New Challenge - 11 Word Story

We really want to challenge you this time. Write us a story, something haunting, creepy, scary, spooky, slithering. But you can only use 11 words. Do not distress! You can do this.

The girl tried to stand, but her leg wasn't there anymore.
Being invisible was the best thing of all, until it wasn't.
While eating the pages, Tex didn't see the 'T' with teeth.


Guidelines

The story must be 11 words in length, no more, no fewer. Not eleventy, not eleventeen, 11 words. ELEVEN!!!

Please send your entries to junipertreelit@gmail.com and put "11 Word Story" in the subject line or else your email will be eaten by the Spamster and never found again.

Deadline for submissions is Saturday, August 20. The winner will be announced on Monday, August 22.

For the name of your document please put your story/artwork name, underscore and your name. Ex: ToesForEating_MarjorieMerle.doc

You can submit your work as a Word document or stick it directly in the email to junipertreelit@gmail.com and please forgive us in advance if we don't write back to you immediately. Tex is fairly anal about reading and viewing everything we get. With your submission please tell us a little bit about yourself and please send us your website if you have one. If you don't have one, get one. They are free, you know.

For the rest of the guidelines and what should not be submitted, go to our Submissions & Guidelines page.

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Don't forget to check out our August Issue

August Issue

Hello everyone! It's been a flurry of activity getting everyone's pieces clothed, brushed, fed and shoved into  our August issue but we did it. Thank you to all the lovely people who put all their sweat and mostly blood into this issue. Thank you again to our Murder of Editors for taking their time to dissect each word. Thanks Tex for restraining of scaring off any contributors with your unappetizing diet.

My pleasure, darling.

Drum roll please!

Drrrrrrrummm roooollllllllllll

The August issue!

Open publication - Free publishing - More dark

UPDATE: To download a PDF of the issue, visit our bookshelf at http://issuu.com/underneaththejunipertree. Open the publication and underneath the issue is an option to download or print the issue. 

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The Choose Your Own Mystery Winner!

It was a fine, fine challenge this week with a great turnout. Tex and I had to scramble our brains to choose only one person whose piece rose above the rest.

Creme de la creme! Blood de la blood!

So the winner of the Choose Your Own Mystery challenge and the next person heading into fame and victory in the August issue is....

Samantha Kymmelle-Harvey!!!! With her piece Because of Brussels Sprouts. Here is a snippet from her extraordinary piece:

“Greedy girl!” said a little wisp of white. It pulled her to the ground, raining scarlet droplets on her face. “You can’t make me share! I’ll eat you next if you try!”


You'll have to come back August 1st to catch the rest.


Thank you all for sending in your creative babies and good luck with the Blast from the Past - Rats Edition. We await your genius at our inbox.

Be our fiendish friend on Facebook 

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Don't forget to check out our July issue

The Devil Can't Help You Here - Mark Boliek

Darlinks! Dearestlinks! Poppets!

Here at Underneath The Juniper Tree we are open to all sorts of spooky mayhem in all sorts of mediums. Mark Boliek sent us a song, chatz, called "The Devil Can't Help You Here". And it goes along with his book. Is there no end to the creativity? Here is the cover for his book The Mahogany Door for which the music was written. Look, listen and enjoy.

 

Be our fiendish friend on Facebook 

Follow our terribly terrific tête-à-tête on Twitter 

Don't forget to check out our July issue

Sunday Poetry: Dirty Donald - Dawn Pisturino & Jason Smith

Dirty Donald!

His hair, full of lice,

Grows down to his shoulders,

A haven for mice.

His teeth are all rotten,

Mildewed and black,

His tongue is so long,

He could pass for a yak.

His breath stinks of corpses

Dug fresh from their graves,

A delicate morsel

He constantly craves.

He glares at the ravens,

Surrounding his head,

With murderous eyes,

Pronouncing them dead.

Then yanks out their feathers

And nibbles their toes,

Lining them up

In neat little rows.

His clothes are so tattered,

The buzzards all say,

“What a fine looking fellow!

Let’s eat him today!”

Dirty Donald

Written by Dawn Pisturino

Illustrated by Jason Smith

Would you like to see your limerick or poem up on Sunday Poetry? Email it to us at junipertreelit@gmail.com and put "Sunday Poetry" in the subject line.

Don't forget to check out our July issue

Edward Gorey Challenge Chapter 2 Winner! And a new Challenge: Choose Your Own Mystery

The winner of our Edward Gorey challenge is.....

*Druummmmmm*

Madeline Daniel! Madeline was able to fit a barrage of imagery and thought into three incredible sentences. Below is just a hint of what's in store for the August issue where you get to read Madeline's full piece:

“Oh, that is terrible,” said the oak tree sympathetically.  

Thank you to everyone who submitted work! It was one of our best turn-outs yet. If you'd like to keep up to date with our challenges, contests and giveaways, just subscribe to Underneath The Juniper Tree on the right side of the screen. Now for our next challenge...

Choose Your Own Mystery

This week's challenge is an array of amusements. We will give you character, place and action options and you will create the story. You must choose one character, one place and one action from the list on which to base your story or artwork. So you will have chosen three options altogether. Capiche? Remember that choosing obvious choices will not get you anywhere. Please choose as creatively as possible, as random as possible, as unheard of as possible! Here are your choices:

Character 

1) Wendigo

2) Ghost of an angry child

3) Cockroaches 

Place

1) Decaying castle in Wales

2) Backwoods of Kentucky

3) Deserted hospital 

Action

1) Whispering the words "we all fall down"

2) Eating flesh

3) Head spinning 360 degrees

Guidelines

With your submission please put in the subject line "Choose Your Own Mystery Challenge".

Artists

Only One image can be submitted per person. Please check the Submit Work page under "Dimensions" to see how you should submit your image. With your submission please tell us a little bit about yourself.

Writers

Your piece must be under 500 words and containing your three choices. Be as creative as possible with what you've picked. When submitting your piece, please list your three choices. If you don't, I will be emailing you back and telling you that you are terrible at reading guidelines. And then you will probably not win. You can submit your work as a word document or paste it directly in the email to junipertreelit@gmail.com and please forgive us in advance if we don't write back to you immediately. Tex is fairly anal about reading and viewing everything we get.

Deadline for submissions has changed. We are now giving you TWO WEEKS to submit your piece so they better be good!

Deadline for submission: Saturday, July 23. The winners will be announced Monday, July 25.

For the rest of the guidelines and what should not be submitted, go to our Submit Work page.

Don't forget to check out our July issue.

The Wait - Wyatt Willis & Evan Heasman

Adèle sat in the highest bough of the red eucalyptus tree with her tiny, white hands folded in her lap. Below sat the Wolf running its tongue along its pearly, sharp teeth that glinted in the moonlight every time Adèle looked down. The Wolf’s lips curled back into a wicked grin.

I can wait, child. For years I can wait. You will grow weary and I will be here.

Adèle found herself slouching from exhaustion and pulled her back up straight to help keep alert. How long had it been, now? Three hours? Three days? Time cannot not be measured when the moon never moves and the sun never returns. She rubbed her toes that were beginning to tingle from the lack of blood.

She lay back into the rustling leaves of the tree. They gave off a red glow on her skin. Like blood, she thought. She looked up into the black sky that seemed so near for all its darkness. She had to put a hand in front of her face to remind her that her eyes were still open.

“I cannot fall asleep,” she thought, “or I will fall through these thin branches and be eaten, surely.” But her lids were heavy like stones and with each blink her body said, yes, yes it is nice to sleep, isn’t it?

Whether it was a sound or a movement that woke her, Adèle sat up with a start. She was already slipping through the arms of the tree.

Do not worry, precious gem, the Wolf hissed below, I am still here when you fall.

Not ‘if’ but ‘when’. Adèle shivered at the sweetness of the Wolf’s call. She would not close her eyes again.

She looked out over the land that was dotted with murky figures; forests spread out in clumps. She could only imagine what sort of horrors lived in those trees when something so terrible as the Wolf lived out in the open. She could barely distinguish the land from the sky; the varying black shapes seeped into each other. Off in the distance, little dots of light winked. She couldn’t tell if they were a village or the stars.

Adèle looked up into the velvety sky trying to get the image of the Wolf out of her mind but all she could see was its razorback fur and its haunting red eyes. She squeezed her eyes shut but could not get rid of the image. She rolled over and rested her head against the leaves.

“I’ll only lay here a moment and then,” her mouth stretched into a yawn, “I’ll figure out what to do.”

I will be here, child.

It wasn’t long after Adèle drifted off that she realized there were two red eyes looking directly at her. And then four eyes. And then hundreds of red eyes glowed around her. Every way she turned there were red eyes bearing down into hers.

“No!” She screamed. “No! NO NO NO-NO-NO!”

But it was too late.

Adèle’s tiny body slipped through the sparse twigs of the red eucalyptus tree and fell down, down, down into darkness and pearly, sharp teeth.

The Wait

Written by Wyatt Willis

Illustrated by Evan Heasman 

Monthly Contest - Time Travel

Here at UTJT, we not only sneak into dark forests and romp in swamps, we also slip through space in our marvelously metal time machine!

This month's contest is all about time travel. Perhaps your characters glide through time with a jet pack not unlike this image to the left here. Or maybe they use giant, glossy baubles? Or maybe they don't need a time machine at all, instead flying through time by entering a cave guarded by savage crocodile beasts with scales so sharp they cut through bone with the slightest bit of pressure.

Guidelines
Stories and drawings/paintings/doodles must be about time travel. However you think time travel should be done, let us know in short story form (2000 words or fewer) or an image (one image per artist). It must also fit our guidelines in our Submit Work page. Submissions that do not adhere to the requirements will not be considered so read carefully!!!!! If you aren't sure as to what we accept, thumb through our June and July issues or scan the site to see what we're all about.

Only the most curious and imaginative pieces will be chosen and featured in the August issue of Underneath The Juniper Tree. If your pieces doesn't win but we're terribly keen on it (and Tex is in a good mood that day), we'll feature it on the site. The winning images will also be featured in Featured Artists located on the right sidebar.

When emailing us, please put "Time Travel" in the subject line.

With your submission, please include a short bio (50 - 75 words) about yourself written in third person with your name (or alias) and your website if you have one.

Email your story or artistic rendering to junipertreelit@gmail.com
Submission deadline: July 25, 2011
The winners will be announced in the August 2011 online issue which is free for all eager eyes to nom on.

We look forward to reading all your submissions and potentially eating a few. Good luck to everyone!


Don't forget to check out our July issue.

The Boogeyman's Rhyme - Laura Garrison

My parents are shadows that lurk in your closet;

My very first word was an old man's last breath.

I watched from the wings on the night you were frightened

By blood on the white hands of Lady Macbeth.

My laugh is the scuttle of leaves on the sidewalk;

The weeds on your grandmother's grave are my hair.

My friends are the slime-trails that slugs leave behind them,

And I can freeze toads or melt stones with my stare.

My sigh is the hot wind that withers the foxglove;

My heart is the black rat that drowned in your well.

That dust layer under your bed is my dandruff;

The drain in your shower is ripe with my smell.

I might slip a fat spider into your slipper

Or give you an itch in a place you can't scratch.

While you're off at school, I leave lumps in your pillow

(In three or four days they'll be ready to hatch).

I chew on your boogers and old toenail clippings

At bedtime, when serpents and centipedes creep.

Next time you're alone in the darkness, remember:

My children are nightmares that poison your sleep.

The Boogeyman's Rhyme

Laura Garrison

Come back later today to learn about our contest for this month!

'ime'! 'ravel'!

Exactly, Tex. Good show!


Don't forget to check out our July issue.

Sunday Poetry: The Fairy Gothmother - Jenn Preston Chushcoff

The Fairy Gothmother haunts children’s dark dreams.

She tends closet monsters that delight at their screams.

She’s queen of the creepies that hide under beds,

commander of crawlies that little ones dread.

She summons her ravens, beasts and black bats

to trouble bad children, like bullies and brats.

If you’re on The Good List there’s nothing to fear,

but if you’re on the Bad you’d better stay clear

of alleys, old mansions and dank moldy cellars,

since that’s where she keeps her shadowy dwellers.

She’s even made pacts with the kind fairy folk.

They get their flowers while she dons poison oak.

You’ll find her brooding with hands on her hips

in forgotten graveyards and sinking old ships.

Call her by name and she’ll help get you through.

You’ll see she’s not mean, just moody and blue.

But don’t ask for a carriage made from a gourd,

life-threatening shoes or a magical sword.

The Fairy Gothmother stirs grief for your foes.

They trip on their shoes and shoot milk through their nose.

She conjures strange sounds with odd bumps in the night,

seeds minds with bleak nightmares to give them a fright.

So if you’re in a jam and a tyrant’s the cause,

call on your FG and she’ll lay down her laws.

She’ll call upon Justice to even the score

since crooked wrongdoers is what she abhors.

There’s just one more thing I think I should say.

“Justice” is her pet and he brings Judgment Day!

Fairy Gothmother 

Written by Jenn Preston Chushcoff

Illustrated by M. Stagi

To see more of this calibre or macabre, check out our July Issue!


Would you like to see your limerick or poem up on Sunday Poetry? Email it to us at junipertreelit@gmail.com and put "Sunday Poetry" in the subject line.

Blast from the Past - Fox Edition: Deadline

Just a friendly reminder that your Blast from the Past - Fox Edition submission deadline is TOMORROW!!!

The horror.

Quite. SO! You have until midnight tomorrow night to send them in.

junipertreelit@gmail.com

Tex's Tale

Texillian Armadillion

Gobbling up words—that’s why I was born…created…devised, perhaps? My origins are an anonymity even to myself.

I live in a mysterious attic filled with wondrous words, floating around the dust the way that invisible notes of a piano float through a concert hall. Marjorie was revealed to me one day when I saw a tiny toe pass through the darkness. I scrambled to slurp up all of the letters and numbers, punctuation marks and blank spaces I could before the owner of this delicious looking toe took them away from me.

I opened my mouth and inhaled.

Like a phenomenal whirlwind, words and parts of words came dancing into my mouth. And it wasn’t until I finished with the words and started nibbling on that delicious (albeit curious) toe, that Marjorie noticed me.

I am Tex.

I am keeper of the tales.

I am an eerie little creature and I prefer to stay that way. I will eat parts of you even if I love you. I will gnaw on parts of you if I am perturbed. Please do not take offense. As some would ask, “Were you raised in a barn?” Well, no. I was raised in an attic with nothing but alphabet letters and old feline skeletons to keep me company.

Do not feel sorry for me.

For I am Tex.

And I am keeper of the tales.

I hear a symphony when I read words. I see a painting when I watch the alphabet letters dance with the dust bunnies in front of my eyes.

If you must use my beloved letters on that white regurgitated wood, please make them count.

For each letter has a tale to tell, a life to live.

With slobbery toe nibbles and a tip of my bowler hat, 

Jar Party Challenge

We are no longer accepting submissions for this challenge.

This is our first weekly challenge!

A Jar Party is not unlike a Tea Party where there are sips to sup and tiny sandwiches to nibble.

Prefer toes to nibble, me.

Exactly Tex: toes instead of sandwiches. That is precisely right. A Jar Party is not a dainty, frilly thing with delicate pinkies and noses in the air. No, a Jar Party is all about What's In Your Jar.

Write us a story up to 500 words or draw a picture (or series, such as a comic strip) about What's In Your Jar, What Kind Of Jar You Have and Where Did You Acquire This Thing (and the jar)? Is it a creature that feasts on flies? Is it goo that goes moo at two? Whatever it is, let us know about it. We love adding Things Unknown to our repatiore of Beastlies.

You can submit your work to junipertreelit@gmail.com and please forgive us in advance if we don't write back to you immediately. Tex is fairly anal about reading everything we get. With your submission please tell us a little bit about yourself, your age and where abouts in the world you live. We will try our best to get back to you as soon as possible.

Deadline for submissions: Sunday, May 8, 2011.


The winners will be announced the following Monday, May 16th.

For the rest of the guidelines and what should not be submitted, go to our Submit To Us page.

Coming soon!

To be launched May 1, 2011