Writing Prompt

We’re currently travelling to Arizona, and we’ve passed a lot of fun billboards on our route, particularly one that said Meramec Caves explore Jesse James’ hideout! Let me give you a bit of background about the caves and their connection to the American outlaw.

Meramec Caverns is the name for a 4.6 mile cavern system in the Ozarks and is the most visited cave in Missouri, with around 150,00 visitors a year! The caverns were formed from the erosion of limestone over millions of years. Mike and I counted around 50 billboards pertaining to the Caverns, and I can certainly appreciate their commitment to marketing:) Speaking of marketing, in 1935, Lester B. Dill introduced the caves to the public as a tourist attraction and promoted the attraction by inventing the very first bumper sticker! How cool is that?

Meramec Caverns was also an important station on the Underground Railroad that housed thousands of slaves on their way to freedom.

According to local legend, James and his partner in crime, Frank, used the caves as a hideout in the 1870s! The caverns have also provided a setting for Hollywood in movies such as Tom Sawyer and Deep Impact.

A fun fact about Jesse James is that he handed out ‘press releases’ to witnesses at the scenes of his crimes; one read: “The most daring robbery on record. The southbound train on the Iron Mountain Railroad was stopped here this evening by five heavily armed men and robbed of ____ dollars… The robbers were all large men, none of them under six feet tall. They were masked and started in a southerly direction after they had robbed the train, all mounted on fine-blooded horses. There is a hell of an excitement in this part of the country!” *source historyhit.com

Also, after his death, his body was exhumed and proven to be him due to the missing finger bone that he had accidentally shot off while cleaning his pistol.

For today’s writing prompt, I’d like you to write a 1,000-word story using the photo prompt below, written in the third person narrative using crime as the genre. Feel free to submit your stories to pandapublishing8@gmail.com for your chance to have your story featured on our blog!

Fall Writing Challenge…

September 27, 2019- Fall is here! I absolutely love this season from the boots, to the wardrobe, to the colours, to the weather, I’m here for ALL of it.  Check out this awesome fall writing challenge below from our friends at shortandsincere.com. I’ll be working my way through this list too:) Enjoy!

C.S. Lewis and Mark Twain, Happy Birthday!

November 30, 2018– C.S. Lewis’ birthday was technically yesterday (November 29) but Mark Twain’s is today! Let’s celebrate both authors right now by sharing some interesting facts about them and their works.  We’ll start with C.S. (the beloved author of Chronicles of Narnia)!

1. C.S. stands for Clive Staples. He was known by his initials rather than his full name because, at the time, it was considered more formal and intellectual to be known professionally by initials rather than first name.
2. He hated his first name. So much so that he nicknamed himself “Jacksie” after his childhood pet (a dog) that was struck and killed by a car. As an adult, he went by the name Jack.
3. J.R.R. Tolkien was one of his BFF’s. Both met at Oxford University in England where they were professors. They were life-long friends even after some heated discussions and disagreements about each other’s work!

Let’s talk about Mark Twain, most famously known for writing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (two of my most favourite books ever!)

1. He wasn’t expected to live. Mark Twain, whose real name is Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was very sickly as a baby and well into childhood to about the age of seven. Twain was born two months early and was the sixth of seven children. He was one of three to survive into adulthood.
2. He almost drowned… nine times. Before the age of thirteen, Twain almost drowned a documented, nine times. I wonder how many times weren’t documented!
3. He was born two weeks after Halley’s Comet. The comet crosses the Earth’s skies every 75 years. In 1909 Mark Twain predicted that he would die with Halley’s comet the next year. Just as Mark Twain predicted, he passed the night after the comet lit up the sky at the age of 75. It was the second death he predicted, the first being his brother’s.

I hope that you’ll take the time to celebrate both of these iconic authors by reading some of their works! Happy Birthday to C.S. Lewis and Mark Twain.
X LLB

Authors Born in November…

November 7, 2018– This month we’ll be focusing on authors that celebrating birthdays in November. Most of the authors we are going to talk about are deceased, but they’ve left such a mark on the literary landscape, that they’re impossible to forget.

Tomorrow, November 8th is Bram Stoker’s birthday! To celebrate his birthday and the genius that is his writing, here are some interesting facts about him:

1. He fought with Oscar Wilde over a woman. Wilde, Florence Balcombe, and Stoker were all part of an intense love triangle! Stoker ended up winning the fight and married Florence.
2. He got to meet two presidents. Stoker met Theodore Roosevelt and William McKinley while he was visiting the United States as part of managing an actor by the name of Henry Irving. Stoker’s trips revolved around managing his client.
3. He wrote romance novels. Stoker is known and much beloved for his supernatural works such as Dracula, but he also wrote romantic novels, in fact, over half of his works of fiction were classic Victorian romance pieces.
4. Dracula was inspired by a woman. In fact, it was an essay by Emily Gerard titled, “Transylvania Superstitions,” that inspired Stoker’s Dracula. Oh, and remember Henry Irving, who Stoker managed? He was the physical inspiration for Dracula.

Happy Birthday, Bram Stoker! He would have been 171 years old tomorrow if still living…now that would be really something to write about!

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Mandatory Credit: Photo by Historia/REX/Shutterstock (7665085dt) Bram Stoker Novelist and Short Story Writer Best Known For the Gothic Novel Dracula (1897) He Was Also Theatre Manager For Henry Irving at the Lyceum Theatre London 1847 – 1912 Historical Collection 2

 

 

How Long?

September 14, 2018- I get asked this question a lot, “How long should it take me to finish writing my novel?”  Here’s the answer: