Jingle Bells Anthology Project #JBAP

This is an idea brought up by members of the Chapter Book Challenge and I like the idea, so I'm making it official.

The idea was to create an anthology of Christmas stories for children. Now, I realize that not everyone celebrates Christmas, and I can't call it Winter Tales because Christmas doesn't fall in Winter in other parts of the world. So we're calling it "Jingle Bells." Not sure what the subtitle will be - "Stories for the holiday spirit," maybe?

This time, as many of us struggled with the 700-word limit on Teapot Tales, there will be a 1,200 word limit (with a 300-word minimum).

Stories should be kid-friendly, but do not necessarily have to be written FOR children. We will be writing these as stories that would be acceptable for 8 to 13 year old children to read.

These stories can be magical, heart-warming and anything in-between. We want people who read these tales to feel that warm, tingly, heart-touching effect from our words. You know, show them your holiday spirit! Make sure they FEEL it!

Stories are preferred, but we will accept some poems.

Artwork will be accepted (black and white/line drawings), but remember, there may be stories that are for Hanukkuh, the Winter Solstice, Yule and Kwanzaa too.

And we will need a cover. (If no one can manage a cover, I'm sure my husband has some artwork that will work.)

As with Teapot Tales, proceeds will go towards the Chapter Book Challenge. The book will be made available in Kindle and print format. For print format, we are going to need to have the edited stories in and ready no later than September 30th October 8th. Otherwise, I cannot guarantee that the print version will be available by Christmas, and I know many of us will want copies to give as gifts.

If you are American, your story will keep its US spellings and colloquialisms. If you are Australian or English, your story will also retain the spellings and colloquialisms for your area. This way, there will be only one version to publish, rather than one for each form.

The Kindle version will maintain the clickable linking format that it had in Teapot Tales, and unless you send me a new bio (or did not contribute to Teapot Tales so I don't already have your bio), your bio from Teapot Tales will be used.

We will need to reach a minimum of 25 stories for this to be a viable idea though.

And there is one big change to this one:

It is not limited to only ChaBooCha members! Anyone who can write an enjoyable story can submit a story.