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.

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

1. SQUILLS UPDATES: NEW EDITOR
2. FM INTERVIEW: ROSETTE
3. THE SQUILLS NEWSHOUR: WEEK 2
4. LITERATURE LESSONS - GRENDEL
5. SHAMELESS PLUGS
6. SUBSCRIBERS

SQUILLS UPDATE - NEW EDITORwritten by killeham< PM: >


Hey there everyone. I’m Killeham, at your service. I was not expecting to become an editor, but I’m very excited to become more involved on here.

I’ve been on and off Squills for the last couple years, but I’m back for good. It’s been fun to get back into writing, and keeping track of what’s been happening on YWS.

I’m really enjoying my Literature Lessons, because I love school. Some of my backstory appears on this lovely page. I hope to eventually add more columns, so here’s to hoping that inspiration hits me sooner than later!

I really want to increase club activities, so please hop on over, sometime, here. Something good may come your way, if you respond!

I hope that more users will get involved, which could start with you, the lovely Squills readers.

I’m not looking to replace the past editors, but I do hope to bring something else to the table. I can’t wait to see where Squills takes us next!

Thank you.

FM INTERVIEW: ROSETTE
written by Kanome < PM: >

Welcome back to another week of Squills where I am here with you today to discuss about this week’s Featured Member! Today, I am here with @rosette to ask about her take on being a Featured Member.



Rosette: Sure! I am honored. :p



R:Yessss, I just didn't know when??



R: I actually started laughing. xD Usually, I like to keep track of when the FM is announced, and see who it is, but the one time I got a little lazy and forgot to keep an eye on it, lo and behold, it turned out to be me.



Rosette: Exactly what I wondered! Though I came to a conclusion that it was probably because I recently became a KOTGR, and have been attempting to keep up some consistency with that.



R:Becoming more involved in whatever way you can (whether that's reviewing, storybooking, or even welcoming new members) will definitely help you out.



R: Oooh yes! I plan on joining a few storybooks or so, possibly joining LMS, and... well, I probably shouldn't get too ahead of myself, but there are so many other activities and events on here I'd love to try.

There you have it, folks! Be sure to congratulate her for being FM! Until next time!

THE SQUILLS NEWSHOUR: WEEK 2

written by LadyLizz< PM: >


(If you watch the video , please take pity on me and subscribe.)


Welcome back to Squills and welcome to the second week of the Squills Newshour. If you're here listening and/or reading this, it means that I did manage to secure the funding. If you're just one of my fellow staff members and my funding request didn't go through, enjoy this the same.



The Penn State mascot's (the Lion) statue has recently had its ear repaired, after spending a few months with a temporary replacement. Plaster surgery is just as good as plastic, right?
A few days ago, abc news reported on THIS unfortunate incident, which in an even more unfortunate turn of events, has happened before in the past. It happened enough, all results of vandalism, that the original artist created a mold for the ears back in the 70s.
They believe that this time was not a result of terrorism. I guess catching a lion by the ear, is the equivalent of catching a tiger by the tail?


This happened rather recently and the report on it is pretty short. 
Two suspects in a shoplifting case were running away from the market and the officers in pursuit, only to jump a fence into a police lot. They might have been blinded by the light or perhaps it was the outrageous prices in the store for a single head of lettuce.
Either way, they did not see the sign. And the police certainly welcomed them with open arms, even after one of the suspects, reportedly tried hiding under a bench.
Perhaps if they were stealing tomatoes, the officers would have been able to catch them red handed.


The oranges were found in two vehicles, both of which seemed much too small to be carrying however many oranges there in a van and a sedan. This has been a short running drama, compared to the Jerky Thief in Oklahoma, who we do not have anything to report on this week.
And also unlike the Jerky Thief, the owners did want their property back, and the Spanish police officer assured them that it would happen.
From the pictures, it seems that a few did roll into the street amid the high speed chase, or however fast your car can go weighted down with so many hot goods. In the news business, you see that we have to use this lingo, even if it doesn't make that much sense with the application.




The seas in the Storybook section continue to be tumultuous, which is honestly not much worse than it usually is, but unfortunately the sailors no longer have Captain Rydia at their disposal. It might have been her sudden decision to be an outlaw that caused all of this rain, even the clouds seem broken up about it and are shedding a lot of tears.
We managed to catch up with the respected officer and that interview will be featured on the next page.

The Gen Lit section is experiencing a dry spell of creativity, as its residents try to determine whether they should go to NaPo or Camp NaNo.

The club section is as busy as usual, almost drowning in the activity from the RP groups and the newcomer, Inspo for NaPo. Just today I saw several poets running around and crying, so be careful about any puddles that might be found on the tile.

The resources section is about the same as always, dry and arid, with little hope of rain. The threads in the different advice sections haven’t been touched in a bit, so consider stopping by there to water the flowers.

And while you’re in the mood for gardening, go to the Green Room, and do a bit of weeding and trimming. The old works are getting a bit out of control and crowded the other things out. Show them love by moving them to a bigger bed.


So instead of an actual story restatement, this is just a collection of headlines from different incidents over the years.

..trying to kill a spider or something else like that.

• In March of 2018 – “Man tries to kill cockroaches, blows up home by using fly spray as flamethrower”
• In January of 2018 – “Man attempts to kill giant spider with torch lighter, causes major fire instead”
• In October of 2017 – “Man tries to kill spider with blowtorch and accidentally burns house down”
• Okay well this one is kinda understandable – “House Was So Overrun With Cockroaches That Authorities Had To Burn It Down”

...trying to cook a turkey.
This headline is very popular in November.

• In November of 2017 (California) – “Smoked turkey possibly cause of fire, destroying Sanger home”
• Also November of 2017 – “This video might make you rethink frying your turkey. Nothing ruins Thanksgiving like the house catching on fire.”
  And here I thought it was inviting your family.
• In November of 2013 – “Turkey frying mishap sets 2 houses on fire”

IT’S an obvious fact of life that people let their cats up on the counter, mainly because they seem to have no control over that. And letting the cat up on the counter is fine as long as you sanitize later on.
Cats have proved to be good replacements for plants, which started a very long trend of memes being of cats sitting in flower pots. But taking too much of that catnip, is how you end up in PetSmart late at night wearing a lampshade and a Dracula outfit. Not that the BB puppy would know anything about that…
But it perhaps takes it a bit too far when you replace baby Jesus in the nativity scene with a cat.
Or maybe the cat ate the baby Jesus.
Either way, this was a story left over from Christmas that we needed to share.

LITERATURE LESSONS - GRENDELwritten by killeham< PM: >

Hello everyone, to this week’s literature lesson! Since last time I discussed Beowulf, I thought it only fair to bring up its sort-of companion novel, Grendel.

If you read Beowulf, you may recall the first monster that the Geatish prince faces is called Grendel. Lo and behold, this novel is from that very creature’s point of view.

Grendel was written in 1971, by John Gardner. He saw it fit to tell both sides of the story, and not just allow for Beowulf to be painted as this mythological hero.

There are only a couple of main characters in Grendel, including the title character, Beowulf, somewhat, the dragon from the original poem, and Grendel’s mother.

This book holds many existentialist views, such as how philosophical the dragon is, who’s only true advice is “to seek out gold and sit on it.”

Gardner said that this version of Grendel is actually based on a philosopher known as Jean-Paul Sartre, who really emphasized the theme of existentialism in books such as Being and Nothingness, translated from French.

An interesting portion of this short novel is the inclusion of a blind seer, known only as “The Shaper.” Grendel is fascinated by the tales the old man spins about the creature and surrounding rulers.

There are really only two conversations between Grendel and the dragon, but both hold the truer meaning of the novel, as Gardner includes many ideas of isolation, freedom, and existence, to name a few.

This novel does not, actually, paint Grendel as a good person; he’s much better off being an anti-hero. You may feel sympathy for the lonely creature, but Gardner treats him as any other flawed being.

Some of the devices used in this novel is rather interesting word choice, figurative language, irony, and humor. There are quite a few actually amusing events in this novel, that even if they’re cruel, are hard not to chuckle at.

I’ll give you one hint - it involves apples. At least I’m pretty sure it does.

That’s all for this week’s literature lesson, but I hope you liked it! Stay tuned for more!

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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Manga Book Club

If anyone is interested, I have created a book club for manga reader. There, we can read manga that we are assigned and discuss about every week at our book club meetings. Feel free to join!



Manga Book Club

That's all folks~ Now send us yours.

SUBSCRIBERS

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