🎶 “They never let poor Rudolph Join in any reindeer games. Like Broccoli!” 🎶 When I was 5, Reader, I learned the extended edition of “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer” by heart just from hearing it sung. I was so very proud of myself I performed it for my grandma for Christmas when I saw her. You see, in the lead-up to Christmas, they had been playing the stop-motion classic of Rudolph on TV and I was completely enamored with it. I don’t think you could actually buy it back then on VHS for some crazy reason. So my dad, being the awesome person he is, had just taped the TV special right onto VHS—late 80s commercials and all. (Double Mint gum anyone?) So here’s little 5-year-old me with my light-up musical animatronic Rudolph for accompaniment singing for grandma. 🎶 “They never let poor Rudolph Join in any reindeer games. Like Broccoli!” 🎶 Poor woman. 😮💨 She didn’t have the heart to tell me there was no such game as Broccoli. And I was 5. It’s not like I could read to know I got the song wrong in the first place. I’d never heard of Monopoly. It’s not exactly a game for someone in kindergarten. But I did know what broccoli was. So clearly that was what they said…right? So I boldly sang my little heart out in my festive holiday dress with Rudolph the light-up accompaniment for grandma… And everyone else in my extended family… My aunt let me do a few rounds of this before she confiscated the batteries out of Rudolph and handed him back to me. Now if I could grant you anything this holiday…It’s the confidence to sing as boldly as a 5-year-old who is 100% certain that “broccoli” is a game reindeer play. So wear that sweater dress that everyone else says is ugly. Watch 📺 Hallmark movies without shame. Make that holiday dish 🥧 that your family thinks is revolting, but you think is divine. And write that story ✍️ you’ve been thinking 🤔 about but not writing because you’ve been afraid of what others might think. BE BOLD because… Sometimes we are our worst critics. We’re the ones pushing ourselves so far down into the mud that no one else will ever get a chance to see our awesome. So be bold. Be as bold as a 39-year-old twirling around in a Sexy Santa dress and hot pants on a leaky disaster of a stage in the pouring rain at a Christmas festival. But wait, this Santa Lady’s got more gifts for you…I’ve got a holiday surprise for you, Reader! I have a holiday read for you to enjoy while you’re snuggled up with a mug of hot cocoa on a cold winter night. Plus I’ve got 24 Holiday Story Prompts just for you, Reader if you’re in the mood to do a little short story writing in the next 2 weeks. Well, me and Rudolph are gonna go cozy up with some cocoa and watch the first 2 episodes of Percy Jackson! I wish you a happy, healthy & safe holiday 😸 Your cohort in storytelling, Kat Vancil 🐱 PS 👉 The festive read is a holiday-themed Alternative Universe (AU) short story starring October and Kole from my NaNoWriMo project Occultopus. You can download 2 Turtledoves from my book partner BookFunnel. |
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KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 101 Just after the pandemic, I was with a bunch of my dance classmates at a farewell dinner for a friend. We’d all had a great meal and were waiting to pay when one of them bemoaned 😭 “Ugh. I should have asked for his number.” “Whose number?” I asked. “The server.” “Which one? I can go ask for you,” I offered. You see, I’m already married and have zero ability to feel shame. She perked right up. “The hot one.” I looked around the burger restaurant...
KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 100 Well hello there, Reader! Last week, my husband baked a sheet of brownies for himself to use as rewards while redoing our downstairs bathroom. 🚽 It was a large task—the whole half-bath needed to be gutted right down to the cement foundation. But by breaking it up into small tasks (with a brownie reward), it’s something he can accomplish mostly on his own. Where’d he get the idea to do such a thing? Some self-help guru? A YouTuber? A genius...
KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 99 My last month has been a series of hotel rooms, hospitals, and airports between all my family members’ ill health, Reader. And on a recent adventure in Portland, we got stuck in traffic because of… The Cinco de Mayo festival (sponsored by Toyota!🛻). Protesters on the overpass. Then, well, who knows 🤷🏻♀️ the roads in Portland are like spaghetti 🍝 and we weren’t the only ones that seemed to be lost. But I really didn’t mind because one of my favorite...