Latest news on the Chapter Book Challenge Anthology #ChaBooChaAnth

The Chapter Book Challenge anthology is coming along nicely. There are 21 people signed up to write a story for the anthology and another two who are in the maybe category and might still join us. The deadline for the first drafts is May 1st.  Some of the stories are already being turned in for editing.

I have been playing with ideas for the title and have a few selected for everyone to vote on, but I will get to it in another post. Once we have the title decided, we will begin working on the cover, and I am thinking we might make a competition out of it.

Although this is my first foray into self-publishing an anthology, it is not my first foray into self-publishing. And it is also not my first experience in contributing to a fairytale anthology. I have a flash fiction story in the anthology "Once Upon a Time: A Collection of Unexpected Fairytales."

Just for fun, I thought it would be good to have a prize awarded within the ranks of those of us writing for the ChaBooCha anthology. I've decided on two prizes, one for before the anthology is completed and one for after its completion.

Everyone who signed up to write a story for the challenge, once I get a draft of your story turned in, you'll be added into a drawing. The drawing will be done on May 7th, and the winner will get a print copy of "Once Upon a Time: A Collection of Unexpected Fairytales" sent to them.  There will be a second drawing done once the anthology we are creating is complete, and the winner of it will win a free copy of the Chapter Book Challenge anthology.

I am having fun reading the stories that are already turned in and am looking forward to reading the rest. Happy writing, everyone!

The Chapter Book Challenge Anthology Project #ChaBooCha

A new plan has been forming and has been discussed in the Chapter Book Challenge Facebook group. This plan is to create an anthology which will be available in print and e-book formats and available through Amazon. This anthology will be full of flash fiction pieces, ranging in length from 300 words to 700 words. These flash fiction pieces will be fairytales, but not just any fairytales; these fairytales will either be twists on the classics or completely new fairytales. All proceeds from this anthology will help to fund the Chapter Book Challenge with things like buying (and mailing) prizes, paying for Chapter Book Challenge domains, creating a website and marketing the challenge.

Everyone in the challenge is welcome to submit a flash fiction story. Not every story will be accepted immediately though; some will need revision. This anthology will be professional in quality, both in the quality of the stories and in its presentation. This means everyone must be willing to make revisions upon request. There will be three or more of us in charge of the edits.

One member has suggested that some of the writers in this challenge who are also illustrators could submit some line drawings to add to the book. While not required for the anthology, it would give it extra appeal. These stories can be the kind of stories that older children can read but that might also appeal to adults.

The title of the anthology and the cover are still to be decided upon. Once most of this is in place, we will have some titles to vote on and some covers to vote on for contributing members. This will happen later on in the process though.

We are still listening to ideas and brainstorming for the anthology. It would be wonderful if some of you would be willing to come to the Facebook group or join the event and chime in with your ideas. Let us know whether or not you think you would be willing to contribute a story to the anthology.

Everyone who contributes a story that gets into the anthology will get the option to have their website included in the book, along with a listing of all of the authors.

Take some time re-reading some of the classic fairytales, both for ideas and for a reminder of the type of stories we are looking for to include in the anthology. Check out some of Hans Christian Anderson's fairytales, Grimm's fairytales along with some of the more obscure fairytales.

We need everyone's input on this because we want this anthology to be something we can all be proud to be a part of, and also, we need to make sure that, if several people decide to write twists on classic fairytales, we don't get seventeen people writing a twist on the same fairytale.

If you want to be a part of this, please go and join the discussion with the Facebook group or in the Facebook event and also sign up here so that you will get further e-mails about this project.