October Activity: Help Me Tell a Story (and Maybe Win a Book!)

Let’s Write a Story

We’re halfway through October, and the brisk fall weather, beautiful autumn sunsets, and creepy Halloween decorations have got me in the mood to tell a spooky story. But I’m feeling lazy, so I want your help.

My story, titled “What Was That Noise?” is missing some words. Fill them in for me and send me your answers. You can share your ideas in a comment on this post or email them to me via my contact page. Just keep your suggestions PG and get them to me by Sunday, October 22nd. My guest judge will read the stories your responses create and choose the best ones to be published on my blog.

But wait! There’s more!

October is my birthday month, and I like giving gifts as much as I enjoy receiving them, so I’ll be giving away two signed, personalized Spooky America books to two lucky winners just in time for Halloween. In order to be entered in the giveaway, you can…

  • Participate in this story activity! Your story doesn’t even have to be selected for publication. Anyone who sends a word list by 10/22 will be entered in the giveaway.
  • Sign up for my newsletter! All NEW subscribers between now and 10/22 will be included in the drawing.
  • Share one of my books on Facebook or Instagram! Tag me in your post by 10/22, and I’ll add your name to the raffle. (Instagram = @CarieJuettner Facebook = @CarieJuettnerWriter)

Winners and winning spooky stories will be announced here on my website next week. If you win, you get to choose which of my five Spooky America books you’d like to read by the campfire or give to a young ghost enthusiast as a Halloween gift.

What are you waiting for? Grab a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and get to work on that story! Here’s what I need help with…

What Was That Noise?

Fill in the missing words of my story to help me complete it. Post your words in a comment, or send them through my contact page. Here’s a quick parts-of-speech reminder in case you need it. Have fun, and please keep suggestions family-friendly!

NOUN = person, place, or thing
VERB = word that shows action
ADJECTIVE = word that describes a noun
ADVERB = word that describes verb
(Adverbs usually shows how the verb was done & often end in -ly).

  1. ________ adjective
  2. ________ adjective
  3. ________ food
  4. ________ body part
  5. ________ adjective
  6. ________ adverb
  7. ________ noun
  8. ________ sound
  9. ________ verb (present tense)
  10. ________ noun
  11. ________ color
  12. ________ body part
  13. ________ verb (present tense)
  14. ________ an exclamation
  15. ________ adjective
  16. ________ adjective
  17. ________ name
  18. ________ animal
  19. ________ emotion
  20. ________ same name as #17
  21. ________ adjective
  22. ________ adjective
  23. ________ number
  24. ________ verb (ending in ing)
  25. ________ liquid

Thanks in advance! I can’t wait to see what we create together.

Unstuck

Everyone gets stuck sometimes. Stuck in ruts, stuck in habits, stuck in circular thoughts and indecision. I’ve been stuck in summer. Stuck in short-sleeves, stuck in the house, stuck in cold drinks and sweat and flipflops. When you’re stuck in a writing rut, you can unstick yourself with goal-setting or creative prompts. When you’re stuck in a bad mood, a phone call from a friend or a cuddle with a cat can often do the trick. But when you’re stuck in summer, you don’t have many options. You watch the calendar turn, ticking away the days and weeks and milestones that mean nothing when the temperature refuses to drop. Who cares about the first day of fall if it’s still 95 degrees outside? How can you celebrate the coming of October when it wafts in like a hot breath on your neck? You put pumpkins on your porch, wear skeleton t-shirts over your shorts, and fantasize about your favorite autumn treats, but even the thought of hot chocolate makes you feel feverish. Summer in Texas is a seasonal prison sentence, and this year we were denied parole.

Until today.

Fall blew in through my open window last night, sending me snuggling under a pile of blankets and filling my house with a crispness it hasn’t felt in months. I put on jeans, slipped my feet into warm socks, and pulled a hoodie over my head before going outside to feed the animals, who were romping in the morning’s chill, kicking up their heels and savoring the sudden change. I smiled as I wrapped my hands around my coffee mug and let the steam warm my cold nose.

This is not a tease, not just another single day’s respite. I feel a shift. The wind liberated leaves from trees and detached decorations from my yard, but that’s not all it freed. The cold front loosened summer’s hold on us. We’re all coming unstuck.

Fall has arrived, finally. I welcome it with open doors and open arms.  

From One Zoo to Another

My current “students”

The things that make me nostalgic for my teaching days are not always the things you might expect.

A few days ago, I woke up to find that my home had been invaded by ants. They were coming up between the wooden boards of our kitchen floor in multiple places, as well as through cracks in windowsills. We’ve had ants in our house before but never in this quantity or with this sort of initiative. These ants were organized and determined. They’d already made it into the bottom of the pantry and inside the bags of cat food and dog food. Of course, I didn’t realize this until after I’d fed the dog and the cat, thus transferring several of the ants to new locations. It wasn’t until I was feeding my dog Uno his kibble with one hand and holding my indoor cat Indie back with the other hand* that I saw the ants. At that point, they were hard to miss because they were crawling up my arms. *Note: Uno is twelve-and-a-half-years-old and sometimes decides he’d rather eat from my hand than his bowl, whereas Indie is one-year-old and will eat anything from anywhere at anytime.

I couldn’t find our ant traps, so I put the bags of kibble in the freezer to kill the ants inside them and called my mom, who lives next door and brought over some ant traps. (Mom to the rescue!) The ants ignored the traps, however, choosing instead to carry pieces of cat food to a crack in the floor where they realized the food was too big to fit through the hole and then congregated to have a meeting about it. While they were meeting, I sprayed them with some Windex that was handy. It didn’t kill them, but it made them mad, which was somewhat satisfying. Then I used toothpicks to make ramps into the ant traps to try to make it easier for the ants to get inside, but they didn’t fall for that either and just kept carrying kibble around the floor and being mad about the Windex.

Then I remembered that I hadn’t fed our half-wild fox, Finley, so I went out back with some dog kibble and fruit for her. Our outdoor cat, Meow-Man, followed me and started eating Finley’s food. She let him. I chased Meow-Man off because he is a well-fed cat who gets two meals a day, plus treats, and I suspect he is probably the reason why I found a squirrel head in my carport TWICE this week. (Yes, just the head. This isn’t the type of headcount I’m accustomed to. Either Meow-Man is killing squirrels or someone is sending me a very confusing and gross threat.) So, I guarded Finley while she ate her breakfast, then made sure Meow-Man followed me back to the house. Then I went inside, Windexed some more ants, and finally made my coffee.

As I stood there, impatiently waiting for the coffee to brew, I realized that the morning’s events had made me feel more like a 7th grade teacher than I have in a long time.

  • Unexpected/unpleasant surprise that disrupts the day’s plans? CHECK – ant invasion
  • Differentiation? CHECK – hand-feeding the dog
  • Borrowing supplies from a co-worker? CHECK – Mom brings ant traps
  • Accommodations? CHECK – toothpick ramps for ants
  • Discipline? CHECK – kept Meow-Man from bullying Finley
  • Strange messages that may or may not be threatening? CHECK – squirrel heads
  • Dealing with multiple crises before 8:00 a.m. without adequate caffeine? CHECK

Hats off to all my teacher friends still showing up every day for the students. You’re superheroes. I wish you a week of well-behaved animals, few ants, and absolutely no severed squirrel heads.