The Winner's of Susanna Leonard Hill's Holiday Contest

The winners have been chosen, check them out here. While I didn't make the cut, I did get an honorable mention under the Great Kid Appeal category.

Happy holidays everyone!

Susanna Leonard Hill's 6th Annual Holiday Contest!!!!

UPDATE 12-12-16: I wasn't happy with my original story. I don't think any child would like it either. Of course at 2 am I had an idea on how to fix it, which I promptly forgot when I woke up in the morning. So here is the 3rd version below complete with a new title. I hope you enjoy it. 

Susanna Leonard Hill is back with another writing contest. The rules this time: Write a children’s holiday story using the basic format/concept of The Twelve Days Of Christmas!  The story may be poetry or prose, silly or serious or sweet, religious or not, based on Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or whatever you celebrate, but is not to exceed 300 words.

This was a hard one for me. I ran it by my son who usually inspires my stories, but he hadn't heard the 12 Days of Christmas yet. So I had to come up with something myself. It weighs in at a hefty 300 words. For you reading pleasure I present to you, "My Favorite Christmas So Far"

My Favorite Christmas So Far
(300 words)

My favorite Christmas in my seven years so far was last Christmas when I got a Scrappy Steve action figure with swinging spaghetti arms. It was a rough twelve days of Christmas. It didn’t appear I was going to get him at all.

On the first day of Christmas I got a pair of socks. I still had socks I hadn’t worn from the previous Christmas.

The next ten days the presents alternated between underwear and socks. Except for day eight when I got a tooth brush and tooth paste.

It didn’t look good for Scrappy Steve on the morning of day twelve. I moped into the family room where a beautifully wrapped box the size of Scrappy Steve lay on the table.

I dashed to the table, grabbed the box, and shredded the wrapping paper faster than a guitarist playing a solo. It was a Scrappy Steve box but Scrappy Steve was missing. In his place was a note.

I pulled the note from the box, unfolded it and read it aloud, “You must save Scrappy Steve from the fish-breathed beast of fur!”

What is a fish-breathed beast of fur I wondered? My face lit up like a light bulb as the answer came to me, it was my cat Clark! 

I ran to the pantry where Clark’s bed was. Clark had Scrappy Steve in his grasp and batted him between his paws. I rescued Scrappy Steve and ran back into the living room. Steve’s swinging spaghetti arms flailed about like an inflatable wacky waving tube man.

I entered the room and saw my family smiling at me and I shouted, “Merry Christmas everyone!”

I look forward to getting Scrappy Steve’s arch nemesis this Christmas, Ridiculously Long-Necked Ron. Hopefully it won’t take all twelve days to get him.

Goodreads giveaway results

My giveaway ended yesterday with 949 people requesting 1 of 5 copies. Not many people added it as to read, but that's ok. Congratulations to the winners. YOur books will be in the mail by the end of the week.

Time to vote for the best October Pitch

It's time to vote for your favorite Would You read It Wednesday pitch. All the pitches are great as always. Of course mine is one of them. If you choose it, thank you. If not, that is fine too. =)

https://susannahill.com/2016/11/30/would-you-read-it-wednesday-234-armadillos-pillow-fight-pb-plus-the-october-pitch-pick/comment-page-1/#comment-42100

Goodreads Giveaway

Enter to win 1 of 5 copies of Meowy Christmas. Good luck!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Meowy Christmas

by Gregory E. Bray

Giveaway ends December 04, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Halloweensie Contest Finalist

After reading 150 entries, Susanna has narrowed down the stories to the top 12. Mine wasn't in those top 12. But the stories that made it are extremely good. Check them out and vote for your favorite one: https://susannahill.com/2016/11/07/the-2016-halloweensie-contest-finalists/

Entry for Susanna Leonard Hill's The 6th Annual Halloweensie contest

Once again Susanna Leonard Hill has started up her Halloweensie writing contest. This year's rules are as follows: Write a 100 word Halloween story appropriate for children (title not included in the 100 words), using the words spider, ghost, and moon. My entry is below and comes in at a whopping 98 words. I hope you enjoy it.

The Night of the Ghost Spiders

“And the ghost spiders only come out on Halloween,” Polly continued in a spooky voice as they approached the old mansion. “With a full moon, their numbers double!”

Max scoffed at the story and strode towards the front door.

Max’s arm tickled. He looked and saw it covered in tiny ghost spiders. He screamed, dropped his candy bucket, and ran away.

Polly picked up a spider from the ground and examined it.

“Max come back! These are just the flowers of the mootickle tree.”

Polly shrugged, picked up Max’s bucket, and approached the house to trick or treat.

Check out the other great entries here!