"It's not enough these days to question authority. You must speak with it too."

Speak with conviction, students!!!!!

(click the link above for an argument about this through a performed poem)

Your voices matter.
Your ideas rock.

People will listen.
:-)

Bubblegum Pink H2 Hummer

Here's a story of mine in process. Below you'll find suggestions from my students in the past. If you have ideas/suggestions, please leave them in the comments.      

The Mary Kay business has been challenging of late.

            Ever since the lava came, the whole makeup industry is completely different. No longer are women seeking ways to make their skin glow, their eyes sparkle, and their lips shine. Now it is all about ways to cut the glare from the sun as it reflects off of the endless asphalt-colored, craggy, rutted, fissure-riddled covering of the earth. Picture those black strips that football players used to wear across their cheeks to cut the glare from the stadium lights—only in patterns and shapes that are slightly more feminine.

            Suzanne was grateful for the Hummer H2 that sat in her garage. She admits that at the time she acquired it, it seemed somewhat extravagant to have a bubble gum pink Hummer to usher her safely through the peaceful, smooth, tree-lined streets of suburbia. The paint job (like on all vehicles received as a reward for astronomical Mary Kay sales) matched the plastic pink flamingoes that lived on the lawns in her cul-de-sac. Those poor plastic birds disintegrated instantaneously the day the lava came, but Suzanne’s pink H2 reminds her everyday of the icon of suburbia before the lava.

How lucky Suzanne is that she chose the Hummer over the Mini Cooper. Those Mini Cooper-ettes who looked at Suzanne arrogantly due to their more “eco-friendly” choice are homebound now. There’s no way those adorable little cars could ever traverse the lava landscape. In fact, Suzanne’s business is booming simply due to her ability to get from here to there. She’s the only Mary Kay rep for miles who is able to visit her clients (most of them trapped in their homes) to bring them their ever necessary product. All the other reps have been literally shut down.

Suggestions from past students:

Was this when you were a kid

What’s the theme?

How would she live without the H2 in the lava world?

Have someone steal the H2 and leave her a mini coop.

Have a mob come and destroy it with lava rocks

What’s the point of the lava?

How did the H2 survive the lava? The house?

Making it so ridiculous to make a point.

Dr. Seuss-ish.

What are you saying about the American experience

Environment?

Run out of gas?

Real lava world or imagined?

Lava situation? Does the reader need to know where the lava came from. How can there be houses still be there if there was lava?

Is the lava symbolic of something?

How did the H2 survive the lava’s arrival?

Magma

What’s my message? This is a satire. Why do the ladies still need their Mary Kay even when trapped in their homes.

Zombies arrive? (same ridiculousness) H2 needs a turret on top.

Story about her trying to rationalize with herself about having a hummer H2. There really isn’t lava.

The town runs out of gas. OR she runs out of gas when visiting her most important client.

The H2 runs on perfume.

Why makeup?

Rain-X wiper blades. The zombie version. Lattitudes.

Mini cooper –maybe prius instead? Smart car?

Serious and comedic both…

Dynamics between character and client. Scene. Dialogue.

Connection between the lava and makeup?  Blemishes. Volcanoes.

What’s the conflict??????????

• more on how the others have been shut down

who’s the narrator? What connection to the story. How does the narrator know her. Why does the narrator not like hummers?

Everyone’s helping each other because of the natural disaster, but she doesn’t need help, so she’s not part of the community anymore.

Is it because of the Hummer sales that the Volcano erupted? Climate change?

Secret lover? Rush? Tiger?

Hyperlinked task (an example for you!)

Nick wrote about sasquatch. An author could explore this issue metaphorically in many interesting ways. What if humans were the sasquatch and the sasquatches didn't believe they existed? I imagine a world where the sasquatches hunt the humans and look for evidence of them in the way that we do with sasquatch.

Keelia wrote about stem cell research. What if there was a story about some imaginary civilization where there was this debate over using the discarded ... something... of the creatures--something akin to finger nail clippings for example--for medical research to save the lives of the creatures. Some believed it was no problem, but some believed that it was morally and ethically wrong. If the author was on the side of stem cell research, the story could make it seem like the opposition was somewhat ridiculous, or if the author was against stem cell research, the story could make it seem like those in favor of this were barbaric.

Mark wrote about helicopter parents. It might be fun to start here with this metaphor that already exists: parents that have literally turned into helicopters that buzz around their children constantly, especially when the children go off to college. And maybe the story could be about all the things that the children do to escape the helicopters?