More than 35 years ago, when Bob Comenole was growing up in Watertown, he was close with a group of boys known as the Dead End Gang. The 15 or so friends did everything that your average kids did in the 1960s - stickball, street hockey, bike riding - but they also created their own little city.
Each child had a title and a job to do (including reporters, bankers and even a mayor), and the gang had its own laws to follow. Members organized their own street carnivals, sponsored Olympic-type games and built baseball and football parks.
“We were an adventurous lot when we were kids,” Comenole recalled. “It was like ‘Sim City,' except it was 30 to 40 years ago.”
Now Comenole, 49, has another group of children to hang out with, though the circumstances are very different.
A writer who moved to Skaneateles late last year, Comenole heads up the Editor's Club.
Its members are 13- to 16-year-old students from Skaneateles and the surrounding area who have an interest in reading and writing, and they have essentially become Comenole's bosses.
Since January, members have met regularly to critique and discuss one of Comenole's works in progress, “Mystery at the Mount Carmel Feast,” an adventure/detective story based on the tales of his old crew.
The criticism that the teens give is “invaluable,” Comenole said, assuring that he's never gotten his feelings hurt and that the students don't hold back but are very respectful.
“I'm learning a lot from them because they're authentic teen readers and they have a lot to say,” said Comenole, who generally writes literary short stories.
In many ways, the adolescents are better critics than adults because they're not looking for the textbook literary answer, he added.
This is the first time that Comenole has written a book for this age group, and having the target readers as an active part of the writing process has proven a tremendous help.
So when he brought in the first chapter - complete with lots of description and long, compound sentences - it was clear that there would be a learning curve.
“It wasn't for a seventh- or an eighth-grader,” he admitted. “It was clearly adult prose. I didn't know what I was doing the first chapter.”
The club members sent him home with lots of ideas and corrections to make, and the chapter has now been completely reworked. He's even added a prologue to fill in some questions the members had.
“Writing for this age group is very hard,” Comenole conceded. “Young readers are very perceptive and very demanding, and they won't sit long for a story that is dull or unrealistic. For me, it's like learning a whole new language.”
The Editor's Club began early this year, after Skaneateles resident Mary Beth Bronk attended Comenole's reading of “The Long Night of Clement C. Craggogre” at the Stella Maris Retreat and Renewal Center.
Bronk, acting on behalf on the Skaneateles Middle School Parent Teacher Committee, asked Comenole if he had ever thought of doing something with middle-school students.
He had, in fact, played around with the idea of starting up the Editor's Club, and he calls Bronk the “catalyst” for putting this idea into action.
Comenole, who had long thought about writing a narrative about his childhood buddies (most of whom he still keeps in touch with via e-mail on an almost daily basis), then worked with Bronk, Skaneateles Middle School Librarian Sharon O'Connnell and the middle school English teachers to approach students about the club.
There are about 20 members, with around 12 coming to each meeting.
The club meets during the students' lunch periods every two weeks during the school year and gets together at 6:30 p.m. every Thursday at the Skaneateles Library in the summer.
Before every session, the members receive a copy of the next chapter by e-mail. During the meeting, it's a free-for-all discussion, with students talking about the what they like - and what they don't.
Comenole maintains that he has never been put off by the students' criticism of his work. Quite the contrary, he welcomes it with open arms.
“I crave other people's opinions, even if they're very negative,” Comenole said, noting that he loves to hear readers' reactions.
Some of the meetings focus on characterization, while other times Comenole has the students talk about language. Sometimes they read the pages out loud, and other days Comenole hands out a sheet for members to evaluate the effectiveness of the chapter, page by page.
The students often get engrossed in the conversation and begin to talk about the characters as if they were real people, which they are - kind of.
The characters are based on the personalities of Comenole's old chums, but the story is fiction. However, all of their nicknames -Comenole was “Connawanna” - remain the same.
Comenole has talked about the club with his old pals. “Were your ears ringing today? Because you had about 12 kids talking about you,” he recalled asking one.
While Comenole has the opportunity to hear criticism and praise straight from the reader's mouth, the club members are benefiting from the group in their own right.
Cassie Hall, 14, of Mottville, a rising freshman at Skaneateles High School, said that the group has helped her to better examine a story.
“I think I'm improving on being able to look and analyze other people's things,” said Hall, who enjoys reading “everything” and is currently writing a book of her own that is a cross between historical fiction and fantasy.
Like Hall, Kayleigh Rogers, 15, of Skaneateles, said that the club has been fun but has also helped with her own reading and writing skills, particularly in English class.
“The more I go to those meetings, the more I catch stuff when I edit it,” Rogers said.
She enjoys the informal atmosphere that the club offers.
“We really get to put our say into the book,” Rogers said. “We don't have to hold back, which is nice.”
Comenole has all of “Mystery at the Mount Carmel Feast” plotted out, and he's hoping to finish it by Christmas.
But despite pressure from his critics, his lips are sealed as to how it ends.
Club members
Cassie Hall
Kayleigh Rogers
Nate Schwab
Kevin Rice
Kelly Valenti
Amelia O'Hara
Danielle Mazzeo
Chelsea McElligatt
Kelly Dunn
Leia Depeche
Kevin Valenti
Brady Hueber
Paul O'Donnell
Kathleen Bitter
Megan Grosholz
Holly Grosholz
Sophia Beratta
Colton Pascal
Want to join?
The Editor's Club will meet from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m.
Thursdays until Aug. 30 at
the Skaneateles Library, 49 E. Genesee St. It is open to all youth ages 13 to 16. Interested teens can simply show up.
“We were an adventurous lot when we were kids,” Comenole recalled. “It was like ‘Sim City,' except it was 30 to 40 years ago.”
Now Comenole, 49, has another group of children to hang out with, though the circumstances are very different.
A writer who moved to Skaneateles late last year, Comenole heads up the Editor's Club.
Its members are 13- to 16-year-old students from Skaneateles and the surrounding area who have an interest in reading and writing, and they have essentially become Comenole's bosses.
Since January, members have met regularly to critique and discuss one of Comenole's works in progress, “Mystery at the Mount Carmel Feast,” an adventure/detective story based on the tales of his old crew.
The criticism that the teens give is “invaluable,” Comenole said, assuring that he's never gotten his feelings hurt and that the students don't hold back but are very respectful.
“I'm learning a lot from them because they're authentic teen readers and they have a lot to say,” said Comenole, who generally writes literary short stories.
In many ways, the adolescents are better critics than adults because they're not looking for the textbook literary answer, he added.
This is the first time that Comenole has written a book for this age group, and having the target readers as an active part of the writing process has proven a tremendous help.
So when he brought in the first chapter - complete with lots of description and long, compound sentences - it was clear that there would be a learning curve.
“It wasn't for a seventh- or an eighth-grader,” he admitted. “It was clearly adult prose. I didn't know what I was doing the first chapter.”
The club members sent him home with lots of ideas and corrections to make, and the chapter has now been completely reworked. He's even added a prologue to fill in some questions the members had.
“Writing for this age group is very hard,” Comenole conceded. “Young readers are very perceptive and very demanding, and they won't sit long for a story that is dull or unrealistic. For me, it's like learning a whole new language.”
The Editor's Club began early this year, after Skaneateles resident Mary Beth Bronk attended Comenole's reading of “The Long Night of Clement C. Craggogre” at the Stella Maris Retreat and Renewal Center.
Bronk, acting on behalf on the Skaneateles Middle School Parent Teacher Committee, asked Comenole if he had ever thought of doing something with middle-school students.
He had, in fact, played around with the idea of starting up the Editor's Club, and he calls Bronk the “catalyst” for putting this idea into action.
Comenole, who had long thought about writing a narrative about his childhood buddies (most of whom he still keeps in touch with via e-mail on an almost daily basis), then worked with Bronk, Skaneateles Middle School Librarian Sharon O'Connnell and the middle school English teachers to approach students about the club.
There are about 20 members, with around 12 coming to each meeting.
The club meets during the students' lunch periods every two weeks during the school year and gets together at 6:30 p.m. every Thursday at the Skaneateles Library in the summer.
Before every session, the members receive a copy of the next chapter by e-mail. During the meeting, it's a free-for-all discussion, with students talking about the what they like - and what they don't.
Comenole maintains that he has never been put off by the students' criticism of his work. Quite the contrary, he welcomes it with open arms.
“I crave other people's opinions, even if they're very negative,” Comenole said, noting that he loves to hear readers' reactions.
Some of the meetings focus on characterization, while other times Comenole has the students talk about language. Sometimes they read the pages out loud, and other days Comenole hands out a sheet for members to evaluate the effectiveness of the chapter, page by page.
The students often get engrossed in the conversation and begin to talk about the characters as if they were real people, which they are - kind of.
The characters are based on the personalities of Comenole's old chums, but the story is fiction. However, all of their nicknames -Comenole was “Connawanna” - remain the same.
Comenole has talked about the club with his old pals. “Were your ears ringing today? Because you had about 12 kids talking about you,” he recalled asking one.
While Comenole has the opportunity to hear criticism and praise straight from the reader's mouth, the club members are benefiting from the group in their own right.
Cassie Hall, 14, of Mottville, a rising freshman at Skaneateles High School, said that the group has helped her to better examine a story.
“I think I'm improving on being able to look and analyze other people's things,” said Hall, who enjoys reading “everything” and is currently writing a book of her own that is a cross between historical fiction and fantasy.
Like Hall, Kayleigh Rogers, 15, of Skaneateles, said that the club has been fun but has also helped with her own reading and writing skills, particularly in English class.
“The more I go to those meetings, the more I catch stuff when I edit it,” Rogers said.
She enjoys the informal atmosphere that the club offers.
“We really get to put our say into the book,” Rogers said. “We don't have to hold back, which is nice.”
Comenole has all of “Mystery at the Mount Carmel Feast” plotted out, and he's hoping to finish it by Christmas.
But despite pressure from his critics, his lips are sealed as to how it ends.
Club members
Cassie Hall
Kayleigh Rogers
Nate Schwab
Kevin Rice
Kelly Valenti
Amelia O'Hara
Danielle Mazzeo
Chelsea McElligatt
Kelly Dunn
Leia Depeche
Kevin Valenti
Brady Hueber
Paul O'Donnell
Kathleen Bitter
Megan Grosholz
Holly Grosholz
Sophia Beratta
Colton Pascal
Want to join?
The Editor's Club will meet from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m.
Thursdays until Aug. 30 at
the Skaneateles Library, 49 E. Genesee St. It is open to all youth ages 13 to 16. Interested teens can simply show up.
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