As always, thank you to Susanna Hill for this contest and to all of the talented agents and authors offering prizes. Happy Valentiny Day!


Bigfoot's Valentine
209 Words
By Kirsten Leestma

It was February in the alpine forest. 

Two feet of snow covered the ground. Another two feet nervously tapped up and down. Valentine’s Day was tomorrow and Bigfoot didn’t know what to do. 

“I want a valentine,” he said to no one, “but who? And how?” Bigfoot spent his whole life hiding, too afraid to step out of the forest. Here was his chance to be brave.

He listened to the birds sing love songs to each other. Bigfoot tried to belt out a tune, but the whole forest went quiet.

“Oh well. I’m pretty good at being alone, but I do always get the feeling I’m being watched.” 

“That’s it!”

Bigfoot grabbed sticks, bark, and berries. It took all afternoon. Bigfoot was nothing if not precise. Finally, his valentine was ready. With as much courage as he could muster, he stepped out of the forest.

“Hello? Are you there?”

Silence.

“Yoo-hoo!”

Nothing.

Bigfoot was losing his nerve, but called out once more.

“WILL YOU BE MY VALENTINE?”

Snap. Bigfoot turned towards the sound just as he was about to give up. Another Bigfoot stepped into the clearing and said,

“Yes.”

The bigfeet blinked.

“Then this is for you,” he said beaming, glad he stepped out of the woods.

No hearts? No worries.

I've participated in 4 or 5 various Twitter pitch parties over the last couple of years. I've never received a heart and for the first few events, that really bummed me out. Last fall when I participated I made the conscious decision to be more active throughout the day. I didn't just pitch it and forget it, but did my best to interact with other authors pitching that day. Did it work? YES! But not in the way you think.

I did the same today and while my pitches still remained heart-less, these last two pitch parties have not only helped me network in the kidlit world, but have made my entire manuscript better. Here are some of the things I've gained by actively participating in #PBpitch:

• I revised my pitches for the afternoon based on the type of comments I received. For one of my pitches, the whole point of the story wasn't landing the way I wanted it to. I revised it and hopefully made it clearer the second time around.
• People responded to the voice of my pitches. Hooray! That's one thing I hope comes through in my writing.
• Some commenters included ways they would use the text if it were published. Some were obvious, but some I had never even thought about. How cool that someone would connect with my writing in a way I hadn't dreamed of.
• I met other authors! Twitter is a big place and can be overwhelming, but the kidlit community is nothing if not supportive. Every single one of us wants our work to be noticed, but is just as eager to make someone else's dream come true at the same time. 
• Story swaps! I have found a few other writers who are pitching that are willing to swap stories. It's never a bad thing to get another pair of eyes on your manuscript.
• You can see what connects with people! Two of my pitches did way better than the other today and one in particular pleasantly surprised me. I love when commenters will share what they connected with in the pitch and how much they would love to see that book in print. What a mood booster!

SO. If you're on the fence about pitching on Twitter, I say jump right in! Will you get a heart from an agent, editor, or publisher? Honestly? Probably not. If you do, that's a huge win, but I'd call my heart-less day a big win just the same.

Happy writing!

I can't think of a better word to use for the inaugural post of this series. I feel like I spent a large part of 2020 in various states of ennui. However, there's another reason I chose this word to start off with. It shows up somewhat frequently as I'm reading and I had to look it up the first 50 times at least. For some reason I could never remember exactly what it meant. Then, every time I would look it up, I'd kick myself for seeing how simple the definition was. ALSO, I had no idea how to pronounce it for a while. En-nooey? En-u-eye? En-wah? Nope. None of those. It's pronounced "Ahn-wee" and isn't that fun to say? For the appropriate pronunciation symbols see above or click on the link to Merriam-Webster to hear someone say it out loud!

So, why am I starting a series about words you may ask? Isn't reading the dictionary the very definition of ennui? No! I think it's fascinating to learn about the words we use, how they came to be, and why some of them go in and out of style. I like to learn new words, but I like learning about the ones I know just the same. You never know when you need a really good one.


“Ennui.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ennui. Accessed 1 Jan. 2021.

...all of us. I've been able to watch the last two years of the ALA Youth Media Awards live online because of snow days. Thanks, January in Michigan! Today, like everything in the past year, was different. I had the awards on mute in the background while I attended a zoom meeting. Thanks to Twitter, I caught up on all the winners throughout the day and I just love all of it. I love that everyone is genuinely happy for each other. I love that my entire feed was filled with virtual hugs for authors and illustrators. I love that hard work pays off. I love that the first woman BIPOC won the Caldecott. I love that women creators were well-represented in general. I love that for a whole day we can geek out about the genius of kidlit. I haven't read a single mean tweet today and that, my friends, is a good day. Congratulations to all the winners and to anyone who had a book published in 2020. What a year to have your dreams come true.
​
Check out the full list of winners here:
​http://www.ala.org/news/taxonomy/term/788

It's been a weird year for a lot of reasons and reading has been no exception. This year has been a rollercoaster of not reading at all and then finishing 3 books a week. When all was said and done, I can say it's been a good year of books and there aren't many other chances to describe this year as being good! Drumroll please for a list of favorites!

What. A. Year.

Let's flashback for a moment. New Year's Eve 1999. Dooo doo dooo dooo (That is a time traveling sound effect...Humor me). I was about to turn 14 and my best friend and I were rocking out to The Wedding Singer soundtrack while her older sister had a much cooler party upstairs in which we were not allowed to show our faces. You don't have to tell me how cool I was, the answer is: VERY. Okay, so, it's 1999, the Prince song is everywhere and it is the dawn of the new millennium. Everyone is anxious about Y2K. We are nervous to see how everything will change. We are hopeful for the future. We are IN the future. You can burn your own CDs for goodness sake!

Flash forward to now *insert sound effect* and we're nervous for about a million reasons. Back then I wondered if I would still be able to use AIM, or how "it will be so weird to write '00 on my paper!" Now, I wonder about how quickly a vaccine can be delivered. I wonder what in-person school will look like after being online since March. I wonder how to challenge myself and others after a year of political and social unrest. I wonder if I'll ever shake someone's hand again or be cool about toilet paper. The issues are bigger, but the energy feels the same: Bring it on, future. Whatcha got?

I'm excited for 2020 to be in the rear view mirror, but it has taught me a thing or two. It taught me patience, how to unmute myself, how to style the upper half of my body, how to not take anything for granted, how to clean out all of my closets twice, how to spend more time outside, and to be oh-so-grateful for good health. My heart and soul goes out to everyone who has struggled through this year or who has lost someone they loved. Let's forever tell their stories as well as our own.

This New Year's Eve will be me, my dog, When Harry Met Sally, and we're gonna (not quite) party like it's 1999.

It's time for another writing contest! Thank you to Susanna Hill for running the contest and to everyone who is offering up their time and talent as prizes! Please go check out Susanna's blog here!

This year's theme is Holiday Helpers. The story must be 250 words or less and focus around the theme of helping out during this holiday season. Intrigued by the fact that it's winter up here in the Northern Hemisphere, but summer in the Southern Hemisphere, I chose to write a story about two girls a world apart who are helping their families celebrate the solstice. Enjoy!

December 21st
by Kirsten Leestma
170 Words

Aada hangs a tangle of twinkle lights.
Zara strings a strand of shells.
Aada twirls hers around a pine and Zara twists hers around a palm.

Aada bakes gingerbread friends in the warm oven. She stands close so they don’t get away.
Zara arranges fresh fruit into the shape of Santa. She sneaks a few grapes to stay cool.
Aada puts the cookies on the table and Zara sets her tray on a blanket near the waves.

Aada clomps through the snow to bring in new logs for the fire.
Zara skips across the sand to snag the umbrella for shade.
Aada gathers her family to celebrate light in the darkness and Zara gathers hers to celebrate a day of endless sun.

Aada’s eyes sparkle in the glow of candlelight on the shortest day of the year.
Zara’s eyes sparkle the way the sun shines across the sea on the longest.
Aada smiles. Zara does, too. They've helped create a perfect day.

​It’s December 21st. Winter and Summer are here.

​Once upon a time I won my third grade speech competition. Technically I think there was a four way tie, but that's besides the point. The point is that the topic of our speeches was "what you want to be when you grow up." That answer was easy for third grade me. I wanted to be an author. Ever since I stapled together a few pages about a family of tigers, I knew I wanted to have that feeling over and over again.

So, I gave my speech (heavy on the Roald Dahl quotes), collected my participation trophy, and went on my way. I wrote a lot when I was a kid. In journals, a few more stapled books, but as it too often happens, the habit fell by the wayside. High school and college happened and most of my time was consumed with sports, concerts, studying, and friends. Writing wasn't a real thing anyway.

I graduated with a degree in education and embarked out into the world of teaching. I love teaching. I get to teach young kids how to read and share so many cool things about our world. I wouldn't take that back. 

But I wish I would have realized sooner that it's not one or the other. You do not have to be just one thing when you grow up. You do not just have to do the job because it pays the bills. Okay, maybe you have to do the bill-paying thing, but what I mean is that I should have been writing this whole time.

A few years ago I got back into it. I joined SCBWI and met up with local writing groups. I have approximately 10 works in progress and I never know if that's too many or not nearly enough. Some weeks I write a lot, some weeks have more of a Netflix vibe. 

Last September a piece of my writing was published for the first time. I wrote a poem called IN MY YARD and submitted it to Root & Star Magazine. I still can't believe that I can open it up and see my piece in front of me. The feeling is just the same as it was when I stapled those notebook pages together. I hesitated to call myself an author until I had something in print. But, really, I've been one all along.

Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows that The Story of Ferdinand was my favorite book as a kid. What was it about that bull who liked to sit just quietly beneath the cork tree and smell the flowers? I don't know, but I read it more times than I can count. 

When I bought a house a few years back, it took me all of one week to also get a dog. "Oh I'll just go to this adoption event and look," were my famous last words. I already had dog food and a leash in the car. I was obviously coming home with a puppy. And I did. And she's awesome. Her name is Pigeon and I thought, "maybe I'll be a jogger now! I can go jogging with my dog!" She was not about that. Jogging is very much not her thing, which is one of the several reasons we're best friends. Friends don't let friends jog for no reason. She is the most chill dog ever. She is Ferdinand and now I have photographic evidence.

​She doesn't like to fight (or jog), she lays down on the sidewalk if we happen to pass another dog, and she is content to sit just quietly and smell the flowers. And you know what? Me too.