Rita’s
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(group member since Jul 23, 2010)
Rita’s
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from the Unlocking Books group.
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To get the party started, here's my contribution...Santa’s Helpers
Beautiful Christmas day. Wrapped in a blanket, a cup of hot chocolate warming my hands, Suzanne watched the fat flakes drift against the gray sky from the back porch. Almost peaceful—save for her little brother Sam tromping through the piles of snow, his laughter rattling against the quiet.
A sneeze and a thump dragged her attention to the side of the house, and a caribou the size of a minivan stumbled into her yard. He sneezed again, nose sputtering with a red glow. He wobbled and then sank to his knees.
Suzanne plowed through the snow and inspected him like she would any of the horses on her parents’ farm—peeling back the eyes, checking the mouth, tracing her hands over the legs to check for sprains or broken bones. He moaned and then sneezed green gunk all over her.
“Nice shot, Rudolph.” Sam leaned over the animal.
“You’re eight years old; you know better than to believe in Santa.”
“And sixteen makes you soooo smart.”
“Probably escaped from the zoo.”
He snorted. “Then why does his nose glow red.”
“He’s got a cold.” Even to her, it sounded weak.
Sam patted the caribou’s neck and scratched him behind the ears. “Santa left you back at the North Pole because of your cold, and you followed him anyway, didn’t you? Now you’re lost and sick and just need someone to take good care of you.”
Ears perked up, he nodded. This couldn’t be real. Animals don’t nod their heads.
Sam grinned. “If we take good care of him, maybe Santa will get me a dirt bike and a rifle next year.”
She rolled her eyes. “Help me get him into the barn.”
The two of them rolled, dragged, and shoved the beast all the way to the barn. Somehow they stuffed his massive bulk into the stall with room to spare. Suzanne scooped oats into his bin, added fresh water and hay, and stepped back to look at him. “There you go, boy. You’ll be feeling better in no time.”
The caribou curled his lip in disgust and turned his back on it.
“Didn’t you watch the movie Santa Clause? You should feed him cookies and hot chocolate,” Sam said.
“That’s ridiculous. He’s—”
With a kick, the feed bucket flew into her face. The caribou snorted. Suzanne closed her eyes and chanted under her breath, “Reindeer don’t laugh.”
“Fine! He wants cookies and hot chocolate; you can feed him yourself.”
“We’ve got to contact Santa too.”
“Whatever. Write him a letter.” She threw up her hands and marched out of the barn.
A month later, no farmers, zoos, exotic pet keepers, or Santas had claimed the caribou, and the vet proclaimed Rudolph—yes, Sam insisted on calling him that—to be healthy even if his nose, no longer sputtering, gleamed bright red.
Suzanne woke early every morning to feed him before letting him out in the pasture with the horses. He took well to a bridle and saddle, and after school, she trained him along with her show pony Thimble. She dreamed of showing him at the county fair next summer—her 4-H friends would be jealous.
One cold, clear February afternoon, Suzanne and Sam had saddled Rudolph and Thimble for a trail ride.
“No nipping, Rudolph.” She snapped him when he nosed her, looking for cookies and sugar cubes in her pockets. He shook his antlers at her, pawing the ground, and then danced around her as if battling her for the last treat.
She laughed and grabbed his halter, patting his neck. “Beha—”
A man leaned against the fence. Black leather jacket, a motorcycle helmet under one arm, white beard tumbling down his chest like Dumbledore’s.
“Can I help you?”
“Yes, I received your letter.” He held up an envelope marked with Sam’s scrawl.
Suzanne’s heart sank.
And congratulations on the Nook!
The description reminded me of I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You. In "I'd Tell You I Love You," the girls go to an all girl high school for spies in training. "Crushed" sounds a lot like it, only with magic instead of spy training.
Thanks for that book link, Heather. Darkness Falls has a really pretty cover, doesn't it?
Kriss wrote: "This isn't really about what I'm reading, but I'd really like some help/suggestions.I just need a bit of help when it comes to finding some literature/information, and although I have done some r..."
If you are interested in classics, I imagine it must be because you read a few and enjoyed them. Can you tell us what you've already read and liked most so that we can suggest some similar ones?
Some books I enjoyed:
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
Gulliver's Travles by Jonathon Swift
Emma by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
The Count de Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Some books I did not enjoy because I found them depressing:
Tess of the D'ubervilles by Thomas Hardy
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
It's hard to carve out the time and keep life from intruding on your projects. Some writers make a vow to do a set number of words a day. Even if you only do 500 words, it can pile up until you find you have a full story. NaNoWriMo pushes people to finish a novel in a month. However, it is not really the act of finishing in a month that is important but rather finishing at all. To finish in a month takes about 1600 words a day. So 500 words a day means you'll finish in a little over 3 months. When you think that most authors put out a book or so a year, that's pretty good.
In other words, make small goals that are easy to stick to and plug away at a slow and steady pace.
Merry Christmas! Season's Greetings! Happy Hannukah, Kwanzaa, and Solstice too.Christmas is a time of magic--a baby in a manger, angels singing in a field, Santa Claus, flying reindeer, elves, gifts under a tree, and snow.
Your challenge this month is to write a 500-word Paranormal Christmas (or one of the other holidays celebrated this month) story. Maybe the egg nog is spiked with fairy dust, or a reindeer with a shiny nose helps you find your way home on a snowy night. Include a beginning, middle, and end, and show us all the magic of the holiday season.
Unlocking Books book club has teamed up with the writers of Transcendent to bring you some great prizes for the best stories.
Deadline: December 31st. The winners will be chosen by a group poll.
PRIZES
1. paperback Transcendent: Tales of the Paranormal by Lani Woodland, Melonie Piper, Rita J Webb, Wendy Swore, Melanie Marks, Heather McCubbin, Evan Joseph
2. paperback Tears by Rita J Webb
3. paperback Unlocked, edited by Wendy Swore & Rita J Webb
4. ebook When Kyle Came Back by Melanie Marks
5. ebook A Demon's Kiss by Melanie Marks
6. ebook Blank Slate by Heather Justesen
No Purchase Necessary. But purchases of "Transcendent: Tales of the Paranormal" (eBook on Kindle & Nook is only 99c) and HONEST reviews and postings on Facebook & Twitter will be appreciated. The heavens will smile on you for supporting budding artists.
Purchase Information...
Paperback on Amazon: Purchase today for $10.99!
Paperback on Barnes and Noble: Coming Soon for $10.99!
eBook on Kindle: Purchase today for 99 cents!
eBook on Nook: Purchase today for 99 cents!
Follow on...
I have a whole batch of beautiful double chocolate cookie right here. Hot from the oven, so they're still soft and gooey.Welcome.
That's a great set of prizes. Looks like some good books, and of course, I love the candy.
Short stories are, in many ways, so much more fun than a novel. You get to feel the satisfaction of a job well done without tearing out your soul and bleeding all over the pages--er, computer since this is the Age of Technology.
I had that "something is watching you" feeling in Dallas, Texas, driving down the highway where JFK was shot. I grew up in Fort Worth, and when my grandparents came to visit, we took them to visit the site. We went inside the building, looked out, and everything, but it wasn't until we were driving away that my skin pricked.
I'll be first in line to read your novels. I've got my fingers crossed for you.
Lani, what do you plan to write on when the Yara Silva trilogy is complete?
Melonie, I wanted to know if you and Lani will continue to write together or if you have any plans for a story of your own. Or both?
Wendy, I wanted to know about what works in progress you have that we can look forward to.
Melanie, when did you start writing and why?
Evan, I loved the Halloween costume ideas you had in your story. What was your favorite Halloween costume you ever dressed up in?
So Heather, have you ever seen a real ghost?
During the month of January, the authors of the anthology Transcendent: Tales of the Paranormal will join us for Q&A. In Transcendent, Heather wrote "Shadows of Promise," a story about ghosts and haunted houses.
If you have any questions for her, please post them here.
