The Christmas Angel Part III

THE CHRISTMAS ANGEL

BY

ABBIE FARWELL BROWN

CHAPTER III

THE FLANTON DOG


She returned to the play box by the fire, and rummaged for a few minutes
among the tangled toys. Then with something like a chuckle she drew out a
soft, pale creature with four wobbly legs.

"The Flanton Dog!" she said. "Well, I vow! I had forgotten all about him.
It was Tom who coined the name for him because he was made of Canton
flannel."

She stood the thing up on the table as well as his weak legs would allow,
and inspected him critically. He certainly was a forlorn specimen. One of
the black beads which had served him for eyes was gone. His ears, which had
originally stood up saucily on his head, now drooped in limp dejection. One
of them was a mere shapeless rag hanging by a thread. He was dirty and
discolored, and his tail was gone. But still he smiled with his red-thread
mouth and seemed trying to make the best of things.

"What a nightmare!" said Miss Terry contemptuously. "I know there isn't a
child in the city who wants such a looking thing. Why, even the Animal
Rescue folks would give the boys a 'free shot' at that. This isn't going to
bring out any Christmas spirit," she sneered. "I will try it and see."

Once more she lifted the window and tossed the dog to the sidewalk. He
rolled upon his back and lay pathetically with crooked legs yearning
upward, still smiling. Hardly had Miss Terry time to conceal herself behind
the curtain when she saw a figure approaching, airily waving a stick.

"No ragamuffin this time," she said. "Hello! It is that good-for-nothing
young Cooper fellow from the next block. They say he is a millionaire.
Well, he isn't even going to see the Flanton Dog."

The young man came swinging along, debonairly; he was whistling under his
breath. He was a dapper figure in a long coat and a silk hat, under which
the candles lighted a rather silly face. When he reached the spot in the
sidewalk where the Flanton Dog lay, he paused a moment looking down. Then
he poked the object with his stick. On the other side of the street a
mother and her little boy were passing at the time. The child's eyes caught
sight of the dog on the sidewalk, and he hung back, watching to see what
the young man would do to it. But his mother drew him after her. Just then
an automobile came panting through the snow. With a quick movement Cooper
picked up the dog on the end of his stick and tossed it into the street,
under the wheels of the machine. The baby across the street uttered a howl
of anguish at the sight. Miss Terry herself was surprised to feel a pang
shoot through her as the car passed over the queer old toy. She retreated
from the window quickly.

"Well, that's the end of Flanton," she said with half a sigh. "I knew that
fellow was a brute. I might have expected something like that. But it
looked so--so--" She hesitated for a word, and did not finish her sentence,
but bit her lip and sniffed cynically.

Part for of THE CHRISTMAS ANGEL

BY

ABBIE FARWELL BROWN will be coming up next.

Sincerely,
Caterina
http://www.howtowriteachildrensbook.com

A Christmas Angel Part II

THE CHRISTMAS ANGEL

BY

ABBIE FARWELL BROWN

CHAPTER II

JACK-IN-THE-BOX


Miss Terry rose and crossed two rooms to the front window, looking out upon
the street. A flare of light almost blinded her eyes. Every window opposite
her along the block, as far as she could see, was illuminated with a row of
lighted candles across the sash. The soft, unusual glow threw into relief
the pretty curtains and wreaths of green, and gave glimpses of cosy
interiors and flitting happy figures.

"What a waste of candles!" scolded Miss Terry. "Folks are growing terribly
extravagant."

The street was white with snow which had fallen a few hours earlier, piled
in drifts along the curb of the little-traveled terrace. But the sidewalks
were neatly shoveled and swept clean, as became the eminently respectable
part of the city where Miss Terry lived. A long flight of steps, with iron
railing at the side, led down from the front door, upon which a silver
plate had for generations in decorous flourishes announced the name of
Terry.

Miss Terry returned to the play box and drew out between thumb and finger
the topmost toy. It happened to be a wooden box, with a wire hasp for
fastening the cover. Half unconsciously she pressed the spring, and a
hideous Jack-in-the-box sprang out to confront her with a squeak, a leering
smile, and a red nose. Miss Terry eyed him with disfavor.

"I always did hate that thing," she said. "Tom was continually frightening
me with it, I remember." As if to be rid of unwelcome memories she shut her
mouth tight, even as she shut Jack back into his box, snapping the spring
into place. "This will do to begin with," she thought. She crossed to the
window, which she opened quickly, and tossed out the box, so that it fell
squarely in the middle of the sidewalk. Then closing the window and turning
down the lights in the room behind her, Miss Terry hid in the folds of the
curtain and watched to see what would happen to Jack.

The street was quiet. Few persons passed on either side. At last she spied
two little ragamuffins approaching. They seemed to be Jewish lads of the
newsboy class, and they eyed the display of candles appraisingly. The
smaller boy first caught sight of the box in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Hello! Wot's dis?" he grunted, making a dash upon it.

"Gee! Wot's up?" responded the other, who was instantly at his elbow.

"Gwan! Lemme look at it."

The smaller boy drew away and pressed the spring of the box eagerly.
_Ping!_ Out popped the Jack into his astonished face; whereupon he set up a
guffaw.

"Give it here!" commanded the bigger boy.

"Naw! You let it alone! It's mine!" asserted the other, edging away along
the curbstone. "I saw it first. You can't have it."

"Give it here. I saw it first myself. Hand it over, or I'll smash you!"

The bigger boy advanced threateningly.

"I won't!" the other whimpered, clasping the box tightly under his jacket.

He started to run, but the bigger fellow was too quick for him. He pounced
across the sidewalk, and soon the twain were struggling in the snowdrift,
pummeling one another with might and main.

"I told you so!" commented Miss Terry from behind the curtain. "Here's the
first show of the beautiful Christmas spirit that is supposed to be abroad.
Look at the little beasts fighting over something that neither of them
really wants!"

Just then Miss Terry spied a blue-coated figure leisurely approaching. At
the same moment an instinct seemed to warn the struggling urchins.

"Cop!" said a muffled voice from the pile of arms and legs, and in an
instant two black shadows were flitting down the street; but not before the
bigger boy had wrenched the box from the pocket of the little chap.

"So that is the end of experiment number one," quoth Miss Terry, smiling
grimly. "It happened just about as I expected. They will be fighting again
as soon as they are out of sight. They are Jews; but that doesn't make any
difference about the Christmas spirit. Now let's see what becomes of the
next experiment."

Part III of THE CHRISTMAS ANGEL

BY

ABBIE FARWELL BROWN will be coming up next

Sincerely,
Caterina
http://www.howtowriteachildrensbook.com

The Christmas Angel

THE CHRISTMAS ANGEL

BY

ABBIE FARWELL BROWN

CHAPTER I

THE PLAY BOX


At the sound of footsteps along the hall Miss Terry looked up from the
letter which she was reading for the sixth time. "Of course I would not see
him," she said, pursing her lips into a hard line. "Certainly not!"

A bump on the library door, as from an opposing knee, did duty for a knock.

"Bring the box in here, Norah," said Miss Terry, holding open the door for
her servant, who was gasping under the weight of a packing-case. "Set it
down on the rug by the fire-place. I am going to look it over and burn up
the rubbish this evening."

She glanced once more at the letter in her hand, then with a sniff tossed
it upon the fire.

"Yes'm," said Norah, as she set down the box with a thump. She stooped once
more to pick up something which had fallen out when the cover was jarred
open. It was a pink papier-mâché angel, such as are often hung from the top
of Christmas trees as a crowning symbol. Norah stood holding it between
thumb and finger, staring amazedly. Who would think to find such a bit of
frivolity in the house of Miss Terry!

Her mistress looked up from the fire, where the bit of writing was writhing
painfully, and caught the expression of Norah's face.

"What have you there?" she asked, frowning, as she took the object into her
own hands. "The Christmas Angel!" she exclaimed under her breath. "I had
quite forgotten it." Then as if it burned her fingers she thrust the little
image back into the box and turned to Norah brusquely. "There, that's all.
You can go now, Norah," she said.

"Yes'm," answered the maid. She hesitated. "If you please'm, it's Christmas
Eve."

"Well, I believe so," snapped Miss Terry, who seemed to be in a
particularly bad humor this evening. "What do you want?"

Norah flushed; but she was hardened to her mistress's manner. "Only to ask
if I may go out for a little while to see the decorations and hear the
singing."

"Decorations? Singing? Fiddlestick!" retorted Miss Terry, poker in hand.
"What decorations? What singing?"

"Why, all the windows along the street are full of candles," answered
Norah; "rows of candles in every house, to light the Christ Child on his
way when he comes through the city to-night."

"Fiddlestick!" again snarled her mistress.

"And choir-boys are going about the streets, they say, singing carols in
front of the lighted houses," continued Norah enthusiastically. "It must
sound so pretty!"

"They had much better be at home in bed. I believe people are losing their
minds!"

"Please'm, may I go?" asked Norah again.

Norah had no puritanic traditions to her account. Moreover she was young
and warm and enthusiastic. Sometimes the spell of Miss Terry's sombre house
threatened her to the point of desperation. It was so this Christmas Eve;
but she made her request with apparent calmness.

"Yes, go along," assented her mistress ungraciously.

"Thank you, 'm," said the servant demurely, but with a brightening of her
blue eyes. And presently the area door banged behind her quick-retreating
footsteps.

"H'm! Didn't take her long to get ready!" muttered Miss Terry, giving the
fire a vicious poke. She was alone in the house, on Christmas Eve, and not
a man, woman, or child in the world cared. Well, it was what she wanted. It
was of her own doing. If she had wished--

She sat back in her chair, with thin, long hands lying along the arms of
it, gazing into the fire. A bit of paper there was crumbling into ashes.
Alone on Christmas Eve! Even Norah had some relation with the world
outside. Was there not a stalwart officer waiting for her on the nearest
corner? Even Norah could feel a simple childish pleasure in candles and
carols and merriment, and the old, old superstition.

"Stuff and nonsense!" mused Miss Terry scornfully. "What is our Christmas,
anyway? A time for shopkeepers to sell and for foolish folks to kill
themselves in buying. Christmas spirit? No! It is all humbug,--all
selfishness, and worry; an unwholesome season of unnatural activities. I am
glad I am out of it. I am glad no one expects anything of me,--nor I of any
one. I am quite independent; blessedly independent of the whole foolish
business. It is a good time to begin clearing up for the new year. I'm glad
I thought of it. I've long threatened to get rid of the stuff that has
been accumulating in that corner of the attic. Now I will begin."

She tugged the packing-case an inch nearer the fire. It was like Miss Terry
to insist upon that nearer inch. Then she raised the cover. It was a box
full of children's battered toys, old-fashioned and quaint; the toys in
vogue thirty--forty--fifty years earlier, when Miss Terry was a child. She
gave a reminiscent sniff as she threw up the cover and saw on the under
side of it a big label of pasteboard unevenly lettered.

[Illustration: PLAY BOX OF TOM TERRY AND ANGELINA TERRY (scrawl)]

"Humph!" she snorted. There was a great deal in that "humph." It meant:
Yes, Tom's name had plenty of room, while poor little Angelina had to
squeeze in as well as she could. How like Tom! This accounted for
everything, even to his not being in his sister's house this very night.
How unreasonable he had been!

Miss Terry shrugged impatiently. Why think of Tom to-night? Years ago he
had deliberately cut himself adrift from her interests. No need to think of
him now. It was too late to appease her. But here were all these toys to be
got rid of. The fire was hungry for them. Why not begin?

Miss Terry stooped to poke over the contents of the box with lean, long
fingers. In one corner thrust up a doll's arm; in another, an animal's tail
pointed heavenward. She caught glimpses of glitter and tinsel, wheels and
fragments of unidentifiable toys.

"What rubbish!" she said. "Yes, I'll burn them all. They are good for
nothing else. I suppose some folks would try to give them away, and bore a
lot of people to death. They seem to think they are saving something, that
way. Nonsense! I know better. It is all foolishness, this craze for giving.
Most things are better destroyed as soon as you are done with them. Why,
nobody wants such truck as this. Now, could any child ever have cared for
so silly a thing?" She pulled out a faded jumping-jack, and regarded it
scornfully. "Idiotic! Such toys are demoralizing for children--weaken their
minds. It is a shame to think how every one seems bound to spoil children,
especially at Christmas time. Well, no one can say that I have added to the
shameful waste."

Miss Terry tossed the poor jumping-jack on the fire, and eyed his last
contortions with grim satisfaction.

But as she watched, a quaint idea came to her. She was famous for eccentric
ideas.

"I will try an experiment," she said. "I will prove once for all my point
about the 'Christmas spirit.' I will drop some of these old toys out on the
sidewalk and see what happens. It may be interesting."



Stay tuned for part II of
ABBIE FARWELL BROWN's Story - The Christmas Angel

Sincerely,
Caterina
http://www.howtowriteachildrensbook.com

Persuasive Writing

Persuasive Writing that will Have Your Readers Chomping for More

If you write from the heart, people will automatically love your book. Yeah right and tiny elves will also sneak into your house at night and clean it for you, if you wish hard enough. If that were the only criteria, poets would be millionaires.

Whether you are writing a children's book or sci fi novel or romantic adventure, as a writer you have one job. You must grab your readers attention and emotions and keep it focused on the world that you create.

The reader doesn't know or care about your motivation or the countless hours you spent writing your book and probably never will, until your last name ends in Rowling or Tolkien. If your first line doesn't grab them, your book will go right back on the shelf.

Persuasive Writing 101

So how do we write a killer first line, paragraph and page?

1) Action baby.

Ex. Your main character is racing away from the class bully, will he make it home in time?

2) Keep the details to a minimum.

Do not spend half the page describing every facet of your character's eyes, hair and delectable or horrendous body. These details can be laced throughout the book.

3) Grab their emotions on this first page and keep them.

Get them anxious about your character, curious, intrigued, laughing at their predicament. Draw them into your character's world and until they feel compelled to find out what happens next.

4) Target your character's problem. Make it something that the reader can relate to.

Ex. ( excerpt from Tales of the Romantically Challenged by Caterina Christakos)

Have you ever been totally and completely in love? Love so intense that your hands shake, your heart pounds and you can feel cold sweat trickle from your armpits down your sides, as you pray that there are no accompanying odors? I have and for me it was like watching a really gory horror flick, from between widely spread fingers. A part of me was completely repulsed, yet at the same time, felt compelled to follow through to it’s bloody end.

5) Know thy reader. Go online to the chat boards that host your genre of writing. Ask other writers what has been successful. More importantly, ask readers what their favorite books are and why?

This information is invaluable and better yet won't cost you the price of hiring a research assistant or firm. Test opening lines on them. Most people are more than willing to give you feedback. Take the constructive feedback and throw out the rest.

These are just a few techniques for persuasive writing. For more tips or personalized help, from Caterina Christakos, in writing or marketing your book go to: http://www.howtowriteachildrensbook.com/

How to Get Your Book Published

How do you know which publisher to send your work to?

 

Well the answer to that question is simple

 

-Do your research!

 

Now if you are picturing yourself bogged down with dusty books in a library, relax.

 

Finding the right publishers to send your book to is simple.

 

Just pick up the Writer's Market for the current year. Flip
to the back and find the type of story that you have written by subject
matter. Then cross reference that with publishers that publish those
type of stories.

 

Write a query letter to those editors only. A query letter
is simply a letter which briefly describes your story and catches their
attention. The Writer's Market has sample query letters that you can
review.

 

 DO NOT SEND YOUR MANUSCRIPT UNLESS THEY SPECIFIALLY SAY TO. Place a self addressed stamped envelop in with your query letter. This
is very important. It shows that you are a professional and makes it
esier for them to send back an answer. Will all this guarantee that you
will get a yes your first time out? No, but it will put you ahead of
the rest of the pack who waste hundreds of dollars sending their
manuscript to publishers that either don't publish their type of story
or simply throw it in the trash for not following proper procedures.

 

Caterina Christakos is the author of How to Write a Children's Book in 30 Days or Less. To learn how to write a children's book in 30 days or less go to: http://www.howtowriteachildrensbook.com

How to Write a Holiday Tale that Isn't a Turkey

When we write stories, with the purpose of sharing them with others, we enter into an agreement where we allow our reader to see a glimpse of our heart, our souls and our memories. If we truly want them to be immersed in the tale, we actively immerse ourselves in those memories so that a glimmer of what we saw, heard and felt comes through.

This is especially true with holiday tales. The best way to convey a holiday scene is to take a trip back in time through the wonderful world of our unconscious. Here are some great ways to delve back into our child hood memories and incorporate them into our holiday tales.

1) Sit in a darkened room and close your eyes. Allow yourself to go back in time to the very first Christmas that you can remember. Take a deep breath and relax. What are the scents, sounds and feelings that come up? What is the first picture that pops into your mind?

Is it the sound of children racing down the stairs that comes to you first? The feel of your heart pounding when you awoke and found that Christmas was really here? The warmth of your parents’ blankets as you bounced on them, anxious to wake them up?

The autumn and winter holidays will always be associated, for me, with my grandmother’s cooking and pumpkin pies. I remember running into her little house, and the sound of the front door’s slam behind me. I was immediately engulfed in warmth. The scent of nutmeg and cinnamon and pumpkin seeds physically drew me forward, until I was wrapped in my grandmother’s embrace.


2) Recreate the scene. Since a prime trigger for me is the scent of pumpkin pies, I often order pumpkin scented candles from Yankee Candles. I sit on the couch, wrapped up in a blanket, light the candles and wait. Within moments, the scent has pulled me back to my grandmother’s kitchen. And I hear the sound of my cousins pounding down the hall after me, each of us anxious to win the first warm treat.

You can do the same. If a scent triggers your memories, you can either bake the cake or cookie or brew the eggnog. Or you can get one of those scented candles and simply light it.

If the feel of sweaters immediately transports you back to your snow throwing days, slip one on. If you are like me and live in Florida, turn the air way up first. Close your eyes and hear the sound of children shouting as they try to nail each other with snowballs. Picture their fresh flushed faces.

3) If there is a particular holiday character that sparks your memories, rent holiday movies. Some of my favorites are Frosty the Snowman and Miracle on Thirty fourth street. Watch one for a while, until you get the holiday feeling, then turn the sound off. Watch the pictures and let your mind go.

4) Use all of these pictures and sensations and feelings in your story.

If you are writing about a little girl in a big family, think back to what holiday dinners were like for you. Did everyone talk at once? Does your character like this or does she feel overwhelmed? What is it like to be the smallest one in a room full of adults? Is there a cousin or neighbor that is constantly picking on her? Do the children get bored and decide to explore the forbidden attic?


5) Once you have a scene in mind, write down all of these questions. Don’t worry about answering them until you have run out of questions. Then think back to the picture, sound or feeling that you associate with and answer the questions.

6) Now describe everything that you can about the characters. What are their ages? What do they look like? Are they the youngest or oldest in their family? Where do they live? What is their favorite thing? What are their best friend’s names? Who is their arch nemesis and why?

Get as much detail as possible down.

Once you can describe all of these things, the pieces of your story will begin to fall into place. More importantly, your characters and your scenes will be real and alive. Be brave and put as much of yourself into these stories and your characters. Your readers will love you for it.


Caterina Christakos is the author of How to Write a Children’s Book in 30 Days or Less. For more writing tips go to: http://www.howtowriteachildrensbook.com

How to Make Your Readers Clamor for More

How to Make Your Readers Clamor for More

Many writers make a huge mistake. They write forthemselves. Now this is fine if you are writingin your journal, making a grocery list or onlyintend to show your work to your closest friendsand most accommodating critics. For those of you,who actually wish to get published, receiveglowing reviews and actually sell more than tencopies, there is a better way.

Write for your audience. Target your words, yourideas and your plots to a particular audience andknow what they want. Do some research.

If you intend to write for five year olds, go to thelibrary and study their stages of development.What are their language skills at that age? What are their interests? What children’s books for that age group soared and which flopped?

If writing for the sci-fi crowd, don’t just limit yourself to that genre. Look for niches withinit. Are you targeting readers that were avid StarTrek fans or are they into the Next Generation?Find a sub section. Are they interested in aliensor humans who have stumbled upon extraordinarypowers?

Read writing magazines, from that genre. What areeditors looking for? Many times, they will tellyou exactly what they need and what they willburn, if they receive any more of.

Join online newsgroups and chat boards for yoursubject. If you are a romance writer, joinromance chat boards and web sites. Trade ideaswith other writers. Ask who their favoriteauthors are and why.

Submit sample chapters online for review. Taketheir constructive criticism seriously and applyit, if it seems to be the majority opinion.

Finally, read as many successful authors from your field as you can. What makes their booksbest sellers? What keeps you reading? Is it thestyle? Is it the subject? What can you apply fromtheir style to your own to keep your language andcharacters fresh?

If you keep these simple tips in mind, yourwriting will improve, your brain will kick inwith better characters and plots and your workwill be not only accepted but applauded.

Caterina Christakos is the author of How to Writea Children’s Book in 30 Days or Less, How to BlowYour Competition Away at Any Audition, And DreamsLost Along the Way and countless articles. Tolearn more about how to write and get published go to: http://www.howtowriteachildrensbook.com

Character Development for Writers

Character Development for Writers

Who's voice is it anyway?

(c)2004 Caterina Christakos

When writing your stories, many of you have written to me asking how to keep your character's from sounding wooden or alike.

Here is a simple method that I have developed.

1) Create a written or artistic sketch of each character. Imagine exactly what they will look like, sound like and which emotions really resound within them.

Post each character sketch on a board by your computer.

2) While writing your story look up every half hour and see if what you have written is true to your characters.

3) After you are done writing divide up the dialogue into seperate pages for each character. This is a bit of a process but thanks to the cut and paste features on your computer it will still take you half the time, it normally would have.

4) Does the dialogue for each character match up? Would your character say that, react that way?

5) Compare the dialogue of your characters. Do any two sound too much alike?

6) Revise accordingly.

If you do this consistantly, your characters will never sound tired and will always be true to themselves in tone, word and deed.

Advanced English Grammar

Advanced English Grammar

ARRANGEMENT OF WORDS IN A SENTENCE

Of course in simple sentences the natural order of arrangement is subject--verb--object. In many cases no other form is possible. Thus in the sentence "The cat has caught a mouse," we cannot reverse it and say "The mouse has caught a cat" without destroying the meaning, and in any other form of arrangement, such as "A mouse, the cat has caught," we feel that while it is intelligible, it is a poor way of expressing the fact and one which jars upon us more or less.

In longer sentences, however, when there are more words than what are barely necessary for subject, verb and object, we have greater freedom of arrangement and can so place the words as to give the best effect. The proper placing of words depends upon perspicuity and precision. These two combined give _style_ to the structure.

In arranging the words in an ordinary sentence we should not lose sight of the fact that the beginning and end are the important places for catching the attention of the reader. Words in these places have greater emphasis than elsewhere.

As the beginning and end of a sentence are the most important places, it naturally follows that small or insignificant words should be kept from these positions. Of the two places the end one is the more important, therefore, it really calls for the most important word in the sentence. Never commence a sentence with _And_, _But_, _Since_, _Because_, and other similar weak words and never end it with prepositions, small, weak adverbs or pronouns.

Advanced English Grammar

Advanced English Grammar

ARRANGEMENT OF WORDS IN A SENTENCE

Of course in simple sentences the natural order of arrangement is subject--verb--object. In many cases no other form is possible. Thus in the sentence "The cat has caught a mouse," we cannot reverse it and say "The mouse has caught a cat" without destroying the meaning, and in any other form of arrangement, such as "A mouse, the cat has caught," we feel that while it is intelligible, it is a poor way of expressing the fact and one which jars upon us more or less.

In longer sentences, however, when there are more words than what are barely necessary for subject, verb and object, we have greater freedom of arrangement and can so place the words as to give the best effect. The proper placing of words depends upon perspicuity and precision. These two combined give _style_ to the structure.

In arranging the words in an ordinary sentence we should not lose sight of the fact that the beginning and end are the important places for catching the attention of the reader. Words in these places have greater emphasis than elsewhere.

As the beginning and end of a sentence are the most important places, it naturally follows that small or insignificant words should be kept from these positions. Of the two places the end one is the more important, therefore, it really calls for the most important word in the sentence. Never commence a sentence with _And_, _But_, _Since_, _Because_, and other similar weak words and never end it with prepositions, small, weak adverbs or pronouns.

http://howtowriteachildrensbook.com/advanced_english_grammar.html