The Chapter Book Challenge 2014 kick-off! #ChaBooCha

Today, March 1st, is the first day of the Chapter Book Challenge! It's time to start writing those stories!

For those of you new to the challenge, and to save you the time of clicking the "about" link above, here is the information about the Chapter Book Challenge:

The Chapter Book Challenge, otherwise known as ChaBooCha, was created by Rebecca Fyfe and first ran in 2012. It runs every year in the month of March. The challenge is to write one completed first draft of an early reader, chapter book, middle grade book or YA novel in the month of March, starting on the 1^st of March and finishing on the 31^st of March.

During the month of March, there are helpful blog posts from published authors, agents and publishers to help members hone their craft, and there are prizes available throughout the challenge.

ChaBooCha has a very relaxed atmosphere where members help each other to achieve writing goals. You can sign up on the website using the sign-up form, and you can also join the Facebook page for updates and information. There is a Twitter page at and members interact with one another throughout the year in the Facebook group.

It is completely free to join the Chapter Book Challenge. 

Now, here is some additional information:

There are prizes, usually one or two a week, sometimes more, during the challenge. You can only win a prize if you are officially signed up for the challenge, and most of the drawings require you to comment on the specific post where the give-away is mentioned.

While most of the prizes will be books, either on the craft of writing or, possibly, some fiction books written by some of the guest authors.

There will be a grand prize of a Kindle (Wi-Fi, 6" Display). And this drawing will be from all of the people signed-up to the challenge. Make sure you have signed up with the correct e-mail as, if I have trouble reaching you, after a week, the drawing will be re-done and the prize will go to a new choice. The drawing for the Kindle winner will be done at the end of the challenge.

You will receive e-mails of the Chapter Book Challenge blog posts. The e-mails will only come to you during the month of March, but if you wish to opt out of them, when you receive the first one, just send a reply e-mail with the subject line "unsubscribe from e-mails" and they will stop coming to you.

The challenge is self-monitored. I trust you to be honest about whether or not you have completed the challenge. The challenge rules are fairly relaxed too. Many join for reasons other than writing a complete draft; some join to gain inspiration and advice while editing a completed draft, some join in order to finish a draft that is already partially completed, and others join in order to help while they plot out their draft. You've only technically "won" the challenge" if you finish a first draft, written during month of March, but everyone who has progressed further along in their goal of writing a chapter book, middle grade book or YA novel have won in a broader sense.

Municipal Liaisons Regional Ambassadors

I will probably change the title for these shortly, but, for the moment, we are borrowing the term used by the folks at NaNoWriMo. (If you have suggestions for titles for this role, let me know.)

The reason there is a need for municipal liaisons regional ambassadors is because the challenge members are so spread out across the world.

ChaBooCha municipal liaisons regional ambassadors are the people who coordinate Chapter Book Challenge events within their region. In order to become a municipal liaison regional ambassador, there first needs to be more members in your region than just you, and your main duties are to arrange write-ins and meet-ups with other members within your region and also to spread the word about the challenge within your region.

Melissa Gijsbers is our first official ChaBooCha municipal liaison regional ambassador, and she's already doing a fantastic job. I will be sending her out some promotional material soon which she can share with other ChaBooCha members in her region. A special ML RA badge will be created for MLs RAs to use on their blogs and websites, if they so choose. As things move along, there may be more perks added for MLs RAs.

If you think this is a role you might like to take on within your region, send me an e-mail. (There is only one ML RA per region, but they may choose a co-ML co-RA.)

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So to everyone joining us for the first time, welcome to ChaBooCha! And to everyone joining us for a second or third time, welcome back! Good luck with your writing this month!

ChaBooCha 2014 Guest Post Line-Up

Tomorrow is the first day of the Chapter Book Challenge! I hope you are all as excited as I am!

We have a wonderful line-up of guest posts from some authors you will recognize and some from our own ChaBooCha members too! This list will be updated as more authors and agents are added. 

In no particular order:

1. Angela Ackerman – Angela Ackerman is the author of the bestselling writing guide, The Emotion Thesaurus, and most recently, The Positive Trait and Negative Trait Thesaurus books. Centering on the light and dark side of a character's personality, these new resource books help writers create layered, compelling characters that readers relate to and care for. Visit Angela's website, Writers Helping Writers for friendly support, description help, free writing tools and more!

2. George Ivanoff – George Ivanoff has written over 70 books for children and teenagers, including fiction and non-fiction. He has written school readers, library reference books, chapter books, novelettes, novels and even a short story collection. He has books on both the Victorian Premier’s and the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge booklists.His teen science fiction novel, Gamers’ Quest, won a 2010 Chronos Award for speculative fiction. The sequel, Gamers’ Challenge, was shortlisted for a 2012 Chronos Award. The final book in the Gamers trilogy, Gamers’ Rebellion, was published in July 2013. George’s latest series of books, the interactive You Choose series, will hit the shelves in May 2014.George also writes short stories and articles for adults as well as kids. Of all these, he is most proud to have had the opportunity to write a Doctor Who story for the Short Trips: Defining Patterns anthology (Big Finish, UK, 2008).

3. Karen Pokras Toz – Karen Pokras Toz writes middle grade and adult contemporary fiction. Her books have won several awards including two Readers' Favorite Book Awards, First Place in the Children's Chapter Books category and the Grand Prize overall in the 2012 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, as well as placing first for two Global E-Book Awards for Pre-Teen Literature. Her books for children include the Nate Rocks series,Pie and Other Brilliant Ideas, and Millicent Marie Is Not My Name. For adults, she recently published Chasing Invisible. A native of Connecticut, Karen now lives outside of Philadelphia with her husband and three children. For more information, please visit www.karentoz.com.

4. Kimberley Griffiths Little – Kimberly Griffiths Little has written over ten books, including "When the Butterflies Came" and "The Time of the Fireflies." She has won several awards such as the Southwest Book Award, Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel, Bank Street College Best Books of 2011, Crystal Kite Finalist, and New Mexico Book Award Finalist. you can find out more about her at KimberlyGriffithsLittle.com.

5. Becca Puglisi – Becca Puglisi is a YA fantasy and historical fiction writer. Some of her best-selling books are "The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide To Character Expression," "The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Flaws," and "The Positive Trait Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Attributes."

6. Adam Wallace – A qualified Engineer and Primary School Teacher, Adam Wallace settled on writing books for children as his career of choice. With 20 published, including Better Out Than In and the How to Draw series, Adam is fast becoming a well-known name in the world of children’s books. You can find Adam's books at Adam Wallace Books and his Facebook author page here.

7. Roz Morris - Roz Morris's fiction has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide, although you won't have seen her name on the covers as she ghostwrote for high-profile authors. She is now writing acclaimed fiction under her own name. She is a writer, journalist, fiction editor and the author of the Nail Your Novel series for writers. She is represented by Piers Blofeld at Sheil Land and by Jane Conway-Gordon. She has two novels under her real name: My Memories of a Future Life (Sept 2011) and Lifeform Three (Dec 2013). She is also the author of a series for writers - Nail Your Novel. If you want to get to know her a little better, drop in at www.rozmorris.wordpress.com and her blog www.nailyournovel.com - where she keeps a regular diary of challenges she's tackling in her writing.

8. Anne O’Konski – Anne O'Konski is a freelance graphic designer and illustrator. She has designed numerous catalogs and has been illustrating children's books for several years. She founded AOK Studios and has some stunning artwork.

9.  Julie Anne Grasso - Julie Anne Grasso is an Australian independently published author with a background in pediatric nursing.  She spent many years literally wrapping children in cotton wool. Every day she witnessed great courage and resilience from the tiny people she cared for, which inspired her to write stories about a little girl elf just like them. The Adventures of Caramel Cardamom Trilogy was the result.

10. The Fall Fourteeners - The Fall Fourteeners are a group of fourteen authors who are gearing up for their YA debuts this Fall. Representing different genres, they came together by way of their love of all things books and a publishing timeline. Please check us out at www.FallFourteeners.com for more information about them and their upcoming books.  

11. Amie Borst - Amie and her daughter Bethany are a mother daughter team, writing humorous middle grade fairy tales with a twist, such as "Cinderskella" and the upcoming "Little Dead Riding Hood." When not writing middle-grade books with her daughter, she is busy crafting her own worlds in young adult stories.

12. Emma Walton Hamilton - Emma Walton Hamilton is a best-selling children’s book author, editor and arts educator.  With her mother, actress/author Julie Andrews, Emma has co-authored over twenty children’s books, seven of which have been on the NY Times Bestseller list. Emma also works as a freelance children’s book editor, and hosts the Just Write Children’s Books home-study courses in writing picture books, chapter books and middle grade and young adult novels, as well as the Children’s Book Hub - a center of resources and support for aspiring children’s book authors.

13. Melissa Gijsbers  – Melissa Gijsbers is a ChaBooCha member, active in the challenge since its inset in 2012. She is also the Chapter Book Challenge's first official municipal liaison and recently helped facilitate a chapter book writing workshop in her region.She has short stories in three anthologies and has been blogging since 2006.

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A sample of some of the topics: reaching kidlit readers, writing for the education market, how to revise your chapter book, writing magical realism, how to get unstuck and write your story, dos and don'ts of writing with an illustrator, and encouraging kids to read as well, amongst other helpful topics.

There will be some posts by me as well, and if there is a topic that you would like covered that doesn't appear to be included, let me know and I'll see what can be arranged.
I posted earlier this year at The Writers' Collective on the differences between chapter books, middle grade books and YA novels, so if you are wondering, you can check out the post here.

Here are some helpful links to some guest posts on the Chapter Book Challenge from previous years:

Breakdown of Daily Word Count Goals for the Chapter Book Challenge

Writing First Pages

On Writing: Imagination is a Wonderful Thing

Humour is the Best

How to Outline Your Novel before You Write

Weather in Writing: 3 How-To Tips

How Conflict Fuels the Story

How to Make Writing a Priority in Your Life

Talent Vs. Learning: Do You Have to Be Born to Be a Writer?

Engaging the Reluctant Reader

Writer's Block

Using Social Media to Help Your Writing

Scheduling Your Writing Life to Maximize Your Output

Childhood Inspirations

10 Things to Remember when Submitting Your Work to an Agent

How to Successfully Use Crowdfunding for Your Book Project

Happily Ever-Afters: What Makes a Satisfying Chapter Book Ending

Balancing Home Life with Your Writing Career

How ChaBooCha Helped Me grow as a Writer

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.