NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo

By L. V. Gaudet

© November 2009

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November is NaNoWriMo.

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If you are anything like me, then you are probably shaking your head in a decidedly confused way right now while thinking, “Nanowriwhowhat?  Huh?”

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This is something entirely new to me.  I’ve been writing off and on for years on my own with no contact with the world of writers and publishing.  Now that I have become active in that dark dusty untouchable world of online schmoozing with writers and other writerly people, I am (suddenly this past week) seeing this phrase come up again and again.

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I’ve learned a few things about the NaNoWriMo phenomenon.  First, being that I appear to be the only one in my little online circle who has never before heard of it.  The second being what NaNoWriMo is.

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Simply put, it is a short form for National Novel Writing Month.  It must be a big thing in the writing world; after all it has its own web page.  Then again pretty much everything these days has its own web page.

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By following this link you can read more about NaNowriMo, check out the sponsors, donate money, sign up to participate, and all kinds of stuff.

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Basically what NaNoWriMo is about is whipping off a 50,000 word (175 page) novel from scratch between November 1^st and midnight November 30^th.  It’s about writing your pants off, writing your face off, and writing pretty much everything else off as you write your heart out to pound out an average of 1,666 words per day.  It’s not about writing a best seller list novel, or even about having a publishable manuscript come the stroke of midnight November 30th.  It’s about tearing your heart out and putting it on the page, throwing caution to the wind, putting aside reason and everything your grade school teacher taught you, and just letting that story flow with all its wonderful charm, passion and mistakes.

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Whatever imperfections, story stragglers, and unadulterated gibberish may have found its way into the novel can be fixed later.  That is what editing is for.

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It sounds like fun.

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While I can’t join the ranks of crazed writers torturously flogging away at creating an entire novel in only 30 days, I can admire their moxie and hope that someday (when the kids are older) I can try it too.

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In the meantime, I think I will honor NaNoWriMo for 2009 with my own personal nanowriting challenge.  My challenge is this:  can I bring my WIP (let’s call it Unnamed Murder Thriller) from its current 32,000 words to 50,000 words by midnight November 30^th?  That is only 18,000 words, an average of 600 words a day.  But to add to the challenge, I must also continue the first edit of the written pages, that of seeking out and adding in where the story is lacking thus far.  It will be an unlikely success, but fun to try anyway.  Watch my blog for updates on my progress, or lack of it.

Halloween 2009

Halloween 2009

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The big day is here.  The costumes are all in order, the house is decorated, and the candy is hiding where the kids can’t get into it.  There is an excitement in the air that comes only with special days like Santa morning, Easter egg day, birthdays, and of course trick-or-treat day.  Kids everywhere are behaving as though they have already eaten ten pounds of pure sugar, and parents are trying to figure out just how they are going to paint “that” on squirming kids’ faces.  Soon the hoards of costumed, masked, wigged, and painted youngsters will be unleashed on the night brandishing all manner of weapons from swords and knives to fairy wands and cherubic smiles.  Screams of excitement and fear will mingle in the night with those magical words summoning goodies from behind closed doors.  Children will crowd on doorsteps, villains and heroes together, princesses and monsters side by side, as they call out their chants.

“Trick or treat,” they will demand.

“Halloween apples,” they sing-song, while hoping for anything but delicious crunchy and healthy apples.

And my personal favorite – and kids make sure you get this one right because I don’t give out the candy until you get up the nerve to say the whole thing …

“Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat.  Not too big, not too small, just the size of Montreal.”

Halloween, a night of magic for the young and innocent, but it is also a night of real fear for some parents.  From the urban myths of treats laced with everything from poisons to pins and razor blades, making nervous parents carefully inspect eat tidbit for signs of tampering and automatically toss out anything missing a wrapper or carefully homemade with love.  To fears of the true monsters lurking the darkened streets while masses of children run pell-mell, most supervised and some not.

My fears out there are twofold.  First, and the greatest danger I see, is the witches brew of droves of parents driving their kids to trick or treat up and down their neighborhood streets, mixed with the dark of night, a few hundred excited and careless kids running wild, and one split second.  My other, and much less likely to happen, fear is the encounter between fearless little faces and an escaped pet nervously running loose agitated with excitement and nervousness over the droves of wild yelling kids.

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And of course, no Halloween is complete without the usual list of safety tips.

Kids:

• Costumes – Not so long that you trip, make certain you can see well, and they should be flame resistant.
• Houses – Only approach well lit home and do not go inside, especially strangers houses.
• Route – Know your route and when to be home.  Parents should know your route too.
• Roads – Stick to the sidewalks.  Go up one side of the street, then cross and do the other side.  Never zigzag back and forth across the road.  Drivers cannot watch all the kids all the time.  Don’t cross unless you are certain the driver sees you.  Wave at the driver to make sure.
• Treats – Don’t eat anything until after it is inspected by your parents.
• Groups – Trick-or-treat in groups.  Safety in numbers.  Don’t let a friend take off on their own if they are supposed to be with your group.  Or, take a parent.
• Help – Know where to go if you need help.  Talk to your parents about which neighbors you can go to on your route if they are closer than home.  Know your home phone number if you get lost.  Talk about how to recognize a “safe” house to ask to use the phone (like a “Block Parent” house).
• Animals – Never approach a loose pet.  Any animal roaming this night may be scared by so many excited kids running around.  An animal that normally would not bite will bite if it is scared.

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Happy trick or treating on this night of frights and delights.

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Due to time constraints I missed the Halloween blog for a couple days.  So today I will give a list of the missing feature stories.  All are flash fiction stories (1,000 words or less).

“Ghost Ship”  When it is dark and you are sailing the seas or find yourself on the seaside, beware.

 “Ghost Ship 2:  Return the Illopogas”

“Creature”

“Blood”

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A Halloween did you know:

All Hallows Eve and the festival of the dead.  Ancient Celts believed that on Samhain, a harvest festival, the barriers between their world and that of the otherworld (netherworld) weakened, becoming thing, making it possible for spirits to move between the two worlds.  Costumes and masks were worn to confuse the harmful spirits, making them believe the costume garbed mortals were harmful spirits too.  Spirits of the departed were also honored.  Along with leaving open a window or door facing to the west and setting a place for them at the table, loved ones spirits were invited into the home.  The spirits should also be properly entertained and perhaps their favorite meal prepared.  A candle burning in a westward window helps the dead find their way home.

It’s Halloween! What a Treat!

It’s Halloween! What a Treat!
by L.V. Gaudet
(c) October 28, 2009

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Spook’em time is here.
Oh what do you fear?

Bats and Barts and whoopee cushion farts?
Ghosts and posts and party hosts?

Here’s a wish for lots of Halloween candy
From your friends Robyn and Sidney

Stay smart and safe,
As you run every place.

But most of all have fun,
(And don’t forget to let your Mom or Dad
check that candy and gum)

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This is a fun halloween poem I wrote for a card we made for my girls’ friends.

(What Kind Of) Writer Am I – With Guest Pat Bertram

 Daughter Am I Blog Tour 2009 – With Guest Pat Bertram

(What Kind Of) Writer Am I

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I am thrilled to be featuring my first ever guest blogger, Pat Bertram, author of three novels published with Second Wind Publishing LLC.

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This is an especially exciting event for me for a few reasons; one being that Halloween is only a few days away and I love Halloween.  Okay, so blogging isn’t exactly the stuff witches, ghosts, goblins, and all manner of things that say “boo” are made of.  Well, unless your guest blogger happens to be the likes of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, or Jeremy Shipp, that is.  But blogging is fun and so is dressing up in a tacky costume and frightening little kids before bribing them with handfuls of candy so they hopefully won’t t-p my house a few years down the road.  I’m not all that scary myself, but the assortment of screaming rocks, cackling witches, gravestones, and various dead creatures decorating my house are.

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At first glance Pat’s new book Daughter Am I may not seem the stuff of Halloween.  But when a young woman (Mary Stuart) finds herself on the move investigating her great-grandfather’s deadly secret with the help a group of former gangsters, and a killer on the trail anxious to dig up that same secret, things certainly could get a bit dicey.  A little murder, a little mystery … what more could you ask for in a book to read around Halloween?

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Another reason this is exciting for me is that my first guest blogger happens to be Pat Bertram, who also happens to be my first online writing friend and mentor.  Pat has been an unending source of wisdom, support, and encouragement for me and many other writers who have met her.  And, best of all, she hasn’t complained about any of my silly questions.  Not to me anyway.

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I hope you’ll enjoy Pat’s blog post as much as I did.  And don’t hesitate to visit Second Wind Publishing where you’ll find Pat Bertram’s newest novel Daughter Am I available both in print and ebook format.

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Pat Bertram

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National Novel Writing Month is coming up in November, and I am half in awe and half befuddled by those who enter. The writing of a novel takes me a year, and some of the research I’ve done has taken longer than that. But then, I am not an intuitive writer. I have to drag each word out of hiding and find its place in the puzzle that is a novel. I suppose two types could write 50,000 words in a month — the intuitive writers who spew out words, and the logical writers who have the whole thing outlined before they begin. Me? I fall somewhere in the middle. I so hate tossing aside my hard work that I habitually rework my writing as I write. (Though I have rewritten one of my novels four times, and deleted 25,000 words from another.)

I write slowly. Although Daughter Am I came easily to me, I still only wrote an average of 300 words a day. Not that the number of words matters to me, it doesn’t. The only reason I mention it is to let new writers know there are all kinds of writers. Some let the words gush out and try to type fast enough to catch them all. Some, like me, have to pull each word, kicking and screaming, into the world. Some have a compulsion to write; others make a conscious choice. How you write, how often, how many words you write per day are all unimportant, unless, of course, you are a writer under contract. But if you are a writer under contract, you would be writing, not reading this blog.

In the end, the only thing that counts is the finished story. The story doesn’t care how long it took you to write it. It doesn’t care if you wrote it in a month or in a decade. It doesn’t care if you bled words onto the paper or created it slowly, one puzzle piece at a time. A finished story exists complete and entire of itself, separate from the author and the author’s work habits.

Sometimes we wonder how our favorite authors write, but mostly we devour (or savor) their works, wanting only to immerse ourselves in the story. If it moves us to tears, makes us laugh or shiver, that’s what we care about, not how long it took for the author to create the effect. Being writers, of course, we might go back later and see how it was done, but at the time, all we are interested in is the story.

So, here’s the truth. You can call yourself a writer or not. You can write 50,000 words in a month or not. You can write every day or not. The only thing that counts is the story.

That’s what we are all aiming for.

Story.

Pat Bertram is a native of Colorado and a lifelong resident. When the traditional publishers stopped publishing her favorite type of book — character and story driven novels that can’t easily be slotted into a genre — she decided to write her own. Daughter Am I is Bertram’s third novel to be published by Second Wind Publishing, LLC. Also available are More Deaths Than One and A Spark of Heavenly Fire.
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Halloween 2009 – 3 More Sleeps

Halloween 2009 – 3 More Sleeps

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I’m noticing more houses on the street becoming playgrounds for the ghoulish creatures from the land of B horror movies and nightmares.  But it sure is a far cry from the fanciful ghoulish wonderland I remember as a child.  It used to be that you could tell a house’s motives even before the day witches, goblins, and vampires roam the night.  Almost all the houses participating in the ritual of Halloween treat giving had some kind of decoration.  Later, as droves of fairies, cowboys, and two-legged pumpkins roamed the darkening streets with all manner of monsters, each house told its own story.  Decorations meant they embraced this night.  No porch light and no decorations meant keep off my property, there will be no treats here tonight.  A decorated house with no porch lights meant the candy well had run dry.

Some things have not changed over the years.  Bigger kids mugging smaller kids for their candy, the occasional house being T-Ped or egged (usually the ones where the homeowner were less than kid friendly), and the stern admonition to not eat any candy until it could be thoroughly inspected by a parent.  And, of course, there has always been the ones verging on teen-hood and are at that awkward stage of being too old for trick or treating, but still long for those youthful days that are so fresh in their memories.  Eventually they manage to sneak off one way or another for some late trick or treating before all the houses shut down for the night.  I don’t mind those kids.  I was their age once and remember that longing.  Some of them even manage to come up with something resembling a costume, while others mumble and hang their heads, thinking they should be embarrassed or ashamed.

One thing that certainly has changed is the number of parents roaming the streets.  When I was a kid that one night of the year the dark belonged to the children.  Gaggles of giggling kids roamed the neighborhoods, racing from one house to the next, trying to hit as many houses as they could.  You saw the occasional preschooler waddling along, parent in tow.  But usually they were done before the school-agers were out.  They’d hit a few houses, and then quickly retire to the warmth of their homes to hand out candy.  Now, almost every group of kids has at least one adult guardian shadowing them through the darkness.  Parents keep a wary eye, homeowners keep a wary eye, and kids no longer race about with the same free-spirited enthusiasm as they did when they ran free once upon a time.  After all, they now have to behave and let their slower travelling parents, who are generally not inclined to race pell-mell from house to house, keep up.

Has the world we live in really become so much more dangerous over the years?  Or has the global world of technology and communication only served to make us more aware of the dangers that lurk in the night?  Are the dangers really that much more prevalent than before, or that we know of, or have we just turned paranoid?

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Today’s feature story is a double dose of flash fiction storys (1,000 words or less).

First up is “Snow“.  It is a somewhat surreal look at a how things happen around each of our own little worlds, separate from each other.  Oh yeah, and there’s a killer too.

Then we take a peek “Behind a White Curtain” where we look at this same story in a more focused way.  And that focus is on the killer himself and his world.

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A Halloween did you know:

Did you know that the custom of begging door to door for treats (trick-or-treating) while dressed in costumes dates back as far as the middle ages?  This was practiced not only at Halloween, but also when people went wassailling at Christmas too.  At Halloween people (mostly the poor and children) went souling, begging door to door for food.  They would be given soul cake in exchange for giving prayers for the dead.

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An interesting read – Halloween Candy

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Here’s a fun Halloween candy game for the kids. 

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And here is a frightening visage from HALLOWEEN 2008 (cue spooky music):

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Halloween 2009 – 4 More Sleeps

Halloween 2009 – 4 More Sleeps

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Halloween party planning is afoot.  Rumors are spreading faster than notes and invitations, kids are eagerly discussing who brings what treat, and mothers are frantically thinking fast how to “make” 25 of the best boo-and-goo orange iced pumpkin cupcakes on the block with little or no warning.

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Today’s feature story is a flash fiction story (1,000 words or less) called “The Woods “.  It is about two brothers doing as brothers do, daring each other to go into the spooky woods beyond their house.

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And just for fun, here is a Halloween poem I wrote to get the kids stomping and yelling.  “Witches, Goblins, and Spooks – Oh My!”

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A Halloween did you know:

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Did you know that the jack-o’-lantern got its name from the will-o’-wisp, a torch made from a bundle of sticks or paper?  There are numerous folklore tales from around the world.  The details vary, but the premise seems to be much the same.  A soul of ill repute appears in association with a strange flickering light.  It may be the soul of a man or beast, depending on the culture.  In some stories it tries to lure the unwary, in all it is something best avoided.  When you see strange flickering lights at night or twilight resembling a flickering lamp, make haste for home.  It might be something not of this world in search of a victim to torment.

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What are the lights really?  Some believe these strange lights, the will-o’-wisp, or ignis fatuus in Latin, the “ghost lights”, are the product of gasses created by organic decay.  Another theory is that they are the result of electricity being created by a tectonic shift, and the heating up of rocks containing earthly goods like quartz or silicon.  Yet another theory is glow in the dark owls.  Yes, apparently owls do glow in the dark.  Those darned barn owls and their luminescent plumage apparently may have been terrorizing lone travelers for centuries.  And of course there will always be the original (and more fun) folklore myths about what those eerie lights in the distance really are.

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Just in case, I think I’ll walk a little bit faster and keep my eyes steady on the road straight ahead the next time I happen to be strolling at twilight past bogs, swamps, or marshes, and any other lonely stretch of pristine land – just in case.

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And now a very spooky picture just for Halloween.

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Tia (R.I.P.) the Devil Dog

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And for something even more frightening … I don’t know what they are or where they came from, but they sure have a scarily uncanny resemblance to something I know … but what?  I know those can’t possibly be MY kids.  My kids don’t eat bananas, swing from trees, or chase down gazelle for dinner   – much.  Whatever they are, I think they ate my kids.  (You are what you eat and all that).

Halloween 2009 – 5 More Sleeps

Halloween is just around the corner.  The decorations are up, kids costumes bought, the pumpkin is awaiting carving, and we’re putting off buying the candy so it doesn’t get eaten before Halloween.

 

In honor of Halloween, I’ll be sharing a few ghouslish tidbits.

Today’s feature story is a flash fiction story (1,000 words or less) called “Knock on Ginger“.  It is about (yes you guessed it) the game we have all played at some point as kids.

 

A Halloween did you know:

Did you know that Halloween has Celtic roots?  According to an article on Wikipedia, in the festival of Samhain the end of the harvest was celebrated with tones of the  festival of the dead, a festival honoring deceased community members.

 

Quoted from source:  Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain

“Celtic Reconstruction”

“According to Celtic lore, Samhain is a time when the boundaries between the world of the living and the world of the dead become thinner, allowing spirits and other supernatural entities to pass between the worlds to socialize with humans. It is the time of the year when ancestors and other departed souls are especially honored. Though Celtic Reconstructionists make offerings to the spirits at all times of the year, Samhain in particular is a time when more elaborate offerings are made to specific ancestors. Often a meal will be prepared of favorite foods of the family’s and community’s beloved dead, a place set for them at the table, and traditional songs, poetry and dances performed to entertain them. A door or window may be opened to the west and the beloved dead specifically invited to attend. Many leave a candle or other light burning in a western window to guide the dead home. Divination for the coming year is often done, whether in all solemnity or as games for the children. The more mystically inclined may also see this as a time for deeply communing with the deities, especially those whom the lore mentions as being particularly connected with this festival.”

 

 

And as a final note I’d like to share with you  HALLOWEEN 2007 (cue spooky music):

 

Halloween Princesses

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Princesses And The Pirates (Childrens Story)

This is a children’s story I wrote together with my six year old.  The story is hers.  I helped her put it into words.

 

The Princesses And The Pirates

by

L.V. Gaudet & S.P. Gaudet

(C) October 23, 2009

 

   

     Once upon a time there was a castle in a land far away.  There were two princesses who lived in that castle, who by a very strange coincidence of the stars were born on the same day in May but two years apart.  They were Princess Sidney and Princess Robyn.  They were born to King Steve and Queen Lori who were very happy and proud of their beautiful princess daughters.

     Unknown to all, far away in a place unknown, a group of pirates were looking for the two young princess sisters.  The pirate captain, the dread Captain Shift who happened to be the king of pirates, had two sons who, by a very strange coincidence of the stars, were born on the same day in June two years apart.

     An old gypsy woman told him that if his sons did not marry princess sisters also born on the same day two years apart a terrible fate would fall on his family.  She looked into her crystal ball and told him where to find such princess sisters.

     It was the night of the big ball.  The queen and king had asked two young princes, Prince Handsom and Prince Kistalot, to escort their princess daughters to the ball.

     It was a lovely affair, with ribbons and lace strung upon the walls with delicate grace.  Music danced on the air, and made everyone want to dance.  The princes asked the two princess sisters to grace them with a dance.

     The happy foursome was having a wonderful time at the ball.  But the hour grew late and they had to be home in time for the princesses’ curfew.  They hurried through the crowd of happy dancers to meet the carriage waiting in front of the palace to take them home.

     They piled into the carriage and with a snap of the whip it rushed off with them through the woods to the princesses’ castle.

     Suddenly, with a terrible yell, pirates surrounded the carriage and captured the princess sisters, leaving the battered princes behind.  They brought them to their ship waiting in the cove.

     The next morning, the pirates dragged the girls from where they locked them in the hull of the ship and brought them before the pirate captain.

     “You will marry my sons,” Captain Shift said.

     “No, never,” princesses Sidney and Robyn said together.

     “You will marry my sons or die!” Captain Shift demanded.

     “We would rather die!” the princesses cried.

     “So be it,” the pirate captain said.  He signaled to the pirates and they forced the girls onto the plank.

     “Walk the plank!” Captain Shift yelled.

     “No, we won’t walk the plank,” shouted the princesses.

     Then the pirates tied the princesses up and pushed them off the plank.

     The princes got there just in time to save the princesses.  They jumped into the water and helped the princesses swim to shore.

     The princes brought the princesses safely back to their castle.

     Sidney and Robyn were safe now, but they had to marry the princes because they had saved their lives.

     But the princesses did not want to marry the princes.  They wanted to marry them some day, but they were not ready to get married yet.

     Handsom and Kistalot agreed to make it a long engagement.  They were willing to wait until the princess sisters were ready to marry them.

     And so, there was a great celebration to announce the double engagement of the princess sisters Sidney and Robyn to their princes Handsom and Kistalot.  The wedding would be a story for another day.

 

 

 

The End

 

 

Witches, Goblins, and Spooks – Oh My! (Halloween Poem)

Witches, Goblins, and Spooks – Oh My!
© October 19, 2009
by L.V. Gaudet

 

Witches, goblins, and spooks – oh my!

Bats and ghosts flying in the sky.

Trick or treat and stamp your feet,

I want something good to eat.

 

Fairies, princesses, and ponies – oh dear!

Masks, makeup, and costumes are here.

Trick or treat and stamp your feet,

I want something good to eat.

 

Heroes, villains, and clowns – woohoo!

We are coming looking for you.

Trick or treat and stamp your feet,

I want something good to eat.

 

Give me chocolate, suckers, and candy

Any toys and treats will be just dandy.

Fill my bucket, bag, and pockets,

Look at all those sugar rockets.

 

Little scared pumpkin please don’t cry,

That’s only Halloween in the sky.

Here, I know what to do,

I’ll share my candy with you.

A Scare In The Air (Halloween Poem)

A Scare in the Air

By L. V. Gaudet

© October 15, 2009

 

 

There is a crackle in the air,

of crisp fall leaves crunching like the dry cackle of witches.

 

Someone is hurrying over there,

racing from darkened tree to darkened tree while holding up too big britches.

 

Pumpkins lit and carved with care,

eerie flames licking their hollowed insides in a dance of twitches.

 

Ghosts hang from branches bare,

billowing and cavorting with dragons and skeletons and green faces full of stitches.

 

Houses decorated grimly to scare,

goblins, ghouls, all manner of freakish delight.

 

Hey you, don’t touch that over there!

You don’t know what might crawl out on this dark night.

 

If you venture out please do beware,

for it is All Hallows’ Eve tonight.

 

All manner of spooks are out on the scare,

playing tricks and seeking treats on this dark night.