Chapter Book Challenge 2014 badge - Meet Nabu #ChaBooCha

This year's Chapter Book Challenge has a new mascot - Nabu the Badger. Nabu loves to read, and he is really looking forward to all of the new chapter books, middle grade books and YA books that are going to be written and published as a result of this year's ChaBooCha.

In fact, Nabu loves reading your stories so much that he is here to remind you and "badger" you into writing those books during the Chapter Book Challenge.

The 2014 ChaBooCha begins in just ten days! It's time to start preparing for the awesomeness that is going to be your next book!

If you haven't signed up for the challenge yet, don't forget to sign-up using the official sign-up form.

Don't forget to put the Chapter Book Challenge logo (above) on your blog or website so that Nabu can continue to remind you to get writing!

"Jingle Bells: Tales of Holiday Spirit from Around the World (Expanded Edition)" is available in print!

The Expanded Edition is available now! "Jingle Bells: Tales of Holiday Spirit from Around the World (Expanded Edition)" is available in print! The expanded edition has five additional Christmas illustrations inside the book, towards the end, to make your reading experience just a little bit more fun. Both books are fabulous, and these anthologies make wonderful gifts for the holidays, so if your trying to save money, you can buy the regular edition of Jingle Bells, but if you want to add a bit of oomph to your gift-giving while not spending too much more, then I highly recommend the Expanded Edition!

These stories are all family-friendly and children will love them as much, if not more than, adults. You can buy them as gifts, buy them for your won reading pleasure, or buy a copy to read a story each night to your child throughout the holidays. It's a great way to get them (and yourself) into the holiday spirit.

All proceeds from sales of the books go towards supporting the Chapter Book Challenge.

US: Jingle Bells: Tales of Holiday Spirit from Around the World (Expanded Edition)

UK: Jingle Bells: Tales of Holiday Spirit from Around the World (Expanded Edition)

Teapot Tales: Take 2 - Guidelines for "Teapot Tales: Pirates, Mermaids and Monsters of the Sea"

I have mentioned the theme for the next Teapot Tales, the one that will come out in Summer 2014, to some of the members of the Chapter Book Challenge, and some of the newer members are asking questions about formatting and submission guidlelines, so I thought it might be good to make everything clear in a post here.

I am taking submission early this time, because I am hoping it will help with the editing so that, when I finally get to the formatting, the editing will be mostly complete.

The theme for the 2014 Teapot Tales anthology will be " Pirates, Mermaids and Monsters of the Sea." In fact, the full title of the next Teapot Tales anthology will be: "Teapot Tales: Pirates, Mermaids and Monsters of the Sea," or something very similar.

1. Your stories must be about pirates, mermaids or other monsters of the sea. But "monsters of the sea" can be loosely interpreted and basically, your story should have the sea or the ocean somewhere in it.

2. Stories do not have to be FOR children, but they do need to be child-friendly in that there should be no bad language, no sex and, although kids love gore and violence, please keep it PG.

3. Stories can not be less than 300 words and cannot be over 800 words. Last time, the limit was 700 words, but several went over. This time, I am hoping everyone can keep it concise enough to stay within the allotted word count. The point of the title "Teapot Tales" is that each story is a short piece of flash fiction - a story short enough that a person can sit and enjoy a cup of tea while enjoying a story or two. People should be confident that they can sit and read a story in a short span of time, easily fitting story-reading into those briefly-snatched, relaxing moments throughout the day.

4. You MUST be an officially signed-up member of the Chapter Book Challenge in order to submit a story to the Teapot Tales anthology. You can sign up here. (You can read more about the Chapter Book Challenge by browsing this site or clicking on the "about" section at the top of the blog.)

5. Please follow the formatting guidelines as stated on Melusine Muse Press's page. Go here to read the formatting guidelines.

6. Proceeds from sales of the anthology go towards supporting the Chapter Book Challenge. Right now, the proceeds help pay for the prizes (we do a lot of prizes during the challenge) and the posting of those prizes. In the future, if proceeds increase, they will also help towards advertising ChaBooCha to bring in more members, advertising of the Teapot Tales anthologies (and other ChaBooCha anthologies) to help get them to a wider audience, donating our anthologies to libraries, setting up a more professional website and more. The goal is to grow membership of the Chapter Book Challenge, so we can better help each other towards our publishing goals. The Chapter Book Challenge is FREE to join and will remain so.

7. Illustrations (line art - black on white) will also be accepted.

8. Author bios must be sent in - around a paragraph each, links may be included, and must be written in 3rd person. These will be included in the book.

9. The deadline for the Teapot Tales submissions is April 30th, 2014.

10. E-mail submissions as a file attachment to Rebecca (at) Fyfe (dot) net.

Anthologies will be made available in both kindle and print formats.

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For those of you who do not wish to join the Chapter Book Challenge, but would still like to participate in writing a story for an anthology, we do one other anthology during the year which is open to everyone. This year, we published "Jingle Bells: Tales of Holiday Spirit from Around the World." In 2014, we will be doing a Halloween themed anthology. I will create a separate post to explain the guidelines for the Halloween anthology. but,m the basics are that the maximum word count for stories for this anthology will be 1,200 words, and the stories will be written FOR children.

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There is also a charity anthology project that will be hosted in 2014 by Melusine Muse Press, funny, true stories about cats - the cat anthology proceeds will go towards the Cat's Protection League.

Melusine Muse Press will also be accepting submissions for a much larger anthology project, in which a limited number of submissions will make it into the anthology. It is a four volume anthology with a fairy theme, with stories written for adults. Each volume focuses on stories of fairies from the different courts: Winter, Autumn, Spring and Summer. There will be prizes for winning entries in each volume.

Both the cat anthology and the fairy anthology are still having the details put together, but you can look for information on submissions for them later. Sometime in the future, the details will be posted on Melusine Muse's anthology submissions page.

"Jingle Bells: Tales of Holiday Spirit from Around the World" is available in both print and kindle!

 

"Jingle Bells: Tales of Holiday Spirit from around the World" is a collection of holiday stories created by Chapter Book Challenge members and their friends. It is full of wonderful short stories featuring stories from Hanukkah to Christmas. There are 23 authors and with 38 different chapters altogether, the anthology has 33 short stories and 5 poems. The stories range from magical to emotional and all of them are suitable for reading with the family.

Read about a clumsy dragon, a super dog who helps save Christmas, and a Christmas fairy, along with several different stories to warm your heart.

You can buy your copy of Jingle Bells at any Amazon store. The print edition will be out this week too and will make a fabulous Christmas gift for your loved ones!

The Kindle edition is on sale until after Christmas. You can get your copy for only 99 cents!

In the US: Jingle Bells: Tales of Holiday Spirit from Around the World

In the UK: Jingle Bells: Tales of Holiday Spirit from Around the World

Proceeds help to fund the Chapter Book Challenge (ChaBooCha)

(An extended version, with more pictures, will be available at a slightly higher cost, later this week.)

Jingle Bells cover reveal and list of stories and authors

Here's a sneak peek at the cover for the Jingle Bells anthology which will be available for purchase in a few short weeks!

"Jingle Bells: Tales of Holiday Spirit From Around the World"

And just for another sneak peek into the anthology, here's a look at the table of contents, complete with the story titles and names of the authors who have contributed.

1. Hope by Cecilia Clark

2. Christmas Is Coming by Emily Morgan

3. Kristel the Christmas Mouse by Kelly Vavala

4. Zeyde's Hannukah by Nancy Churnin

5. Thomas' New Coat by Marissa Ames
6. Spying a Saint by Angelica Fyfe

7. Saving Silver Square by Ashley Bohmer

8. Dirkus's Christmas by Jackie Castle

9. The Spirit of Christmas by Rebecca Fyfe

10. A Very Merry Birthday and a Happy Christmas by Kelly McDonald

11. Where Are the Bells by Melissa Gijsbers

12. Coal by Abbi Knight

13. Christmas Spirit by Alayne Kay Christian

14. The Ragdoll Under the Christmas Tree by Beth Avery

15. The Day of the Wren by Deirdre Sheridan Englehart

16. White Fairyland by C. S. Frye

17. Christmas Blessings by Theresa Nielsen

18. Olivia the Terrible Singer by Nicole Zoltack

19. Make My Christmas by Satori Cmaylo

20. The Button Box by Melanie E. Lancaster

21. The Naughty or Nice List by Ashley Howland

22. Dashing Through the School by Jo Hart

23. The Perfect Gifts by Robert Fyfe

24. Daddy's Home by Abbi Knight

25. Aussie Jingle Bells by Melissa Gijsbers

26. Duncan's Gift by Rebecca Fyfe

27. A Perpetual Gift by Cecilia Clark

28. Christmas In June by Alayne Kay Christian

29. The Holiday by Emily Morgan

30. Jack's Frosty Christmas by Jackie Castle

31. Holiday Hustle by C.S. Frye

32. Assunto's Presepi by Kelly Vavala

33. Lightning Lilly, Princess Seea and the Foggy Night by Ashley Howland

34. Dragon Magic For Christmas by Rebecca Fyfe

35. A Little Bit of Peace by Melissa Gijsbers

36. Xmas Means by Abbi Knight
37. The Mermaid's Gift by Cecilia Clark
38. The Ice Queen by Robert Fyfe

I can't begin to tell you how much you are going to love the stories within this anthology - heart-warming holiday stories written by a variety of talented authors.

Time to Vote on the Jingle Bells Cover!

Rules: Choose the number of the cover you like best. Send your vote to me at Rebecca (at) Fyfe (dot) net. Only story contributor votes count. There will be adjustments whichever one wins the official vote. I'm thinking some of the titles will need outlines in other colors or something to make them more visible. In the first two, they were sent in without the title or subtitle, so the title can be adjusted in color and font.  (And the bells were added in after in the first one, so again, those bells can be added to any of the titles.) In #3, the subtitle was added before the artist knew what the actual subtitle would be. Again, whichever one wins, there will still be adjustments to make things work. Keep that in mind while voting. Also keep in mind that each of these will be slightly different in the print version as it has to wrap around, which will mean more work for some of the artists. Remember that the titles and subtitles can be adjusted to be made more visible if needed.

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Nominated for the Liebster Award

 
I am going to have to give a shout out and a heartfelt Thank You to Dani Duck for nominating me for the Leibster Blog Award. The Leibster award is giving to wonderful blogs with under 200 followers. The word "Liebster" Means sweetheart in German. It's a very sweet award.

Please visit Dani's's blog here: http://daniduckart.blogspot.ca

In accepting this award I am contractually obligated to answer 10 questions of Dani's choosing and then command 5-10 other people to answer my similarly worded questions.

 Here are Dani's questions to me along with my answers:

1. What is your favorite thing about writing or illustrating for children?

First off, I wish I was skilled enough to illustrate children's books! I'm thankful that I can write for children though. I love the way every subject can be magical for children, and the fact that their imaginations are boundless, so a story written for a child can go just about anywhere.

2. Who or what inspired you to become a writer or illustrator?

First, it would be my paternal grandmother. She taught me to read when I was only three. I was picked on a lot by my siblings, and she wanted me to have something of my own. She taught me not just how to read at a very young age, but she instilled a love in me for the written word.

Next, it would be my maternal grandfather. He lived with us when I was young and so was a big part of my life. I used to write stories all of the time, and he not only enthused about my writing, but he suggested that I could someday grow up to be a writer. That created the urge in me to write even more, and it was the first time I thought about actually becoming a writer.

3. What is one thing that most people don't know about you?

This is a difficult question for me as I am pretty much an open book. I am willing to talk about any part of my life.

I suppose, although some already know this about me, a lot of people may not know that I was once in a relationship with someone who was verbally and emotionally abusive as well as borderline physically abusive. Escaping that relationship was the best thing that could have happened in my life.  


4. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

This one is easy! I see myself with many published books, doing book signings and book readings.

5. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck would chuck wood?

No idea! But I've always been pretty skilled at saying the phrase quickly!
6. What do you do when you aren't writing/illustrating?

I spend way too much time on Facebook. I network with other writers and agents. I run the Chapter Book Challenge and think up other things to take up my time. I assemble anthologies and create calls for new anthologies.

7. Color or Black & White?

If it is a movie, then color. If it is a photograph, then black and white.

8. How long?

I'm not sure what this question is asking. How long do I spend writing each day? - many hours. How long do I spend on the bus each day during the school runs? - 4 hours. How long have I wanted to be a writer? - since I was a child. How long have I been working towards making writing my career? - 5 years.

9. How annoying is it that I tagged you on my blog for this?

Not annoying at all! I am weird in that I like answering these kinds of things.

10. Do you have any big events that you are going to or hosting soon?

The anthology "Jingle Bells: Tales of Holiday Spirit From Around the World" will be coming out soon. The anthology "SuperHERo Tales" will also be available before Christmas. Another anthology, written and illustrated completely by children will be completed sometime in December, so look for that on Amazon soon too!

Great blogs I am nominating:
Melissa Writes

Ashley Howland

Jo Michaels

Now I am going to do something a little different and ask different questions of the next two bloggers, my daughters Gabriella (age 11) and Isabella (age 8).

Gabriella's Art

Isabella's Imagination
 
Please answer these questions however you see fit. Since I'm lazy I'm copying and pasting the instructions: "If you choose to accept here are the directions: Link back to the blogger that tagged you. Nominate 5-10 others and answer the questions of the one who tagged you (mine are below). Then ask 10 questions for the bloggers you nominate as well as letting your nominees know of their award. Oh, yeah—and have fun! ☺"

Questions for the 1st three blogs:

1. Why were you drawn to writing?

2. How many years have you been making or trying to make writing your career?

3. Are you published? Where?

4. What is your favorite part about writing stories?

5. What is your favorite genre?

6. Where do you find your inspiration?

7. How active is your muse?

8. If you could have a conversation with your muse, what would you say?

9. What are the latest projects you are working on?

10. What plans or dreams do you have for your writing in the next year?

Questions for Gabby and Bella:

1. What do you like the most about writing stories?

2. What makes you want to write a story?

3. Where do your story ideas come from?

4. How old were you when you wrote your first story?

5. What is your favorite creature or type of person to write about?

6. What's the name of the most recent book you have read or are reading?

7. Does your school give you any lessons on how to write good stories? If so, how helpful have they been?

8. What is the name of the story you are currently working on?

9. Are you published anywhere, and of so, where? Name the book titles.

10. Is any of your writing going to be published in the future? If so, give the titles of the publications.