Progress on "The Superhero Chronicles" anthology

This year, the subject for the anthology written and illustrated by kids is "superheroes." It was chosen by one of my daughters. We have quite a few stories, but many of the stories this year needed additional work, and we have had very few pictures submitted. My daughter is helping create some pictures to go with some of the non-illustrated stories, and some of the children are revising and building on their stories.

However, all of this additional work means that the anthology is taking longer than I had hoped to complete. It will be completed and published sometime in December, but whether it will be mid-December or late December, I can't be certain.

I think the subject of superheroes was a bit more difficult for some children to write about because the topic was so narrow. So, what we are going to do for the next kids' anthology is we will be returning to the original format where the children will pick a charm and write about that charm or about the character in the charm. This leaves the topics more open for children to write about (and illustrate). It will be Volume Two of "The Talisman Chronicles."

In the meantime, let me apologize right now for anyone waiting on "The Superhero Chronicles" who was hoping to buy a copy in time for Christmas this year. I will do my best, but I'm afraid I can't guarantee it will be ready in time.

On a positive note, some of the stories that came in were absolutely brilliant and inspired. And the cover is already being created for the anthology so I will be able to share it with you soon.

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Story Starter - Week Fifteen

This is the last installment of Story Starters that you will find here. Story Starters is not stopping though. After today, you can find the weekly Story Starters on the Story Starters blog.

This week's Story Starter is a small beginning to a story. Write a story or poem inspired by the paragraphs below. You can use the "beginning" anywhere in your story; it doesn't just have to start your story. Or you can just use it to inspire a completely different story having nothing to do with the sentences below.

The moon's light glinted off the tombstones, surrounding the cemetery in an iridescent light. Tammy didn't think it was a good idea to come to the cemetery; she'd only come along at the insistence of her friends. They thought it would be fun to see who was brave enough to stay in the cemetery the longest. 

But then Tammy saw the grey-colored hand, with torn and eaten-away flesh, start to push its way up out of the ground. 

As always, I love to read what you are writing, so please copy and paste your story or poem into the comments, if you would like to share.

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Story Starter - Week Fourteen

This week's Story Starter is a picture. Write a story or poem inspired by the picture below.

by Rebecca Fyfe of Fairy Magic Photos

As always, I would love to read what you write, so please copy and paste what you've written into the comments, if you feel like doing so.

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Story Starter - Week Thirteen

This week's Story Starter is a small beginning to a story. Write a story or poem inspired by the beginning below. You can use the "beginning" anywhere in your story; it doesn't just have to start your story. Or you can just use it to inspire a completely different story having nothing to do with the sentences below.

David took the bandage off his wrist. the skin underneath was still red and angry looking. A beautiful mermaid, in full color looked back at him from the lines of the tattoo. 

'"David, we have work to do. you need to do exactly as I say." 

The female voice appeared to be coming from his new tattoo, but that was crazy. Right?

As always, I would love to read what you write, so please copy and paste what you've written into the comments, if you feel like doing so.

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Story Starter - Week Twelve

This week's Story Starter is a picture. Write a story or poem inspired by the paragraph below. The paragraph can begin your story, end your story or be found anywhere within your story, or you can just use it to inspire a completely different story having nothing to do with the sentence.

"Camryn woke up from the strangest dream and immediately felt that something had changed. Her body felt different, stronger. And she felt a faint tingling, like a mild electrical current, just under the surface of her skin."

As always, I would love to read what you write, so please copy and paste what you've written into the comments, if you feel like doing so.

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Story Starter - Week Eleven

This week's Story Starter is a picture. Write a story or poem inspired by the picture below.

photo by Rebecca Fyfe

As always, I would love to read what you write, so please copy and paste what you've written into the comments, if you feel like doing so.

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Story Starter - Week Ten

This week's Story Starter is a picture. Write a story or poem inspired by the picture below.

art by Rebecca Fyfe of Melusine Muse Press

As always, I would love to read what you write, so please copy and paste what you've written into the comments, if you feel like doing so.

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Story Starter - Week Nine

This week's Story Starter is a picture. Write a story or poem inspired by the picture below.

photo by Rebecca Fyfe at Melusine Muse Press

As always, I would love to read what you write, so please copy and paste what you've written into the comments, if you feel like doing so.

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Story Starter - Week Eight

This week's Story Starter is a picture. Write a story or poem inspired by the picture below.

As always, I would love to read what you write, so please copy and paste what you've written into the comments, if you feel like doing so.

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Story Starter - Week Seven

This week's Story Starter is a picture. Write a story or poem inspired by the picture below.

photography by Rebecca Fyfe at Fyfe Photography

As always, I would love to read what you write, so please copy and paste what you've written into the comments, if you feel like doing so.


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Story Starter - Week Six

This week's Story Starter is a picture. Write a story or poem inspired by the picture below.

"Cemetery Angel" by Rebecca Fyfe

As always, I would love to read what you write, so please copy and paste what you've written into the comments, if you feel like doing so.

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Story Starters - Week Five

This week's Story Starter is a picture. Write a story or poem inspired by the picture below.

As always, I would love to read what you write, so please copy and paste what you've written into the comments, if you feel like doing so.

art by Robert Fyfe

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Story Starter - Week Four

 This week's Story Starter is a two-sentence beginning to a story, which can be found below.

The mirror in front of me shimmered and blurred, and in the glass, I could see a different room. I reached my hand out to the surface of the mirror and my hand went right through it.

As always, I would love to read the short story you write based on these lines, so feel free to share your story in the comments below.






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Story Starters - Week Three

This week's Story Starter is a picture. Write a story or poem inspired by the picture below.

As always, I would love to read what you write, so please copy and paste what you've written into the comments, if you feel like doing so.

by Robert Fyfe

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Story Starters - Week Two

This week's story starter is a choice between two pictures. You may write a story or poem inspired by either one. 

I would love to read what you write from this week's Story Starter in the comments, so feel free to paste into the comments!

by Robert Fyfe

by Rebecca Fyfe

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Story Starters - Week One

Today marks the first Story Starter post. Story Starters will be posted on Friday every week and will either contain photos or a first sentence, or even a first paragraph, to help inspire new stories. The point of the Story Starters is to get you writing. If you haven't written anything all week, use the story starters to make sure you write something every week. The best way to become a proficient story-teller is to write as many stories as you are able to write. The more you write, the better your writing will become.

With a photo or drawing, you are to look at the picture and see what ideas it inspires in you; then write your story. The same goes for the Story Starters that give you a sentence or a paragraph to start you off. With a paragraph, you are to use it to start your story, but with a sentence, you are to use it either to start your story or to add it in anywhere in the story.

This week's Story Starter is a sentence:

While everyone else was busy arguing about the accident, Shane's gaze was riveted on the dark bulge that slithered in and out of view under the injured victim's skin.

(Feel free to add your stories in the comments below.)

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Now taking submissions for "The Superhero Chronicles"

(not the actual cover)

"The Superhero Chronicles: A Collection of Superhero Stories Written and Illustrated by Children"

The original anthology, "The Talisman Chronicles: A Collection of Stories Written and Illustrated by Children," is an anthology of stories written and illustrated by children. It has been requested by some kids that we create another anthology and the topic requested is superheroes.

This is the new topic for children to write about for a new anthology in 2014. I think the world needs to read more stories written by children. Don't you?

The anthology will be published in both kindle and print formats, and in both color and black and white formats.

Artwork, when sent in by children should be line drawings. If the drawings are colored-in, when the drawing is optimized for print, the same colors will be used. The cleaner the image, the easier it will be to optimize it for print.

If enough submissions come in, it would be nice to be able to divide this anthology into three: one for the 2 through 6 year olds, one for the 7 through 10 year olds and one for the 11 through 15 year olds. This can only happen if there are a minimum of 25 stories in each category though, so if you like the idea, PLEASE spread the word about this anthology.

Kids should shoot for 300 words or over, in the story section of their writing,  but because these are kids writing, shorter stories will be accepted. Stories should be written as if they are a scene in their superhero's movie and should tell us something important about the superhero. Superheroes should be BRAND-NEW. No using superheroes that have already been created by someone else or telling a story that you have seen at the movies or read in comics. This superhero should be entirely the child's creation.

A list of charms will be added here later. Children are to select a charm that best represents their characters' superpower (or just one they like). I will do my best to send that charm to the child. Once they have written a story for a selected charm, they may select another one and write another story. Instead of charms, medals, certificates or something else might be sent in its place.

Before writing the story, these details about the superhero must be filled in:

Superhero name:

Name of human alter ego, if different:

Superhero Appearance (hair, eyes, body type, etc.):

Human alter ego appearance (if he/she has an alter ego):

Costume:

Personality:

Brief description of how the superhero gets his/her powers (i.e. born with them, radioactive accident, mad scientist experiments on her, etc.):

Powers:

Anything else important:


Story submissions need to be in Word or Open Office format, and illustrations need to be in jpeg, bmp or png format. Send to Rebecca (at) Fyfe (dot) net.

Parental release form needs to be signed, scanned and sent in (or you may contact me at the above e-mail address for a snail mail address to send it to).

Deadline: October 15th, 2014

Note: Your Kids' Creations is a division of Melusine Muse Press.



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