Fantasy fiction unearths new star

The story of two condemned men sent to find the lost city of Atlantis beneath the sea five centuries ago has seen a young teen emerge tops in fantasy writing competition.

Tadhg White’s success is the second in the last two years for Scoil Mhuire Community School in Clane, Co Kildare. The third-year pupil’s story,Voyage of the Nereus, wowed the judges in the 2013 John West Fantasy Writing Competition, who described it as mysterious, haunting, and powerful.

The gripping tale describes how the pair of reluctant adventurers deal with the magic of nature and the fear of death, with an ending worthy of a top mystery writer.

“I like fantasy and science fiction, and I do some writing when I can, but not nearly as much as I’d like with the Junior Certificate coming up,” said Tadhg.

His entry topped more than 11,000 tales of marine and submarine adventures submitted by children from primary and second-level schools, which were shortlisted to 21 finalists invited to yesterday’s prize ceremony at the Mansion House in Dublin. Tadhg received a trophy, a tablet computer, an electronic reader, and a trip for his class to a lifeboat station of the RNLI, with which awards sponsor John West has a partnership.

Tadhg’s writing career may only be starting but he will be helped with advice from Trinity College Dublin school of English’s adjunct professor, Jonathan Williams, as part of the prize. He is taught by Anne-Marie Earley, who was also rewarded with a weekend spa break, at the school which also produced last year’s overall winner Roisin Eyres.

There were category prizes for two Cork students, including Ellen O’Regan, a third year student in St Aloysius College, Carrigtwohill, for her story Under the Sea is about an encounter between a girl and a mermaid from both their perspectives.

Ben Hunt, a fourth-year student at Bandon Grammar School received the senior category prize for second-level students for The Slave Woman, in which shadow dragons and aquamite had a feel of ancient myths about them.

“The story idea took a while to come up with, but in the end it was an in-the-moment kind of inspiration,” said the fan of the Game of Thrones and Harry Potter books.

Kyle Hutchinson from Scoil Lorcain Boys’ National School in St John’s Park, Waterford, won the primary category open to fifth and sixth class pupils with his story, The Night Wanderer. Each of the three category winners received an Apple iPod Touch, as well as the e-readers and silver bookmarks presented to all 21 finalists.

Students were invited to submit a fantasy or science fiction short story on the Under the Sea theme, and organisers were delighted that entries almost doubled from the 6,000 received last year.

“We’re not sure why it increased so much this year — some people have suggested it’s got something to do with Education Minister Ruairi Quinn’s literacy programme — maybe, maybe not,” said Brendan Murphy from John West Foods Ireland.

“But whatever the reason, anything that encourages school children to write with such imagination, style and skill can only be a good thing.”

Their words

From Tadhg White’s winning story, Voyage of the Nereus:

Their awe turned to terror as they realised that they were being lowered into the canyon like bait on a line being lowered into the maw of some gargantuan monster. The men stood, frozen with terror, as the walls of the trench rose on either side of them. They stared frantically out of the portholes, alternating their gazes between the rapidly shrinking amount of blue above them and the inky darkness below them. Surely, they thought, the abyss must end in hell itself? Whether their destination was purgatory or paradise, all that the two pioneers knew for certain was that they were trapped, and the only way out was to see the madcap venture through to the end.

An excerpt from Ellen O’Regan’s Under The Sea:

I woke up in a small, glass tank. It was long and wide, but the roof was low. I could sit up comfortably, but couldn’t stand. On the other side of the glass was water. I could see the slick, green tinged walls of a cave, algae and coral were specks of colour on the otherwise dull rock face. Small, colourful fish darted around my glass prison, while larger fish swayed past lazily.

An excerpt from Ben Hunt’s The Slave Woman:

In the distance the water trembles before bursting from the sea and a deathly evil serpent manifests itself in the monstrous mass. A Shadow Dragon. There have been few reports of an attack in recent times but here it is, scrutinising the ship through glassy slits.

A chorus of gunfire breaks the silence and bullets bombard the beast like a shower of raindrops. But the futile attempt to kill it only aggravates the dragon and it blows a wintry looking plume of mist into the sky.

From Kyle Hutchinson’s The Night Wanderer:

The tides has been pulled inwards, creating a thin veil of water above them. A flock of starved gulls circled the area around the beached fish that had misjudged the tidings. The nearby predators feasted on the last remains of their stockpiles, cowering behind the reefs and caves.

Nothing would approach the open at this time at night, not when the creature was free to roam the waters.