December 24, 2012

Guardians Of The Gift - A Special Birthday Choose Your Own Adventure

Today, we have a VERY special blog post to celebrate the birthday of a VERY special member of our writing community!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ERIK!!!

As our special birthday gift to you, we have written you a Choose Your Own Adventure story!  We hope you'll have fun with it! :)

(And we hope LOTS of other people will set out on Erik's adventure too because it's extremely fun :))

Start below.  Read each section and at the end you'll have a choice of where to go next.  Make your choice and see what happens!  You can always go back.

I must confess, before we begin, that this was a bit of a rush job.  I'm truly hoping all the sections will be posted in time, and that all the links will work properly, but on the off chance they don't I will put a list of the sections and links at the bottom of this post so you can find your way if need be.  But don't peek unless you have to because it will give away the story! :)  Also, we had to start with generic blog links, so if you follow a link and don't see a section of the adventure, you might have to scroll to the December 24th post.  We will do our best to update with post-specific links as we get them.

I would also like to thank the lovely Ms. Klostermann for designing and sharing your birthday banner.  And I would like to extravagantly thank the lovely Ms. Stilborn for writing half the sections - I literally could not have done this without her!  But boy did we have fun writing :)

I hope you enjoy your adventure, Erik, and I hope you have a wonderful birthday and a Merry Christmas :)

Ready?  Here we go... :)

The Start Of The Adventure - Guardians Of The Gift


Erik was polishing Sir Lionel’s armor and dreaming of the day when he’d have armor of his own when a small pageboy dashed into the antechamber.

“Erik!” he gasped.  “You’ve been summoned to the Great Hall!”

Erik dropped his polishing rag.  “Me?  Are you sure?”

The pageboy nodded solemnly.

Erik swallowed nervously.  Was he in trouble?  He had never been summoned to the Great Hall before!

He swiped at his hair trying to smooth it, brushed himself off, and hurried after the pageboy.

The doors to the Great Hall stood open.  Erik paused on the threshold.

“Welcome, Erik!” said the king.  “Come in!  We have a surprise for you!”

Sir Gareth stepped forward and presented Erik with a box.  “Happy Birthday, Erik!” he said.

“For me?  Gee, thanks!” Erik was delighted.  He hadn’t received many birthday presents in his life, and none today.

He lifted the lid of the box eagerly.  But what was this?

“Uhh…” he said.  “I don’t get it.”

Sir Gareth looked down.  “Hey!” he exclaimed.  “Where’s the present that’s supposed to be in here?”

The other knights gathered around to look at the empty box.  “It’s been stolen!” cried Sir Lionel.

“Well I guess I’d better go find it!” said Erik.  “Someone must know what happened to it!”

“The court jester is always at the center of activity,” said Sir Gareth.  “He might know what happened.”

“Or one of the castle guards,” suggested Sir Lionel.  “They ought to know who comes and goes.”

“Then I’m off to discover the truth!” declared Erik.  “I don’t want to miss out on my only birthday present!”

If Erik asks the court jester, go HERE.
If Erik asks the castle guard, go HERE.






The Blog Link List (to be looked at and used only in extreme emergency :)) (and not helpful if the posters simply haven't gotten their posts up yet... :))


Section 1: well, you're already here! :)
Section 2 - Ask The Jester - located at http://www.bethstilborn.com
Section 3 - Ask The Castle Guard - located at http://imaginecreatewrite.blogspot.com
Section 4 - Search For The Woodcutter - located at http://www.sylvialiuland.com
Section 5 - Ask The Cook - located at http://pennyklostermann.com
Section 6 - Ask Another Guard - located at http://julierowanzoch.wordpress.com
Section 7 - The Second Fork - located at http://stacysjensen.blogspot.com
Section 8 - Erik Chooses The Righthand Path (after the woodcutter's) - located at http://frolickingthroughcyberspace.blogspot.com
Section 9 - Search For A Ford - located at http://robyn-campbell.blogspot.com
Section 10 - The Rickety Bridge - located at http://hnewmanart.blogspot.com
Section 11 - Mystery Mountain - located at http://www.sfhardy.blogspot.com
Section 12 - Soggybottom Swamp - located at http://thepatientdreamer.com
Section 13 - Otterley Creek - located at http://joannamarple.com/?p=4873
Section 14 - Face The Ogre - located at http://mylmnopreadstokids.blogspot.com
Section 15 - Seek Information From The Gossip - located at http://viviankirkfield.wordpress.com
Section 16 - Attempt To Pass The Icky Pods - located at http://storypatch.wordpress.com
Section 17 - Ye Olde Cake & Candle - located at http://nicolezoltack.blogspot.com
Section 18 - Tackle The Ooze - located at http://creatingcuriouskids.wordpress.com
Section 19 - Enter The Clearing - located at http://childrensbooksheal.com
Section 20 - Go For Help (the Mystic Seer) - located at http://melissawrites.com.au
Section 21 - Face The Dragon - located at http://www.bethstilborn.com/interviewing-erik-and-josie-wednesday-worthy-kids/
Section 22 - Head For Home/Celebration/The End - located at http://susannahill.blogspot.com/2012/08/summer-send-off-writing-contest-and.html


44 comments:

  1. This looks like quite the interesting take on an adventure story :-) Made sure to wish Erik Happy Birthday since ten year old Erik won't be doing reviews...not since it will be 11 year old Erik doing them lol!

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  2. THANK YOU!!!!!!!! This is AWESOME!!! Thank you Ms. Klostermann! Cool banner! Thank you Ms. Hill and Ms. Stilborn! Thank you to everyone too! :D I'm off to go on an adventure! ;)

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  3. Happy, Happy Birthday, Erik! And Susanna, I think you outdid yourself on your generosity and creativity here! Yay too for Beth's writerly contribution and Penny's cool banner!

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  4. Oh will Erik ever find the only birthday present he's ever received? If Susanna has anything to do with it, he will! The happiest of birthday's to you, Erik! Another great job. Loads of fun, Susanna!

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  5. Buon compleanno, Erik! I hope you enjoy your wonderful adventure. I'm going to go on it too, so thank you Susanna and Beth and all the little elves!

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  6. This is spectacular!!! Happy Birthday, Erik and kudos to Susanna and Beth :)

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  7. I've just followed Erik's footsteps through the entire adventure! It was such a delight to be able to be involved in this surprise.


    HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIK!!!!! WOOHOO FOR ELEVEN!!!!!

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  8. I don't know... ;) I hope I do find it! :)

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  9. Thank you Miss Marple! This was wonderful!

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  10. You are VERY welcome, Erik! This was such fun!

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  11. Such a brilliant idea - well done Susanna and Beth!! Happy Double-Ones, Erik!!!

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  12. Happy Birthday Erik! Susanna, you are simply amazing.

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  13. Susanna, these were some of my favorite books as a child. I think Cooper and I will do Erik's adventure later this morning.

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  14. Beth, you are awesome for writing half these sections. Have a blessed holiday.

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  15. You guys! This is amazing. Happy Birthday, Erik!

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  16. POSTED FOR DIANE at http://thepatientdreamer.com

    Happy Birthday Erik, I so enjoyed being on this adventure with you, this Christmas morning. Thankyou Susanna for enabling me to join in and your wonderful creativeness. Merry Christmas to you all.

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  17. Thank you for being willing to join in the madness at the very last minute, Diane! And a very Merry Christmas to you!!! :)

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  18. You are awesome, you know that? You and Beth and Penny and everyone. *sniff* This just gets me! I'm feeling the love! :-)

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  19. It took me a good part of the day, but I finally made it through all the passages! This was so much fun - enjoyed myself immensely! Thanks to you (and Beth!) for letting me play a role!

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  20. Happy Birthday, Erik! What a great way to commemerate such a special day!

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  21. Hope you had a wonderful birthday, Erik! Susanna, you're sooo creative! Hope you had a great Christmas!

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  22. Thanks so much, Tina! I hope you did too :)

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  23. Thank YOU so much for joining in! We appreciated it mucho! :) Glad you enjoyed the story :)

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  24. Aw, you're sweet! And you are part of the love! Thanks for helping us out! :)

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  25. I hope you have fun! :) (And I hope it works properly!)

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  26. Aw, thanks Lauri! You're making me blush :) I had help :)

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  27. Thanks, Lori :) Hope you had time to do a little adventuring :)

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  28. Thanks for all your help, Heather (and I loved the drawing! :))

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  29. Glad if you like it, Joanna! And I really did have lots of help - we're a great bunch, us kidlit writers, always willing to pitch in for some fun :)

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  30. YOU'RE WELCOME!!! Have fun on your adventure :)

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  31. Thanks, Angela! And so true... apparently this one goes to eleven :)

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  32. Back at you, buddy! :)

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  33. Thanks, Kirsten. It was such fun!

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  34. How fun! Happy belated birthday Erik!

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  35. Glad you like the idea, Hannah - we had fun with it :)

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