Sweet & Sassy Scribblers
​
  • Genres
  • Fiction
    • Books for Children
    • Fantasy
    • Thrillers
    • Mysteries
    • Women's Fiction
    • Science Fiction
  • Nonfiction
    • Well-being
    • Spiritual Psychology
    • Poems, Essays, Etc.
  • Heart Song Ghostwriting
  • MindSlap! - Spiritual Psychology
  • Let's Get Our Hands Dirty
  • The Scribblers

Mary Had a Little Turkey?

1/1/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
That’s a pretty strange name for an article, but it did catch your attention, right?

Back in 2019, I answered a call for submissions from Spider Magazine. The editor was looking for a Thanksgiving story suitable for early readers that wasn’t the run-of-the-mill Pilgrim’s first Thanksgiving saga.

So, I sent in a manuscript I was sure no one else would duplicate. Unfortunately, Thanksgiving passed, and I never heard anything back. After that disappointing rejection, I forgot all about the article.

A couple of years later, I received an email from Stacey, the editor of Spider, complimenting me on my wonderful children’s story and asking if it was still available.

I had no idea what she was talking about.

Stacey apologized for the delay in contacting me. It took a while for her team to fact-check my article. It seemed no one on her staff had ever heard of Sarah Josepha Hale except as the author of the poem “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

After reading the email several times, I vaguely recalled writing the article but had to dig through my ‘rejected articles’ file before finally finding it. Then, after reading the story, it dawned on me why I liked the piece so much.

Sarah Hale was a fearless activist/author/magazine editor. She spent 36 years writing governors, senators, presidents, and anyone else she could pester on why Thanksgiving should be a national holiday. Finally, in 1863 Abraham Lincoln passed a proclamation declaring the last Thursday in November as a “Day of Thanksgiving and Praise.” Mission accomplished!

That’s how “Mary Had a Little Turkey” came into being. Spider bought the piece and came up with the catchy title.

I wanted to tell you all about this in November but had to wait 60 long days after publication before announcing it. So now, here it is:

“Mary Had a Little Turkey” by Greta Burroughs, published in the November/December issue of Spider Magazine.
​

https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:9e47ebab-9a9d-34a4-879c-e08158e52d05

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.


    Categories

    All
    Books
    Genre Articles
    Guest Authors
    Holidays
    Inspiring Children
    Memes
    Scribblers
    Writing

    Book Genres

    Picture
    Mysteries
    Picture
    Children
    Picture
    Thrillers
    Picture
    Fantasy
    Picture
    Women's Fiction
    Picture
    Science Fiction
    Picture
    Poems, Essays, etc.
    Picture
    Spiritual Psychology
    Picture
    Well-being


    Archives

    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022

    RSS Feed

I will read forever because it lets me visit in my mind the worlds that I will never be able to see; it helps me put away the stresses of the day and relax into the rhythm of the story before me; it lets me bring to the surface and experience without regrets those feelings I hide away; it lets me re-experience the thrill of first love through someone else's eyes; it keeps my mind juiced so that it will never desert me; it is always there for me even when there's no one else. I will read forever no matter whether it is print or digital because the words will always call to me. ~ A Sassy Scribbler