#4 - A writer in the midst - June 6, 2012

I had the opportunity to read Aria's most recent piece of fiction.  I was impressed.

The assignment was to write a fictional account of survival.  Aria (like her father) does not have a knack for creating something new out of whole cloth.  But she can take a realistic setting and change it into a fictional account.  This story involved 2 kids who promised to not go on the train tracks.  They went to the tracks, and stood in between 2 different sets of tracks.  A few minutes later, 2 trains came by in opposite directions, passing the kids on both sides.  The younger child is sucked under a train and dies.

Aria's account was beautiful - haunting, exciting, believable.  The dialogue was consistent with her characters, and she described the setting really well.  I did a full edit - a couple misspellings, lots of commas removed, a couple grammatical issues, and a few suggestions for where to add detail to bring the story more to life. 

Overall - I'd say the story as she wrote it as just as good as any Rick Riordan I've read.  With some additions, it will be better.  I'm really glad I can be a part of her creative process.  Academics in my house growing up (as I remember it, anyway) was the responsibility of the child and the school.  My parents never really got involved in it.  Probably because I didn't want to share and because I didn't get it done in time. 

Thankfully, Aria gets her stuff done in time, and she shares it with me.  I love to see her grow. 

On the same topic, but a different kid, Christian is becoming a cartoonist.  I'm jealous.  I wish I had been that confident in that kind of thing when I was young.  His latest shows a clearcut forest, and the caption, "Save the trees!  Ban homework!" 

My parents have their tickets to come see us in August.  We're very excited.  My mom is overcoming some health problems, so we'll be glad to see her hale and hearty again.