August Issue Sneak Peek: The Cover

Friends. We are twitching with excitement over here at Underneath The Juniper Tree. Tex hasn't eaten a toe in days, he's so antsy.

It all tastes of bogweed, mind, when something so thrilling is on its way.


I wholeheartedly agree. So far, each monthly issue has surpassed the last. Yes, we've only had two issues, but that just proves my point. The August issue will certainly be a blast of delight. Sound the trumpets, all!

Here is a sneaky peeky at the cover for the August issue illustrated by Ken Lamug. Would you like to illustrate our next cover? Send us some examples of your work to junipertreelit@gmail.com and tell us a little bit about yourself. Don't be shy, Tex only bites what moves.

Keep sending in the general submissions, friends, our September issue is already a quarter full!

Need to something to keep you busy while you await the August issue? Check out our July issue!

Be our fiendish friend on Facebook 

Follow our terribly terrific tête-à-tête on Twitter 

New Challenge - Blast from the Past: Rats Edition

Good Saturday, poppets! Today is your deadline for the Choose You Own Mystery challenge. You have until midnight tonight (Pacific time) to get your entries in. Entries that are late will be tossed in the incinerator and made into ornaments.

Now on to bigger and more different similar things!

A shortage of toes!

Quite, poppets, Tex has been rationing his toe snacks. Please donate more toes. 

Yes, the plumpish ones are best.

Now – our New Challenge!

Blast from the Past: Rats Edition

In under 500 words, write us a piece inspired by this photo. Your piece can be poetry or a short story as long as it is under 500 words. If you can think of other creative ways to be inspired by this photo, go ahead and surprise us! The winner (or winners) of the challenge will be featured in the September issue!

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, August 6. The winners will be announced Monday, August 8.

With your submission please put in the subject line "Blast from the Past - Rats Edition". 

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.

We look forward to your creative mind-doodles!

And remember that your Time Travel submission deadline is in TWO DAYS!!!!! The winner will be featured in our August issue so let's hear your stories.

Be our fiendish friend on Facebook 

Follow our terribly terrific tête-à-tête on Twitter 

Don't forget to check out our July issue

Suppen Kaspar - Martin Thoburn

Jason Smith recently sent us a few tales to read from the book Struwwelpeter. We were partial to the naughty boy Augustus who would not eat his soup. Things do not end well for August. Children, eat your soup, mind.


I shall have mine with toes upon crumpets.


So you shall. Enjoy.





Suppen Kaspar
Created by Martin Thoburn

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

In The Street - Dorothy Livesay & Evan Heasman

In rainy weather

Who can tell

Whether we weep

Or not?

I dread the sun

For his fierce honesty.

In The Street

Written by Dorothy Livesay

Illustrated by Evan Heasman

Don't forget to check out our July issue

The Crooked Man: Animated Short - Dries Bastiaensen

Our lovely friend and contributor Ken Lamug revealed this gem to us the other day and we wanted to share it with you. It was all I could do to get it out of Tex's greedy little grabby hands.

My eyes saw it first. I was only going to add it to my...selection of...delectables.

We hope you enjoy this animated short before Tex eats it all up.






The Crooked Man
Animation by Dries Bastiaensen


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 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.

Friendly Reminder - Edward Gorey Chapter II PLUS winner of Tex's book!

Just a friendly reminder that your Edward Gorey Chapter II submission deadline is TOMORROW!!!

The horror.

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

junipertreelit@gmail.com


Now, to more important things: who won Tex's book?


Whose toes did I find the tastiest?


Tex! You didn't tell me you were taking bribes! You bad armadillian. Now, for the winners of the free books...


I drool at the thought...


Tex, they are your books! And the winners are...


Raych and Amanda are our glorious winners of this giveaway! Congratulations on your free books! Email to collect your book booty!


Thanks everyone for helping out and referring your friends and strangers to Underneath The Juniper Tree. And feel free to continue to refer your friends and family and writer friends and friends that doodle. We are always looking for new, great work!


And come back tomorrow for our monthly contest announcement. I'll give you a clue on what it's about–


Toes!


No.


Fingers!


No!


Brains?


It begins with 't' and ends with 'ime' 'ravel'. Until tomorrow!




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 Winners!

The entries were nothing short of horribly creative and terrifying terrific! Thank you to everyone who entered. Your creativity and constant rhythm of words never fails to amaze us.

The toe bribes help as well.

Oh, too true, Tex, too true.

Now – the winner of the Fox Edition is......

Jenn Preston Chushchoff with her piece Now He Has None. The piece will be featured in the August issue of Underneath The Juniper Tree.

I hate waiting, you know.

Don't we all Tex, don't we all! So below is her lovely written ditty with a sea shanty tune we can all sing along to in our minds while we toil away at the day. Let it begin, Jenn!

Charles and Victoria booed and hissed as Johnny sang a favorite sea chantey. The song was in poor taste considering the prior evening’s event. 

     Away, away, get the anchor aweigh!

    Our ship must set sail on the bonny sea.

    Goodbye, farewell. Give a heave, get it done.

    We’re homeward bound, we’re leaving.

    If you don’t pull, you’ll walk the plank

    or have your head nailed to one.

To be fair, Charles had a weak upper body. 

Now he has none.

And just a friendly reminder that your Edward Gorey - Chapter II submission deadline is on Tuesday!

The horror.

Quite. SO! Stop procrastinating and get it done and sent it in. You'll feel better about it in the morning.
junipertreelit@gmail.com 

July Issue

Yes! Another issue has arrived for your grabby little hands to twist and turn. Gobble up the words with your eyes, devour the images.

So much to nibble on, so little time. 

Thank you to all our contributors and our Murder of Editors for working so diligently on this masterpiece of musings.

We are currently working on a collection of bios and websites of our contributors so stay tuned to find out more about the insanity and genius that is the melting pot of Underneath The Juniper Tree.

Now, before Tex eats his own hands, I present to you the July Issue!

July Issue



Would you like to contribute to the unbearably beautiful work that graces the pages of Underneath The Juniper Tree? Check out our Contests, Challenges & Giveaways page. Or head over to our Submissions page to see what we accept. If you're feeling particularly bold–

That I always am.

Then send your work directly to junipertreelit@gmail.com and we'll tell you if it fits in our boat of monsters.

Edward Gorey Challenge Chapter 2

First off, don't forget about our Friendly Contest! We want to give you free books. It's easy to enter and anyone can enter as many times (as many friends) as they have/want! Please pay attention to what you have to do or else you won't be entered and we want you to win. So.

Good luck!

Since the unprecedented popularity of the original Edward Gorey Challenge, we have decided that this needs to be a common thing (the Gorey Challenge, not the unprecedented-ness).

We, Tex and I, are hereby instating a monthly Edward Gorey Challenge to honor the murky and mysterious illustrator and Creator of Eerie-ness. All those in favor say "I".

I.

I've already counted you. That is two Yays and zero Nays and so here we are. Welcome to the Edward Gorey Challenge Chapter 2.

For this challenge we want to you look very, very hard at the image below. Good. Now write us three sentences inspired by, describing or relating in any other way to this image. And your three sentences MUST HAVE A TITLE (the title is not considered part of your three sentences so feel free to be as creative as you want)!

Artists, your challenge is to illustrate one image that portrays what you see when you read the sentence below:

"Dreadful, dreadful, DREADFUL. He must be mad to go on enduring the unexquisite agony of writing when it all turns out drivel. Mad. Why didn't he become a spy?"

One image can be submitted per person. Please check the Submit Work page under "Dimensions" to see how you should submit your image.

Deadline for submissions: Monday, July 4. The winners will be announced Friday, July 8.

With your submission please put in the subject line "Edward Gorey Challenge - Chapter 2".

You can submit your work as a word document or 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.

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

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, 

Welcome to Underneath The Juniper Tree

Hello Friends. Oh my, you are looking sparkly today. Welcome to the first day of Underneath The Juniper Tree. As Geraldine McCaughrean of The White Darkness would say for Titus Oates, 'Warm, isn't it.'

Yes, darling.

Yes, thank you Tex. Introductions are always sticky, aren't they. For records and notes and Keepers of Minutes Or Things Such As That, I'm Marjorie and you can read about how I came to be The Keeper Of The Stories in the About page. Tex is my faithful companion who sleeps in The Attic with The Stories so they don't run off and get lost.

To make a long introduction short, Underneath The Juniper Tree is an online magazine dedicated with it's whole soul to children's literature and artwork; particularly the creepy, prickly, what's-that-noise kind. The pricklier and more creative the better. If you are looking for something soft like warm pudding you've come through the wrong door little poppet. Hurry back, now.

Before the wolves come out.

Quite. For the rest of you, we welcome you with open arms. You will like this place, I'm sure.

Each week we'll gather on the stairs to share some of the spine-tingling stories we've found up in The Attic and with them delicious pieces of artwork for your eyes to feast on.

Each month there will be a contest for both writers and artists. You can enter one piece of work only for each contest and if yours is selected, it will be in the next month's issue. Artists, if you work is selected it will be displayed in our lovely Featured Artists space in the right side bar as well as the monthly issue. You can see the contests and their deadlines/requirements by clicking on the Contests tab. Please read carefully for fear that you may not be chosen if you don't follow the guidelines properly. The contest beginning today is the Sinister Summer Stories contest. Please remember that anyone can enter, but all work shown on Underneath The Juniper Tree is for children nine years old up to ninety-nine years old.

I'm a centenarian.

Then to nine hundred ninety-nine, how abouts? There will always be chances to submit work beyond just the monthly contests so please come back often and see what perks your monster under the bed.

There is also an opportunity to help out Underneath The Juniper Tree by becoming one of our editors. The Attic is stacked full, my darlings, and there is much to do. We also are accepting book reviews for any children's books that you think should be lifted up and shown to the world.

So welcome. Stay for awhile. And always come back. We miss you already.