Eeegad....where does the time go??

Ok. My theme for this time is procrastination. Because I’m really, really late with my entry! I mean, probably three months late. How did it become December?? Procrastination is something I think we can all be familiar with, at some point in time.  Or, for myself, sometimes it seems that there is just so much going on outside of writing that needs to take priority in order to pay the bills, that writing comes last on the list. Which is something I need to work with! Does anyone else feel this way? I think I need to be ready to take more of a gamble with my time, because otherwise, it’s just going to be the same old hamster wheel, over and over again.

But anyways, most of what I’ve been aiming to do recently, (and haven’t done) apart from writing more for this blog, is to increase my self-marketing. The plan has been to get my work out to magazines and publishers, and to look for additional places that provide spots for on-line publishing. Going way back in time, last June I intended to hit up ten magazines for kids with stories, and this October I wanted to send my writing out to at least five magazines and three publishing houses, if simply to get stuff out and in circulation. Like I said, this hasn’t happened yet. So, here’s the deal: In addition to bucking up and taking more of a gamble with my time, I need to stop wasting so much time on Facebook, cut back on random pie contests and coffee shops that are simply interesting because of the décor and that engaging habit of watching the air blow through the leaves on Bloor Street. Said and…done! Haha, sort of. 

Alright, but I have done something in the time since the last entry. I finished a second piece, which is below, and I thought I’d try to submit it to the magazine Highlights. I read on-line that they accept submissions all year-round and I think the piece is of the right length, which is good. I may actually submit both the first and the second pieces. The only stipulation- and it’s probably a big one- is that Highlights specifically states that they won’t accept any works that hint at violence or crime-which makes a lot of sense, seeing as it’s a kids’ magazine, but my second piece might be a bit violent. Geez-it’s hard to hit all the right parameters! Haha…I’ll get it right sometime. This piece is a short one about a trip to the mall-gone-wrong. It’s un-reviewed and unedited as such, and so, you saw the first draft here first! Hope you enjoy, and feedback is welcomed. I will definitely get on submitting it, and follow up with details on what happens. Happy reading…oh, and Happy Holidays, too!

Shopping by Victoria Simpson

Jerry decided that if he could be a planet, he would be Pluto, to float as far away as possible from the Earth. Anything to get away. Or maybe one of the moons of Jupiter would be good- an unfriendly ice ball hurtling through time that no one would want to be around. They’d come into the clothing store to buy a present for their Aunt Helen, and now his little sister was standing in front of a mirror, swinging her arms around everywhere-she was practicing her new dance routine. And she was making a GIANT, big scene.

“Five, six, SEVEN, EIGHT! Look at me! I’m a tree in the WIND!” It was horrible. Ruby raised her hands above her head and zoomed all over the store.

Jerry ducked behind some coats.

“Come one, everybody! Flow like a river-flooooww…!” Ruby cried.

Jerry pulled his hat down a little further over his eyes and rolled up his collar-he hated this- he tried his best to disappear. But just then, to make matters even worse, his mom made a beeline across the store and came right for him!  She was wobbling and shouting with a pile of clothes stacked up so high in her arms, that Jerry could hardly see her face!

 “Wow, hon-what a selection!” Mrs. Bloomberg cried out. “What do you think?? Would Aunt Helen want a green sweater-she’s always loved green, and she would look fabulous in this- or what about a purple turtle neck?” She tossed everything down on a table. “Or maybe something with stripes-but then there’s always the blouses, and then these shirts- and, ooo- look! There’s even polka dots! And I can’t believe these prices! They’re the absolute lowest deals that I’ve ever seen in a long time!”

It was a shopping-craziness mess. Jerry didn’t really know WHERE to turn. And so he didn’t-he stood quite still, but as he did, it just so happened that a clerk walked by behind him. And well, that’s when it got truly horrible-that’s when it all really got started. Because, while it seemed like a lot was going on already, the clerk said:

“Well, if you want a really good deal, you should check out the table at the back! Everything at the back is half price. We’re having a sale!” And that was the clincher-the three magic words to Mrs. Bloomberg’s big ears: “Half-price sale.”

Well, it was disaster time primo! Jerry’s mom really couldn’t keep away from a deal and she probably hadn’t missed one ever.

“Oh, hon!” she said. “What a great opportunity! I’ll be back in a flash, you watch Ruby.” And she was gone- just like that. And this is why it was truly horrible.

Jerry stood there and looked at his sister. And at first she only twirled around in one spot. But then Ruby started doing jumps-and then when he wasn’t looking, she zoomed right past the sweaters. And you wouldn’t think that much could happen doing that, but then she went all the way out to the edge of the store, and before anyone could yell ‘HELP!’, or ‘CALL THE POLICE! ’ she raised her arms and stuck her nose in the air and yelled,

“AND NOW FOR THE GRANDE JETEE!” which means ‘the giant jump’ in French, and she threw herself out in the hallway! Ruby jumped off the floor and through the crowd, and like a truck tire in a mid-west tornado that’s whirling around like crazy, she smacked right into somebody’s face! And then she hit an old man! And then it was dominoes time: the man tumbled over and knocked a baby in a stroller and get this: the stroller took off on its own. It rolled straight down a ramp and gathered speed and...BAM! It smashed right into a glass statue-a big glass statue. The giant glass statue of the Purple Pickton Peach. Which is a huge thing, seven feet tall, that sits in the middle of the mall! A million pieces of glass flew out everywhere. Like, people could have lost an eye! And who got in trouble? That’s right- Jerry.

His mom came running out of the store like her hair was on fire, stumbling through the disaster.

“I TOLD you to watch your SISTER!” she yelled. And a mall security guard glared at him, shaking his head.

“Son, you should have seen that one coming- you owe us big time! Look at these people- and we’ll never get another Purple Peach!”

But Jerry just stood there and couldn’t believe his eyes and ears. And for the rest of the week it was the same. While Ruby sat around watching extra t.v, and drinking lemonade with her feet up on pillows to ‘get some rest’, HE had to take all the heat!

“Get your sister a pencil for her homework-“ his dad said. “Jerry, Ruby’s drink is getting cold, go bring her some more ice,” ordered his mom. Like, his sister hadn't even hurt her feet! Jerry even had to write a letter of apology to the mall.

“But it wasn’t me at all!” he complained.

“But you ARE the oldest,” said his mom.

Standing at the counter and washing double dishes on Friday, Jerry could only think of one thing: that life just didn’t make sense. And totally wasn’t fair at all. At least with a little sister. 

Discussion questions: Have you ever been blamed for something you didn’t do? How did you react? Are adults always fair?

The first entry...two months too late. (Ahh!! Not already....)

Hi. Here’s my blog. To be honest, I haven’t ever totally understood the ‘essence’ of blogging- random people in the world putting out facts and tidbits of their lives onto an ethereal plane so that other strangers- and friends- can take note of things and follow along with the beat of their lives. What with texting, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and all the rest, it seems hard to find someone who doesn’t already know a lot of the details! Ah, privacy in 2010. But recently, a friend of mine pushed me to write a page on-line and I agreed it was probably a good thing to do. I like to write, but I don’t always share my work with wider circles, (ie, I have yet to be published.) I have many projects that are started but only a few that are finished. I need to finish stuff. And so, I’ve decided the net is going to be my aid. By posting here, the idea is that the social responsibility to get things done will kick in, and coupled with this, of course, there’s now the lovely opportunity for other people to enjoy my work!

I like to write fiction. One of my goals this year, starting in September 2010, is to write a short piece for kids every month, something that’s about 700-800 words long. I’m going to try to submit each piece to a kids’ magazine as I go, and I’m going to post each piece up here as I do.  Hold on- I should take out the ‘try’ bit- I will submit these pieces to kids’ magazines as I go! Time to change old habits. Nothing may get published, but I’d be super-happy to have twelve finished stories by the end of the year. That in itself would be a feat for me!  

So, here we are. Facing the down-and-out problem of never finishing anything and diving into a future filled with destiny. What I’ll do is, I’ll write a bit about each story and what the process was like for me to write it as I post it. As a heads-up to the uninitiated, I’ll try not to go into excruciating detail but I am a Virgo- I can’t promise anything in that regard and don’t say I didn’t warn you. All I can say is, I hope you like the details or find them entertaining, or that you find something in here that’s somehow useful for your own writing. Hope you enjoy! 

********************************************************

Ok- it’s the first entry. I feel like this piece should be The Brothers Karamazov of children’s short stories- an impressive classic of epic length that will keep you reading and glued to the page long enough to have a life-changing moment. Hmm… It’s probably not healthy to set my sights in impossible places. Possibly. Yes, re-think this:  maybe sometimes the time taken to complete a short story can be epic, or it can seem it, and I think that’s how this is all connected-that sounds more like it.

Because it’s true. I’m sure most writers take quite a while to finish anything, and I’m definitely no exception. In fact, I might push the boundaries a bit excessively. This first piece I’m posting had a maximum word count of 500 words initially, and to get it to where it is now-at about 750 words- took seven months of writing and re-writing. Well, it didn’t take seven months straight of writing, (thank heavens!) but I wrote it and came back to it, and that process of thinking and dreaming and avoiding took around seven months, in total. Which is ridiculous. But anyways. (The reason it first had a word count of 500 is because that’s what the magazine I’d chosen had capped things at- and then I re-worked it because I wanted it to have a different ending, and that took a while.) And so, the end result is here.The masterpiece! lol

The piece is written around butterflies and it’s for kids aged about 5 to 7. It didn’t get printed by the magazine, but they liked it and got back to me, which is a first step I figure and a bonus. I chose to write with butterflies as a focus because the magazine dictated a theme of ‘patterns’ and with migration cycles and patterns on butterflies’ wings, my mind thought this was a fit. And perhaps the story can be extended upon.  Maybe someone who’s blogging about science for kids can spring some ideas to mind for some classroom activities to go with it-it’s always good to expand on a project, and get cross-curricular-English/science, geography/language: something. I’ll have to go searching and see what’s out there. Which can be another seven-month project- haha!

Ah well, without further ado…

                 

                                                    Finding a Visitor 

                 

                                                  by Victoria Simpson

     David and Lilly found a butterfly in their basement. It had fallen through the window. Holding it carefully, Lilly carried it upstairs to show her mom.

     “What’s that?” her mom asked. She was sorting through clothes. Lilly and David’s summer things were going away in boxes and their warmer clothes were coming out, to get ready for the winter.

     Lilly held out her hand. 

     “It’s a butterfly,” David said. “It can’t fly very well, but we found it downstairs.” 

     “Ooo- it’s a monarch!” their mom exclaimed. She put down a shirt she was holding and took an empty yogurt container from the cupboard. Lilly put the butterfly in the tub, and her mom covered the top with a cloth. 

     “Go get some grass and leaves from outside and I’ll get it some sugar water,” she said.     “If it can’t fly, maybe it’s tired. Maybe it just needs something to eat.”

     Lilly and David went out to the front yard and gathered what they could. When they came back in, their mom was dripping some water into the container with an eye dropper. Lilly placed her leaves inside the tub. She and David took a peak and already the monarch looked happier climbing around on the sticks.  Looked like their mom was right!

                                             

     That night when they sat down to dinner, David and Lilly told their dad about their special find.

     “Monarchs fly south every winter, just like geese,” their dad told them.

     “You mean they go all the way to Mexico when it’s cold, and then come back in the spring??” Lilly asked.

     “Well, I think the butterfly’s babies come back. The mothers lay eggs when they get to Mexico and other places, but they do fly all that long way!” Their dad took a bite of salad. “If it gets better, we’ll have to let your pet go, so it can start its trip.”

     Later on, Lilly looked up information on the internet. She liked that every monarch had a different pattern of spots on its wings. Each one was special and unique, like a person.  When she went to sleep that night, she imagined what it would be like to use those wings to fly all the way to another country. 

                                                                                      

          Over the next few days, the weather was really sunny. Lilly and David played around a lot outside. They ran through the backyard and played games on the driveway-but they never forgot about their pet. Every morning and afternoon they checked on it. They fed it and watched it walk around, and by the end of the week, the monarch could fly in the tub. 

      On Friday afternoon, Lilly helped her mom put the last box of summer clothes away on the shelf. The box was heavy-they both had to use their hands to push it to the back of the garage.  When it the wall, and a cloud of dust flew up in the air and Lilly sneezed, but she was happy. Last year, she couldn’t reach so high-this year it was no problem. It was pretty neat how things changed. And then she had another thought. 

      “Rufus is growing really strong now-do you think we could let him go tonight?” she asked.

      Her mom looked surprised. “Who’s Rufus?” she asked.

       “He’s the butterfly-we decided to give him a name.”

“Well, I don’t see why you couldn’t, hon, if it looks like he’s ready. I guess now’s as good a time as ever,” her mom replied.

      That evening, Lilly and David waited for their dad to come home from work. When he did, they asked him to join them out in the backyard. The children walked to the back of the grass by the fence, while their parents stood on the patio and watched. Pulling the lid back carefully, David lifted the container up to the sky and Rufus fluttered up in the evening light. 

         It was exciting to see him flying out free, and everybody waved. The breeze carried him away, and he headed off, flying south in the evening light.

        “Off to new adventures,” their mom said, and Lilly smiled. She zipped up her jacket because there was a chill in the air. 

        "Bon voyage, butterfly!" she called out.

She was excited for Rufus’ journey, and she would have new adventures too, when winter came. The future was full of change!