Category Archives: Creative Writing

A Case for Merlin ~ By Emma

Posted on February 17, 2015 by | 26 comments
This is Merlin

This is Merlin

Nothing vanishes without questioning Merlin’s participation in the disappearance.  He never admits to wrong-doing, but instead greets the attention with purrs.  Even dog lovers fall under Merlin’s spell, charming the most biased minds to rethink what they had assumed true of all cats.

Merlin is unusual because he plays fetch and follows his favorite humans around with devotion.  If you don’t like cats it is because you have not yet met our Merlin.

But if you ever lose something, don’t blame Merlin.  He had nothing to do with it.

Merlin approved this post.  🐾

Where's Merlin?

Where’s Merlin?

Merlin among the cookie jars.

Merlin among the cookie jars

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Posted in Autism, Creative Writing, Parenting

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My Imaginary Ancestor

Posted on August 28, 2014 by | 9 comments

Preface:  My mother has been tracing our family’s history for many years now.  Many of our ancestors on her side of the family were German and wrote in German script.  She has been painstakingly translating the letters they wrote and kept.  During our recent vacation my mother told us about some of our ancestors and the lives they led.  All of it was fascinating.

This morning I asked Emma what she wanted to write about.  Emma typed, “I want to write about recent stories heard.”  I said, “Okay.  What do you mean by that?  What recent stories are you referring to?”  Emma then typed the following story.

 “I will write about an ancestor who is imaginary.

“Long ago in another era there lived a writer who did not think in words.  She was fiercely independent in an age when this was not viewed favorably.  She was believed to be peculiar and could not say what she thought as words escaped her, fleeing to dark, secret places out of reach.  The only way to capture the words was by writing them down, restraining them to the confines of a piece of paper.  This made her sad for the words that wanted nothing more than to run wild and free.  So she spoke and the words rushed out, but other people did not understand and thought she needed to be controlled.  She was my ancestor.”

 

Our Ancestors - Emma, Anina, Antonie and Marie

Our Ancestors – Top and going clockwise – Emma, Anina, Antonie and Marie

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Posted in Autism, Creative Writing, Parenting

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The Three Boxes ~ A Story

Posted on July 8, 2014 by | 10 comments

Emma’s story, which she edited slightly from the original:

There were three boxes that were left on three different doorsteps.  They appeared to be identical in physicality.  The size, shape, and color made them far from unique.  The way they each arrived is still unknown.  Assuming they are identical on the inside would be ignorant.

When the people opened their doors and saw the boxes left, their reactions varied.  One questioned why there were no markings on the box.  The other tripped over the box when leaving, but did not pay it more attention right then.  The third opened it immediately since she loved getting mail.

Inside the boxes were lives – a kitten, a puppy, and a baby.  We will never know who abandoned these precious lives.  The focus is on how these lives adapt to new environments.  The easy answer is not that easy.  The longer version is that once the boxes were opened – the kitten quickly scampered out, easily scaling the box’s cardboard sides, the puppy tried to get out, but the box was too deep and he was too little, so he looked around for help, and the baby lay there, too young to even roll over and simply cried.

Luckily the enthusiastic mail-lover became the baby’s new mother.

That is food for thought.

The End

The box with the kitten

The box with the kitten

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Posted in Autism, Creative Writing, Rapid Prompting Method

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Today’s Post Brought to You By Emma

Posted on June 25, 2014 by | 14 comments

Written by Emma Zurcher-Long

“Today I will tell a short story about a girl who wanted to speak to the wind.  She listened with ears attuned to wind’s song, and desired to speak with its power and beauty.  But the wind was not used to listening, and the sounds she made were ignored.  People heard her and told her to be less noisy.  The wind was loud, yet no one attempted to quiet it.  The girl understood the wind’s voice and eventually it heard her.  Neither one spoke with words.

“The End”

Emma Chose this image from a google search "Girl in the wind"

Emma chose this image from a google search “Girl in the wind”

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Posted in Autism, Creative Writing, Parenting

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“A Mind Like a Magician’s Hat”

Posted on June 20, 2014 by | 17 comments

This morning I asked Emma what she wanted to work on.  She wrote, “We could write a blog post.”

“Okay, what do you want to write about?”  I asked.

“I could make up a story about an Autistic girl who means well, but is not believed smart,” Emma wrote.

“Okay.  Good idea,” I said.

Emma wrote, “She has a mind like a magician’s hat.  Mysterious things are inside.   When revealed, people gasp in astonishment.  Tied to the words regular people can hear are lots of other things they miss.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“All sorts of pleasing sounds, colors and tastes that are healing, but only a special few can experience this.  As loud minds drown out hers, she must work harder than most to be heard.  The End.”

This is the image Emma chose to accompany her story

This is the image Emma chose to accompany her story

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Emma’s Story Written Entirely On A Qwerty Keyboard!

Posted on March 6, 2014 by | 27 comments

Recently we painted both the kid’s bedrooms.  They each found the colors they wanted.  Emma chose a beautiful sea greenish blue and a luxurious red for the baseboard, exposed pipes and doors.  She picked out a gold-colored mesh to cover her new four-poster bed.  Her new room is beautiful and I have found myself wandering into it, just so I can soak up the beauty of her newly painted walls, her princess bed with golden, cascading canopy and all her stuffed animals filling the floor to ceiling bookshelves.

Yesterday during Emma’s RPM (Rapid Prompting Method) session Emma wrote that she intended to write a story.  I’m including a link here to the post I wrote not long ago entitled “How We Got Here” for those of you new to this blog.  This is the story Emma wrote by typing on a qwerty keyboard attached to an iPad.  This is Emma’s first full story written entirely on a qwerty keyboard!  And as always, Emma approved this post and the accompanying photograph of her room.

                               The Girl Magician

From the bedroom of a house in Southern Georgia, there lived a girl named Judy.  Her room was dazzling.  Her time was spent by herself, and she liked it that way.

She had visiting hours for family to check out the best room in the house.  When visiting hours were over, Judy got to work on secret projects.  She noticed that when she changed the color of her scarf, many other things changed also.  When the blue scarf attached to her, she became very talkative.  The orange one made her laugh and the brown one made her cry.

Judy wore a yellow scarf during visiting hours one day.  Family was calling her name, but they did not see her.  She was invisible.  Judy was someone with magic powers.

The End

The Princess Bed with bookshelf filled with animal friends. Notice the newly painted blue walls with red trim!

The Princess Bed with bookshelf filled with animal friends. Notice the newly painted blue walls with red trim!

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Posted in Autism, Creative Writing, Rapid Prompting Method

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