Adjudication and readings of Young Adult Story 24 April 2018.

At her workshop on 27^th February, Vicki Gemmell had set us the task of producing a blurb for a Young Adult Story and then writing the first chapter of that story.

The winning entry was from Judith Vallely with “The Secret Swimmers Club.” The chapter told of a terrifying encounter with a shark resulting from her brother hacking into a teenage Daisy’s virtual reality device.

Second was “Belonging” by Joan Frondigoun. Maddie finds a hidden photo of an unknown man holding her as a baby. She has different, colouring, mannerisms and interests from the rest of her family and yet her parents insist that she is not adopted.

Diana Devlin took third place with “Face the Dark”. Whilst walking in the rain, as respite from a drunken mother, Jess is attracted by a cry for help and scrambles into a derelict theme park. She becomes disoriented, bleeding from a gashed leg and scared.

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Elizabeth tells of a boy from Scotland reluctantly starting life in Canada. Whilst still jet lagged, he gets a taste of an alien land of baseball, wood cabins, barbecue breakfasts, dark forests and bears.

Pete’s writes of a girl born with a periodic ability to project herself forward in time. She gets to experience her life as it might be dependent upon her earlier choices.

Hilary writes of a girl who feels that she is at odds with the rest of her family. Using make-up as a shield, she starts to leave home. She takes with her a youth who is also trying to escape from a desperate drug saturated urban environment.

All of the entries received loads of written feedback and encouragement from Vicki and each reading sparked interested comments from members.

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                     Open manuscripts.

Both Kathleen and Diana gave us poems which were time related.

Kathleen wrote of experiencing time in relation to people you have met, places you have lived and major events which have happened in your life.

Diana saw time through the medium of a kaleidoscope of components from watches and clocks in a clockmaker’s shop.

Pete wrote of the dubious skills of a DIY expert not always being passed down to later generations.

Joan Fr. read a short poem on The Passing of a Good Men.