Happy Every Day

I'm entering the Happy Every Day contest by Bryan Hutchinson (check out his blog HERE) as celebration of the publication of his new book, Happy Every Day--Simple, Effective Ways to Better Days. You can buy the book HERE, get it for free via "Story Cartel" in exchange for a free review HERE, and you can see my Amazon review of it HERE.

The following are pictures I took with quotes from the book on them (this is for the contest). I'd love to hear which one was your favorite. :)

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Updates From MV:

Giving away three books for the price of absolutely nothing (click HERE).
Talking about Anne of Green Gables along with my fellow chewers HERE.
Loving my dad's letter to the world (click HERE).

(If you have something you'd like me to share in "Updates From MV" please send me an e-mail at themagicviolinist(AT)gmail(DOT)com. Thank you! :D)

The Open Letter Challenge

I am participating in the Open Letter Challenge writing contest organized by Josh Irby. The following letter is my response to An Open Letter to You from the Rest of the World.


Dear World,

You say you need my story. But why? What makes mine so special?

Everyone has a different story I suppose. But there are billions of people in the world, which means billions of stories. Why should I share mine?

I'm sure lots of people have a dog, a little brother, and a mom and dad. I'm sure lots of people like chocolate and peanut butter. I bet a lot of people also have a favorite stuffed animal that's worn, so dirty it has changed color, but loved all the same. And I'm positive there are lots of girls like me out in the world who dream of becoming a published author.

So what makes me so special?

Everyone has a story to tell. Everyone. Every single person in the world has a story deep inside them waiting to be written, to be told, to be shared. But why should we share it? Couldn't we keep it to ourselves?

But we shouldn't. We can't. Imagine if J.K. Rowling had written the entire Harry Potter series and never shared a word of it. Imagine if she'd taken Harry, Ron, Hermione and all of the other beloved characters to the grave. No Hogwarts, no movies based on the books, no Harry. J.K. Rowling has offered us writers so much inspiration. Imagine if that inspiration never existed. I'm sure lots of our stories would be immensely different.

Imagine if Suzanne Collins never shared The Hunger Games. The entire dystopian genre would never have been this popular without it. Jennifer  Lawrence would never be known as Katniss Everdeen, the girl on fire and none of us would be waiting in line for the midnight premiere of "Catching Fire" in November.

See what happens when we share our stories? We impact lives. We inspire  people. We change history. By sharing just one story, your story, we allow others to share their stories. It's all one gigantic domino effect, and each of us is a domino. Don't let the chain of events stop with you. Continue it, and who knows? Maybe you'll become the next J.K. Rowling.

Sincerely,
A domino with a story to share

Blog Anniversary

(I can't believe I never celebrated this before now)!



Five years ago today, I published my first ever blog post. I was eight back then and I even had a different nickname. ;)

In celebration of this event, I'm giving away free chapter critiques.

That's right. Three lucky winners will win a free one chapter (max 2,000 words) critique, critiqued by me.

(Don't worry, I'm not mean).

How do I enter?

1. Write up a short story about a dog experiencing summer for the first time. What does he think of it all? What does she see or smell? No more than 1,000 words, please.

2. Post the story on your blog, and link back to my blog on the post. If you don't have a blog, you can e-mail me at themagicviolinist(AT)gmail(DOT)com.

3. Post a comment saying that you've entered and leave a link to your blog.

4. Submit your entries by July 21st. That gives you two weeks.


5. I will be posting the three winners on my blog, so subscribe if you want to find out if you won! You can subscribe to my blog by e-mail if you scroll up to the upper, right corner.

6. Have fun! :D

I will be judging based on mainly creativity, but if your story has too many spelling or grammar mistakes, I will most likely ignore it (sorry, but I have little patience for those sorts of things). Spellchecker is your friend.

Any questions? Please e-mail me at themagicviolinist(AT)gmail(DOT)com.

Are you ready? Get set . . . GO!!!! :D

CONTEST!!! :D :D:D

My friend, Emily, has a blog and she always puts contest on her blog for people to do and send in to her e-mail. Sometimes it's a drawing contest, sometimes it's a story contest, one time you had to do a scavenger hunt and take pictures with your camera! :D Then she picks one that she thinks is the best and posts the winner on her blog. So I'm going to start doing that. Once in a while I'll post a post with the contest rules on it.

Here's the contest:

To enter, you must draw a creative Christmas-themed picture. Not a winter theme, a Christmas theme. Then, take a picture with your camera of your picture and send it in to my e-mail address. If you don't have my e-mail, you can ask my mom for it. :D You must send your picture in by the 31st of this month. Have fun! :D

Pterodactyl Story

Hi!
On Webkinz (which is a website where you can take care of pets) there was a contest where you had to write a story about a mischievous Pterodactyl. I wrote one then had to cut out a bunch characters (not the person kind) until I only had 1000 characters.
Here is the original (my favorite):

I’m a Pterodactyl named Misty! (To me that’s short for Mischievous!) I am a real troublemaker! I get grounded a lot! I jumped on the bed on Monday even though my mom said, “Misty, if you’re extra good tonight I will give you a cookie.”

I decided I would rather jump on the bed than get a cookie.

And then on Tuesday I got grounded for stealing all the Triceratops Crackers. I snuck out to my Triceratops friend’s (Three-Horns) house to play video games.

Oh! And there was that one time I watched a movie instead of reading a book on Wednesday. I got grounded again.

Then there was that absolutely nasty Thursday I went to the movies with Three-Horns and the new Allosaurus in town named Sharpy to watch Dawn of the Dinosaurs. But at the same time my mom came home from the grocery store and when I got home she grounded me for a whole week! Can you believe it?

On Friday I decided at the library instead of whispering I wanted to shout out a funny joke and then the librarian didn’t let me check out any more movies at the library for a week or two until I learned to use my inside voice when telling a joke.

On Saturday I used more time on the PS2 than I was allowed then I wasn’t allowed to use it with friends for another month!

Then finally on Sunday I sold my bed for $200.00 and I used that money to buy four new PS2 games. Then my mom made me sell the games back and buy the bed back and made me buy lunch with my allowance that day!

So by now you probably think I’ve learned my lesson by now, and you’re absolutely right! I have completely learned my lesson! Uh-oh. Gotta go! My mom’s yelling something and I think it’s about the ant farm I let the lid off of in the kitchen. Well see ya’!

Here is the shorter version:

I’m a Pterodactyl named Misty! I am a real troublemaker! I get grounded a lot! I jumped on the bed on Monday even though my mom said, “Misty, if you’re extra good tonight I will give you a cookie.”

I decided I would rather jump on the bed than get a cookie.

And then on Tuesday I got grounded for stealing all the crackers. I snuck out to my Triceratops friend’s (Three-Horns) house to play video games.

And there was that one time I watched a movie instead of reading a book on Wednesday. I got grounded again.

Then there was that nasty Thursday. I went to the movies with Three-Horns to watch Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Then my mom came home from the grocery store and when I got home she grounded me for a whole week!

On Friday at the library instead of whispering I shouted out a funny joke, and the librarian didn’t let me check out any more movies for a week until I learned to use my inside voice.

So by now you probably think I’ve learned my lesson by now, and you’re absolutely right! I have! Uh-oh. My mom’s yelling something. It’s about the ant farm. I let the lid off of in the kitchen. See ya!

I hope you like it!

And please post a comment saying which one you liked better!