The Terrible Monster

My hometown newspaper used to have a weekly section for kids that included fun facts and puzzles called “The Mini Page.” They also encouraged kids to submit stories, poems, and drawings, and would publish a few of these each week. I would turn to that section in my mom’s newspaper every Sunday and think about sending something in myself. I finally did, and I was so excited when my poem, “The Terrible Monster,” was published. That encouraged me to keep writing, and I will always be grateful to the Courier for publishing my poem.

Saturday Six-word stories and NaNoWriMo

I enjoy working on six-word stories, so I’m going to try to post one each Saturday. It’s a fun challenge to tell a story in six words.

On the complete opposite side of story word count, I’m starting to plan for this year’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). The goal is to write a novel of at least 50,000 words in November. I didn’t finish last year, but I have a novel idea that I’m excited about, so I’m hopeful I will finish this year.

So, six words and 50,000 words. They’re very different, but I’m looking forward to both writing challenges.

100-word story: Whispers from the Pines

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The pines were whispering to me.

“Can’t you hear them?” I asked my brother.

He stared at me. “Hear what?”

“The pine trees. The whispers all around us.” I pointed at the forest around us.

“Um…no,” he said. He stopped and frowned at me. “You’re not serious, are you?”

He wasn’t ready yet. I smiled. “Of course I’m not. I just wanted to freak you out.”

He laughed. “You know, I was afraid you were losing it there for a second.”

I’ll tell him when he’s ready. Soon he’ll have to hear it one way or another. Very soon.