Vandalia: The Fiction and Truth of West Virginia Stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the snowy peaks of Alaska’s Brooks Range in the Arctic Circle to Florida’s swampy Everglades in the Gulf of Mexico, the United States of America is as diverse topographically as it is culturally. Each state of the U.S. may Read more…
The Terrible Case Beep beep. Rob had just been diagnosed with a sickness called mono. He couldn’t move or talk. All the doctors were concerned about him: would he make it or would he die? Suddenly he stopped breathing. His throat was clogged with swollen lymph nodes. The Pulmonologist had just walked in. He quickly Read more…
A Republic of Variety State by State, A Panoramic Portrait of America began as essentially a road trip compressed into a book. In the 1930s, the Federal Writers’ Project was created. The project hired many of the most famous authors to write for them, like Richard Wright, an author who was also the founder of Read more…
Roald Dahl and Guy de Maupassant CRACK! BANG! A young boy, Peter Watson was hanging from fifty feet up on a tree, and bullets were being fired at him. The two hooligans had threatened to shoot at Peter if he didn’t jump. One of the loutish ones reloaded his gun and screamed “Last chance!” But Read more…
HUNDRED CAT This is Hundred Cat. He has 100 lives. Hundred Cat has only one problem though, it’s that he is really dumb. “Doy,” says Hundred Cat dumbly. He is soooo dumb that he likes to waste his lives. For example, it was Hundred Cat’s 99th life as he got ready to jump off a Read more…
“The Mildenhall Treasure” is a great story. It uses something called creative nonfiction. This is when a writer takes a real historical fact or story and uses nonfictional characters and techniques to recreate it differently. For instance, one can read a newspaper account of an event and have the same set of facts playing out Read more…
Madeline L’Engle Before I go deep into my writing, I want to say one of the most important things I took away from Chapter Seven. There are a LOT of big words. Mitochondria, farandole, Proginoskes, Echthroi, etc. Echthroi means enemies in Latin, by the way. So many that I had to re-read some pages A Read more…
Mowgli, Kotick, Rikki Tikki, Bagheera, Nag and so many more come from the one and only, Rudyard Kipling. Rudyard Kipling was born on December 30, 1865, and died on January 18, 1936. He lived to be 70 years old. He was born in Bombay, India. One of his most famous books is called The Jungle Read more…
Mona Lisa in Mona Lisa Out The guard watched as Mother Nature took over the scene; the birds were chirping making beautiful noises – it sounded like harmony to the guard, but he shook his head and continued his vigilance. He’d been on duty since midnight and his relief was late. Finally, his relief was Read more…
The Self-Deprecating Humor of Ohio, Maine, and New Jersey In 2008, Sean Wilsey and Matt Weiland came together to write a book: a collection of travel guides, narratives, biographies, and stories. State by State: a Panoramic Portrait of America, was to be a road trip in written form to help Americans better understand America. This Read more…
