Friday 28 November 2014

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.

Friday 7 November 2014

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.