My love for writing started when I was very young— six years old to be exact. My older sister, Maya, and my youngest sister, Tiger (not her real name), were very ill. Me and Kitty, my other little sister, stayed with our grandmother for about a week. Maaaaybe two. I left with my clothes, some toys, and one of those notebooks that only have lines on the bottom of the page so that you can draw on the top. And let me tell you, that was the greatest decision ever.

I wrote a story called Sissi the Talking Dog (no, I hadn’t yet watched Martha Speaks, just in case you were wondering) and for my age it was quite wonderful.

I might even go as far as to say… splendid.

But, of course, there were spelling and grammatical errors. I mean, I was six, what do you expect? However, that’s what turned on my love for creative writing. Watching my imagination come to a new life on the page and making my mom and sisters smile was amazing. I especially loved making people laugh. So, naturally, now I write humor.

My dad and I have this, like, ongoing Dad-Joke war. Whoever can get the most groans wins, if you know what I mean. Who will rein supreme, I’m not sure.

Another thing I was obsessed with (still am) was talking animals. I was eight when I started the next book and I’d just started homeschooling. It was called Luna’s Big Adventure. Another talking dog, except she couldn’t communicate with humans.

So, it started off with her in the pound. Rather than wanting to be adopted, she wanted to escape back to the forest where she lived. Luna, a seven-month-old golden retriever puppy gets adopted, because, CUTE, and she escapes on the third day of being there. She bumps into another retriever puppy and they team up, both trying to get to the very thick, very unpopulated forest on the edge of the bustling city.

Because that’s normal.

They travel about and find a zoo, where they spend the night. Luna and Rune go to sleep and Luna wakes up in a wolf enclosure. Uh… I guess she was sleepwalking? Or she was kidnapped? Or… something?

Long story short: the wolves want to leave because they’re wild animals and they are meant to be free spirits (no sarcasm) and Luna helps by coercing a rat (Jamal) to bring the keys, Luna and Rune escape, and then the zookeepers catch them. Using cardboard. Not a cardboard box, just, you know.

Cardboard.

They’re taken back to their humans and then for some unexplained reason Luna’s parents are there and they live happily ever after.

Umm… Well that was five years ago and obviously my writing and storylines have developed since then.

Unfortunately I wrote that story straight onto the computer using Pages, and then, a few years ago, the laptop was passed away and I will never see it again. 😭 (Yes, I am anthropomorphizing the laptop.)

So don’t use Pages! You might lose something that you make fun of but actually loved very much…

I’m not crying, you’re crying… 😩

takes breath

Anyway. In 2020 or 2021 I wrote another book.

I’m still writing it.

The idea was a human and animal hybrid, thus the word humanimal was born. This one is complicated so I won’t get into it now.

I’m hoping to publish it in the next two years before I’m fifteen. That would be so cool!

So. Do you guys have any projects you’re working on?

— Leah Larkspur (13)

Weekly Writing Prompt: You just moved to a house that is almost a hundred years old. While cleaning the attic, you find a box filled with glass balls with names on them. While carrying them out to the trash, you drop one, and a person appears.