay in each of grade. Second and third place prizes may be awarded in this category at the judges’ discretion. Prizes will be presented to winners on May 9, 2009, at a lunch banquet. A published author will speak. Parents are welcome.
TEACHERS: We are striving to encourage individual creativity and expression. Do not to send entire class assignments. Teachers of winning students will be invited to attend the May 9 banquet.
Happy Birthday Sid Fleischman! Celebrate this Newbery award-winning author by writing a tall tale, one of his many talents. From an interview in The ABCs of Writing for Children, Fleischman says, “Tall tales are highly specialized humor. . . Take Jim Bridger (he really lived) who discovered that it took eight hours for an echo to return from a distant mountain. He turned it into an alarm clock by shouting, “Wake up!” before he went to bed. The next morning, eight hours later, the echo returned and woke him up.”
Exercise: Brainstorm like Sid Fleischman does. In McBroom’s Ghost, it was so cold, “Polly dropped her comb on the floor, when she picked it up the teeth were chattering.”
It was so hot . . .
The mountain was so steep . . .
He was so fat . . .
She was so skinny . . .
Have fun with tall tale humor!
Bread & Circuses is a new zine produced by the members of the Orinda Poetry Project. We welcome submissions of original and unpublished poetry, prose, letters, recipes, reviews, interviews, manifestos, photos, scripts, confessions, paintings, collages, essays, cartoons, found art, and anything else you’d like to contribute. Experimental work is encouraged.
The first issue of Bread & Circuses will be published in March 2009. There is no formal submission deadline, but we will review submissions in the order they are received, so submitting sooner is to your advantage. We may accept work to be published in the April issue if you submit too late.
Submissions should be emailed to breadandcircuseszine(at)gmail(dot)com with “Submission” in the subject line and your full name and phone number in the body of the email.
Attach .doc, .rtf, or .txt files for written work, and .jpgs for artwork. You may include a bio if you like. Artwork should be reproducible in black and white, and nondigital work may be scanned at high resolution or photographed with good lighting and focus. To submit art or writing by postal mail, please email us for guidelines.
You may submit as many things as you like, but keep in mind that we are a small group of people with a relatively small amount of money and aren’t going to publish your 50-page love poem. On a similar note, by submitting to Bread & Circuses, you grant permission for us to publish your work in print and/or online, so do make sure your boyfriend won’t mind that love letter being printed before you send it.
In order to keep the zine free for everyone, we regret that we are unable to pay contributors at this time except with copies and adoration. If we ever start making money, we promise we’ll share it. For now, the printing costs of our first issue are subsidized by a generous grant from Youth Speaks.
Feel free to email us with questions, comments, interesting facts, your favorite kind of candy, and, of course, your submissions. Thanks for your interest!
“Your hair is fierce,” he said.
Someone at a middle school told me this today. I learned what fierce means! There’s a whole new world of word definitions out there. What words in your sphere have different meanings to you than other people? Make a list! Or write a funny story about miscommunication with these words.
*** Extra Extra Credit. If you send your list or story to me, you get even more credit. I’m sure the credit counts somewhere. Ask your teacher, boss, or God.
In honor of March’s National Nutrition Month, become a food writer. Mimic a food critic of a newspaper. As you eat a meal, describe it in that “newspaper critic style.” Don’t forget to note the sounds, sights, table service, etc. You could be at home, in a restaurant, or it could be a review of your own superior cooking.
If that doesn’t get your pen moving, try your hand at a funny song about food you crave, or food you hate. Or write about the funniest or best food memory from your past.
Happy Birthday Thacher Hurd! In celebration of this California author, check out his Mystery on the Docks.
1. Tough looking customers. Villainous rats. A kidnapping. These rats will stop at nothing. This describes Hurd’s book, but it COULD describe yours. Write your story, incorporating these elements.
2. Write a simple mystery for a child, in hard-boiled style. Think Maltese Falcon, detectives in raincoats and hats pulled down over their eyes . . .
Speaking of mysteries . . . if you are in middle school, you may like The Big Splash by Jack D. Ferraiolo, a mystery with a great voice and fast pacing. On the back cover: “Someone took down Nikki Fingers. The most feared squirt-gun assassin at Franklin middle school! Matt Stevens is on the case!”
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