Seven Seasonal Sentences Badge, 2023

My post “The Festive Farm” earned the Dazzlingly Delightful badge this year. I’ll take it! All participants receive some sort of badge, making this online event perfect for the giving season and a good representation of the generosity of the kidlit community. Happy holidays, all!

The Festive Farm

It’s Christmas Eve on Grandpa’s farm, and Natalie is working hard to bring the hard-working animals holiday cheer.

Inside the barn, Natalie stands a small cedar tree in a bucket and begins stringing snow-white popcorn, Santa-red cranberries, and reindeer-brown nuts.

But when she circles back around to the front of the tree, the strings are bare!

Gabby goose, Penny hen, and Bessie bunny munch happily and hop off for a long winter’s nap.

Determined to decorate the tree, Natalie climbs up a stack of square hay bales, pulls the tree up after her, and begins stringing again.

But when she circles back around, she comes face-to-face with Lolli lamb and Margot goat; they bleat their happy thanks for the mid-winter feast!

Natalie spends the rest of Christmas Eve sharing popcorn, berries, and nuts with her farm friends, leaving her heart as warm and full as the cozy barn.

Fall Writing Frenzy Entry

Happy fall, #kidlit community! For my entry, “The Hundred-Year Village,” I drew inspiration from the image below by Gianluca Grisenti on Pexels.com. I hope you enjoy this spooooky mountain adventure! Thank you to organizer extraordinaire, @KaitlynLeann17, as well as to the many generous prize donors: @Ms_Holliday93, @readbystephanie, @ErDiPasquale, @IvanTaurisano, @ebonylynnmudd, @AndreaYWang, @AReynosoMorris, @amandarhill32, @HovorkaSarah, @chanastiefel, @ShannonStocker_, @AutumnLeaflet, @BrianGehrlein, and @JStremer. 

The Hundred-Year Village
By Kelly Clasen (188 words)

When Jack-o-lantern flames 
have fizzled into smoke,
and the last Halloween pail
has been pillaged by parents, 
a mysterious village emerges
in the moonlit mountain mist.

Kept hidden by sorcery,
and unveiled by the same, 
the Hundred-Year Village 
beckons the otherworldly. 

Casting caution to the wind,
they haunt loudly, wildly, boldly,
right out under the stars
for one night each century—

one night only.   

Horsemen from every realm,
headless and wicked fast, 
race black-hearted steeds
down Main and across the green.

Witches and goblins unite 
amid a thousand cauldron fires,
to exchange hexes and spells,
to brew potions and mischief. 

Werewolf packs hunt fowl
and other game (not all small)
for ghoulish guests to devour
at the feast of the century.

Skeletons cause a ruckus,  
a clickety-clackity fracas, 
when Dracula starts rocking
down at the old Town Hall. 
 
Yes, it’s a spectacle of specters,
a hullabaloo for the ages, 
for one night—

one night only—

in the Hundred-Year Village. 

What’s that?
You fancy a fright-night hike?
A spooooky mountain adventure?

I’d think that through. 

Unless you want the Hundred-Year Village
to close its iron gates on … 

YOU!

SCBWI KC/MO Recognition

What an honor it was to receive this scholarship to the SCBWI KC/MO Middle of the Map conference coming up in November. These panels are 🔥🔥🔥 and I absolutely cannot wait: https://www.scbwi.org/events/2023-kansas-missouri-scbwi-middle-of-the-map-conference.

I look forward to seeing where this manuscript (already renamed HARVEST FEST UNICORN) takes me …

A Valentiny Honor

There’s nothing like a Susanna Leonard Hill holiday writing contest to get my fingers flying across the keyboard. “The Word Party” was inspired by the unique prompt (a 214-word Valentine story in which a MC experiences skepticism) and my daughter’s constant stories about one of her classmates. Perhaps a longer version will make it into print one day!