It's the folding of one year into another and magical just for that. May all your writing dreams take flight. I'll tie up my posts for 2014 with an inspirational quote (below) and video (above).
"Take a leap of faith and begin this wondrous new year by believing. Believe in yourself. And believe that there is a loving Source - a Sower of Dreams - just waiting to be asked to help you make your dreams come true." -- Sarah Ban Breathnach
It's here! Susanna Leonard Hill's holiday writing contest. The rules are: Write a children's story in which wild weather impacts the holidays in 350 words or less. (Scroll down to skip the info and get straight to the story.) Although my story is fictional, it is based on plausible events inspired by two of the places we've lived--a city near the Sahara and Djibouti. And no I'm not trying to offend anyone, Djibouti is an actual city in the country of the same name.
The French occupied Djibouti at one time and still maintain a foreign legion base there, and the U.S. military has its only military base in Africa there as well. I googled Djibouti and was rather disturbed to find several sites that listed Djibouti's average temperature at 85°F. I suppose that number is possible if the reading was taken from the air-conditioned office of the Minister of Propaganda, but I don't remember a day that felt below 90 °F. In fact, it was not uncommon to have temps in the 120s. A temperature reading at the U.S. military base even placed one summer day at 130°F with the humidity factored in.
Djibouti is hot, barren, and stinky. It's full of sand, feral dogs and goats that climb on cars or into the trees to reach the scruffy foliage that somehow survives in a place that smells and feels like a dryer full of towels washed in low tide. But it does have crystal-clear water (outside the city) and white-sand beaches. I frequently heard of wild sandstorms in the Sahara. I never personally experienced any while living near there nor in Djibouti, but as the video at the beginning shows, it can happen. And in my 338-word story, it does:
A Djiboutian Christmas by Johnell DeWitt
On Christmas Eve the desert wind howled and growled. Beth growled back.
“I want to go to our old home and build a snowman with Nana.”
“Sweetheart,” said Mom. “We can have Christmas in Djibouti too.”
“I hate Djibouti! It’s too hot for snow and too hot for Santa.”
“Santa will find us,” said Mom.
“But what if Santa’s reindeers get hot and can't fly? The only animals here are scruffy goats who climb trees and stinky dogs who live by the ocean. Santa can’t use climbing goats or soggy dogs to fly his sleigh.”
“Santa won’t come at all if you’re not asleep.”
“I don’t care if Santa comes,” huffed Beth. “Even Santa can’t make it snow in the desert!”
Mom sighed and pulled one of two dangling strings. The light went out, but the fan stayed on.
“Maybe Santa will surprise you.”
Beth grumbled as Mom closed the door, but the whir of the fan and the chick-chick-tap of sand caroled a desert lullaby.
All night the wind howled. All night the sand blew and in the morning…
Beth’s mom shook her awake.
“I’m waking you up on Christmas Day,” she laughed. “I think Santa heard you. Look out the window.”
Beth pushed aside her curtains. She could barely see her scraggly yard. Drifts of creamy sand frosted the walls like gingerbread icing.
“It’s a desert snow!” Beth squealed.
Dad held up a box dotted with prancing reindeer. “I think you should open this present first.”
Beth tore the wrapping off a new pail and shovel. She hugged her dad, slipped on her sandals and pushed her way out the door.
All morning Beth packed pail-loads of sand. All morning she molded and adorned until finally...
“I’m done,” she shouted. “Santa didn’t bring me snow for a snowman, but he did bring me sand for a sandman.”
A baseball-cap-wearing, carrot-nosed sandman grinned at Beth, and the desert wind blew in to say, “Merry Christmas.”
As if Halloweensie wasn't fun enough, Susanna Leonard Hill is at it again with her Holiday writing contest. Here are the rules: Write a children's story in which wild weather impacts the holidays! Your 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 350 words. Any kind of weather is fair game.
I hope everyone of you who celebrated Thanksgiving had a joyous one. If your Thanksgiving didn't go quite as planned, the video above should tickle your wishbone. Since we're starting into the mad rush of Christmas and holiday shopping, I thought the video below was a good reminder of the perils of taking a part-time job as a mall Santa.
Since there's only one day left of PiBoIdMo, I hope something will spark the idea center of your brain and land you the last ideas you need to complete the month. Have a lovely weekend.
The holiday season is charging in and time is limited, so the videos today are like fruitcake: best in small pieces, chock-full of sweet nuggets, and dense with hearty ingredients. But these videos will actually be pleasant to consume.
The video above is a short reading of part of Kathryn Otoshi's book One. If you've read it, or her other incredible books, Zero and Two, skip to the video below, which includes a brief interview of Kathryn talking about the marketing of One and how she had to stretch out of her usual style to make it work.
And finally, a 90 second video of Georgia Hughes encouraging authors to surprise their editors rather than strive for the latest, greatest trend. She also suggests taking an age-old issue and making it new.
I've already mentioned that I completed Mira Reisberg's Children's Book Academy class on writing picture books. I loved it. I can't give you the whole class here obviously, but Mira analyzes various picture books in videos that she graciously shares on YouTube. With her knowledge as an illustrator and writer she's able to use the books as text books on how to write and illustrate. I've included a few of my favorites.
Mira has taught some stellar authors/illustrators, Kathryn Otoshi among them whose books are disarmingly intelligent in both design and message. And Yuyi Morales whose artwork and stories are exquisite as shown in the video below. It's a little longer than the others, but captivating if you have the time.
Hope you are all having a fabulous week and are ready to enjoy an even more fabulous weekend.
