Category: fun stuff

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A Letter to Santa Claus



A short, fictional letter exchange I found myself toying with while I made lunch on November 29th. It was originally posted here.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dear Santa Claus,
Hi. I don’t know if you remember me or not, but I’m Emily Grayson from Temple, Maine. It’s been a while since I’ve written a letter to you. I think the last time I did, I was eight. I’m almost thirteen now. But my town is hosting a Letters to Santa thing at the library and I’m stuck here while my mom reads Christmas books to a bunch of little kids, and I figured, what do I have to lose? Nothing.

Here’s the deal. Santa, I don’t think you’re real. I think you’re just a story, made up to keep kids happy. (And to make them behave.) My brother likes to talk about the numbers and how it’s impossible for you to do what they say you do, but the numbers aside:

My friend Carole didn’t get any presents last year. I’m not allowed to go to her house anymore because her father drinks and my parents don’t think it’s safe. I know Carole wrote to you last year, because I paid for the stamp on the letter. (She picked a stamp with your picture on it.) She said she asked for two things, but she only told me about one of them, a bike so she could come over to my house a lot more often.

She didn’t get her bike. And I don’t think she got the second wish either.

I don’t think you’re real, Santa. If you’re real, then why are there still wars and sick people and all that? For that matter, I don’t think God is real either. He’s supposed to love us. And you’re supposed to bring happiness. Well Santa, things aren’t so happy for Carole. Either you don’t exist, or you don’t care, or you failed at your job. And same goes for you too, God.

I’m tired of seeing Carole get disappointed. She’s always believed in you, Santa. She’s always trusted that you’ll make things better. And things are never better, and she gets sad, but then she says, “Maybe next year.” But next year isn’t ever different.

If you’re real, Santa, or God, or whoever reads this letter, you have to prove it. Carole’s address is 165 Meadow Lane in Temple. If you’re really real, give her the best Christmas ever.

Sincerely, 

Emily Grayson

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dear Emily,

I received your letter. Thank you for writing about these concerns. You simply would not believe how many people just give up hoping, instead of trying to do something about it.

Emily Grayson, maybe I am just a story. But stories are mighty powerful things, young lady. Stories let us dream. Stories let us hope. Stories let us believe. And stories show us the light and good in the world.

In the end, Emily, that is what matters most. Love is even more powerful than stories, young lady, and when hearts are full of love, they light up the world. I know your parents might think you are too young to be worried about wars and death and darkness, but you see these things. They worry you. They worry me too, and all the other helpers.

You see, I am a helper. Humans are curious creatures, Emily. They can withstand impossible things, but if you take hope away from them, they fade away so fast that you wonder if they were ever there at all. As a helper, my job is to keep that spark of hope alive. You’ve seen it in your friend Carole. She always hopes that next year will be different. And it is because she hopes that she is so strong.

I am only one of a great many helpers. And I would like to invite you to be a helper, too. You see people. You care about them. You want things to be better for them.

Maybe you have all the proof you need.

With love,
Nicholas

P.S. — I will see what I can do for Carole.


Copyright 2018 by Annie Louise Twitchell
Image from Pixabay
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Ink Blotted Beka {blog tour}

Here are some of my favorite pieces from Beka’s portfolio! I’m definitely going to have to contact her to do some character sketches. 

{Schedule}

Oct. 1

Oct. 2

Oct. 3

Oct. 4

Oct. 5

Oct 6.

Oct. 7

Oct. 8



{Creator Links}



{Creator Bio}

Beka hails from the Great White North (aka Canada), where she reads, dreams, and doodles away. She loves bringing characters from the written page to the visual eye, and dabbles in pencil and coloured pencil and the occasional watercolor. Her dream is to one day get into digital art and save some trees.


a Rafflecopter giveaway


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Through the Pages {my first novel}

Once upon a time, not too long ago, in fact, a little less than a year ago…

{August 19th, 2017}

“Hey, Annie, remember how you were asking, ‘what will I write next’ the other day?”

I did ask that question, after finishing Jump: The Things I Remind Myself. But when God asks a question like that, I’ve found He tends to have ulterior motives behind it. So I very cautiously said, “yeah, I remember… what about it?”

“Well, I’ve got one for you. Write a book for your mom.”

Cue wide eyes and a heck of a lot of confusion. And a scrambled message to my girl’s group. “I think I’m supposed to write a book for my mom. Help!”

Go figure, they all thought it was a brilliant idea.

“Hey Annie,” came the somewhat amused voice from the upstairs regions of the cosmos. “It’s for her birthday next year, by the way. And it’s about books. The interior will be cream paper, with an artistic book drawing for underneath the chapter headers. The cover will be purple.”

And that is the story of why I had a meltdown from August 19th to August 21st.

This was uncharted territory for me. I was pretty sure it would be a novel, not one of my short stories or a novella or something easy. (I’ve never completed a first draft of a novel, only a lot of partial first drafts.) And I had less than a year. And I needed to keep it a secret from everyone around me. (I’m horrible at keeping exciting things secret.)

{the journey}

The rest of August, September, and October were spent in a weird sort of stasis. I didn’t write a whole lot, at least, not that I remember. I did a lot of thinking. I spent a lot of time with books, and with my mom. And by mid October I had a pretty solid idea of what this story was supposed to look like.

November came around and I used NaNoWriMo as my excuse to pound out a 50k novel in a very short period of time. For the first time, I had a whole, finished, novel. And I couldn’t tell anyone.

Well, not quite true. I told my girl’s group (after making them swear to secrecy). I told Missie. And in June of 2018, I told my pen pal/adopted grandmother/great-aunt about it, because she asked what I was working on, and I was pretty darn sure that she wouldn’t tell anyone. 
The hardest thing this whole time has been keeping it a secret from everyone. Hannah helped; I had to tell her because I was in the middle of a stress-induced panic attack of “I can’t do this!” and needed help getting myself out. I told Jeremy because I conscripted him to receive the packages so my mother wouldn’t suspect anything. I made my cover designer, my editor, my beta readers, and my girl’s group swear themselves to secrecy, and… 
…here we are. 

Here’s one of my favorite quotes from this story:

“That’s the thing, Miranda, you never get over the butterflies if it’s the right person. They just settle down a bit. If it’s the right person, you just go your whole life being all tangled up with the butterflies in your stomach and the love in your heart.” 

Through the Pages
Annie Louise Twitchell

LOOK AT THIS COVER
*all the heart eyes to That Book Gal for this amazing design*
Available at Amazon

Fun Fact: I had the hardest time finding an editor until I was actually ready to see about hiring one. At that point, Facebook hiccuped and showed me a notification for a post from an editing page I’d been following and hadn’t done much looking into. If you’re in the US, I highly recommend Lemons to Lemonade Editing. Not only did she do a wonderful job with my line edits, but she works on paper, meaning I had a marked up paper copy to make my changes from. That was perfect for how my head works and the way I prefer to do things, and made my process of fixing things so much easier.

Fun Fact #2: I’m still a bit giddy that I actually did this thing. I will probably be varying degrees of giddy for the next two months.

Fun Fact #3: I’ve actually been so overwhelmed since I gave the book to my mom on the 5th that I’ve had two or three headaches and gone swimming a lot and written almost nothing. Just this blog post. I’ll get back in my groove eventually. I think.

The Bunny approves. This is important.

~Annie

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I’m Going… On A Vacation!

Well, kind of.

I’ve had an interesting relationship with summer vacation for a ridiculously long time, but one thing has been true for the last several years: I never stick to my blogging schedule during the summer.

I mean, it’s not like I stick to my schedule anyway; my schedule says I post once a week on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday (but not usually Wednesday) and I still don’t manage to be super consistent with that. I’ve learned to loosen up a lot and just let it be what it is, and if I don’t post this week, so be it! I’m okay with that.

Anyway, as I sit here in my chair at 9pm trying to decide what to do this evening, I decided to go look at my blog set up, and hey look! I have no scheduled posts, no drafts, and no ideas.

And I’m okay with that.

As of right now, I’m offically giving myself the summer off. If I have something that really merits a blog post, I’ll make one up and schedule it for one of the days in my terribly ambiguous schedule. If not, I’m not going to worry about it.

In other words, see you in August!

But I’ll be on my social media accounts on my usual semi-daily basis and sending my newsletter every month, so I won’t be vanishing entirely. It’s just that I spend so much time outside during the summer and I’m trying to get out of the habit of 6am to 11pm work days, so I think removing this stresser for the summer months will be a huge benefit for my overall sanity. (People tell me it’s questionable at best.)

I plan to spend the summer reading, swimming, gardening, not dying while my family does a plethora of projects, star gazing and mosquito swatting, avoiding moose flies (ask me sometime about being used a moose fly bait when I was nine), writing, and hanging out with a popsicle. I had planned to hike a mountain in July until the weather got to a roasting 72 degrees Fahrenheit last week and I remembered why I like hiking in September: less bugs and less heat. So the hiking trip might be postponed. We’ll see.

See you in August if not before!

-Annie

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Summer Reading {and why I need some lemonade}

As you may know, I read a lot of books. My Goodreads count so far for 2018 is thirty-two, which is lower than I’d expected, but it’s because I haven’t really read much in the last couple weeks even though I have three or four books I’m currently reading through.

In the last couple of days, I’ve identified the “reading block” I’ve been experiencing. It helped once I realized this is something that happens every year. You see, I read a lot of fantasy stories during the year. And every year for the last… six years or so, when the weather here turns hot, I stop being able to read fantasy.

Now, why this happens, I have no idea. But it happens. And to some extent it affects my ability to write fantasy.

So today I have a favor to ask:

Recommend your favorite contemporary, romance, chick lit, mystery, etc, and I’ll check it out. I might not read it–depending on how many I get and which ones I’m interested in–but I need some more contemporary lit!

Bonus points if it’s an Indie author. Because the Indie book club I’m in focuses on Indie Fantasy, I haven’t met many contemporary Indies.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need some lemonade to make up for forcing my head to read fantasy when it’s too hot to handle it.

~Annie

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10 Amazingly Clever Ways To Store All Your Other Stuff When Your Life Is Already Packed To The Max With Books


So many articles about “Clever Ways To Store Books” seem to be written by literary-challenged people who have a total of twenty books to store. Sweetheart, I have twenty books on one bedside table. (That’s the smaller table.)

If you’re one of those people who has so many books that they’ve started re-papering the walls independently, this post is for you. Here, I outline 10 Amazingly Clever Ways to store all the other stuff when your books take primary control of the living space.


1.
In the basement. A lot of basements aren’t good places to store those valuable books, either because of moisture or pests, or both.




2.
In the guest bedroom. I’m sure no one will notice. That is, until they try and sleep on the bed that is actually packing crates covered with sheets, blankets, and pillows.



3.
Got filing cabinets? Use them to rest stacks of books on. Store all that lovely icky paperwork inside it and every time you’re tempted to do some filing, pick up a book and read it.




4.
Under the bed. Assuming the books haven’t taken over, under the bed storage is a great solution for things like shoes, clothes, books, a collapsible trampoline… Under the bed storage is almost endless. I know for a fact that three children, two cats, a box of toy trains, and a stuffed elephant can fit comfortably under a bed and still have room to spare.




5.
In the garden shed. Never ever ever put books out in the garden shed. Books belong in a place of honor in your home. Besides, you’ll never read them all if they’re way out there in the garden shed. Not like you’ll read them all anyway, but that’s not the issue.




6.
Under the couch cushions. This is a handy place to store batteries, small change, the Kraken, your great-grandmother’s diamond necklace, an entire deck of playing cards (unboxed and scattered, of course), one random fork (probably the one you don’t like), and all of your cat’s shed hair that he’s saving to knit into a winter coat. This location is especially recommended for all the small valuables that you don’t want stolen, as no one ever thinks to look under the couch cushions until the remote isn’t near the TV.



7.
In other people’s homes. To maintain the peace in society, however, it is strongly recommended to relinquish all rights to the stuff before passing it on.




8.
In a yard sale! These urban wonders boast low prices, so you’re almost guaranteed not to make enough money to make up for the labor involved, but at the end of the day you’ve gotten rid of a lot of things you didn’t need, and possibly made a few new friends.




9.
Go green—recycle away! Old papers that you don’t need, used up craft supplies, all the random bits of packing material that you’re not going to use again. Check with your local recycling facility for their guidelines.




10.
In the garbage can. This handy container requires very little maintenance considering the amount of work it does. All things non-transferable and unrecyclable go in here, then get taken to the curb for the garbage men to collect. In rural areas you may have to take it to the dump yourself; it’s still not a lot of work in exchange for less stuff to take up valuable square inches.


There you have it, folks. Ten “clever” places to store stuff that won’t infringe on your book space. Happy reading!


Inspired by Nancy Chase
nancychase.com

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Fellowship of Fantasy: Magical May Giveaway



The Fellowship of Fantasy has banded together once more to bring you an awesome giveaway!

You can win a Spell Book Journal (with a WAND PEN!)
and an ebook collection of Fellowship of Fantasy authors!


You can win the following Fellowship of Fantasy Titles:









Spellsmith & Carver: Magicians’ Rivalry by H. L. Burke



Enter Here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway



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Iron Core {review and author interview}

Rebekah is a dear friend of mine in South America. We actually met over a year in a teen writer’s group on Facebook, when she asked for someone “who knows stuff about snow” to beta read a project for her. Wellll, if there’s something I know about… it’s snow. And the rest, as they say, is history. 
Her newest story, Iron Core, had me in tears. I’m here to share the misery enchant you with this wonderfully heartbreaking story. I fell in love with Lunetta’s story and I’m dying for more, whenever Miss DeVall decides to stop torturing me and let me have it. (In her defense, I do think she has to finish writing it first.)
See this pretty cover? Hehe

{Iron Core Blurb}
Everything will be okay. 
Deep in Brancaleone, a prison carved from the mountainside, eighteen-year-old Lunetta plans her escape. Raised behind iron bars, all she wants is freedom – and to take her mother with her.


{Author Bio}
Rebekah DeVall prides herself on being the girl who wrote 200,000 words in 21 days. She’s a Christian author with a penchant for killing characters and a love for writing real female protagonists described as “the example of a Christian hero that young readers need to see”.  




{Contact Rebekah}

Blog: http://www.rebekahdevall.wordpress.com

{Author Interview}


You’re a missionary kid, stationed overseas. Did that contribute to the emotions and the overall story of Iron Core?

Yep, I’m a missionary kid, way deep down in South America. While Iron Core wasn’t a “missionary story” per se, some of Lunetta’s emotions and feelings definitely came from my missionary-kid heart.
Lunetta struggles with feelings of loneliness and missing her family. She has to experience the world entirely from scratch, without any previous knowledge. That’s kind of what we missionary kids go through during furloughs (which is coming up close for my family!) I mean, what exactly are dimes and quarters? I’ve been working with South American money for all my life. How am I supposed to dress? I don’t know. I haven’t been in an American church since I was thirteen, and we all know how fashion-savvy thirteen-year-olds are.
So, long story short, there’s a whole lot more of me in Lunetta than I expected when I sat down to write this story.
You write deep, hard stories. Why? (Do you think it’s possible for you to write fluff?)

I write deep, hard stories because we live in a deep, hard world.
To be honest, I’ve never been the kind of girl who was satisfied with sweet romances and children’s fiction. I grew up on War and Peace, Shakespeare, Anne of Green Gables (wow that list looks strange), Little House on the Prairie.
I grew up in a house where one night, the living room would hold my dad and a couple there for marriage counseling. The next day, a young woman pregnant out of wedlock. The next day, we would pack up and travel three or four hours to a church, to meet with people who walked miles and waded through rivers just to hear God’s Word.
There’s so much going on in this world, and I feel like standard Christian fiction brushes no more than the surface.
Is it possible for me to write fluff? I think so. I mean, all things are possible. I’ll let you know the day that happens. 😉
What’s it like, being a writer in a missionary family? What are a couple challenges you face every day?

I don’t think I have many challenges that other writers in big families don’t. There’s always the issue of scheduling – when there’s a weekend trip, two basketball games, piano classes, Bible Institute lessons, English class, six kids in homeschool – there’s always a lot going on.
One of the challenges I’ve faced is the fact that I’m generally an antisocial person. I’m happiest when I’m at my desk with my headphones in, my music playing, and fingers tapping across the keyboard. But as a missionary family, we’re here to serve people. So it’s always a struggle – to write or socialize?
What do you do in addition to writing and making me cry a lot?

Oh, man, you have asked the million dollar question.
I have seven little siblings. Not a day goes by that I don’t:

  • Drive someone somewhere
  • Tie some little person’s shoelaces
  • Fix their hair
  • Break up a squabble
  • An infinity of other things
I’m also a part-time Bible Institute student, which is where I find a lot of inspiration for my stories.
On top of that, I have a part-time job in a cheese factory. Want gruesome details about how Gouda cheese is made? I’m your girl.
Add that to writing (and making poor Annie cry), and I’m busy enough.
How many stories do you have up your sleeves?

Good thing I’m wearing two layers of sleeves!
On the “to-be-published-this-year”, there are at least eight, if I’m not forgetting any.
Now, on my “plot-bunny-will-be-published-someday” list? Thousands.

{My review}


5 stars

She did it again. Rebekah DeVall did it again. Iron Core has more of the gripping emotion I’ve come to love in her writing, wrapped in a fresh story and bright new characters. Iron Core is intense, for all the brevity of the story. She seems to make one sentence do the work of two. Lunetta is a dear who needs to be loved and taken care of, but she doesn’t seem to allow for that. Persa… Carlotta… ZANE, who I definitely don’t have a tiny crush on. I love the characters. They’re tangible and I can feel the threads of their own histories that make them into the individuals they are, even in such a short little book. 

Recommend for teens 14+

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2017 New Releases Showcase {Facebook Event}

What: 
2017 New Releases Showcase – an event to promote and showcase books released in 2017.
When:
Thursday, December 14th
Friday, December 15th
Where:
Wherever you are! This event is hosted on Facebook. (Facebook does not sponsor this event or any of the giveaways.)
Who:
Most importantly: YOU! We won’t have much of a party without the guests.
The featured authors are:
Why: 
My personal favorite: Why not? I can’t share hot chocolate and cookies, but I can assure you that it’s going to be a ton of fun. You’ll get a chance to talk with each of the authors, enter some giveaways, and just chill. The best part? You can do it in your pajamas!

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