Summer Send-Off Prompt- Another Princess to Save
Susanna Leonard Hill is hosting a picture prompt at her site. I am a sucker for dragons, so I had to give it a shot.
The Rules: The contest is for a children's story of 250 words or less based on the picture above and in which somebody somewhere in your story says, in dialogue, "Did/do you see that?" and somebody somewhere in your story says, "Goodbye!" (you are allowed to substitute "Farewell!", "Au revoir!", "Sayonara!", "Ciao!", or "So long!")
Another Princess to Save
Please stop over to Susanna's site to read the great entries!
The Rules: The contest is for a children's story of 250 words or less based on the picture above and in which somebody somewhere in your story says, in dialogue, "Did/do you see that?" and somebody somewhere in your story says, "Goodbye!" (you are allowed to substitute "Farewell!", "Au revoir!", "Sayonara!", "Ciao!", or "So long!")
Another Princess to Save
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| illustration copyright Heather Newman 2012 |
Moats were pretty common
in the land, but this river of fire was overkill. The dragon's red hot scales and sharp horns were
frightening enough. His snake eyes
followed me as I searched for a place to jump to the castle.
I could see the captured
maiden over the tips of the flames. She
was pretty, but not the fairest of them all.
Princess Gwen's gold hair dangled to her knees, and I only had to save her
from a single ogre. I battled trolls
with foul-smelling warts to rescue Princess Amelia, and you could see the ocean
waves in her eyes.
This maiden focused on her
knitting. When she finally noticed me,
she sprang to the window and said "oh help me brave knight." After a moment she returned to her work. I supposed I should save her from the dragon,
but she seemed calm enough.
The dragon moved, and I
noticed a boy peeking out behind him.
The dragon's lips curled up in a wicked smirk. My horse reared up to run, and she was never
wrong. Sayonara, fair maiden.
"Did you see
that?" the maiden yelled to her brother.
"That knight just turned and ran the other way!"
"You could try brushing your hair every once in a while," her brother yelled back rubbing the dragon's empty belly.
Please stop over to Susanna's site to read the great entries!
Aw...an unkempt princess! Very creative and fun!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amazing how many different stories grew from one picture? I love your idea spawning from the tiny key at the top- and rhythm and rhyme in a few days time?
DeleteThis is fabulous, Lauri! Very fun! I love that the maiden and her brother had lured the knight in to feed their dragon - very creative and original! :) Thanks so much for entering, and I'm glad to "meet" you and see your blog!
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting the contest Susanna - I wish I had caught the series earlier in the summer. If you plan to repeat, it is on my to do list for next year.
DeleteDon't know about a repeat, but will definitely be continuing Short & Sweets into the fall on alternate Mondays by popular demand :)
DeleteI am updating my calendar for Mondays immediately!
DeleteHi Lauri...so lovely to connect with you via Susanna's wonderful contest!
ReplyDeleteI am also a sucker for dragons and fairytales...as well as little girs (or boys) who enjoy rolling in the mud. :)
Great story...I love how your characters are portrayed in such a modern way...the princess more interested in her career (knitting) than in the knight.
Nice to meet you too Vivian. Your book Show Me How looks neat. That is funny to think of knitting as her career! I guess you have to keep your dragon fed somehow...
DeleteFun story, Lauri! I loved the last line, "You could try brushing you hair every once in a while." LOL!
ReplyDeleteThanks Romelle. I must have looked in the mirror for a moment when I was trying to figure out the ending :) Congrats on completing the prompts all summer! I'll have to be on the look out for this next year.
DeleteHAHAHA! This is great! :D
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you liked it! Are you really 10? Because I seriously need some coaching on cool things 10-year-olds say so I try middle grade writing. Is cool still cool? Probably not. I also say awesome a lot. I don't know why. Probably would help if I limited the 80s music I listen to...
DeleteReally great contest! Is this something anyone can participate or is there a linky list, or just some friends putting it together?
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog and joining! I'm following you now. *waves hi*
*Hi* to you Ink in the Book! (Do you share your real name or are you mysterious?) Anyhow, I jotted down a few things and I probably have a whole blog post here so don't be surprised when you see one down the road.
Deletehttp://taralazar.wordpress.com - Tara Lazar hosts PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month)in November.
http://www.writingforchildrenandteens.com/ - Cynthea Liu hosts Red Light Green Light contests throughout the year.
http://writeoncon.com/ - An online conference in August with a forum for critique with roaming Ninja Agents and virtual presentations. Fantabulous.
http://kathytemean.wordpress.com/ - Kathy Temean hosts a monthly picture prompt with critiques from agents and editors.
http://paulayoo.com/napi/ - Paula Yoo hosts NaPiBoWriWee, a contest to write 7 picture books in 7 days (first week in May). Exhausting but amazing.
http://robertleebrewer.blogspot.com/ - Robert Lee Brewer hosted an April Platform Challenge covering blogging, social media, and everything about creating an author platform. He may repeat in 2013.
http://christiewrightwild.blogspot.com/p/contest.html - Christie Wright Wild does a quarterly PB contest to win a free critique.
http://susannahill.blogspot.com/ - Susanna Hill has contests throughout the year.