Meteor Watch Day & Other Unusual Holidays

There are many unusual holidays in June. Whether you prefer to write mysteries or romance, thrillers or fantasies, science fiction or historical fiction, I'm sure you can find one of the three I've selected to mention that catches your eye and causes storylines to start running through your mind.

How loud will you holler for the National Hollerin' Contest? What discoveries will you make about Paul Bunyan on Paul Bunyan Day? Will you spot a meteor on Meteor Watch Day?

National Hollerin' Contest - Spivey's Corner, North Carolina, is home to this unusual yearly contest that takes place on the third Saturday in June. Why would anyone want to just holler? Well, before the cell phone, before the telephone, before the radio, before the daily newspaper, the main way that people communicated in times of danger or need was by hollerin'. When there was a need to call in the cows, the sheep, or the dogs, you would holler. If something happened and you were hurt or in desperate need, you holllered. And sometimes you would holler just for the heck of it. Basically, news was spread by hollerin'.

That makes me think of the movie 101 Dalmatians. Remember when the puppies were kidnapped? Their mama and daddy didn't pick up the telephone and call others to spread the word about their missing puppies, they barked and howled the news to all of the other dogs to be on the lookout for them.

What would happen if all of the means of communication we are used to were suddenly no more? Would we go back to hollerin' to spread the news around? Write a story about the impact that losing our email, newpapers, telephones, and television would have.

Paul Bunyan Day - Paul Bunyan, the gigantic lumberjack in American folklore, is known for his blue ox, Babe, and for his feats as a logger. According to legend, his humongous footprints created the thousands of lakes in Minnesota. It is also said that he made lakes to fill with water for his ox, Babe, to drink. It is said that he cleared the states of North and South Dakota for farming, and that he trained carpenter ants to do logging work for him.

This day is always celebrated on June 28. On this day, why not find out all of the legends about Paul Bunyan? Pick your favorite onen and write a story about it.

Meteor Watch Day - June 30 is Meteor Watch Day. It is the time to watch the night sky for meteors, or masses of space dust and ice that enter the earth's atmosphere. Meteors enter the atmosphere at incredibly fast speeds and burn up. They produce light as they streak across the sky. Some people call them shooting stars or falling stars.

Whatever you prefer to call these brilliant streaks of light that streak across our sky, come up with a storyline where a shooting star plays a very important role.