Student writer gets published in anthology by Hawkeye

Madison Vetter had the opposite problem of many as an elementary kid. Her teachers could not get her to stop writing. Vetter found her passion for writing as a fifth grader. Now she is currently working on a novel that she hopes becomes a part of a series.  Whether or not Vetter goes to college for an English-related field, she wants to continue writing for herself and for fun. 

1. When did you start writing? Most people cannot tell you when, but I started writing October of fifth grade with a scary story for our English class. It wasn’t really a class. It was more of a 30-minute period. It probably wasn’t that great of a story, but at the time I was convinced it was the scariest thing written by a fifth grader. 

2. What are your inspirations? Right now I am most inspired by the differences that exist between people and how there is not necessarily a good or an evil. There is only morally gray things and people whose ambitions get in the way of other peoples, so I really like to play with not good, not evil just somewhere in the middle. 

3. What type of writing is your favorite? Creative writing. It gave me a chance to work on something that I had been working on for a really long time. Well, longer than usual. I don’t stick with projects for very long. It let me explore the project that I had been working on called Hell Bender. I’m trying to write a novel, a series if possible. 

4. How many projects have you done? I’ve started a lot of projects, but never finished them, and when I say a lot, I mean at least 20, but I have written two short stories and a small collection of poetry. 

5. Have you been published before? Recently, I got published in an anthology for high school students that is put out by Hawkeye. I got something accepted into that called “What I Have Done.” 

6. Do you like the writing we do in school? Goodness, no. I really hate writing papers. 

7. What is  your favorite genre? Currently sci-fi because that is what my project is in. 

8. Do you want to do anything with writing/English when you grow up? Well, my dream since fifth grade October was to be a writer and to be just a famous author. I was really excited about that, but you know real life started to set in, and it’s really hard to do that and make a substantial living. If I would do anything in the English field, it would be something in the editing field because I really, really like reading and editing papers. 

9. Do you have a college career path for an English field? Unfortunately, I don’t. My feel on that is unless I want to be something in the editing field, like the publishing industry, I don’t plan on going to college for an English degree. Writing is always something you can do on your own time without a college degree because I can improve on my own and do it for fun. 

What I Have Done 

By: Madison Vetter

If there was ever a time for forgiveness, I find it too slow in coming. Nearoff, there is a wind in the winter night that blows a raging gale, and the gravestones sit restless in the earth where I can neither see nor hear them. 

I’ve made my promises, kept the vows. But I still feel the halo slip from my head. 

There in the fresh-turned plot, the wolf comes prowling from above, and as he digs into the frozen ground, howling, I am forced to remember the dead. There is a shovel at my hand–was it always there?–and its shaft drips red with blood–is it mine? If there was ever a time for forgiveness, it was always too slow in coming. 

They call me Proclaimer–they call me Prophet–they call me Messenger–they call me Messiah. And I cannot even save my own. 

And as the storm draws nearer, I sit in this burning house and watch the flames lick the walls. They are desperate to escape, but I’ve locked the windows tightly and the key is buried in the snow. They do not understand. 

It’s not all bleeding lips and shaking hands, stomach aches and dripping with sweat, because it burns with the fever of unholy desire–it’s a revolution in the blood. Sometimes it’s my arms covered in bloody runes and waking up, naked, in the middle of a field, all the ground tasting of copper. 

But the wolf turns to wind and slips through the cracks, and stands before me, all muscle, power, and righteous anger. I see the holy fire burn in his eyes as his great wings fan the flames. 

Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna!

There is no more room in hell, I know–have known. The devils walk among us and wear their human faces. My halo splinters. 

The devils walk among us, and they look so much like me.