Maureen Bush

Contest Update

The winning and runner-up contest entries have been posted on howweirdcanyouget.com.

Maureen

Contest Time

It’s time to wrap up the spring contest on howweirdcanyouget.com. Kids were asked to submit magical ideas for Griffith the wizard to develop for his shop. We received wonderful entries from kids and even a few adults. It was difficult to choose, but here’s the list:

The Winner: Matthew, age 10

Shoes to Glue – the soles of your runners are sticky so you can walk on walls and ceilings.

(Simple magic with great usefulness is ideal, and rare, in magical design.  This is perfect.  ­– Griffith)

In development:

Griffith will also be experimenting with

Jessica’s spell that makes you transport to the other side of the world and back (tricky, but enormously useful);

Kelsi’s spell to duplicate yourself and be at however many places you want to be at, but you must be careful. You can get in trouble from using this spell. You just say “make me be at all places with a few suitcases” (very tricky, but remarkably useful);

Daniel’s spell to make a video game come to life (this could be tricky, but it’s appealing because of how much trouble it could cause.)

I was intrigued by the story potential in many of the ideas, including:

from Kailee: a mythical monster in the office because he got in trouble. (Wouldn’t that be a great scene in a school?)

Abigayle suggested a story in which a brother and sister move into a new house, find a door and fall into a magical world. And their mother thought they were just in their rooms unpacking. (I love inattentive parents!)

from Will: You say “hulaboo” and it turns cardboard into cows. (Imagine the chaos!)

and for pure creepiness, from Masooma:

Once there was an evil witch who wanted to cast a spell on the fairies so she could drain their magic and make them work for her. Here is the spell:

make it do

make it new

cast a spell on these fairies

and make them into evil witch’s stew!!!!!!!

HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!

Thanks to everyone who entered. It was wonderful reading all your ideas.

Maureen

PS: Evil hackers are attacking the host for my website, so they’ve taken precautions, like not allowing any access from outside the US. Therefore, we’ll be delayed in posting this at maureenbush.com.

Fan Mail

I’ve been getting fan mail.

I really enjoy hearing from kids. I love to write because I love the process of writing (well, most of the time). But I’ve also discovered the great pleasure of writing books kids enjoy. The only way I know that they enjoy my stories is when I get to talk to them, or when they write to me.

Sometimes they write to Griffith, the fictional wizard who owns the magic shop at howweirdcanyouget.com. Then I have fun answering from him, or for him. The kids seem to have no trouble playing along. (That’s why I love writing for kids!)

Maureen

Fall 2009 Contest

It’s time to conclude the fall 2009 howweirdcanyouget.com contest.

And the winner is . . . Beth, 11, who sent in a story idea that charmed me:

“My idea is a book about a girl, but she’s not an ordinary girl; she is a star shiner. She has magical powers but she doesn’t know it. She can create the temperature on earth. When she does find out she goes out of control and creates disasters around the world. Soon mother nature is after her and has her trapped in an imaginary world. Will she ever escape?”

Other lovely ideas worth an honourable mention:

Another from Beth: a spell to control minds.

And some great ingredient ideas that Griffith intends to work with:

from Beth, again: troll toe nails and ghost sweat

from Peter: lizard tail and rabbit tough!

Griffith says to Rachel:

A time machine is the hardest – my plans always fail. Any ideas for how to make it?

From my sister – this one always works:

Sister Solution

Guaranteed to make her run away FAST

one strand of naturally curly hair,

one ounce of spit from a mischievous child,

One can of sardines

one glop of peanut butter

Mix well and serve to older sister

(That would be me).

Maureen

Contest

I’m having another contest for Feather Brain. Griffith the wizard is looking for more ideas to develop into magical products; check out his store at www.howweirdcanyouget.com.

The prize, once again, will be a small leather-bound notebook for recording magical ideas, and a signed copy of Feather Brain. Adults are welcome to send in ideas, but only kids can win.

Maureen