Home

Their stories are a far cry from writing about "What I Did During My Summer Vacation."

By taking part in a weekly lunchtime writing seminar, two Steamboat Springs Middle School eighth-graders are developing creative writing skills that allow them to tackle topics much tougher than their ages suggest. The students are taking the informal seminar with Madeleine Mason, a paraprofessional at the school who has a lifelong love of writing and is spending extra time with the students at the suggestion of English teacher Amy Piva.

The time outside the classroom is paying off.

Kelsey Butler, 13, recently placed second in her age group in a statewide short story contest sponsored by the Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver and Cherry Creek.

Kelsey's macabre mystery, "Lia," tells the story of a schizophrenic woman who -- maybe -- unknowingly murders her mother after conjuring an imaginary lover who is a Mafia hit man.

"I was watching 'CSI' before I wrote it," Kelsey said, referring to TV's popular crime investigation drama.

Drew Ruff, also 13, entered a Western story in the Tattered Cover contest. "Dell" is a tale about an aging cowboy who is forced to question where his true love lies after his horse suffers a nasty fall.

Both students are in Piva's English class. A few months ago, Piva asked all her students to write a mystery story during a unit in which they studied Edgar Allen Poe.

Piva said the work that Kelsey and Drew produced made her consider whether she was meeting their needs.

"Kelsey and Drew had exceptional stories," Piva said this week. "I saw a need and realized I couldn't do as much in the classroom with them as I wanted."

So she enlisted Mason's help. Mason has met with the two students weekly during lunch to "sit and eat and talk and write and read."

Mason does writing exercises with Kelsey and Drew, such as "I Remember...," in which the two students begin with those two words and write continuously for 10 minutes.

"The pen stays on the paper (the whole time)," said Mason, adding that she hopes to "formalize" the weekly meetings and may invite more students.

"The nice thing about the story contest is that I've had more kids who are interested (in writing) now," Piva said. "The credit really goes to Madeleine."

Kelsey -- who said two of her favorite writers are Stephen King and C.S. Lewis -- won a $40 Tattered Cover gift certificate in the contest. Drew also named Stephen King as an inspiration, along with Ernest Hemingway.

Both students said they are thinking about careers involving some form of creative writing.

"It's so nice to have kids that love to write," Piva said.