Before we begin the contest, I just want to thank everyone who expressed their concern and sent their thoughts and prayers my way during the storm, and say that I hope all of my friends out there were able to stay safe. We were lucky here, but I know a lot of people who read this blog were in harm’s way and I hope you and your loved ones are all safe and well.
And now…
 |
| courtesy google images |
The Contest: write a 100 word Halloween story appropriate for children (title not included in the 100 words), using the words witch, bat, and “trick-or-treat“. Your story can be scary, funny or anything in between, poetry or prose, but it will only count for the contest if it includes those 3 words and is 100 words (you can go under, but not over!) Get it? Halloweensie – because it’s not very long and it’s for little people 🙂
Post your story on your blog today! – Wednesday October 31 – by 11:59 PM EDT and add your post-specific link to the list below. If you don’t have a blog and would like to enter, you can simply copy and paste your entry in the comments section. Then have fun hopping around and reading all the fabulous entries! Anyone who has trouble commenting, please email me! (susanna[at]susannhill[dot]com) P.S. Special Note: due to the chaos and power outages caused by Sandy, if you would like to enter but need a little more time to post, please let me know! I will extend the deadline out to Friday if that helps anyone!
The Judge: my lovely assistant and I will narrow down the entrants to three (hee hee hee – you know how much trouble I have with only 3, so we’ll see) top choices which will be posted here and voted on for a winner. The vote will be added to Amy Dixon’s guest post on Monday (because Amy needs Monday since her book is Marathon Mouse and Monday is the day after the NYC marathon (which will hopefully still be able to take place) but we also need to vote for a winner!) Unless you all let me know by popular vote in the comments that you’d prefer a separate post on a day I usually don’t post – Saturday or Sunday? or next Tuesday?
The Prize: The winner will receive the INCREDIBLE prize of 5 (that’s FIVE!) brand new picture books personalized and signed by the authors! These 5 awesome books are: PUZZLED BY PINK by Sarah Frances Hardy, THE MONSTER WHO LOST HIS MEAN by Tiffany Strelitz Haber, THE THREE NINJA PIGS by Corey Rosen Schwartz, MARATHON MOUSE by Amy Dixon, and FLAP! by Alison Hertz. Great to keep for your own collection or to give to little ones in your life as holiday gifts 🙂 The winner will also be incredibly famous and able to boast that he or she won The Halloweensie Contest… and that is not something most people can say! 🙂
Here is my official sample, cobbled together in the midst of Sandy. If only she had been as benevolent as the story…
Bad weather brewed.
“Windy!” said Wanda.
“Stormy!” said Spellda.
“Halloweenie!” said baby Cauldra.
Just then the lights went out.
“Perfect!” squealed the little witches. They grabbed their broomsticks and candy cauldrons. “Let’s trick-or-treat!”
“Sorry,” said Mama Witch. “Spook Radio just issued a Wild Weather Warning. All broomsticks grounded. I’m afraid we’ll have to stay home.”
“No candy?” Cauldra began to cry.
“We can still have fun,” said Wanda.
They played Pin-The-Bat-In-The Attic. They sang Monster Mash and danced. They told ghost stories by jack-o-lantern light.
The front door rattled.
Dad blew in, covered with…
“Candy!” shouted the girls. “Happy Halloween!”
(99 words)
Here is the first sample I wrote which I’m including just for fun. It originally had 2 other verses and totaled 176 words… too long! This version is close though, with 116 words 🙂 What was I thinking? 100 words! Ouch! 🙂
In a spooky old house perched perilously
On the creaky branch of a skeleton tree
Lived Emmeline Witch and her sisters three
But they weren’t as happy as they should be.
Emmeline Witch wiped away a tear.
“I just don’t get why year after year
no trick-or-treaters ever come here.
It totally spoils my Halloween cheer.
Emmeline tried to figure out why.
She puzzled and pondered, then gave a sigh.
“By Jingo, girls! We’re way too high!
The kids don’t see us when they pass by!
Now Emmeline Witch and her sisters three
are the favorite stop on the Halloween spree,
the only house you’ll ever see
that hangs like a bat from a skeleton tree!
So now, having comforted yourselves with how much better your stories are than these!, everyone please add your post-specific contest entry link to the list below, or paste your story into the comments! I CAN’T WAIT to read them!!!
Also, please let me know if you have thoughts about what day to post the vote!
Happy Halloween!!!
(Please be sure to check the comments for entries – already 6 there from Sidney, Linda, Patricia, Larissa, Adele, and Pam!)
Susanna Leonard Hill 
I just re-read your two “samples” and wanted to say . . . they are Fabulous!!!
Thanks for linking me up and running such a FUN contest for Halloween. Talk about Trick or Treat . . . you're going to have a tough time picking 3 finalists from all these great Treats.
Maybe you can share the 176er with us when you post the vote? I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to read the missing big parts. 😀
Thanks for the link, Susanna . . . sorry I spelled your name wrong before.
Thank you, Nancy! I'm so glad you're enjoying the contest and that you joined in – your entry was such fun! And I know it – I've got my work seriously cut out for me! These entries are all really really good!
I entered one from my poetry blog because the story poem I already posted on my regular blog was too long. (Definitely NOT a Halloweensie…) I'd love to have you take a look at the longer one, if you're interested!
Halloween Horror: A Ghostly Tale
PS. Loved your samples!
Entered with The Meaty Brew. Way late on writing this, but had fun this am.
What a great contest idea – and I loved your samples! I heard about the contest from Nancy at Spirit Lights the Way and I couldn't resist joining in 🙂
P.S. I had a little trouble with the links, due to out of date browsers. If it shows multiple times, that's why. If it doesn't show at all, my post is here: http://jannatwrites.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/spellbound/
I linked up my story! Let me know if it doesn't work. I have no power or Internet at home, so I made a quick stop out for free wifi!
Well, this contest is a wild success, Susanna! I love your little witches three in their topsy, turvy Halloween tree.
I would love to read the finished version, Erik! I hope you post it 🙂
I'm glad you're okay! What a fun idea for a blogfest. Too bad I already had a post scheduled, but I'm going to enjoy these entries here.
I don't know how to do a post specific link so here is my entry.
When trick or treater's call
97 words
First came a bat
then a witch in a big hat.
Next came 3 vampires
followed by a sleek, black cat.
A crowd of giggling teens
beat a path to my door,
'trick or treat' they keen
With their hands held out for more.
The little children shout with glee
Their buckets and bags bashing their knees.
My trick or treat days are over and done
but I love to see the kids have such fun.
I can't wait to see what appears at my door next
I sincerely hope they don't trick me with a hex.
Wonderful twist.
I got mine finished, but it's not like I wanted. *sigh* But the power is on and internet too. So I added mine, even though it sounds like poo!
Sorry to hear about your electricity problems, Erik. Hope by the time you read this it will be fixed. And I hope school was worth it today. I”d love to read your finished story. It seems a lot better than mine. There were too many people who dealt with the real thing in NYC to be nice or funny. I almost didn't publish it. 🙂
OH I like that! 🙂
Almost didn't post mine because of the real thing happening in NYC. But hey, I couldn't have known that before when I wrote it on Monday, trying to write it quick before our electric went out. We were real lucky, only branches down and a short time with out power. Just enough to scare me. 🙂
Susanna, I love your fun entries. They sparkle and make me realize Halloween is supposed to be fun. They put me in the mood. My story is too realistic for me. 🙂
I like it , too, Linda. 🙂
OH! I like it. Another fun story! 🙂 So glad you were out of harms way. 🙂
Another realistic story that could be sad, glad or bad. 🙂
It wasn't anything to write home about 🙂 but maybe, we'll see… 🙂
nrhatch (unregistered) wrote, in response to Susanna Leonard Hill:
Maybe you can share the 176er with us when you post the vote? I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to read the missing big parts. 😀
Link to comment
IP address: 72.185.189.227
This turned out to be a great success. Enjoyed your entries, Susanna. Especially the first. Enjoyed reading so many great entries. Just returned from a trip and didn't have the energy to enter.
I guess I need an ipad for Christmas! Sounds like fun. 🙂
You're welcome, and no worries – I'm in such a rush today I didn't even notice 🙂
nrhatch (unregistered) wrote, in response to Susanna Leonard Hill:
Thanks for the link, Susanna . . . sorry I spelled your name wrong before.
Link to comment
IP address: 72.185.189.227
Nice, Linda! I admit I was a little worried we'd be rained out of Halloween, but it's looking OK so far.
I love that idea, Patricia. A wagon as ark – very clever.
Thanks so much, Sidney. 🙂
Thanks for the link, Sue! Wow – that was some creepy scary poem/story! Chilling! 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Wow, Sidney, that's so spooky and heartbreaking! I can't believe you did all that in 100 words. Well done!
Well there's nothing like a deadline to get those words flowing 🙂 Can't wait to come read your story!!!
This is such a fun contest Susanna! I've really enjoyed reading all the entries. Your samples are wonderful — can't believe you wrote TWO. I was lucky to finish the one.
I'm so glad you found the contest and joined in, Janna! The more the merrier, and your story was such fun! I'm thrilled to meet a couple of new writers today 🙂
Having readers to read, appreciate and encourage is just as important, Pat! Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by and read. I've been so impressed with the caliber of the entries – really top notch!
I'm so glad you'r enjoying it, Carrie! I certainly am! What a fantastic bunch of entries! And I didnt' so much write 2 entries as fail miserably at the first and desperately have to come up with something under 100 words to post 🙂
I really had a difficult time getting to the comment and the post. When I began there were only five entries this morning. Adding Chrome got me to you. Thanks for the fun!
YAY! An entry from Robyn! Can't wait to read it you rhyming fool 🙂
Thanks Susanna. I didn't think I would get my entry done in time. Whew!
Here's my contribution to this contest:
http://perfectingmotherhood.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/im-doing-the-halloweensie-contest-because-it-scares-me/
Working my way through these fabulous entries!
Me, too! Very fun!
I almost wrote something, but little kidlit is out of my realm. 🙂
Hope you have an awesome Halloween, Susanna.
Aw! I would have loved to see a story from you, Stina! Maybe you and your big kids will enjoy reading the ones that are up – some great stuff! Have a spooktacular Halloween 🙂
Me, too! My goodness the turn-out for this contest has been amazing, and the caliber of the entries absolutely top-notch! Who knew we were in for this much fun???
I'm so sorry I don't know your name, Perfecting Motherhood – I couldn't figure it out from your blog 😦 – but I loved your entry – such fun! – and I'm so glad you let Nancy talk you into joining in on the contest! I loved the jokes! 🙂 I'm so happy to meet a few new writers today – you, Nancy, and Janna who I guess all came by way of each other and Vivian. Thank you so much for playing along with the Halloweensie fun 🙂
POSTED FOR TRACY at http://tracycampbell.net/blog/
I'm glad to here you're safe and sound, Susanna!
Sandy Candy (great rhyming)
I loved the names Spella and Cauldra. And who would have thought pin the tail on the donkey could be called Pin-the-Bat. Very original.
I never expected Dad to be covered in candy. You painted a great visual for me. 🙂
And because Topsy-Turvey Halloween is in rhyme that was my favorite.
Still hanging out on the fringe! 🙂 Tracy
So glad you're enjoying the entries, Tracy? Did you post one? I haven't worked my way all the way through yet…. Thanks for your kind comments about my silly little stories 🙂
Squeee! I'm so glad you did! Can't wait to read it! 🙂
You're welcome, Gail! and so nice to “meet” you! Thank YOU for trying so hard to get through – I'm terribly sorry my blog caused you such difficulties and I really appreciate your determination! I'm still working my way through the entries and haven't come to yours yet, but can't wait to read it! 🙂
I'm so glad you enjoyed my samples, Clar, and hope you'll have time to read around the others – just fantastic! 🙂 I'm coming around to read yours any minute – can't wait!
Hi Adele, so very nice to “meet” you! What a fun story! I especially love the part about the buckets and bags bashing their knees – that is just exactly what they do! 🙂 I'm so glad you came over to join the Halloweensie fun! I can add your link to the list if I know what your blog is… then you'd get some more traffic to your blog and some new people might get to meet you 🙂 I'll see if I can figure it out…