Young Writers Society

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1. FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW: FIREEYES
2. PERSONALITY QUIZ: YA BOOK REC
3. HOLIDAY PERSPECTIVE: CHRISTMAS IN JULY
4. (TOTALLY DIDN'T FORGET THE NAME OF THIS) CODE
5. WORD OF THE WEEK: SUPERCILIOUS
6. SHAMELESS PLUGS
7. SUBSCRIBERS

FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW: FIREEYES
written by Liberty < PM: >

Two featured members ago, @FireEyes made their way into the Featured Member Hall of Fame. They participated in the Great Team Tortoise Race (and were one of the winners!) as well as participating in the Find Nate the Dragon tagbook! You’re usually going to find FireEyes, one of The Outsiders’ fans, in the People’s tab, being pretty active and super friendly. Well anyway, I got the chance to interview them! ^^


FireEyes: Yeah I'm down!


F: Well, the way I found out was semi-anticlimactic. I just had one notification and I saw that Plume had mentioned me in the FM thread. But afterward I just rushed to the only person in my house (my brother) and told him. And I did the mandatory happy dance. But then I waited for more notifications for people congratulating me so I could like the forum without it being like I found out about a surprise party before I was supposed to lol.


F: Well thats a good question. I think it was because I went wayyyyyy out of my comfort zone. Completing team tortoise, participating in the tagbook, and I can't think of another thing to make this a list :p


F: Oh uhm. Well, it's like a roleplay but you tag as many people as you can in your posts. And you're roleplaying like as yourself. They're super chaotic and really fun! It's like continuity? Whose that?


F: My favourite part about the site might just be the incredible feedback given on literary works. I mean it's a writing site, what else do I expect. But seriously the feedback I and others get is so useful and upbuilding. But the portion that I engage in the most is the community. And it's a close second for me!


F: I would definitely say to do more. If you do a lot of reviews, join a pad. If you're always in the people's tab, join a roleplay. Stuff like that.


F: Uh yeah actually. Shout out to @Carina. Like without her I don't think I'd do the tagbook. And thank you to everyone who has made me feel welcome when I first joined. One last thing is that I was half-expecting that the gif used for me would be the gif of when the greasers won the rumble. Because y'know Fireeyes=The Outsiders. But I liked the gifs regardless!


F: yeah of course! It was fun. ...Stay Gold

If you want to check out the official announcement thread, you can click here !

PERSONALITY QUIZ: YA BOOK RECwritten by EternalRain< PM: >

Looking for your next read, but unsure what to read next? Or maybe you want to add another book to your never-ending TBR list? Take this personality quiz and find your perfect book-match. Make a note of your answers, and at the end of the quiz, you can find a young adult book recommendation based on your answers.

1. What’s your favorite thing to do on YWS?
a. Read Squills
b. Roleplays or Storybooks
c. Hang out in WFPs
d. Review

2. Vacation time! Where are you visiting?
a. Italy
b. a magical world
c. nowhere; I want to spend time alone in the comfort of my home
d. museums, or anywhere historical and grand

3. What is your favorite book trope?
a. friends to lovers
b. a secret society
c. found family
d. forbidden love

4. What’s your go-to activity?
a. eating!
b. using my magic to save the day
c. scavenger hunt
d. piano, singing, or anything musical

5. What’s your zodiac sign?
a. earth sign (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn)
b. air sign (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius)
c. water sign (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces)
d. fire sign (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius)

6. Pick your favorite season.
a. summer
b. fall
c. spring
d. winter

7. What’s your Hogwarts house?
a. Gryffindor
b. Slytherin
c. Hufflepuff
d. Ravenclaw

8. Pick your favorite color out of these.
a. Yellow
b. Silver
c. Blue
d. Pink

9. Finally, pick your favorite Disney movie!
a. Rapunzel
b. Mulan
c. Luca
d. Hercules



To calculate your results, simply tally all your answers of As, Bs, Cs, and Ds.

Mostly As: Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch.

A summer romance set in Tuscany, Italy is just for you! This book follows Lina who is sent to live with her father in Tuscany over the summer. Her mother’s dying wish was that she gets to know her father, who hasn’t been in her life for sixteen years. Lina is whisked up in a summer of adventure, love, and mystery as she uncovers secrets about her family.

Mostly Bs: Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

The first in a series, Legendborn is the perfect read for anyone who is a fan of adventure, fantasy, and magical powers. A creative spin on the Knights of King Arthur tales, Legendborn is about Bree, a sixteen year old girl who applies to a college program in attempts to escape family memories after her mother’s death. However, Bree soon finds out there’s a secret society of ‘Merlins’, or magic users, who fight demons on campus. She soon realizes there’s a whole world of magic, one that may be connected to her mother’s death.

Mostly Cs: The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

Wholesome. Feel-good. Heart-warming in the best, sweetest, tears-of-joy kind of way, The House in the Cerulean Sea is the match for anyone who wants to smile. Linus Baker is a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth. His job involves inspections at orphanages--and otherwise, he lives a quiet (albeit boring, and rather lonely) life in his small house. Then, Linus is given a classified assignment to travel to an orphanage on an island where he must oversee the caretaker and six dangerous children.

Mostly Ds: Lovely War by Julie Berry

Two intertwining love stories, narrated by the Greek gods of love and war, Aphrodite and Ares. Lovely War is the a romantic historical fiction set during World War I. The story follows four lovers: Hazel and James, who are torn apart as James heads to the trenches; and Aubrey and Colette, who form a bond at an American relief camp in France. All four of their stories intersect, told by the Greek gods, and follow themes of the power of love, cruelty of war, and magic of music.

HOLIDAY PERSPECTIVE: CHRISTMAS IN JULY

written by alliyah < PM: >

A few weeks ago, on July 25th we celebrated a YWS-classic; Christmas in July, or Holidays in July! Many people like to add an extra reason to celebrate in the middle of the summer months, and on YWS it's also been a fun tradition to observe.

Years ago, there used to be an organized Christmas in July gift-weekend where there'd be contests of who could give the most of those 50 points gifts during a designated weekend in July. People really got into this emptying out their points to share a little cheer to people around the site.



This year there wasn't an organized contest but people were still encouraged to share cheer with each other, decorate their profiles, and interestingly Christmas in July even intersected RP-Month in a fun way when @SantaYWS made a guest appearance (with a team of bats) in the RP-Month tagbook Finding Nate the Dragon .

Christmas in July ended up being quite a festive occasion with many people sharing cheer and even a little poetry call from @PoetryBot which @Magebird, @rida, and @ForeverYoung299 participated in with some special holiday poems - read here . @SantaYWS shared many gifts across the site - seeming to take a break from his bat-attacking ways.

@Spearmint offered some artistry to the occasion with this delightful poster!


And I got involved by sharing some festive chickens with many YWSers for this important holiday!


And also excitingly, @Nate gave the site a fresh coat of paint for the occasion and YWS was coated in a festive red and green. It was a really fun day! Before the holiday a few people inquired just what the purpose of Holidays in July / Christmas in July - and there's many answers that could be given, but I think the best one I can give is that sometimes it's just nice to celebrate, no official reason needed! Hope you all had a lovely Christmas in July and continue to find little festive reasons to celebrate this August too!

(TOTALLY DIDN'T FORGET THE NAME OF THIS) CODE

written by Spearmint < PM: >

So... confession time: I'm not sure what this particular code is called. >.> I read it in a book somewhere, and I tried searching it up, but I can't seem to find the name (oops ^^'). Anyways, namelessness aside, this is probably one of my favorite codes because it's so sneaky. The basic idea is that you can use an existing piece of text, but modify or mark certain letters in a way that, when the marked letters are put together, they spell out a message.

One way I've heard about is taking a newspaper and poking holes above the letters you want to use. Then, when someone decodes the message, they can just take those letters with holes above them and put them together! Other ways to modify letters could include italicizing or bolding them, or you could even modify entire words at a time. If done carefully, you could even be able to fool everyone into thinking there's nothing special about a certain piece of text, while the message is hiding in plain sight. Anyways, why don't you give it a try; see what you can come up with! :))

Well, that's about it for this code article (hopefully it was interesting or useful in some way ^^), and I hope you have a fantastic day/night!! =D

WORD OF THE WEEK: SUPERCILIOUSwritten by EternalRain < PM: >

Pronunciation: super-sih-lee-us

Part of Speech: adjective

Definition: behaving or looking as though one thinks one is superior to others.

Synonyms: arrogant, haughty, conceited

Origin: early 16th century: from Latin from supercilium ‘eyebrow’ → Latin superciliosus ‘haughty’.

Used in a Sentence: The king of the royal court was known as headstrong, but could also be quite supercilious and disrespectful, especially towards his servants and advisors.

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.

Code: Select all

Place advertisement here. Make sure you include a title!

The Poetry Journal is Open!

Have your read a great poem and want to share? Come fill the pages of YWS's new Community Poetry Journal !

This is a place where anyone can share some favourite poems along with commentary, including thoughts, feelings and associations with the poem. All the info you need is in the club's About Page!

For questions, reach out to Liminality.

CALLING ALL CHICKEN ARTISTS & POETS

Calling All Chickens & Chicken Enthusiasts

If you love chickens please check out the one and only YWS-edition of COOP: chickens of our poetry zine and be sure to share with your friends or chickens or chicken friends. And if you have any chicken art or chicken poetry you'd like to be considered for the 2nd edition (deadline Aug 1) you can learn more here <- our 2nd edition is open for submission to non-YWSers too, so feel free to share the submission info with anyone who likes chickens!

For any questions please send a PM to alliyah or fortis, the COOP co-editing duo ~

Also ... did you know that YWS has a Chicken Fan Club?


That's all folks~ Now send us yours.

SUBSCRIBERS

written by SquillsBot < PM: >

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