It's almost Halloween. To build the spooky atmosphere -- and also to encourage creative writing -- I'm offering these nine read-alouds, spooky stories written by students aged 11-17, all featured on my Cabin Tales podcast last October. They range from silly fun to gory terror, ideal for this time of year. First is the shortest… Continue reading Halloween Student Stories
MAY 2021 Update: The Library has just announced the winners of the this year's Awesome Authors contest! Check out the announcements on YouTube. You can watch right here (below) or visit the OPL's YouTube channel and view the Ages 9-12 results or the Ages 13-18 results. https://www.youtube.com/embed/9Y8kY544X14 This year's winners in the 9-12 age category… Continue reading Awesome Authors is on!
A special Halloween episode featuring 5 spooky stories written by students aged 11-17, including a terrifying musical awakening, a horrifying futuristic drug, a demonic yoga class, a pizza you don’t want to order, and a phone call you don’t want to answer. PG. Let the kids listen in. Check out the Special Episode webpage for… Continue reading Spooky Student Stories (Halloween Special Episode)
Welcome to Cabin Tales: Spooky Stories for Young Writers. This is Episode Two: Nasty People meet Nasty Ends. It's a long one at 50 minutes. I’m Catherine Austen. And my guests today are great Canadian writers Karen Krossing, Monique Polak, and Tim Wynne-Jones. Today we’ll be talking all about characters. Check out the Episode 2… Continue reading Nasty People Meet Nasty Ends (Episode 2: Characters)
The Award Ceremony for the Ottawa Public Library's Awesome Authors Youth Writing Contest had to be cancelled this year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So the judges (including me) made short videos to announce this year's winners and honourable mentions, and the wonderful folks at the library put it all together into two ceremonial videos:… Continue reading 2020 Winners Announced
Catherine Austen 