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!
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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!
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