Young Writers Society

Welcome to Squills, the official news bulletin of the Young Writers Society!

What will you find here? Tons of interesting news about YWS, including but not limited to: articles about writing, art, and the world of humanities; interviews with YWS members; shameless plugs; link round-ups; and opinionated columns.

And where will all of this come from? Take a look at our fantastic creative staff!





Of course, our content can’t come only from our staff. We also depend on you to help keep Squills successful. You’re all a part of a writing community, after all. If you’re interested in submitting to Squills, pop on over to the Reader’s Corner to find out how you can get involved by contributing an article or participating in other Squills activities. You can also subscribe to the Squills Fan Club , or PM SquillsBot to receive a notification each time a new issue is published!

Well, that’s all I have for now. So, what are you waiting for? Enjoy!

1. GREEN ROOM GALLERY
2. NOTEWORTHY NOVELS
3. NEWSFLASH
4. NEW ARRIVALS
5. THIS WEEK’S ROUNDUP - 01/31
6. SHAMELESS PLUGS
7. SUBSCRIBERS

GREEN ROOM GALLERYwritten by BlueAfrica < PM: >

Poems and stories and novels, oh my! The Green Room is packed with works waiting for reviews. There are 96 works with zero reviews and 221 works with one review, some of them from as far back as October. Luckily, the first Review Day of 2016 lowered those numbers from the respective 174 and 315 they were at before (and also got rid of a lot of the works I originally put in this article. THANKS, GUYS. Rewriting an hour before publishing is no big deal.)

But be sure to check out some of the works that are still trapped in review limbo!

DUET: Chapter 8 by @SereneSimpliciT

I don’t usually include later novel chapters in the Green Room Gallery, but this poor installment has been stuck in the Green Room since November 10th. Duet is a romantic sci-fi novel that currently has sixteen chapters and a prologue posted. You can read the prologue here .

Unorthodox Thieves (Chapter 23): Disrespect Your Elders by @EnderFlash
Rated 18+ for language.

This action/adventure fantasy novel has been in the Green Room since at least October 5th, although a good twelve chapters were cleared out of it in the last twenty-four hours! Go give the last few some love.

Unorthodox Thieves was started as a project for The Last Man Standing II and currently has twenty-three chapters. You can read the first chapter here .

Breaker of Chains - Chapter Fifteen by @ScarlettFire
Rated 18+ for language, violence, and mature content.

Another LMS entry, ScarlettFire’s fantasy novel has eighteen posted chapters. You can read the first chapter here .

Tryal’s Curse 8.1 by @Pompadour

Action/adventure fantasy. Fifteen chapters are posted in twenty-four installments, and eleven installments are currently in the green room. You can read the first chapter here .

Eternal Ties Chapter 2.3 by @backroadstraveler

The last installment so far posted of this action/adventure fantasy novel. You can read the first chapter here .

Pandie and The Rise of Nyx: Chapter 2.1 by @EternalRain

This is the second chapter of a Percy Jackson fanfic, so be sure to check it out if you’re a fan. You can read the first chapter here .

Thrallmagic: Chapter 16 by @QueenOfHearts

A fantasy novel with twenty-three chapters posted--another LMS project. Being a princess is never easy...and it looks like Princess Rionach is planning a lot of chaos! You can read the first chapter here .

Blood Haven: Chapter 9 by @anabelsinclair
Rated 16+.

Nothing can stand in the way of Devereux. If you cross her, you will be destroyed. Read the first part of this mystery novel here .

A Modern Day Knight Chapter 7 by @Dragongirl

When Griffin gets on the wrong side of a wizard, a dragon is sent to kill him. Little does the wizard realize that the dragon has his own agenda. Read the first chapter here .

Warriors Of Elements Chpt. 2 by @PerfectWeapon

Is Sarin cursed? Her friends might think so… Read the first chapter here .

Kin (Chapter 2) by @emmals16

Salem has to help someone who looks like his family’s murderer. Read the first chapter here .

NOTEWORTHY NOVELSwritten by Pretzelstick < PM: >

Note: I just wanted to give a shout-out to all 124 subscribers. I want to honestly thank you all so much for being those users who want to read the editions loyally and who get bugged tagged every Sunday to come take a look. Your views and likes matter, and they are a big component of what keeps me operating.

This week, I have decided to feature a "Noteworthy Novel" for the reason being that the "Best Awards" were posted last week, and I thought that it would be a great way to write a post and honors one of the winners for the "Best Novels" award. Here stepping up to the plate, I would like to introduce @Meandbooks and her novel Shaping Faith .

Squills:What inspired you to start this novel? Why are you writing it?

Meandbooks: Hmm...this novel has a convoluted history. I came up with some of the basic ideas for the magic system years ago, but it never had a plot nor characters I cared about. When LMS started, I ended up taking a lot of inspiration from my own life experiences and how as you grow up you have to start really evaluating your beliefs and sometimes defending them. So I suppose you could say I'm writing it to explore those themes.



M: In a world where everyone has an identical twin and powers that allow them to reshape objects, humanity has spread to the stars. On one minor planet Verona and her twin sister, Analia, both 21, are just finishing school when their mother is killed in an accident. Consumed by grief and rage, Verona kills the man responsible and is arrested.

Condemned to a life sentence in prison, Verona's only hope lies with a radical sect of her religion, which is dedicated to purging the corrupt government and can provide protection in return for help. Meanwhile, Analia watches as her life falls apart, her sister gone and the church beginning to ask more and more of her in its efforts to bring about change.



M: The original title was Lines of Faith, but I didn't like it very much because it seemed too rigid and too much like a Christian novel. I ended up changing the title to Shaping Faith because it makes a pun on the magic system and it reflects my ideas about the story more accurately. It's not about drawing hard lines in the sand, it's about developing and refining your core beliefs.



M: Pick an idea you love and just write it. Figure out if you're a person who needs an outline to feel comfortable, and then make one if you need to. Don't worry so much about quality for the first novel - the most valuable thing you'll take away from it is a better understanding of yourself and your strengths and weaknesses. Remember, you can always go back and change things later.



M: Sue is a more minor character, but she's easily my favorite character to write because she's based pretty heavily off of someone in real life who was and is like a grandma to me even though we aren't related. We live on opposite sides of the world now, but every time I write Sue I'm reminded of her and that makes me smile.

Least favorite character would probably be any one of the many I don't have developed nearly as well as I should. It makes everything take twice as long because I'm not that interested in the character and I'm constantly second-guessing myself.



M: Probably my biggest struggle is not feeling like I know what I'm doing. I don't have as much of an outline as I'd like, and although I know a lot of what I need to do to create a compelling plot and characters, I have no idea how to do it. Also, time tends to be an issue, and lack of motivation when I'm stuck.

That's all that I've got for today. I hope that you enjoyed getting to know more about Mea's WIP-Shaping Faith. See you next week!

NEWSFLASH
written by Lavvie < PM: >

This past week had many things in store for us, as you might have heard as you tuned into your local radio station or read in that trashy magazine while waiting to buy your carton of milk. Sometimes it seems that nothing of great significance could happen every week, but remember: the world is a big place and big things happen every hour of every day. So, without further ado, here’s five major things that took place this week.



The Republican candidate, Donald Trump, boycotted the Fox News debate on Thursday because news anchor Megyn Kelly was to be one of the moderators. Nevertheless, the ridiculous billionaire still managed to outshine his opponents, in spite of the fact that he was very much absent from the event. In lieu of debating alongside the likes of Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz, Trump organized his own competitive event, which resulted in $6 million USD (where $1 million USD was his own contribution) raised for American veterans. The radical businessman managed to fill the location of the fundraiser to capacity. The Republican debate, on the other hand, became little more than a schoolyard banter as both Bush and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie now had the opportunity to make their case as a less radical candidate. Both are anticipating the February 9th New Hampshire primary. On the topic of immigration, Bush was reported to state: “Mr. Trump believed in reaction to people’s fears that we should ban all Muslims. Well, that creates an environment that’s toxic in our own country.”



First discovered in 1947 in a Ugandan monkey, the fatal Zika virus has spread over time from Africa to Asia and has now found its way across the Pacific Ocean into the Americas. In May 2015, Brazil detected the first case of the virus and, since then, it has spread exponentially through the American continents. For a long time, experts believed the virus to relatively harmless but now new studies are showing that there is likely a link between Zika and neurological issues – like microcephaly, meaning the birth of a child with an abnormally small head. This means the disease is passed from mother to child during pregnancy. About 80% of those affected don’t even feel sick and, if they do, they experience mild forms of fever, rash, joint pain, or pink eye. Dr. Sylvain Aldighieri, an official of both the WHO and Pan American Health Organization, remarked that the virus is rapidly circulating with “very high intensity” due to the fact that mosquitoes carry it and the lack of any immunity to the virus. The WHO has called an emergency committee meeting for Monday. They will meet in Switzerland to discuss the future of the virus and the consequences it may have.



Mattel had Barbie go for some plastic surgery and the results are wonderful. Sales in the classic doll have been dropping significantly – approximately 15% each quarter over the past two years – due to Frozen's Elsa doll taking the lead and Lego overtaking Mattel as the top toy brand. Yet, it wasn’t only the financial issues that led to Mattel’s makeover of the Barbie doll. “The overall message about the shape of Barbie has always been...that women should have one particular shape,” said Professor Aurora Sherman, who works in the Psychology Department at Oregon State University. The new Barbie comes in all shapes and sizes, from curvy to tall to petite, and also sports different hair types, ethnicities, and less objectifying apparel in order to more accurately represent the real woman of the real world. “They’re fascinating,” says Sherman.



Four Chinese miners that were trapped in a gypsum mine for over a month due to a cave-in that occurred on December 25th have now been a rescued. The collapse of the mine was so strong that it appeared on the country’s earthquake monitoring centre. China is known for having some of the world’s deadliest mines and holds a long history of industrial accidents. Originally, there were 29 trapped in total, but fifteen have since been rescued while 13 remain missing and one is confirmed dead. The four that have been rescued from underground were detected at a depth of 200 meters (656 feet). The rescue operation involved 400 emergency workers who would tunnel down to the survivors and provide food and water through a tiny hole. The miners made it to safety as they were winched up individually in specially made rescue capsules. CCTV reports that upon reaching safety, one of the miners said, “I feel relieved and secure now. I will remember [the rescuers] forever.”



The official Harry Potter website, originally launched in 2011, recently underwent a major makeover, resulting in a September 2015 relaunch...without the beloved Sorting Hat quiz. Have no fear, though, because it’s just been reported that the quiz is back! The quiz asks a series of important questions in order to sort you into one of the four Hogwarts houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. After, you can also take the wand quiz. Even though I’ve taken the quiz a thousand times (yes, I made multiple e-mail accounts to make sure I was correctly placed), I decided to take it again. I don’t know about you, but I’m a loyal Hufflepuff, through and though, and my wand is laurel wood with a dragon heartstring core, ten and a quarter inches with supple flexibility. Take the quiz here .

NEW ARRIVALS
written by BlueAfrica < PM: >



@caitlynnoco has posted a thread in the Welcome Mat. Stop by to say hello !

@BlueJayWalker10 has posted the first chapter of an action/adventure fantasy novel called Words Written in Lightning. Click here to read it and leave a review !

@cheaperpoetry has earned their first review star. Head to their wall to congratulate them !

THIS WEEK'S ROUNDUP – 1/31written by megsug < PM: >

A mix of new things and nostalgia. Discover the present and future and remember the past in this week’s Roundup!


Three new users have been covered in mold. @Carlito, @Lightsong, and @Wolfie36 are infected now too. According to @Lumi, @Wolfie36 is going to do an awesome job in the SB crew because Lumi’s:







Go congratulate our new JMs!


The fourth Chronicles of Narnia book, The Silver Chair is being made into a movie. Everyone’s excited, but @EmmVeePi has a good point:







Take hope though! It looks like A Horse and His Boy is in the plan. Don’t believe me? Check IMDb


Our own @Lavvie has started a thread about her exploration in sentimental prose. She’s posting stories and muses like this one:



It’s definitely intriguing to look through, and Lavvie invites feedback. Check it out!


@Skins recently had a 7th YWS-iversary and wrote a letter to herself with advice. The wisdom only hindsight can bring would be good for newer users to learn from but is great for anyone. One piece of advice definitely resounded with me:







This resource is definitely worth the read!

SHAMELESS PLUGS

written by SquillsBot < PM: >

We love to run articles and questions, but we also love to advertise for you. Let people know about your new blog, a poem or story you’re looking for reviews on, or a forum thread you’d like more traffic on through Squills’ Shameless Plugs. PM @SquillsBot with the exact formatting of your advertisement, contained in the following code.

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Place advertisement here. Make sure you include a title!

a new tournament from the writer tournaments

Need some good competition to get the words flowing? Want to make a friend while you're at it? Check out the Double Trouble co-writing tournament in the Writer Tournaments club!




That's all folks~ Now send us yours.

SUBSCRIBERS

written by SquillsBot < PM: >

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