The Scribblers Writing Group: January 2015

January 2015 Issue of

The Scribblers Newsletter

Happy New Year and welcome to the January 2015 issue of The Scribblers. I apologize that, due to circumstances beyond my control, I was not able to publish the December issue. However, we can start fresh in this brand new year.

In this issue we have new writing prompts, the Washington Posts 10 best books of 2014, and the New York Times 20 fiction bestsellers of 2014.

Since we've never done an issue about writing for kids, we have a list of free resources to help you tailor your stories for children and a short, short story that was my contest entry to a children's writer's e-zine a few years ago.

Please feel free to submit your writing for publication in the newsletter. All you have to do is email it to Colleen. It can be fiction, non-fiction, short story, poetry, essay, memoir, etc. We'd be happy to include it in the next issue. And if there is something you'd like to see in the newsletter, email me at the same address and we'll do our best to accommodate you.

January Writing Prompts

Each month we try to provide prompts for you to use to generate stories. Pick one or more and write 500 to 1,000 words using the prompt/s as the basis of your story. Above all, have fun with it.

1. Ignoring the advice of friends, a famous weather reporter gets married on a whim.

2. On vacation for the first time in years, an out-of-work writer is reunited with a long-lost twin.

3. While suffering a crisis of faith, a night watchman uncovers a hidden family secret.

The New York Times 20 fiction bestsellers of 2014.

1. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

2. Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

3. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

4. The Martian by Andy Weir

5. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

6. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

7. Fifty Shades of Grey (Fifty Shades Trilogy #1) by E L James

8. The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

9. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

10. The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

11. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

12. Sycamore Row by John Grisham

13. Captivated by You (Crossfire Series #4) by Sylvia Day

14. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

15. The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman

16. The First Phone Call from Heaven by Mitch Albom

17. The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks

18. What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

19. The Best American Short Stories 2014 by Jennifer Egan

20. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

The Secret Hallway

by Colleen Weikel

Some old lady came into my room tonight. She wasn’t even quiet. She made enough noise to wake the dead. Didn’t she see we were sleeping?

My friend Keyboard was spending the night, my first night in the new house. The house was old, but new to my family. We just moved in this morning.

When the old lady woke us up, we saw her go into my closet. She still hasn’t come out! So here we are, Keyboard and me, huddled under a blanket on my closet floor with just a tent shaped fold sticking up to look through and breathe through.

My name is Jackson Stone, but all my friends call me Stoney. Keyboard and me are only 10 years old, but pretty adventurous. So if someone is going to come into my bedroom and disappear in my closet, we’re going to find out who and why. And we’re staying here until she leaves, or my mom calls us for breakfast. Nothin makes me miss breakfast…or lunch… or, yeah, dinner.

Right now I wish my other buddy, Catfish, was here. Not that me and Keyboard are scared or anything. She’s a really, really old lady with a hunched back and a walking stick. Looks kind of like the witch in Snow White, but I’m not going to think about that right now.

I checked my watch. We’d been here about 15 minutes and we were bored. I threw off the blanket and grabbed my flashlight off the shelf and flipped it on. In the back of the closet was an opening. I can see it. Beyond the opening there was a long, narrow, dusty looking hallway. Keyboard and my dog, Baxter, followed me down the hallway.

Keyboard tugged at my shirt and whispered, “What do you think she’s doing?” He crept silently along the corridor.

“You got me! But we’re going to find out,” I said.

“Look over there,” I pointed to a shadow that was getting larger on the far wall, “what is that?”

“I d-don’t know, but we better HIDE!” He took a couple of steps forward and disappeared.

“Keyboard? Where’d you go?” I whispered, panicking. I knew the old lady had got him. She probably turned him into a potted plant or a garden gnome.

Just then a hand shot out from around a corner and grabbed my wrist. I knew the witch had me now.

She’d probably boil me in oil or bake me into a cookie or something. When I felt the hand on my arm shaking, I realized it was Keyboard how had grabbed me. He pulled me into a dark little room and we hid until we were sure the old lady wasn’t after us.

“Did you see that? I thought we were goners for sure,” Keyboard whispered.

“Me, too,” I played the flashlight beam around the room. We spotted a rickety little desk in the corner near the window. Above the desk hung a framed picture of Howdy Doody and Buffalo Bob with the Peanut Gallery in the background. Carved on the desktop were the initials VW. In the drawer a dead rubber band held a stack of report cards together. The student’s name was Vincent Weatherby. The dates were sequential from 1956 through 1968.

“Stoney, these are 1956 all the way to 1968!”

“Who the heck is Vincent Weatherby?” I mumbled.

“Tell you in a sec,” Keyboard pulled out his smart phone, pounding on the keyboard. “Aha!” he said, sounding like he’d just discovered fire or air or something.

“Hah?” I said. “What do you mean by aha?”

Sometimes Keyboard was overly dramatic and it worked on my nerves. This was one of those times.

“Ok. Vincent Weatherby, born and raised here in this house. Honor student through high school. Mother’s name Violet, father William. William died shortly after Vincent graduated. Violet still lives here? I don’t’ get it. This is your house.”

“Yeah, since this morning. Maybe the internet hasn’t caught up with me yet,”

I said, laughing. “Call Bill Gates and let him know I moved.”

Keyboard glanced out the window and called me over. The old lady was standing on what my mother calls a widow’s walk, holding a kerosene lantern and slowly turning in a circle.

“What’s she doing?” I asked

“Let me read the rest of this to you,” Keyboard said, turning back to his phone. “Vincent Weatherby disappeared in 1975 when the fishing boat he was working on capsized 5 miles from shore.”

“Wow! So it’s his mom shining that light hoping he’ll see it and come home?”

A shadow fell across the window. “Here she domes! Dive! Dive!” I whispered to Keyboard and slid under the desk.

Just as Keyboard dove in beside me the window opened and the old lady stepped through. She set the kerosene lamp on the desk and walked out of the room. We gave her a head start and followed her back to my bedroom and out of the closet.

She never looked back. She marched through the bedroom and down the stairs. I heard the kitchen door close softly and watched Mrs. Weatherby walk away.

“Are you gonna tell your folks?” Keyboard asked.

“Nah. She’s just an old lady who misses her son. Like our moms when we got lost in the woods last year.”

The End

Free Resources for Children's Writers

1. Rachelle Burk's RESOURCES for CHILDREN'S WRITERS:

http://resourcesforchildrenswriters.blogspot.com/

2. Aaron Shepard’s Kidwriting Page: http://www.aaronshep.com/kidwriter/

3. Write for Kids: http://writeforkids.org/

4. Deborah Freedman's Resources for Writers and Illustrators of Children's Books: http://www.deborahfreedman.net/information/resources-for-writers.html

5. Children's Writing Resources:

http://www.writerswrite.com/childrens/links.htm

6. Marisa Montes Sites for Teachers & Children's Writers Has a very good list of sites for Children's Writers: