Santa's Boots Are Missing

Susanna Leonard Hill is hosting her 5th Annual Holiday Contest. Here is my entry for this year's contest. I originally wrote a version of this for my dance students.

 

 

SANTA’S BOOTS ARE MISSING!

(199 words)

 

Santa searched around the Christmas tree

at the North Pole Lost and Found.

“Missing boots will be a problem

when I’m sledding town to town.”

 

The elves began to whisper

and what Santa didn’t know,

is that they hid his worn-out boots

under icy drifts of snow.

 

 

The soles had long been tattered.

The buckles both were torn.

“Try these,” the elves suggested,

“that Dancer’s never worn.”

 

 

“Tap shoes?” Santa snickered.

“Why these will never do.

You know what you have chosen

is by far the loudest shoe.”

 

“The parents all will hear me.

The children will awake.

The dogs will bark and howl.

This is clearly a mistake.”

 

Jolly Santa gave a chuckle

and shook his finger in the air,

“Christmas Eve is soon approaching.

You must find quieter pair.”

 

 

The elves arranged a meeting.

Dancer knew just what to do.

“There’s only one solution.

I will teach him the “Soft Shoe.”

 

Santa’s eyes began to glisten

as he danced across the snow.

“If I knew that tap was this much fun

I’d have done it years ago.”

 

 

The elves and reindeer gathered

as Santa shuffled to his sled,

the reindeer stood in silence

while Santa “hoofed” instead.



                    
Linda Bozzo has published more than 50 nonfiction books for the school and library market. For more information about Linda and her books, you can visit her web site.

Copyright 2015 Linda Bozzo

 

From Madeleine L'Engle's Brain to Mine

I love reading about other authors and their journeys. A few months ago I came across this article about Madeleine L'Engle and how although she published five novels since her mid-twenties, on her 40th birthday she found herself having trouble selling her work and received a rejection. One minute she was sobbing and vowing to abandon her typewriter only to turn around moments later and want to write another book about failure. She said she could never stop writing even if she never had another work published.

After reading this I wondered if it was possible that Madeleine's feelings were sucked from her brain and injected right into mine. No matter how many times I've threatened to quit writing, I couldn't. I can't. I start to laugh at myself when these thoughts start weaseling their way into my head. Why? Because, like Madeleine, within minutes I'm writing again. I try calling my writing friends, my support group. By the time they answer phone so I can announce with all the dramatics that I'm quitting writing, I've already started writing again.

Imagine, if on that day, Madeleine really covered her typewriter permanently. A Wrinkle in Time would never have been born. The manuscript had been turned down numerous times. I learned that it took two and a half years after the book's inception for it to be published. And as you can imagine I'm sure that more than just one editor who turned down the manuscript was crying when the book won the most prestigious honors in children's literature, the John Newbery Medal.

The other part of the article that really hit home for me was Madeleine being brutally honest about her guilt over spending so much time writing and not being able to pull her own weight financially. I'm still working on striking a balance between writing and everything else. And believe me there's a lot of everything else.When I'm writing I can feel guilty about not cleaning or spending time with friends or family. This is especially true when the writing I'm doing isn't resulting in any financial gains because much of what I write doesn't. On the other hand, when I'm cleaning the house or spending time with friends and family I can feel guilty about not meeting those writing goals I set for the week, month, or year.

So while the actual act of writing a great story and finding a publisher to publish it can be a struggle, the mental part of writing can be a real challenge and make us question ourselves. Thank goodness for those days when during a school visit a child says something to you that makes you tear up or you receive an email from one of your readers. Those are the moments I assure myself, "This is what I was meant to do," and whether I'm pulling my weight financially or not, doesn't matter because my heart is full even when my pockets may be empty.

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Linda Bozzo has published more than 50 nonfiction books for the school and library markets. For more information about Linda and her books, you can visit her website.

Copyright 2015 Linda Bozzo