Blast from the Past: Rats Edition - TWO DAYS LEFT!

I can hear your pens scratching away. Two days until the deadline. Quickly, poppets, quickly!

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 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!

Be our fiendish friend on Facebook 

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Don't forget to check out our July issue

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 

Deadline Reminder - Choose Your Own Mystery Challenge

Just a friendly reminder for all you writerly artisticals out there:

TWO DAYS LEFT for the Choose Your Own Mystery Challenge!!!!

I get to munch one toe for every day that your submission is late.

That's right. Deadline is Saturday, July 23. Don't be late! Winners will be announced on Monday, July 25. 

Good luck all you deviously daring drumlets. 

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

Choose Your Own Mystery - One Week To Go!

Just a friendly reminder for all you writerly artisticals out there:

ONE WEEK LEFT for the Choose Your Own Mystery Challenge!!!!

I get to munch one toe for every day that your submission is late.

That's right. Deadline is Saturday, July 23. Don't be late! Winners will be announced on Monday, July 25.

Good luck all you deviously daring drumlets.

And come back later today to read Dawn Pisturino's lively limerick The Man From Brazil. You might want to be sitting when you read it.



Don't forget to check out our July issue.

Beware Sleeping Kittens - Cheryl Coville

Innocent kittens

Asleep in their cots

Helpless and harmless

How peaceful their thoughts.

But from the depths of

Their slumber, they dream

Murderous scenes filled

With ear-piercing screams.

Visions of slaughter

Of blood and of gore

Torment and terror.

Ferocious! They roar!

They hunger for prey

They catch on the sly.

Crunchy bird dinners

Snatched down from the sky.

They pounce on goldfish

And throw up the bones.

Then tease the dog who’s

Tied up at his home.

Animal ambush.

Mousey mass murder.

Kings of the jungle

Stalk the intruder.

They snarl and they slash.

They flash their fierce fangs.

Merciless mayhem

Is all that remains.

Such are the dreams of

The average kitten.

Better not wake him

Lest you get bitten.

Beware Sleeping Kittens

Written and illustrated by Cheryl Coville 

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.

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.

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