They’re students from primary and middle schools from Senica, Slovakia - enthusiasts forming an informal IF writers’ club. [spoiler] Last year at Spring Thing there were just three attempts (not counting mine, the IXI puzzle). One author was very promissing, but my hands are tied as to making a promissing author continue - this year she abstained. But new blood apeared with the Thaw and here comes Spring Thing with skilled and unbiased “jury” - who just by offering feedback can change much more than I can.
The current seven stories show rising awareness of the authors here that they actually can write and let others enjoy their writing. Some stories were written just within two hours on a workshop in December, other authors spent much more time, hours and hours, in the silence of our IT room, after school. For some a review is just a nice treat making their day more interesting, for some, yet, you’ll never know, you just see the hunger in their eyes when you share the reviews.
In my country we are pioneers in IF. This also means no competition among students and also no other teachers to compare to. That’s why I formed a micro competition in Autumn, called SIF (with a wooden statuette of viking goddess of good harvest as the winner’s prize + author’s public reading at the prize ceremony) and am promoting it among other teachers. Brian helped me to set the guidlines for the jury last year.[/spoiler]