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. FM INTERVIEW
2. SOCIETY PAGES
3. TWO CENTS
4. LET'S TALK MEDIA
5. ALL THINGS BOOKS AND READING
6. WEEKLY ROUND UP
7. SHAMELESS PLUGS
8. SUBSCRIBERS

Featured Member Interview: Moonwatcherwritten by Kaos < PM: >

Today we have an interview with our newest Featured Member, which is @Moonwatcher! Lately he's been quite the reviewing machine since early in this month. I got to speak with him about becoming Featured Member and here's how it went:
Reestablishing connection...



Moonwatcher:
Not really. I liked the idea of being featured member, but it wasn't really a goal of mine. It was a surprise when I saw myself featured because I never thought it would actually happen.



M:
M: Nah, I think it was just that.



M:
M: I suggest being really active in a certain aspect of YWS. Such as reviewing, storybooks, welcoming new members, and pretty much just doing anything that benefits the site. ^^




M: No problem!


And that's all we have from Moonwatcher today. I'm lucky to have snagged an interview from this splendid presence on the site!

Social Scoopwritten by EternalRain- < PM: >

I’m EternalRain here to bring you the weekly social news! The past weekend was review day on YWS - a very successful review day, and not to mention @Casanova who completed 101 reviews in the short time frame!

The new movie that was just released, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, has been both popular in and out of Young Writer’s Society with fans of the Harry Potter series (and those who have not read the books!). @Wolfical has changed their avatar to the main character Newt Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne.

Unfortunately, @AkeliaTaske’s dog is missing and she can’t find her. Let’s hope her dog returns home safe and sound.

In other news, @Persistance has decided to become a supervillian out of nowhere.







That’s what happens, folks, when your battery is at 42%.

@Falconer has made a ceramic heart in, presumably, ceramic class.She posted a picture of it on her wall and it looks quite amazing - a real looking heart with a hollow inside. It comes with many puns, one of which @Holysocks made: “Don’t break my heart”!

@featherstone9086 has recently created a roleplaying club called the Role-Play Geeks. She has posted a wall post and wondering if anyone would like to join!

According to @Zolen, coffee is basically beer for spiders.

@RavenLord is picking up on the hashtag #---lovesoptimism. The idea is to post a post and attach the hashtag #---lovesoptimism - and of course, replacing the dash’s with one’s name. It’s a great way to spread the positivity around!

The hype for the holiday season is slowly approaching. @Dracula seems pretty excited but a bit bummed out about the lack of snow they have where they live. @Steggy claims they’ve been in a Christmas mood since early July. But in all truth and honesty, though, who doesn’t like the holiday season?

@EverWinter posted a post with a thoughtful message, attaching the hashtag #LightTheWorld . The idea is amazing and heartwarming: to spread happiness and shed a little light on those in need every day for the whole month of December.

With the holiday season approaching, profile pictures are changing - Santa hats are added or cute winter themed avatars updated. An especially cute one I love is @EscaSkye’s. It’s a cute Vulpix - a Pokemon - in one looks like a stocking.

This is just the start of this holiday season! It’s only just the start of December, and there’s certainly much more to come. If you've got any life updates - holidays or not - get posting!

TWO CENTS: COMMUNICATIONSwritten by Aley < PM: >

When I first went to college for my bachelors I thought I would go for communications because I knew I loved writing, but I didn't know what to do with it. I was thinking maybe I would get into advertising, or something like marketing, but it was a huge, intimidating field. In the end, I switched majors over to English, something a little closer to home.

The reason I switched is something of a mixed message in itself. When I was learning Communications things, stuff they teach in communications classes, it was all stuff that was basically like "duh" and I didn't get much value out of it. It became something that was easy to predict, easy to ace, and didn't require a lot of work. The most work I had to do was memorize terms, and I didn't like that. So why am I telling you?

One of the things that goes wrong in general, everywhere, is clarity of idea, and I've become somewhat obsessed with this idea since my run in with communications. To me, a lot of people misinterpret actions, wording, and people and that can cause a lot of emotional conflict in our lives. For writing, it's great. The more conflict we can create just because someone didn't hear something right, the better, but we have to communicate with our audience in a way that they know what we're saying, and that's difficult to do.

In poetry, communicating with the audience comes in several forms, the overt denotation of a poem, the covert connotations, and the general rhetoric surrounding the poem in general. The hardest part is creating the right rhetoric.

That being said, I could launch into twelve articles about the different rhetorical aspects of words, syntax, placements on a page, fonts, and grammar. The basic summary is that the way we speak and form our language has changed over time and continues to change. Rhetoric is the art of the composition of language, persuasion, and such things as figures of speech. The one message that is hardest to debate and most influential one way or another in rhetoric is a single statement: "Everything is rhetorical."

Why? Because that means that every way we sit, every moment of our lives, every second we breathe, or hold our breath, every way we look, everything we write, or don't write, or wait for those dots to appear or not, is involved in the art of communication. It's not just what we write, and how we write it, or where we put our hedges, it's everything from the type of paper we put it on, to the heading.

And if you decide to argue that not everything is rhetorical, and you look at what you wear and say "I didn't choose this to make a statement," then you'll have to take a step back and consider this: what if you had worn nothing? That would be a statement, and therefore, to choose not to make that statement is a statement in itself.

And if you decide to button mash and say "this is not a rhetorical statement, it's just button mashing" then you've made it a statement yourself, by attempting to break out of the mold that it is a statement, you're making it rhetoric.

So next time you settle in to write, and you look at the poem or novel or story title, remember, everything is included in the art of language. It all communicates. What do you really want to say?

Let's Talk Media: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Themwritten by Mea < PM: >

Welcome to Let’s Talk Media! This will be a column in which I review and analyze the things I have read and watched. There will be both a spoiler-free section and a spoilerific section, the first to get you to read or watch it, the second for the fans.

But that’s not all! I want to hear your opinions too. And to facilitate discussion, I have started a thread here for all of you to head over to and respond to my reviews and add your own thoughts! You can even (and please do) request books/shows for me to talk about. I will update the thread with each new article I write.

On to the real business: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I got to see this with a large group of friends on Thanksgiving Day, in the evening and very full from pie and other goodies. I went into it cold - I hadn’t been watching the trailers, and as much of a Potterhead as I am, I didn’t really care if it was terrible.

It was more than a little thrilling to hear Hedwig’s theme playing at the start of a movie I hadn’t seen before, almost as exciting as when I saw the words scrolling by at the start of The Force Awakens last year. This movie is a little long at 2 hours and 15 minutes, but the time flies by - the pacing is quick, but not breakneck.

I fell in love with the main character, Newt quickly. An expert on magical animals, the movie begins with him arriving in New York with a suitcase full of magical creatures. Some of them escape, and as he tries to recapture them, he is ‘arrested’ by ex-Auror Tina, and meets a ‘No-Maj’ (Muggle) named Jacob. Newt is a little awkward, but very genuine, and I really enjoyed watching his relationship with his animals.

In some ways, this film feels like two movies twined together, and I think the contrast works beautifully. The first plot revolves around Newt trying to recapture his animals, and is full of warm, golden-lit scenes where we get to see a multitude of magical creatures. But this movie can be very dark at times, with the main plot centering around a group of No-Majs advocating for the death of wizards and the wizarding government’s reaction. Child abuse also features prominently. Still, the serious and the whimsical is mixed very well, the plot is compelling, and basically all of you should go see it. I think it sets up the next for movies well.





I did have a few small quibbles, mostly revolving around the amount of powerful nonverbal magic used, and other small stretches of canon. I also didn’t think the memory-wiping venom at the end quite made sense, though I love the Thunderbird.

I can’t emphasize how much I loved the dynamic between the four main characters. Jacob was a little too much comic relief at times, and Tina I think needs another movie to fully round her out, but the group dynamic was so fun to watch. I especially loved Queenie - sensitive and beautiful, but still smart and contributes a lot to the plot. I really liked her, both as a person and a character.

But aside from being utterly enjoyable, this movie sparked my curiosity. The Obscurus immediately brought to mind Arianna, especially after we find out Grindlewald is involved. The cases are quite similar - Ariana also repressed her magic, and it exploded out of her at odd times. It wouldn’t surprise me if Grindlewald first got the idea to harness Obscuri from Arianna. However, I don’t think Arianna was actually an Obscurus. She clearly didn’t have anywhere near the destructive power Credence did, even though she was also a teenager. More likely, she was on the way to becoming an Obscurus, but died in the duel before she did. Or her magic wasn’t repressed enough to ever form an Obscurus. What do you guys think?

I also can’t help but speculate on what the next for movies will hold. It seems like the major villain has been set up to be Grindelwald, but we know Grindelwald was defeated by Dumbledore in 1945, more than 20 years after this movie, and I don’t think Newt had much to do with it. How do you think this will work out? I do hope they don’t try to slide around canon. I’d love to see Dumbledore and Grindelwald duel, but it would be strange in a series about Newt.

Overall, thanks to a gripping plot and engaging characters, I’m more than happy to give Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them a solid 5/5 stars.

And that wraps it up for today! Remember to head over to the discussion thread and share your opinions with me and the rest of YWS!

All Things Books and Readingwritten by Pretzelstick < PM: >

Hello all Squillsans who are interesting in books and reading! Here is your weekly dose of all that you need to know about what’s happening in this industry. Things in the publishing world go pretty slow in the holiday season, but there is plenty to dig into to your satisfaction.

Something I can't let go of:
The first Barnes & Noble of the Future opens






The future Barnes and Nobles is here in Eastchester, NY. For the first time ever, this popular chain who has had a rough quarter has created this idea where there store will now feature a restaurant as an attraction. This is one out of five planned stores that will be opened in the foreseeable future; although the showroom will be smaller and less selection of books, but will feature a more curated selection.

What's New in the World of Books:
Faithful
by Alice Hoffman
Release Date: November 1, 2016



This novel chronicles Shelby's journey of life, where at the beginning she starts as a mental health patient at a hospital and then transforms and grows up as the story goes along. She is just trying to recover from a traumatic accident that changed the course of her life and at heart this really is a coming-of-age and finding yourself story which I always seem to enjoy.

The side characters are all so fleshed out because there were some very unique people that had be perking up in my chair while reading the story. My favorite one was the (anonymous) postcard writer who remember that Shelby was alive at the beginning of that rough time and encouraged her to do "something" especially in the aftermath of that tragedy.

It did features themes like: Love, loss, lust, friendship, family, (un)faithfullness,etc. in a very profound way that made me connect to the character with empathy and understand their struggles. I was very invested in the outcome which is always a green light sign for me.

Trigger Warnings: abuse, sexual assault, self-harm

Overall, I fell very impressed with how this story was told and I will only give it high praises.

Amazon-- Goodreads

#Reccomendsday:

This is a write-in column where I use get your recommendation requests/questions.

The next lovely person who wrote to me is @soundofmind, who got a little bit confused on what I’m doing here. To be very clear, this is a write-in recommendations show where y’all write in a request/question and I try to answer with a couple of suggestions that are alike. Anyways, let’s march on!






I haven’t read a lot of the classics (like this one), but I have two recommendations that I think are indirectly related to your new favorite book, so please enjoy!

My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows


Humorous historical fiction, this books has direct references from the Princess Bride, which might be fun to try and pick up while reading. Absolutely fabulous summer read for me, lighthearted so get ready to laugh.

“The comical, fantastical, romantical, (not) entirely true story of Lady Jane Grey. In My Lady Jane, coauthors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows have created a one-of-a-kind fantasy in the tradition of The Princess Bride, featuring a reluctant king, an even more reluctant queen, a noble steed, and only a passing resemblance to actual history—because sometimes history needs a little help.

At sixteen, Lady Jane Grey is about to be married off to a stranger and caught up in a conspiracy to rob her cousin, King Edward, of his throne. But those trifling problems aren’t for Jane to worry about. Jane is about to become the Queen of England.”

Amazon --Goodreads

This next book I choose because it was an absolute favorite of mine last holiday season, and it features a good boy like Wesley is in the love interest angle of the plotline. I’m just going to throw this extremely intriguing synopsis from Goodreads at you, because it’s described much better than I ever could.

Cinder
by Marissa Meyer


“Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.”

This is actually a 4 book series with two additional novellas that are set in this world, so this is the ideal thing to dig into if on Christmas Break, because let me tell you: it’s like an addiction that pulls you in!

Amazon --Goodreads

Quote of the Week:






Happy Reading y’all!

~Book Whisperer

This Week’s Link Round Up 12/4 written by megsug < PM: >

Join me for a trip through The Lounge’s first page.


It’s that time again! We’re nominating the users who created the best and did the best and those who do it the most. The Best Awards nominations are PMed to @BigBrother, but the Most Awards nominations are posted on the thread. There are many awards some serious some funny, but I have no idea who I’m going to choose for this one:







My People’s tab is full of strangers right now with everyone switching their usernames up.

Anyways! Get those nominations in by December 31st. Remember, voting is a civic duty.


It’s been up for a few days, so if you grab a spot now, it’ll be on page five or farther, but it is time to ruminate on what this year has looked like for everyone. People haven’t started getting sappy yet, but it’s only time. Just remember the rules:







The nostalgia! Let me prepare my tissues.


Because everyone is sporting new stylish Santa hats and holly leaves! This is all thanks to @Mage who is doing a great job giving each user a splash of holiday cheer. @Wolfical’s is especially cute:



Amp up your holiday spirit today!


@Lava wants to know how you get in the holiday mood. With all of the songs so far, I’ve got to agree with @Remington38:







So? What is your holiday theme song?


@Aleta wants to know what everyone’s zodiac signs are. The answers so far have ranged from those who don’t care to those who are invested. Aleta said







I’d like to know how! It sounds interesting.

SHAMELESS PLUGS

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SUBSCRIBERS

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