Mike Winchell - Been There, Done That: Writing Stories from Real Life

FOR
ANNE SCHMIDT
THE INSPIRATION BEHIND COUNTLESS WORDS AND STORIES

GROSSET & DUNLAP

Penguin Young Readers Group

An Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

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Collection copyright 2015 by Mike Winchell. Cover illustration copyright 2015 by Eglantine Ceulemans. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC..

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-0-399-54003-5

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Foreword

Mike Winchell

I f you were to ask a group of authors for advice on what to write about, Id bet most would tell you to write what you know and use real events and people from your life in your stories. But there would also be some authors who would say you should just write. Yet even these authors would probably agree that real experiences can be used as seeds that can be planted to help create a story. Once youve experienced something, its a whole lot easier to write about it. I know this because I always take my real-life experiences and spin them into stories somehow.

For example, when I was five years old, my parents had just gotten divorced, my older brothers loved picking on me, and I was about to start school. So yeah, things werent going too well for me. Luckily, my first trip to Disney World was coming up, and with all the drama in my five-year-old life, the Most Magical Place on Earth was sure to cheer me up. Right?

Wrong.

I lost my Mickey Mouse walletgiven to me by my father when wed first arrived at the parkand he decided hed teach me a life lesson by not giving me another wallet or any more money for the rest of the trip. My brothers taunted me with their wallets and money for the next few days, I cried nonstop, and the end result was that I hated the mere thought of Disney from that point on.

But when I got older, I realized that the wallet at Disney incident wasnt all bad. It taught me a couple things that made me a better person later in life. First, it showed me how tough divorce is on a kid, which led me to vow to get married only if I was one hundred percent sure. Second, I learned that kidslike my own childrendeserve a second chance before giving a harsh life lesson that might scar them emotionally.

More importantly, even though it wasnt a happy time, losing my wallet at Disney helped me as a writer because it inspired me to write a short story about a boy who goes to an amusement park and finds a wallet with a magical ride pass inside. A pass that grants him access to secret rides no one else can see. I took that true experience of losing my wallet, and then spun it around to create a pretty cool story.

And there it isthe motivation behind putting together this anthology: Been There, Done That . For this book, each author selected an experience that dealt with a family member or friend, and then used it to inspire an original work of fiction. Sometimes the made-up story is very close to the actual experience. Other times, only hints of the true experience are present. Regardless, what follows are examples of how your favorite authors have not only gotten through these experiences, but have used them to create stories.

Happy reading,
Mike Winchell
Editor

Its tough sometimes, figuring out when you should listen to your friends and follow their lead, and when you should ignore them and head off in your own direction.

Authors Gary D. Schmidt, Caroline Starr Rose, Alan Lawrence Sitomer, and Claire Legrand all examine how peer pressure can sometimes push kids to do things they might not normally do.

Gary D. Schmidt

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

P robably the best job I ever hadthe best job I ever will havewas a job at a summer camp on the maintenance crew. I had to deal with plugged up toilets and corn dogs and kids who threw upmostly because of corn dogsbut I also built a new cabin and messed around in boats that needed repair and put in docks and planted gardens and built rock walls and assembled bonfires and did a whole lot of things I could never do in the suburbs of New York City. And when I wasnt doing any of those things, Id play baseball near high pines and swim in clear pools that emptied out in small waterfalls and lay down in the middle of a field to watch hawks circle on the thermals above.

I lived for those summers in the Catskill Mountains. When high school was what high school often is, filled with jerks and would-be jerks and locker rooms and meaningless homework and drama about not very much and social status crap, I thought of that camp, those mountains, and the friends I had up there who loved what I loved and still love: high grass and hawks on thermals and mountain pools and pines.

And camp had one other thing, the most important thing, the really, really most important thing: Mindy White. Mindy White had long dark hair. She had green eyes. When she laughed, her voice was like Poetry. When she smiled, her smile was like Beauty. When she looked at me, I wished more than anything that she loved me like I loved her.

But she didnt. Because Mindy White was actually in love with another guy at the camp, a little older than me, who was an idiot. I tried telling Mindy White that Lee Buttface was an idiot, but she was too much in love. She talked about Lee while I did the dishes. She talked about Lee while I helped her peel the carrots. She talked about Lee while I fetched cabbages from the basement below the kitchen, or the lemon pies from the freezer, or the canned ravioli from the pantry. She talked about Lee while I scraped the burned oil and lard from the grill in the kitchenthe hottest and most awful job at camp, but one I took my time on, because she worked beside me. I scraped the grill with my shirt offit was that hotand I thought that might do something. It didnt. She loved Lee Buttface.

For two years I listened to Mindy White talk about Lee Buttface, until I heard one day over the winter that Lee Buttface had broken things offI told you he was an idiot. I was overjoyed. I was thrilled. I was filled with fathomless hope.

I went to the weight machine and began a program of lifting.