Tons Of Fun Monday!

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I hope you’re all feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning (and really, don’t ask me what being “bushy-tailed” means exactly or what it has to do with being awake… :))

Since it’s Monday, I assume some of your bushy tails look like this:

google images

and some like this:

google images

But if you’re feeling like the second one, never fear!  You’ve come to the right place!  We have donuts 🙂

And, as you know, we always have plenty of fun around here!  Today is extra-especially fun because of all the winning!  Ready?

First  off: this week’s Fun Foto theme is HIBERNATION!  So scout around for a child-friendly photo that says hibernation to you and get ready to post it on your blog Friday for everyone to enjoy and use as a story prompt 🙂

Next up: the October Pitch Pick.  The winner, whose pitch will be sent to the awesome editor Erin Molta for evaluation and comment, is none other than KIM!!!!!  Congratulations, Kim!!!  Well done!!!  And congratulations also to Carla, Christie, and Tracy, our other brave contestants, who put their work out there for everyone to see and critique.  As always, all the pitches were wonderful, and I’m sorry that everyone can’t win.  But please, keep those pitches coming.  It’s great practice, and who knows?  You could be a winner next time!  Stay tuned for Straight From The Editor coming up whenever Erin’s comments happen to arrive… 🙂

Next: the winner of which book will go on a journey around the world is Can’t Sleep Without Sheep! If you would be interested in having Can’t Sleep come to your neck of the woods, please sign up in the comments.  I will either choose one person to start with (possibly by a contest of some kind… mwah-ha-hah!) and let them send it on, or if enough people from enough far-flung places sign up, perhaps I’ll just put together an itinerary.  The idea is for the book to travel around and be signed with a first name, location and date (and a tiny message if you like) and then come back to me eventually to share with kids on school visits!

illustration copyright Mike Wohnoutka 2010

Finally: here are the Halloweensie Contest finalists for you to vote on.  Boy did this turn out to be way harder than I expected!  Everyone’s entries were so good!  In the end, though, my assistant judge and I narrowed it down with heaviest emphasis on what a child would most enjoy since the point is, after all, to write for kids, with secondary consideration to how close you came to the 100 word count.  So here are the 3 finalists, identified by number. not name.  Please read them and vote for #1, #2, or #3!

#1

Oh Judy!
A gaggle of boys and girls dressed like soldiers, dancers, animals and one lone devil walked down the street in search of Halloween treats.
Before they reached Judy’s house, a ghost darted out of the bushes.
“Boo!”
A ballerina jumped throwing her candied apple into the air.
A bear cried as the gooey treat fell on his furry head.
The devil stumbled over a jack o’lantern into the bushes.
The group joined together to return the devil to his feet.
“Oh Judy,” they yelled.
“What?” she cried from her front porch, as a shadowy figure slipped into the bushes.

#2

Red candied apple dripping in goo.
Orange carved pumpkins spelling out BOO!
Yellow glowing jack o’lantern’s grin,
Green as the wart on an ugly witch chin!
Blue satin Cinderellas looking for a shoe,
Purple bubbling cauldron of stinky witch brew.
Black is the cat, white ghost in flight,
A rainbow of colors on Halloween night!

#3

Boo smirked and pulled Jack O’Lantern to the spooky looking house.
“Come on. Let’s go here.”
Jack O’Lantern gasped at skeletons and ghosts hanging from trees. The eerie sound of a wind chime, the only noise.
“Maybe we should have come out earlier,” said Boo, shivering in the cold and dark.
Circumnavigating a hanging ghost to reach the door, Boo dared to ring the doorbell.
Just as the door creaked open, a gust of wind blew the hanging ghost into them.
“Aargh!” They screamed as two candied apples were thrust toward them.
The boys ran and called back,
“Thank yoooooooo!”

So please vote for your favorite today or tomorrow!  (Poll will close Wednesday November 9 at 5 AM EST so I can post the winner on Wednesday morning.)


<a href=”http://polldaddy.com/poll/5648197/”>Halloweensie Contest</a>
The winner will receive a signed hard cover copy of Haunted Party by the incomparable Iza Trapani!
And as I said, all of the entries were fantastic – I was so impressed with the quality and with how imaginative people could be within the constraints of the writing requirements!  I’m looking forward to the Thanksgiving Contest I’ve had requests for which I will post as soon as I think up what it is 🙂

Don’t forget to vote for the Halloweensie winner, let me know if you’d like to have Can’t Sleep journey to your house, and pick out a hibernation foto for Friday!

Who Will It Be? – Pitch Pick #3!… Plus Some Extras

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Sorry for the mess my blog has been this week.  You may blame Mother Nature and her very clever idea that we should have 2 feet of snow for Halloween 🙂  Talk about trick vs. treat!  I’m still playing catch-up, so today’s post will be a bit of a smorgasbord – not that I haven’t done that before 🙂

Included in today’s awesomeness will be Fun Foto, Warm Fuzzies #2, and the October Pitch Pick.

I know.

That’s a lot to pack into a Friday.  But after all, it IS Friday, so the weekend is coming and I know you are all full of happiness and enthusiasm about that, so hopefully you will feel generous with your energy and wade on through so we can get back on track next week!  Anyone who is in a hurry should feel free to skip to the part that’s most relevant to them… no hard feelings… (although I did get up at the crack of dawn and slave over all the parts… )  (oops, did I say that?!)  I promise, I’ll try to be brief.  For me 🙂

(This is the part where no one will point out that if I was technologically able in ANY way I would have long since figured out how to schedule posts ahead and then if my power went out it wouldn’t matter and I would never have gotten behind in the first place.  Thank you all for not mentioning that :))

So.  Fun Foto.  Technically, we’re not doing it this week because we didn’t get it together we knew you were too busy!  But I hate to skip it altogether, so here is my themeless Fun-not-really-a-Foto just for kicks:

Isn’t it sweet?  Write a story about this!
(courtesy weheartit)

Anyone else who wants to put up a themeless foto, friendly for kids ages 0-12, feel free to post your link in the comments.  And for one of the best photos I’ve seen in a long time, check out Cynthia’s blog, Random Thoughts, from yesterday.  Is that a great photo or what?! 🙂

Onto Warm Fuzzies Week #2:

This week’s task: post a picture or piece of music that describes your WIP.  Then in the comments, people are supposed to guess what your WIP is about 🙂

Here’s my picture for that:

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Any guesses? Remember, I write picture books 🙂

And finally (we’re moving right along, aren’t we? I’m being so brief!) it’s time for Pitch Pick #3!!!  One lucky participant is going to get her pitch read by the epitome of awesome editors, Erin Molta!!!  To refresh your memory, the October contestants are listed below.

#1 Carla

Working Title:  Witches Don’t Dance
Age/Genre: Picture Book
The Pitch:  What happens when witches dance?  Little Linda knows it can get messy, but she also thinks it might just be the witches’ only chance to save their Halloween Party.
#2  Christie
Working Title: Gleek
Age/Genre: MG Contemporary
The Pitch:  A math whiz but not great at reading and writing, eleven-year-old Art Schaeffer unknowingly stumbles upon the school bully’s rule-breaking science fair project and must find a way to expose him before the judges make their final decisions.
#3  Tracy
Working Title:  Pizza’s Band
Age/Genre:  Early Reader
The Pitch:  Pizza, JuiceBox and Cake are best friends. Cereal arrives with his brand new guitar they head to the garage for band practice. But when Bratwurst interrupts, will Pizza be brave enough to protect his friends from this bully?

#4  Kim
Working Title:  Henry Hears You
Age/Genre:  YA
The Pitch:  13-year-old boy finds his voice as the new advice columnist for the school newspaper only to discover that some problems don’t have easy solutions when he gets a letter from a kid threatening to kill himself if the gay bashing doesn’t stop.
On your mark… Get set… VOTE!!!!!

<a href=”http://polldaddy.com/poll/5640800/”>Pitch Pick #3</a>
In the interest of trying to get back on track, the poll will close on Sunday, November 6 at 11:59 PM EST so that I can announce the winner in Monday’s post, so please get your votes in as soon as you can because I love announcing winners.  I will also post the finalists for the Halloweensie Contest for you to vote on Monday, so we will have another winner next week.  Yippee-ay-oh-ky-yay!  Is next week going to be fun or what?

Thank you all for your patience this week.  Hopefully next week will be a little less crazy!  Oh, and since people have expressed interest, we will be having a Thanksgiving Contest of some sort, so feel free to leave me words that evoke Thanksgiving for you in the comments!

Have a great weekend!!!

Once Upon A Halloweensie Contest

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Due to our freak snowstorm, this post is interrupting Would You Read It Wednesday, so if you haven’t seen today’s Would You Read It, please scroll down or click here so Christie gets her pitch feedback!  Thank you!

Once upon a Halloweensie, 2 feet of snow fell out of the sky and caused all manner of trouble!

So, the good news?  Those of you who would like to enter the Halloweensie Contest and didn’t get around to writing your stories yet still have a chance to join in the fun!  I’ll give you until the end of tomorrow – Friday November 4.  For those of you who might not remember, the contest is for a 100 word story (in poetry or prose) suitable for children, using the words boo, candied apple, and jack-o-lantern.  The story can be a little under 100 words but must not go over!  If you don’t have a blog and want to enter, just copy and paste your story in the comments.

Here’s my sample, just for fun (because obviously I can’t enter my own contest :))

Mom was out, so Caitlyn was babysitting for Dex and Jax.
“Is it time yet?” asked Dex.
“Not yet,” said Caitlyn.
They put two dozen candied apples on a tray.
“Is it time yet?” asked Jax.
“No,” said Caitlyn.
They poured three jumbo bags of mini chocolate bars into the cauldron.
“Now?” asked Dex.
“Nope,” said Caitlyn.
They hung fake cobwebs around the door.
They turned off all the lights.  Caitlyn lit the jack-o-lantern.
It was dark and spooky.
“Is it time yet?” whispered Dex.
“Yes!” Caitlyn whispered back.  “One.  Two.  Three…”
“BOO!” they all yelled.

Boy was Mom surprised!


I think about 6 or 7 people that I know of wrote their entries and posted them on time.  I’m hoping they’ll all see this (or I’ll try to contact them) and get the addresses of their Halloweensie posts into this linky list so they’re easy for everyone to find in one place.  And I hope you’ll all go read the stories they worked so hard on!  And, while I’m hoping, I also hope a few more of you will be inspired to join – especially all you fellow PiBoIdMo folks whose creative thoughts are flowing right now!  Remember, the prize is a signed copy of Haunted Party by the one and only Iza Trapani 🙂

And just so you know?  I’ve decided to make this an annual contest!  Of course we’ll use different words and have a different prize each year, but you might as well go ahead and mark your calendars now for Halloween 2012 🙂  It will give you something fun to work toward.  While I’m at it, I’ll probably do this for most of the major holidays because it’s fun, good practice in writing, educational for all us writers honing our craft, and a chance for me to give away signed books by authors I know and love 🙂  Better start thinking about Thanksgiving 🙂

Would You Read It Wednesday – The 15th Pitch

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(Which this week, due to Mother Nature’s sense of humor, is taking place on Thursday!)

Hello everyone!  I’m so glad to see you all!  I feel like I’ve been out of touch for ages.  I apologize to all the awesome bloggers I usually follow for missing what I’m sure have been brilliant posts this week.  I will do my best to catch up, but there’s nothing like being disconnected from the internet for 4 days to make you realize how fast you can get totally backlogged!  And right at the beginning of PiBoIdMo, too!

I’m so behind I don’t know if there’s any hope of catching up, but if you’ll all indulge me (and the wonderful writers who have taken the time to send in their pitches and write stories for the Halloweensie contest) by reading a couple extra posts too close together, I’m hoping to get Would You Read It up today, as well as the proper Halloweensie post, and the Pitch Pick for October up tomorrow, but I’ll be playing catch up for a while.

Before we start, though, I will share a couple pictures of our Halloween Wonderland.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… except for all the leaves… and the fact that it’s October  🙂
That thing in the trampoline used to be our apple tree which we planted as a mere sprout when we first moved here 18 years ago 😦
Luckily the girls love a good romp in the snow 🙂  This was a shallow spot – I didn’t have the camera out when they were over their backs in the white stuff!

Okay.  That will be quite enough of that!  Truly, all this snow is making me feel a little light-headed.  I think it’s time for a piping hot cup of coffee (which I can once again brew! :)) and some glazed chocolate Dunkin’ Munchkins!  Join me, won’t you?

Now, then.  Onward!

Today’s post comes to us from the prolific Christie, whose MG novel was pitched last month.  This time she’s sharing a picture book pitch:

Working Title:  The Tooth Fairy Star
Age/Genre: Picture Book
The Pitch:  Tiffany Faye loves being the tooth fairy, but when all the other fairies complain about her terrible dancing, she has to find a way to dance without being clumsy or else give up her job as the tooth fairy.

So what do you think?  Would You Read It?  YES, MAYBE or NO?
If your answer is YES, please feel free to tell us what you particularly liked and why the pitch piqued your interest.  If your answer is MAYBE or NO, please feel free to tell us what you think could be better in the spirit of helping Christie improve her pitch.  Helpful examples of possible alternate wordings are welcome.  (However, I must ask that comments be constructive and respectful.  I reserve the right not to publish comments that are mean because that is not what this is about.)
Please send YOUR pitches for the coming weeks!  For rules and where to submit, click on this link Would You Read It or on the Would You Read It tab in the bar above.
Christie is looking forward to your thoughts on her pitch!
Please be kind enough to check back and read the Halloweensie Contest post which I will get up ASAP for all the wonderful writers who posted stories!  Thank you all for your patience and good will 🙂

Halloweensie Delay

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Apparently it’s Octsnowber.  We have 2 feet of snow and no power or iinternet.  I am currently lurking outside Dunki’ Donuts (I know you’re surprised!) poaching 3G to write this on myphoone.  Please post your Halloweensie entries and I’ll get the contest and link list up as soon as I can.  So sorry for the trouble, but we’re told it may be days…Hopefully I’ll be able to sort it all out eventually.  Meanwhile, please fotrgive my temporary absence from the blogosphere!

Fun Friday Foto Fextravaganza – Halloween! – and Warm Fuzzies!

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Important Update to the Halloweensie Contest!
Want to enter but don’t have a blog?  No problem!  Just copy and paste your entry into the comment section on Monday!  (We may all be doing that if I don’t get the Linky Tool thing figured out :))

To start today’s festivities, I ask you all to witness my awesome fun foto!  I realize, of course, that this is technically another pumpkin, but it’s so unbelievable I have to show you.  Prepare to be amazed!

lolcats

No pumpkin I ever carved came out looking remotely that artistic.  In fact, the ones I carve are generally no longer recognizable as pumpkins…

But if you’re going to get nitpicky and require something Halloween but non-pumpkin, I always go for the cuteness.  How’s this?

lolcats

Catherine and Stacy have fun fotos up, too, so please go check out theirs!  Anyone else who would like to join in the fun, please post a 0-12-year-old friendly photo that says HALLOWEEN to you on your blog, then hop back here or Catherine’s blog and put your link in the comments so everyone can come visit you.

Now, onto item #2: The Warm Fuzzies Blogfest!

Juliana Brandt is running this awesome fest.  Please visit her over at her brand new beautiful website.  This week’s discussion topic is as follows:

This week, be it good or bad, funny or sad, share with us the best response you’ve heard when you’ve told someone you’re a writer. Also, tell us, do you tell other people that you’re a writer?

So here are my thoughts.

For a long time, I didn’t tell anyone I was a writer.  I mentioned it once or twice and was met by the question, “Oh!  What books have you written?” at which point I was forced to confess that I’d written all kinds of things but none of them were published.  So I stopped mentioning it.

Then came the wonderful day when I got an actual offer from an actual, reputable publishing house.  At last I could say I was a writer and when people asked the inevitable I could say, “I wrote The House That Mack Built!”  To which most people would say, “O-oh!” in an uncertain voice with that look that said clearly, I’ve never heard of that so it must not be too good.  (Or they would say, “You mean The House That Jack Built?” as if I might not know the title of my own book…)

A book or two later, when I was starting to feel a little more like a writer, people would say, “What have you written that I would have heard of?”  Well, truthfully, most people aren’t all that well-versed in young children’s literature.  If it’s not on the New York Times Bestseller list, they probably haven’t heard of it, and I have never been on the New York Times Bestseller List… yet!  So I would mention my 2 or 3 titles, they would look at me blankly, and there would be an awkward pause in the conversation.

Another frequent response is, “Oh, I’m going to write a book.  I have tons of ideas.  I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.”  Like it’s easy, something to be tossed off in a spare afternoon.

But somewhere along the line I have become comfortable with the fact that I am a writer.  Maybe not famous.  Maybe not the best writer in the world.  But a writer is who I am.  Nowadays when people ask what I do I say I’m a writer, and I say it with assurance.  And I feel a certain sense of pride.  Neither I nor my books are particularly well-known (can you say virtually unheard of :)) but I feel a sense of accomplishment and purpose.

As to the best moments, I have a couple.  One I wrote about last week – when a woman asked me to sign a copy of Can’t Sleep Without Sheep for her newborn daughter, to be the very first book in her child’s library.  There is no way to beat that.  Really.

And a few others, when people have told me that one of my books is their child’s favorite.  That it is read over and over in their house.  That’s why we write.  To share our stories and hopefully make someone’s day a little better.  To me, there is no higher compliment than to be told something I wrote is treasured by a child.

So that’s my Warm Fuzzy 🙂

I hope you all have a great weekend, and I hope you’re all ready for Halloween – stocked up on candy that of course you are most certainly not going to eat any of yourself… except for a few pieces that are required to fulfill your Something Chocolate quota for Would You Read It… 🙂 and ready to don your costume.  In case anyone is wondering, this year I will be dressing up as a write-at-home mom.  It’s a stretch, I know, but sometimes you’ve got to get out of your comfort zone 🙂

And I hope everyone is ready for the Halloweensie Contest (click the link if you don’t know about it yet) on Monday!  I’ve already heard from one person that her entry is ready to go.  I’m so excited!  I can’t wait to read everyone’s creative 100 words!

See you Monday!  Trick or treat!

Would You Read It Wednesday – The 14th Pitch

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Greetings, folks!
Apologies for being absent from the blogosphere yesterday and late in posting Would You Read It today!  Yesterday was a C-RAAZY day!

First, I went to the New York State Readers Association Conference in Rye Brook, NY to mingle, sign books, and give a talk to actual professional grown-ups (and any of you who have been around here long know what terror talking to actual professional grown-ups strikes into my pitter-pattery little heart!)  I would be sharing a photo of me with fellow writers Lesa Cline Ransome and Ann Burg, but I don’t have one yet!  (I’ll add it in when I get it, or post it Friday along with my fun foto :))  The talk, much to my surprise, went well – such lovely people attended! – and I ended up having a really nice time.

When that was done, I high-tailed it home, picked up my daughter, drove her back to college after her long weekend (a 4+ hour drive), turned right around and drove back home.  By my reckoning, close to 550 miles of driving in about 11 hours in one day.  Thank goodness for my 3 month free subscription to satellite radio which allowed me to listen to a comedy station on the long drive home alone!  I felt like a cartoon.  Toward the end, near 11 PM which is WAY past my bedtime, I had to get out and run around the car a few times in the cold night air to wake up 🙂  If only I had video footage – it would be so entertaining!  I could post it on YouTube and go viral… but I digress!

So anyway, fueled up on coffee and imaginary chocolate donuts, I am here at last to post this week’s Would You Read It 🙂  Just first, I want to mention that the theme for this week’s Fun Friday Foto Fextravaganza (which I keep thinking I should abbreviate to FFFF but it’s too much fun to say fextravaganza!) is HALLOWEEN!  What a surprise 🙂

I also want to remind everyone about the HALLOWEENSIE CONTEST which will be taking place on Monday, which actually is Halloween – how apropos 🙂  A bunch of people seemed enthusiastic, so lets hope we get some entries – I already have the signed book prize in my hot little hands and I’m looking forward to the fun!

OKAY.  Time to welcome today’s pitcher, Kim, a former journalist and current Communications professor who loves to write creatively.

Working Title:  Henry Hears You
Age/Genre:  YA
The Pitch:  13-year-old boy finds his voice as the new advice columnist for the school newspaper only to discover that some problems don’t have easy solutions when he gets a letter from a kid threatening to kill himself if the gay bashing doesn’t stop.

So what do you think?  Would You Read It?  YES, MAYBE or NO?
If your answer is YES, please feel free to tell us what you particularly liked and why the pitch piqued your interest.  If your answer is MAYBE or NO, please feel free to tell us what you think could be better in the spirit of helping Kim improve her pitch.  Helpful examples of possible alternate wordings are welcome.  (However, I must ask that comments be constructive and respectful.  I reserve the right not to publish comments that are mean because that is not what this is about.)
Please send YOUR pitches for the coming weeks!  For rules and where to submit, click on this link Would You Read It or on the Would You Read It tab in the bar above.
Kim is looking forward to your thoughts on her pitch!
Don’t forget to join us Friday for Fun Foto (Halloween), and get right to work on your Halloweensie Contest entries!!!  I know they’ll be spooktacular 🙂

Ahoy, Sea Serpent! – Swim On Through The Bright Caribbean Water And Find Out What Is Making That Sound

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Actually, the adventure continues here 🙂  Go back to Kerri’s if you haven’t started yet 🙂
Monday October 24 -the day we’ve all been waiting for – is finally here!  It’s time to Choose Your Own Adventure!  Do you remember those books?  They were totally fun.  Kerri over at Craft Junkie has turned the idea into this awesomely fun bloghop.  I hope you’ll all have a wonderful time 🙂
If you’ve landed here because you chose swim on through the bright Caribbean water etc… then you know what you’re doing and can skip on down to continue your adventure!
But if you’ve landed here without starting the adventure, please go back to Kerri’s blog and start from the beginning.  Each part you read will give you options as to how you want to continue.  Whichever option you choose will determine the course of your adventure.  Don’t like where you ended up?  Go back one or more steps, or start over.  I think you’ll have a great time following ALL the options until you’ve exhausted every possible adventure 🙂 – please share your comments!  OK – onward with the adventure!

You have chosen to swim on through the bright Caribbean water and find out what is making that sound…!

The sunken ship sings a siren song, daring you to see what kind of treasure it might hold, but your oxygen is running out fast.  Regretfully you decide that, treasure or not, you dare not take the risk.
You swim on through the bright Caribbean water, determined to find the source of the sound, praying that whatever it is means rescue.  Your chest feels heavy with the weight of the water, and your arms, unaccustomed to swimming for so long, tremble with fatigue.  Doggedly you pull for the surface, dragging the unwieldy oxygen tank.
At last your head breaks through the waves.  You shake salt water from your hair and eyes and squint into the sudden brightness of the sun reflecting off the ocean.  The sound comes again, long and low, like a horn.  But it’s not a horn.  Oh, no.  It is most definitely not a horn.  Your straining ears catch words in the low hum.
“Yo ho.  Heave!  Yo ho.  Ho!  Yo ho!  Yo ho!  Yo ho!  HO!”
Deep voices.  Many of them, chanting together.  And words like that can mean only one thing…
PIRATES!
You flail in the water, arms churning like paddle wheels.  The oxygen tank slips from your cold fingers and sinks before you can grab it back.  You search desperately in every direction for help.  Any help!  Anywhere!
But you’re alone in the water.  Drowning or pirates, it looks like you’re facing certain death.  Well, you’re not going down without a fight!
The pirate ship is nearly upon you.  You can see its black flag fluttering in tattered ribbons from the mast.  Up in the crow’s nest, the lookout spies you.  “Man overboard!” he bellows.
The yo-ho-ing ceases at once.  A mountain of a man with a one-eyed ginger cat riding his left shoulder approaches the ship’s rail.
“Be ye friend or foe?” he hollers.
You decide that death by pirate is preferable to drowning.  At least with the pirates you might have a chance.
“Friend!” you call back.
The mountain, whom you assume is the captain, tosses a thick coil of rope over the rail.  You grab it, and with the last of your strength, haul yourself toward the deck.  When you near the top, strong hands grab hold of you and pull you up over the rail onto the deck.  You lie there like a grounded fish, water streaming off you, gasping with exhaustion.
You’re grateful to have been rescued until you look up.  A circle of faces bristling with unkempt beards and hostility glares down at you.
“Kill the prisoner!” shout the pirates.
“Hey!” you start to argue.
“Now, now!” roars the captain.  “Ours is a democratic ship.  We’ll take a vote.  Will the prisoner grace the gallows, or will the prisoner walk the plank?”
“Walk the plank!  Walk the plank!” shout the pirates.
“What kind of vote is that?” you splutter.  “And besides, if this is a democracy, don’t I get a vote?”
“There’s none will call us unfair,” says the captain.  “None alive, anyway!”  He chuckles at his own joke and the pirates laugh with him.  It’s a horrifying sound.
“Then I vote we let the prisoner lead us to sunken treasure!” you say.
THAT gets their attention.
“Treasure?” says the captain.  “What’s the heading?”
So you point them back toward the sunken ship you’d been forced to abandon.  It turns out to be such a trove of gold and jewels that they make you First Mate, which is how you start your life as a pirate.
But that’s another adventure!
THE END!

If you’d like to try another ending, click on your option:


Go Back: Turn And Swim Away As Fast As You Can – Without Bursting Your Lungs


Go Back:  Take The Risk And Swim Down To See What Is Inside The Ship


Start Over

Fun Friday Foto Fextravaganza – Pumpkins!

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I’m in a rush again – another parent/teacher conference day at another school for another child – so for the second Friday in a row I will bless you with brevity 🙂

As it is Friday, that means it’s time for the Fun Foto Fextravaganza.  This week’s theme is PUMPKINS/JACK O’LANTERNS.  I know this is cheating, but I was unable to choose only one.  So here are my two:

The new fashion – I think everyone will be wearing them soon 🙂
(courtesy google images)

and…

Really, what the heck is going on here? 🙂
(and how creative/artistic is that pumpkin monster?!)
(courtesy google images)

Please check out fellow fextravagansist Catherine’s foto, as well as Stacy’s and Robyn’s (our 2 other die-hard players in this wacky game 🙂 – Robyn’s isn’t up yet, but I heard a rumor it will be later so keep your fingers crossed!)  If you’d like to join in, choose a photo appropriate for ages 0-12 that says pumpkins/jack o’lanterns to you, post it on your blog, and put your link in the comments below so everyone can come visit you!

Also, if you have any good recipes that involve pumpkin, it’s about that time…  My recipes tend to involve things like:
Step 1:  go to store
Step 2: buy pumpkin pie because there is no time to bake during parent/teacher conference season 🙂

BTW, in case you were wondering, I went to a wonderful school visit yesterday (where Woolliam/Baahhb, my sheep puppet, was such a hit I could barely get out of the classroom!) and I picked up the beautiful signed copy of Haunted Party that is going to be the prize in the Halloweensie Contest.  If you haven’t read about it yet, go here and get those gears a-turnin’ 🙂

OK.  What else do I have to share with you today?  Probably a million things, but no time!  So have a donut on me, have a great weekend, and I hope I’ll see everyone here Monday for the Choose Your Own Adventure Bloghop – SO EXCITING!!!

Ahoy, Sea Serpent!!!

(Yes.  That is my version of brevity :))

Would You Read It Wednesday – The 13th Pitch… And A Contest!

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Good Morning Everyone!

I know you are all filled with happiness because today is Wednesday and Would You Read It gives you just the motivation you need to get out of bed on a rainy morning in the middle of the week 🙂

But before we get to Would You Read It, let me tell you about my latest contest plan.  This is so much fun it will get you going even better than coffee and a donut!  Are you ready?

Remember 2 weeks ago when I asked for Halloween-related words?  Well now you’ll find out why:

What is that noise in the dark of night?

It’s coming closer…

…and closer…

*dramatic Hollywood scream*  AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

It’s the HALLOWEENSIE CONTEST!!!!!


courtesy google images

The Contest:  write a 100 word Halloween story appropriate for children, using the words boo!, candied apple, and jack o’lantern (these words were randomly selected from the words you submitted here and on Face Book!)  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 a little under, but not over!)  Now do you get it?  Halloweensie – because it’s not very long and it’s for little people 🙂

Post your story on your blog on Monday October 31 and link up here (where I will hopefully have some kind of link system working by then :))

The Judge: (probably me unless I can talk someone else into doing it) will narrow down the entrants to three top choices which will be posted here and voted on for a winner.

The Prize:  The winner will receive a brand new free signed copy of one of my favorite Halloween picture books, Haunted Party written and illustrated by the amazing Iza Trapani!  (And in case you click over and see that I won a copy of this book, that one is for my granddaughter – it will be another one up for grabs here :))

Doesn’t that sound like fun?  So get those creative juices flowing and write up a Halloween storm 🙂

And now, allow me to introduce the lovely Tracy (known to readers of this blog as A2Z Mommy), a SAHM of three who lives in New Jersey and writes about food and kids for a hyperlocal news site http://MyVeronaNJ.com.  Tracy has been published in NJ Family Magazine, and was a featured blogger for the NY Times Motherlode blog.  She’s in our Would You Read It spotlight today with her early reader pitch which was inspired by her son and his imagination.

Working Title:  Pizza’s Band
Age/Genre:  Early Reader
The Pitch:  Pizza, JuiceBox and Cake are best friends. Cereal arrives with his brand new guitar they head to the garage for band practice. But when Bratwurst interrupts, will Pizza be brave enough to protect his friends from this bully?

So what do you think?  Would You Read It?  YES, MAYBE or NO?
If your answer is YES, please feel free to tell us what you particularly liked and why the pitch piqued your interest.  If your answer is MAYBE or NO, please feel free to tell us what you think could be better in the spirit of helping Tracy improve her pitch.  Helpful examples of possible alternate wordings are welcome.  (However, I must ask that comments be constructive and respectful.  I reserve the right not to publish comments that are mean because that is not what this is about.)
Please send YOUR pitches for the coming weeks!  For rules and where to submit, click on this link Would You Read It or on the Would You Read It tab in the bar above.
Tracy is looking forward to your thoughts on her pitch!
Don’t forget to join us Friday for Fun Foto (Pumpkins/Jack O’Lanterns), and get right to work on your Halloweensie Contest entries!!!  I can’t wait to read them!  🙂

OH!  And please keep the votes coming for the book’s journey book by going here and scrolling down to the poll!  Many thanks!