Hi, my name is Marcie, and I am eight years old. I had my birthday two — no, two months and seven days ago, and I’m counting down to the next one. It’s only ten months and three weeks from now! Time flies like a dragonfly!

Aunt Laurie said I can talk about words today. Let me first say that words are very important, because without them, we would all just stare and wave our hands around and if that kept up, how would we get pie? It’s easier to say, “please pass the pie”, especially if it’s that really gooey chocolate chip pie Aunt Laurie won’t make anymore because it’s too fattening. I think being fat just means you’re very happy because you got to eat the whole pie.

Ok, words. There are little words like “please”, “may”, and of course “pie” and those are good words because they get things done. Then there are the big words like Aunt Laurie writes, like “flabbergasted”, “preternatural”, and “multicolor” and I have to look them up in the dictionary. Why can’t she just used “frustrated”, “spooky”, and “pink and blue and green and orange”? Aunt Laurie says that you have to use the right word for the right thing, and preternatural isn’t the same as spooky, although it tends to weird us out. Think of someone who can read minds, or who’s thousands of years older than you. That’s preternatural. Why doesn’t she just say “spooky guy who could be your great-great-great-great-great a billion times over grandfather?”

Yesterday, Aunt Laurie told me I was right. Yay! I’m awesome! She said her beta-reader said her words were too big and if she wanted to be read, she would have to make them smaller words. Like “pink and blue and green and orange” instead of “multicolored”. She said this would be hard for her because big words love her. A lot like cats, I think. And did I mention that Aunt Laurie has a lot of cats?

I think I smell pie. Bye!