Local teens wins ghost story contest

“The creepy old voice was right over him now, and it asked, “Who’s there? Is it you Victor?”

Poor Victor, there was nobody there…but himself…and his imagination.”

Whatever Raven Morris writes, it’s “usually pretty exciting,” says her sister Stephanie.

The homeschooled 13-year-old Woodbridge girl recently took first place in the 2008 Saugus Halloween Ghost Story contest. Based in Saugus, Mass., the now national contest is judged by area scholars and has four categories: adult, high school, middle school and elementary school.

Morris’ thriller “Who’s There” beat out more than 100 other entries in the middle school category. In the short story, a little boy named Victor overcomes his fear of a nearby creepy neighborhood in order to deliver a fruit basket to a decrepit old lady named Ms. Lauren.

Ms. Lauren tells Victor a scary ghost story that comes back to haunt him at the end. But Victor doesn’t know whether he’s imagined the trek to visit with Ms. Lauren.

Stephanie said she realized her younger sister’s talent early on. Before her sixth birthday, Raven was creating picture books. For the last several years, she’s penned stories and poems in her spare time.
“She would draw things and tell stories from her pictures,” Stephanie said. “They are always very exciting stories.”

Nowadays, Raven’s ideas come, in part, from her brainstorming sessions with Stephanie, who is also an avid writer. Raven also writes down her dreams when she wakes up, said mother, Mary Morris.
“We don’t exactly write things down but we will have these sessions where we talk to each other about different characters,” Stephanie said.

Stephanie, 18, wants to attend the University of Virginia and ultimately start a publishing company. Its mission would be to publish talented young authors like Raven.

The apple didn’t fall far from the tree when it comes to the Morris family. Raven’s father, Richard Morris, wrote “A Life Unburdened: Getting Over Weight and Getting on with My Life.”

The book was published in 2005 and won first place in the health category of The Eric Hoffer Award for Short Prose & Independent Books. The author of “True Believer,” Hoffer was a former longshoreman turned philosophy writer who won the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983.

Despite her recent award, Raven has not rested on her success. Following in Stephanie’s footsteps, Raven recently completed a 14,000-word story for submission into the National Novel Writing Month contest. It’s about two children who save the world.

She’s also reading “The City of Ember,” the first book in a children’s fantasy series that was recently made into a Hollywood movie.

Raven said she one day hopes to be a movie director. Until then, she’ll likely be spending as much time as she can honing her literary skills.

“The library is the No. 1 place [for Raven],” said Mary Morris, who is moving with her husband and two daughters to Stanardsville this month. “When we were moving, we asked what kind of library do they have.”

Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-878-8062.