Creative Challenges: So Far Gone.

Hello everyone! It’s Creative Challenge Day. If you are unfamiliar with Creative Challenges, here’s the gist: Creative Challenges is a twice weekly event that is hosted by Cynthia Dawn. Cynthia sends out two prompts by email every week. One is for everyone, and the other is for email subscribers only. All you have to do is take the prompt and write a story. The story can either be based off a personal experience or like I do, using a fictional character.

Prompt: His life wasn’t always like this. How did he get here?

My Story:

Paco Hernandez stands alone. His barefeet are covered in bruises and dirt. His clothes are tattered and gritty. Paco’s red hair is in a knotted mess and pointing in several directions. His only belongings are his dog Lupe and a ratty old sleeping bag. His hands have many cuts from holding the cardboard sign. Yes, Paco is homeless. But he hasn’t always been. His life was once wonderful. He was married to a loving wife named Darla. They had three kids named Maribel, José, and Carmen. Darla filed for divorce 5 years ago and took their kids with her. She sold the house and left him on the street. Once his boss heard he didn’t have a home anymore, he was fired when he came to work barefoot and dirty. Now he lived on whatever food he could find. Paco is awfully skinny and his dog’s fur is matted and needs to be groomed. Nobody gives Paco money. It could be because of his mean expression. Maybe they think he’s like the others who turn the money into alcohol and cigarettes. All he needs is some money to get by. But nobody will help him. So there he sits. On the corner of 6th and Main, holding his sign while car after car drives by.

Thanks for reading! 🙂

~Makayla the Bookworm 😀

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Creative Challenges: Haunted by Pirates

It’s time for  more Creative Challenges! If you are unfamiliar with this event, here’s the gist: Creative Challenges is a twice weekly event that is hosted by Cynthia Dawn. One challenge is for everyone and the other is for her email subscribers only. She emails you a prompt and all you do is write a story based on a personal experience or like I do, using a fictional character.

My Story:

Harper Willis has quite a strange secret. He’s only in 1st grade and he’s haunted by pirates. He’s the only one that knows. His sister Savanna and brother Max are clueless. If he told his mom Alice and his dad Fredrick, they would think that he’s crazy. It all started one day when he was surfing the web. Harper’s not normally aloud to do that but when his sister Savanna is babysitting, anything goes. He was watching a video about elephants, his favorite animal, when a strange video popped up. Screams erupted from the computer into his headphones and he felt shivers run down his spine. A burly man with along hair and many scars popped up before him and he resisted the urge to scream. His palms were sweating waterfalls. The pirate captain who preferred to be called Scar told him that he better watch his back. One wrong move and..     more screams erupted into Harper’s ears. Tears were running down his cheeks by that time and he was shaking like nothing else. Scar let out a loud evil laugh and smashed something on the ground. It shattered and then the screen went blank. Harper ran up to his room and hid under his covers until he stopped shaking. Every once in a while late at night, Harper can hear that same loud evil laugh seemingly close by. He hides under his covers, for he knows that Scar and his crew are watching him.

Thanks for reading!

~Makayla the Bookworm 🙂

Book Review: The Saturday Boy by David Fleming!

Hello Everyone 🙂 Today I am bringing you another book review. The Saturday Boy by David Fleming.

Summary:

“If there`s one thing I`ve learned about comic books, its that everybody has a weakness- Something that can totally ruin their day without fail.” For Derek Lamb, it was a letter. One little letter sent his dad back to Afghanistan to fly Apache helicopters for the U.S. army. All he has of his dad are his letters. All ninety one of them are stored in an old plastic lunchbox with a cool black car that has Knight Rider underneath. Apart from his comic books, his dad`s letters are the only thing he reads more than once. Derek knows which ones to read when he`s down and need a “pick-me-up. Derek knows which ones to read to make him feel like he can conquer the world. He even has one that he can read when he forgets Mom`s birthday. No matter what, he has a letter that tells him what he needs to hear. But what he wants to hear most is that his dad`s coming home. 

Book Title: The Saturday Boy.

Author: David Fleming

Author Facts:

1. David wrote his first story at 6 or 7 years old. It was a Christmas story.

2. He grew up in Weston, Massachusetts.

3. David Fleming went to Wheaton College to study English Dramatic Literature and Theater.

Source: davidflemingink.com

My Rating: 10/10 or 5 stars

Amazon`s Rating: 4.6/5 stars

Goodreads Rating: 4/5 stars

Age Range: 10 and up.

Grade Range: 5 and up.

I recommend this book for anyone that loves adventure, family, and friendship.

Thanks for reading and Stay tuned for more!

~Makayla the Bookworm 🙂

Blogging 201 Day #1: Lets Set Some Goals!

Hello everyone! This is my first post for Blogging 201. If you are unfamiliar with the two week course, I suggest you check out the link here. Today’s assignment is to set 3 goals for your blog. While I have set goals before, these ones will be more specific and number based.

Blog Goals:

1. Interact with my Followers At Least Once a week.

What that means to me is commenting, viewing, and liking their blogs and posts at least once a week. This will be quite tough since I have around 70 followers minus my email followers who don’t have a blog (You guys are still important!) I want to interact more with my followers and show them that I really appreciate their tag, challenge, and award nominations, views, comments, and more.

2. Hit 100 followers by October 14th.

This goal may be a bit harder to achieve. I have roughly 4 and a half weeks to go from around 70 followers to 100. I will continue to post as much as possible and let the viewers of my blog decide if I am worthy of their time. It’s as simple as that. I can’t force people to follow me and read my content. Only time will tell if this will happen.

3. Do some interviews and Guest blogging in the next few months.

I’ve always been so interested in guest blogging and interviewing. Of course I won’t be a pro at first but I will work hard. I would love to interview writers, popular book bloggers, and pretty much anyone that would fit in with the rest of my content. Same goes with the guest blogging. Anyone who shares my love for reading, writing, and/or books can guest blog/collab anytime! I want to get more into that. If you’re interested, let me know 🙂

Thats it! I will keep track of these goals in some way. Stay tuned for the next Blogging 201 assignment!

~Makayla the Bookworm 🙂

Blogging 201!

Hello! As some of you know, I participated in Blogging 101 towards the beginning of the year. Blogging 101 was designed to help me get going, learn the basics of blogging, and start gaining an audience. For the next two weeks I will be participating in Blogging 201. As you may have guessed, Blogging 201 continues on from Blogging 101. In this course I will learn more and advanced  techniques, continue to expand my audience, and learn to make more audience engaging content. I have received my first assignment and will be posting that shortly. I will still be participating in Writing 101 and will do the 3rd day (I’m behind) ASAP as well.

Thanks for reading and Stay tuned for more 🙂

~Makayla the Bookworm 😀