Scary Night Goes for Gold

What is my most prized memory? When I think of that question, it is so many moments. I have more than one, multiple favorites. One of my favorite memories would be scoring my first goal in AYSO or scoring my first basket when I played basketball in 4^Th and 5^Th grade. Another favorite memory for me is how I first learned how to snap my fingers. Not surprising I have not been able to stop snapping them ever since. My most prized moment is when I got my first stories published and recognized by other people than my mom.

My mom is a fiction-writing graduate of Columbia College where she earned her master’s. She is currently a professor at Moraine Valley Community College where she teaches Composition I and II. She has been a writing and English teacher at Elmhurst University and Daley College. She is currently working on her own book entitled Mud Pies. I guess you could say I was pretty much born with a writing gene. When I was six, I began to learn how to type. Between the summer of 1^st and 2^Nd grade I started writing short stories entitled Scary Night when my mom sent me to work with my aunt one day. She challenged me to write a short story and not to just sit on my butt all day. I began typing the story because I knew that if I did not she would punish me for it.

Ten minutes pass and I already had two pages down… double spaced of course. As I let my imagination run wild and think of every scary movie or story I had ever even heard of I began to incorporate that into my writing. Since that summer, I began writing short stories. Mostly horror based off things I saw on TV or the Internet. By the time I was in 4^Th grade, I had twenty short stories and my mom encouraged me to put them in a book of short stories. I titled the book Scary Night Ghouls and Mischief. My mom read the finish product and was so impressed with me that she decided to share it with a couple of her colleagues at work and they enjoyed the stories. They liked it even though they nitpicked at the grammar. My mom had to remind them I was only half way through 4^Th grade and just barely passed my last English test.

In Sixth grade, I added another short story to that mix of stories and my school submitted it to the Illinois Young Authors contest. I could not take my entire book down state to Illinois State where the Young Authors convention took place. I decided to take my latest story that I had written and it was an honorable mention. I was so proud of myself and so was everyone else when they found out it had become an honorable mention. Out of almost 600 sixth through eighth graders, I was one of the honorable mentions/ award winners to be recognized. I felt so accomplished and it really got me into writing more and wanting to make a career out of it. This was even better than hitting any game winning goals or basket, this felt a lot better.

Mark the main character in  Lost in Place has many favorite memories he goes into details about. Some memories include star gazing with his dad, being an astronaut in box with his little brother or learning a musical instrument from his mom. Mark although has one particular memory he is very fond of. He loves Kung Fu and can remember staying up at night watching Bruce Lee fight off ninjas at monasteries. Mark goes on through great detail throughout the book about how much he loves his kung fu and Bruce Lee movies. He dedicated his life to being a zen master and learning the ways of karate. He found away to be extraordinary through his kung fu like how I found a way to be extraordinary through my writing.