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Monday, March 8, 2010

The Big Secret Revealed

Last month, BananaStamper and I submitted an entry for the Land of Magnolia Contest over on the Magnolia-liscious Yahoo Group. The instructions from Diana were as follows:

I want you to write a story of 450 words or more about the land of Magnolia where Edwin and Tilda live. You must use all the magic words at least once. Naturally other words like Tingla, Edwin, Rufus, Alva and Alf can be used. I want you to present the story! This is where originality and creativeness will come in to play. Illustration is good.

Magic Words are: Sunshine, Worms, Butterfly, Mushroom, Pumpkin, Garden, Gate, Snow, Angel.

So, I set to work on the story and BananaStamper set to work on the Illustration part.  The illustration was the definitely the tricky part.  There were a few posts asking Diana for ideas on what we wanted for presentation, but she was very vague.   So, after many false starts, I decided to write the story like it was a children's book.  This meant keeping to the simple theme that would accompany a children's book.  It took all our effort not to add bunches of ribbon and flowers and sparkles etc.   To read the story, click here.

What was originally a grand plan, was slammed by sick kids, kids who had their appendix taken out, a spousal trip to the Olympics and life in general...darned full time jobs! 

Anyway, we didn't win, but we did get an honorable mention!  And, I'm pretty darned excited about that! And, since we won't be featured on Magnolia-licious' Blog, we thought it only fitting to show it to you on our own blogs.  As you scroll down, remember that these pages would flip like a story book.  I hope you enjoy it.







I'm so proud of us for finishing this project and for the great product that we were able to produce as a team!
 
The best is that because we didn't win, we get to keep our creation!  Our kids love the story, so that is a big plus...and although I'll have to change names and some minor details the story still remains my property and I have decided to tweak it a little and try to see if I can't get a children's book published.  Crazy, I know. 
 
What is so disappointing to me in this whole thing, and none of you would know this, is that I am a writer at heart.  I have chapter upon chapter of unfinished works just hiding away.  I wrote 3 different stories for this contest before we finally settled on an idea and I polished it.  So, I am going to pull out my pen and from time to time I'll post something on my "other blog" I Love Lasagna.  Sometimes it will be fiction, sometimes just ponderings and thoughts.  If you're a reader, I hope you'll join me.  And, if not, that's okay too! 
 
All in all, this was a good Monday!

8 comments:

i {heart} papers said...

This is an awesome project!!

Crystal said...

What an awesome story and your illustrations were wonderful! Great project and something I'm sure your children will enjoy for many years. Even if you didn't win it sounds like you had a blast creating this with Shanna!

Sparkplug17 said...

What a lovely project! I'm so proud of you ladies!

KymKreates said...

Wow I give you credit for jumping in and doing it, I just thought about it. I is simply beautiful and go for it!!!! I wish you all the luck in the world.
Kym

Monique said...

This is absolutely adorable..Well done and I think you ladies are winners!!

KanataNewf said...

Oh my goodness - I think this is just delightful.

CarlaKH said...

This is just amazing! Fabulous! What a great team you two are.. love it. COngrats on your honorable mention!

Shana said...

Amazing Danielle! You and Shanna really put a lot of thought and heart into the project!!! Congratulations!