There once were two girls who liked to write.
They entered a contest in spite, Of winter-time blues about homeless men and strange foods And are going to writer's camp with great delight.
Delia Anderson, author and Tonielle King-Rose, poet, each proved themselves worthy of a place at this summer's writer camp through The Penticton Writers and Publishers third annual Young Creative Writers and Poets Contest.
Eleven-year-old Delia was inspired to write a short story about homelessness after seeing a man with his dog living on the streets in Vancouver. She noticed that someone dressed up in a teddy bear costume at the mall was handing out candy to passersby while the man sat on the ground nearby. Disturbed by the contradictory scene, she went and got candy from the teddy bear then gave it to the homeless gentle man.
In the end of her fictional story The Beggar and the Dog, both man and dog perish from the cold.
"I thought a sad ending would make everyone think," Delia said. She said she wanted to inspire others to think about the social issue and vulnerability of the homeless in wintertime.
Ten-year-old Tonielle's poetry was more light-hearted. She wrote a poem called The Drag Racer, about her dad who enjoys racing cars that he works on himself. Other titles included My Sleep, Sky and Olives O Olives because she hates olives.
"I enjoy writing poems, she said, rather than stories because, sometimes I get writer's block 'cause I don't know what's going to happen."
The girls, who both attend West Sechelt Elementary School, were among 150 winning child authors ages 10 to 18 who now have the opportunity to go to writers camp for five days in July in the south Okanagan. Children from outside of the Okanagan will be billeted with the families of children who won from that region. The cost is $100 to cover food and expenses for the billet families. Six authors will mentor the kids including a former Sunshine Coast resident, Kallie George, who attained a masters of children's literature from the University of British Columbia in 2007 and is now an editor for Simply Read Books.
Both Tonielle and Delia are accomplished writers and individually work on authoring stories, scripts for theatre and poetry. "I've always enjoyed reading. I'm constantly reading and writing just to see if I am good enough. This will be a really good experience," said Delia.
"I hope I can be a poet and get my own books published. Maybe teachers would use them," Tonielle said.
The girls' entries will be published in the Penticton Writers and Publishers anthology, Gems of the Okanagan.
