One anthology, five novels, a collection of quotations, one novella, two fables, 14 short stories and two humorous poems – all told, it adds up to 173,194 words and six months of hard work.
The Lawrence Grassi Middle School Writers’ Group celebrated all of that at Solara Resort June 17 during the launch of its latest offering: five novels and an anthology: Spectrum 2014.
Ruth Kerr, a Canmore-based freelance writer and the group’s mentor who has been a mentor at LGMS for about six years now, began the writers’ club at the request of a parent.
“She felt there would be a need for kids who weren’t super athletic or into music, but needed some sort of creative outlet, so I agreed to do it. So last year we published two books, one anthology and one novel. We had seven kids participating. This year we regularly had 20 kids coming and 15 kids published and we had five novels,” said Kerr.
She added that she tried to not to set limits for the students, but instead, help them think big with the long view of being published.
“There’s a lot of lessons in that,” she said.
The group met at lunchtime every Tuesday from Thanksgiving to April 12 and as the year progressed, Kerr said these young writers began to take the process more seriously and dig deep into their ideas.
“By the end they were approaching the writing seriously and asking thoughtful questions and we were challenging each other. If you were this character what would you do? Are these natural consequences? If this character is stuck in this situation you can’t make it impossible for them to get out.”
Over the six months they met as a group, Kerr noticed a change in her writers and their work. Their writing had improved and they were becoming more organized in their thinking and able to make tough choices in their writing.
“They became more mature in their planning process and thinking process,” she said.
That was also reflected in the stories the writers chose to tell.
“I was really astounded by what they were writing about,” Kerr said. “Last year the subjects were kind of girlie, light and fluffy, but this year there are some really interesting themes. We have one dystopian novel, exploring what it means to be human when the world is at war, what are those attributes?”
Along with the dystopian novel, there’s a spy thriller, a romance and one about a girl facing a number of obstacles in her life.
The common thread through all of the novels was a search for independence and what it means to grow up, Kerr said.
“The common things that I found were these characters were always striving to improve, change the world or change themselves or find a place in the world for themselves,” she said.
Grade 6 LGMS student and writers’ group member Gemma Segnitz wrote a collection of five short stories – Hoofbeats: Stories – all told from the perspective of horses.
“I really like animals. (Horses) are a really cool animal,” Segnitz said. “I really like that you’re able to publish an anthology. I never had anything published before, so that was cool and it was fun being with everyone in the group.”
Segnitz said she began writing last year and has come to see writing as a way to express herself and she plans to continue with the group next year.
“Being a part of the writers group is really fun and so is everyone coming together for the Tuesday meetings. It’s fun. Everyone is playing around and writing stories and offering suggestions,” she said.
Each novelist also designed their book cover and Kerr used a vanity publisher to print the books, giving students their first published books.
