My Ant Story

Here's an excerpt from a story I wrote for the Highlights for Children's Fiction Contest several years ago.

The story was entitled "Grandma's Cookies". The main character is a carpenter ant that lives with an elderly couple.

I often hang out in Grandma’s kitchen and sample the different batches. This can be hard though because the bowls and plates are high up on the table or counter. One day while watching Grandma from on top of a chair, I slipped and almost fell head first into a bowl of chocolate chip batter. It’s not easy being the smallest in the family. But these treats are worth the effort.

Sometimes I get lucky and find pieces of cookies lying around the kitchen. If it’s near dinnertime, I don’t want to get in trouble for ruining my appetite so I won’t eat them. I’ll hide them in a secret place and save them for dessert.

Every Christmas Eve, Grandma leaves me two special cookies with some milk.  But I have to make sure to eat my snack before the old, white bearded guy in the red and white suit appears. He thinks those cookies and milk are for him.

Manuscript Makeover By Elizabeth Lyon

I recently visited my local Barnes and Noble Bookstore in Manchester to see what books I could find to enhance my writing skills. Armed with a bunch of B&N gift cards from last Christmas, I wandered down aisle after aisle looking for just the right books to buy. There was some additional mystery in this journey because I didn't have a clue as to how much each gift card was worth. I had about ten cards so I figured there should be at least 75 dollars there.

While checking out the literature reference section, I found Elizabeth Lyon's Manuscript Makeover book. Now I have a number of other reference books, but something in the first several pages caught my eye and I had to have it. Also, I decided to get the 2014 Writer's Market. I have 6 different Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market (CWIM) books, but I decided to try something different. I probably will break down and get the 2014 CWIM book at some point in the near future though.

I've only read the first 75 pages, but there's a lot of good information in Part One about "voice" and making revisions. It's getting late so I need to sign off for the night. Take care and happy writing!