FACTORYVILLE — The seventh-grade class of Lackawanna Trail’s honors language arts program had the opportunity to meet and talk to award-winning author Scott Westerfeld on Feb. 1. This meeting was the result of “a, student of that class, winning a national writing contest sponsored by magazine Scholastic Scope.

For the contest, Fotta needed to read Westerfeld’s novel called “Impostors” and come up with a story as if she was an impostor using a fake identity. Her story was about twins Rafi and Frey, whom the public believed was one person. She said one of them acted as a body double in case the other was in trouble. Fotta enjoys language arts and says writing is her favorite subject.

“I’m very excited that I won this, and I’m very proud of myself,” she said.

Fotta consulted her language arts teacher Gena Lengel about how to construct her contest entry.

“I was so thrilled that she (Fotta) won,” said Lengel. “I’m so proud of her. I’m proud that she is a Lackawanna Trail student. She’s such a talented writer, and she was so happy to win. It was so exciting for the entire class because the whole class was able to be in on the prize because they were given sets of Scott Westerfeld books, the whole class was able to Skype with him (Westerfeld), and Scholastic (Scholastic Scope) gave us $100 toward a party.”

The main prize was when Fotta and the rest of Lengel’s class met Westerfeld. The students gathered at the library of Lackawanna Trail Jr./Sr. High School to communicate with him by using a conference webcam and a smartboard with Skype in it.

“This is our first Skype ever,” said librarian Kelly Hopkins. “We just got the technology for it. It’s pretty exciting.”

Westerfeld, who was in Australia (his wife’s home country) at the time, spoke to the class and answered the students’ questions. Fotta asked the first question, “What is your favorite part about writing books in the sci-fi genre?”

Westerfeld replied he likes to ask questions about the world in which we live.

“What if the world was this way, what if it was that way?” he asked. “Why do we organize things the way we do?”

Westerfeld recalls when he was a teenager being low-key and confused about the world such as people buying into the fact that some dollar bills are worth more than others, although they are all just pieces of paper.

“When you read science fiction, you sort of see the strangeness of your world,” he said. “And you realize things could be organized differently.”

Fotta also asked, “What advice do you have for young readers and writers like us?”

Westerfeld advised writers to finish everything. He said sometimes writers write beginnings and middles but stop because they don’t think the ending will be any good.

“You’re teaching yourself how to write beginnings, which is a great thing to do, but you’re not teaching yourself how to write endings,” he said.

Westerfeld stressed the importance of writing endings because they help make the beginning and middle fall into place.

Student Kolbee Soltis also asked Westerfeld two questions. He first asked if he has a favorite place to write.

“I always try to write in the same place,” Westerfeld replied. “Because one of the good things about being a writer is you get to do it everyday.”

Westerfeld emphasized how things become easier when you do it every day and said his favorite writing place in Australia is a chair in his room in Sydney. He also shared that when he is in New York, he goes to a club he and his wife found where people go to do freelance work.

“Once I go into that building, I know that it’s time to work,” he said.

Soltis’ second question was “What were you like as a seventh-grader?

Westerfeld said he moved around a lot during his childhood because his father had many jobs in many places, adding his father worked for NASA in Houston, on submarines in Connecticut and with jet planes in California and Colorado.

“I didn’t go to the same school for two years in a row until high school,” he said.

Westerfeld said he felt like a celebrity in small towns and an outsider in the big cities. He shared he was always reinventing himself and finding out how different people can be in different places.

Westerfeld is the author of 22 novels — five are for adults and the other 17 for young adults. His books have won the Philip K Dick Special Citation, the Aurealis Award, the Victorian Premier’s Award, and have been named NY Times Notable Books and BBYA Top Ten Children’s Books of the Year. He also has contributed nonfiction to Nerve, BookForum, the scientific journal Nature.

He was born in Texas and grew up on all three coasts of the US. He is married to writer Justine Larbalestier, with whom he splits his time between New York City and Sydney, Australia.

Seventh-grade Lackawanna Trail student Deana Wilhelm asks Scott Westerfeld a question.
https://www.theabingtonjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_20190201_100936.jpg.optimal.jpgSeventh-grade Lackawanna Trail student Deana Wilhelm asks Scott Westerfeld a question. Ben Freda | For Abington Journal

Seventh-grade Lackawanna Trail student Sofia Dugan asks Scott Westerfeld a question.
https://www.theabingtonjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_20190201_101537.jpg.optimal.jpgSeventh-grade Lackawanna Trail student Sofia Dugan asks Scott Westerfeld a question. Ben Freda | For Abington Journal

Award-winning author Scott Westerfeld talks to the seventh-grade class Lackawanna Trail via Skype and answers the students’ questions.
https://www.theabingtonjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_20190201_102622.jpg.optimal.jpgAward-winning author Scott Westerfeld talks to the seventh-grade class Lackawanna Trail via Skype and answers the students’ questions. Ben Freda | For Abington Journal

Gena Lengel, far right, teacher of the seventh-grade honors language arts class, listens to Scott Westerfeld’s replies to students’ questions, along with her students.
https://www.theabingtonjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_20190201_102945.jpg.optimal.jpgGena Lengel, far right, teacher of the seventh-grade honors language arts class, listens to Scott Westerfeld’s replies to students’ questions, along with her students. Ben Freda | For Abington Journal

Eliza Fotta, seventh grade student at Lackawanna Trail and winner of a national writing contest sponsored by Scholastic Scope Magazine.
https://www.theabingtonjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_20190201_112014.jpg.optimal.jpgEliza Fotta, seventh grade student at Lackawanna Trail and winner of a national writing contest sponsored by Scholastic Scope Magazine. Ben Freda | For Abington Journal
Lackawanna Trail student wins national writing contest

By Ben Freda

For Abington Journal

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