In honor of Halloween, our blog assignment for next class is inspired by the work of Edward Gorey, an amazing American illustrator and author noted for his use of the macabre, which is a type of art with a dark, grim atmosphere that often deals with death and decay... think Edgar Allan Poe, Tim Burton's The Night Before Christmas and Corpse Bride, etc.

Gorey wrote and illustrated a "children's" book called The Gashlycrumb Tinies, about twenty-six children (one for each letter of the alphabet) who die odd and horrible deaths.  It's a bit dark, admittedly, but a wonderful source of CONFLICT... and as you all know, all plot revolves around conflict!  For your assignment, look through the illustrations at the following address: http://www.plastic-castle.com/tom/tinies.htm.  Then, do both of the following:

#1. Choose one of the children and use him/her as the main character of a short story.  Try to imagine what happened earlier to bring that child to their tragic end!  Write only the exposition of the story (a few sentences to a paragraph).

#2. Choose a story begun by one of your peers, click "Reply," and continue writing it... one narrative element at a time (rising action, climax, falling action/resolution, denouement).  Please label the portion of the story that you are completing!  You are free to do more than one section of the story (or comment on multiple stories), but be sure that each section is labelled separately.  Please remember to include your first and last name and class section in the post, as well.

I will start you off with a few expositions, and one sample story so you can see what I'm looking for.