Washingtonville Middle School students selected for publication

Congratulations to Washingtonville Middle School seventh graders Julia Blais, Cameron Dailey and Savannah Nunez, whose short stories were selected for publication in the Integer – Stories Inspired By Numbers series hosted by Young Writers.

Young Writers is an online publication running national writing contests for schools to highlight emerging student writers across the country. 

As part of the contest, students were challenged to write short stories of 100 words or less, incorporating a numerical element. Entries were judged based on their story’s creativity, imagination, technical writing skills and originality.

Julia’s story, 18 Seconds Left, was inspired by the contest’s slightly eerie book cover. 

“I wanted it to be kind of creepy, but not really creepy, because the cover was a little spooky,” Julia explained. “Then I thought of an empty world with only one person on it.” 

Her piece imagines a world ending in 45 seconds, where a young girl Jamie, who was orphaned at the age of five, faces being the last human left on Earth. 

Cameron’s story,  The 17th Year, takes the reader on a mythical, time-traveling adventure. 

“My story was about me traveling back to the year 17 to find a mythical secret cave that contained a chest of 17 diamonds,” Cameron said. 

Meanwhile, Savannah’s story, Summer Camp Jail, came together spontaneously. 

“I came up with the idea by just writing just what came to my mind at the moment,” she said. 

Her story follows a 12-year-old girl living in a world where everyone has a social ranking, and she’ll do whatever it takes to move up the ladder.

Students submitted their stories last school year, and were notified recently that their work had been selected for publication.

“I was kind of surprised because I forgot that I entered,” Julia said. “But I was very happy to have been chosen to be in a book and I couldn't wait to share it with my family!”

Julia, Savannah and Cameron all plan to continue writing, and Cameron shared he has another writing project in the works that he’s been working on with his friend Jacob since the fourth grade. 

Their story follows a man who builds a time-traveling machine, but when it malfunctions, he and his son become trapped in a different timeline. Back in their original world, a special task force known as the Time Traveler Detective Unit launches a mission to find them.

“I’m not sure when we’ll finish it,” Cameron said. “But we’re trying our best to get it done by the end of the school year.”

The Integer anthology is expected to hit the shelves before Christmas, and the student authors are now in the running for national prizes to be announced by Young Writers in the new year.