Maureen Bush

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

In Praise of howweirdcanyouget.com

I received a wonderful email from a teacher at Olivet New Church school in Ontario (the birthplace of Alice the Apatosaurus):

The kids clearly loved Featherbrain, but more than that, they loved your
Howweirdcanyouget site. Shall I tell you how we discovered it? It was one of
those “the teacher has ADD” moments, let me tell you! We were having SSR
time, and all was quiet in the classroom. We were sharing the Silver Birch
books and it was my turn to read Featherbrain. (I try to read all the books
I ask the kids to read) My eyes fixed on the www.com address and I thought
“Let’s ruin the quiet atmosphere with some excitement” (or something like
that; I don’t actually remember what I was thinking) and announced (probably
without thinking) “I wonder if this is a real site?” The kids, some of whom
are always looking for a distraction anyway, were quite eager to check it
out. As you know, we only have 4 students, so it was easy for us to crowd
around the computer. I wish I had a video of us at that time. We quickly
decided we had to buy a magic potion. Naturally I had to be quite dramatic
as I wondered out loud how safe this is, and if the authorities know about
this (etc ~LOL) Y kept worrying about the price; how were we going to pay
the $19.95? At each pop-up I asked the kids (trepidation quivering in my
voice) “Should we go on?” The kids’ voices got louder; there was a fever
pitch in the air as they yelled “YES!” to each one. When we finally got to
the last one that denied access we all burst out laughing. Some nervous
laughter if I sensed that correctly  :-)  Well, SSR was shot for the day, LOL!
but reading had suddenly become more interesting. (Bull’s-eye!!!!)

We used your invitation to submit to a contest to talk about recipes and how
to write one. I jumped off from there and I read the 3 witches’ part from
Shakespeare’s’ Macbeth out loud (nice recipe there!) to them. They were
excited to write their own recipes for magic.

I was thrilled with this letter – to have a part in reaching kids, to hear about how much fun the kids had, and to learn how a great teacher can bring learning alive. And it really made me laugh!

Maureen

and The Winner Is . . .

It’s time to conclude the contest for howweirdcanyouget.com. Griffith, the wizard who owns the site, asked for magical ideas. For the best idea, he offered a leather-bound book for recording spells, and a signed copy of Feather Brain, as a reminder of how magic can go wrong.

The contest entries were wonderful – imaginative and funny and sometimes a little scary. It was a blast reading them, and really hard to chose the winner. Special thanks to the kids from Teresa’s class at Keeler School, who sent so many great ideas.

Perhaps the most practical entry came from an adult named Mark (okay, my husband) – a “Do Over” button for undoing and fixing mistakes. This was not unlike a Time Machine for Mistakes, to go back and fix mistakes. Other useful ideas included several for making clones – wouldn’t it be useful to have a clone to do your homework and clean your room? Some entries were mini-stories, from future writers of fiction.

Griffith has chosen his favorite ideas to experiment with, and try to bring into development:

Caitlin’s Turn Yourself Into a Mermaid, and if that fails, Yoan’s Turning Humans Into Fish;

Luny’s Time Machine for Mistakes – to go back to fix mistakes;

Taylor’s Magic Dino Digger, a lustering potion for finding dinosaur bones;

Jayden’s Copy People’s Voices – to make yourself sound like another person of your choice; and

Josh’s Make Toys Come to Life.

The first runner up:

Turning into a mermaid!
by Caitlin (Age 9)

1kg-Cream soda
3 hairs-of a child at the age of six
10ml-of tears from an adult.
10 scales from a fish.
5 small pieces of cloth.
In a medium pot, stir all the ingredients together until well mixed. Cook at 350 degrees celsius for half an hour.
Take the  pot off and set aside to cool.
When cooled put into bowls and serve.
The spell lasts 2 days, so make sure you are back on land before that time or you will drown.
(should serve 5 people)

And the winner is:

The Weather Spell
by Fiona (Age 9)

The weather spell creates the weather. You could make any kind of weather by saying,  “Weather!” and say what it is.  Here’s the example: “Weather – snow!” and it snows.

The ingredients are, snow, rain, grass, flowers, and the last  ingredients are the moon and the stars. Mix them in a pot and put your hand in it.

It works by saying “Weather, weather come to me!” and all weather will be yours. And everyday you need to dip your hands in the pot. This means that you need to save the ingredients in the pot. It works in a dark , dark place and it needs to be a place that you are scared of.

Warning: If some one sees your pot with the ingredients, you will disappear forever.

Thanks to everyone who entered. Keep watch – I may have another contest in the fall.

Maureen