"The Talisman Chronicles" Anthology By Kids - Submissions Being Taken

You might have already heard about Melusine Muse Press, my newest venture, and how the primary focus for it is the creation of anthologies. You might have heard about Teapot Tales: A Collection of Unique Fairy Tales which is available on Amazon now in print and Kindle formats and will soon be seen in stores. Some of you might have also heard about the anthology of stories about female superheroes that is being created or about the Jingle Bells anthology that will be available by Christmas. My children have been very excited about every anthology that has been created so far and also about the ones yet to come. My kids have been asking: When they will get the chance to write stories for an anthology? When will they get the chance to draw pictures for an anthology? I have a friend, also an author, who also has children who want to take part in an anthology.

I bet you can guess what I am about to tell you.

Yes, I will be creating an anthology that will be made up entirely of stories and poems written by children and drawings done entirely by children! This one will be called "The Talisman Chronicles," and each child who participates will get a "talisman," which will really be a small charm. These charms can be used to add to bracelets or to make zipper-pulls or to make bookmarks or just to hook onto a backpack. They can be used to make a gift for someone else. You can do whatever you want with them. And yes, I am totally stealing the use of charms for the project from Sally Odgers who has done this for adults in her anthologies "Crock of Charms" and "Keepsakes." It seemed like a nice way for kids to get something from their experience, and charms are small so will not cost too much to mail out.

Here are the rules:

1. Pick a charm from the ones listed (and there will frequently be new charms added to the list, so feel free to check back). E-mail your choice to me. If it is still available, it will become yours and will be marked as having been chosen. You may only choose ones that have not already been chosen.

2. Write a story based on the charm you have chosen. It is preferred that you keep it as a "talisman" in your story, but you do not have to. If you pick a cat charm, for example, you can just write a story having to do with a cat. The story should be no less than 300 words (150 if you are 5 or under) and no more than 1,000 words. 300 to 500 is the perfect word-count for this project, but I realize that some children will have a longer story in mind which is why I've set the maximum word-count at 1,000 words.

Not a story writer? Prefer poems? Then you may instead write a poem to go with your charm. Minimum length: 12 lines.

3. Draw a picture to go with your charm. This is optional. Not good at drawing but know someone who is not good at writing but would love to draw? You can work together, with one doing the drawing and one doing the story or poem.

4. Write a brief bio about yourself, including your age and why you like writing stories/poems and or drawing.

5. Download the consent form. Have your parent print it, fill it in, sign it, and scan it to send back to me at my e-mail. (rebecca (at) fyfe (dot) net)

6. You may do more than one story. You may also get a parent to help you make sure your spelling and grammar are correct. Make sure your story lets us know about your main character, lets us know what the problem is and has a resolution to the problem. For poetry, make sure it flows well and paints a picture with words.

7. If you are drawing a picture, make sure your picture is done on white paper and use bold lines for it. No crayon or colored pencil. If there are enough entries, we may do a color and a black and white version of the book. I can convert color pictures into black and white, but only if they haven't been colored in. If you choose, you can do a black line drawing, scan it to send in and then also color it in and send it. We will definitely be doing a black and white version of the book, so that is the more important drawing.

8. You parent will have to e-mail me with the mailing address to send your charm to. Addresses will not be shared in any way.

9. Stories and drawings are due by December 1st. If there are not enough stories by that date, then the due date will be extended. If we have enough stories by that date, I will do my best to get the anthology ready in time for Christmas. (It will not be easy with that time frame, but I will try.)

10. The anthology will be in both Kindle and print format, if there are a minimum of 20 stories and 20 pictures submitted. If less than 20 stories and 20 pictures are submitted, the book will not be created in print form and/or we will extend the due date until 20 of each are submitted.

11. You must be no older than 15.

12. Once you have turned in one story, you may choose a second "talisman" to write about.

13. You retain the copyright to your work. By submitting, you are only granting us the right to publish your work in this anthology in all of its forms, and to possibly use parts of it for marketing purposes for the anthology.

E-mail your stories to Rebecca (at) Fyfe (dot) net.

Some charms are available more than once.

Charms so far:
Heart - SUBMITTED - Jade Tonks, age 12
Bird
Owl - TAKEN
Cowboy boot - TAKEN
Feather
Star - SUBMITTED - Jack Redhead, age 8 or 9
Peace symbol
Flower
Dragonfly - SUBMITTED - Angelina Carte
Crown - SUBMITTED - Henry Gatenby, age ?
Paw print - SUBMITTED - Maddie Willoughby, age 6
Cat - SUBMITTED - Connor Fyfe, age 7
Cat - SUBMITTED
Cat
Cat
Dog -SUBMITTED - Ajay Willoughby, age 5
Fish - SUBMITTED - William Hart, age 6
Fish
Fish
Dolphin - SUBMITTED - Maddison Cook, age 7
Seahorse - SUBMITTED - Amelie North, age 7
Rabbit - SUBMITTED - Charlotte Cook, age 4
Frog - TAKEN
Butterfly - SUBMITTED - Nat Khalinsky, age ?
Key - SUBMITTED - Nat Khalinsky, age ?
Swirls
Male symbol
Dragon - SUBMITTED - Cameron Fyfe, age 4
Dragon - SUBMITTED - Gabriella Faye, age 11
Dragon - SUBMITTED - Caitlin Shambrook, age 13
Dragon - SUBMITTED -Harry Redhead, age 10/11
Dragon - SUBMITTED - Amelie Crimp, age 8
Dragon - SUBMITTED - Romy Cole, age 5
Dragon - SUBMITTED - George Redhead, age 6
Dragon - TAKEN
Dragon - TAKEN
Unicorn
Pegasus - TAKEN
Pegasus - TAKEN
Pegasus
Pegasus
Pegasus
Fairy - SUBMITTED - Cameron Fyfe, age 4
Fairy - SUBMITTED - Isabella Fyfe, age 8
Fairy - SUBMITTED - Maddison Cook, age 7
Fairy
Fairy
Mermaid - SUBMITTED - Cameron Fyfe, age 4
Mermaid - SUBMITTED - Isabella Fyfe, age 8
Mermaid - SUBMITTED - Stephanie Heart, age 4
Mermaid - SUBMITTED - Lily Cole, age 2
Mermaid - TAKEN
Mermaid
Mermaid

Please feel free to share this project with anyone you think might be interested in joining in.


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Ten Ways to Inspire Your Child to Write

1. Read to your child or make sure he or she spends time reading every day. Not only does reading help her get used to using her imagination, but it also improves her vocabulary by introducing her to new words.

2. Tell your child made-up stories. Seeing you using your imagination to come up with interesting stories for him helps inspire him to do the same.

3. Play story-telling games with your child. Start by saying one line of a story, and have the next person continue the story by coming up with the second line, and the third person has to come up with the third line. If this proves too difficult, each person can come up with a paragraph instead of a line each. This is a great way to stimulate your child’s creativity and get her thinking about the things that make up a good story.

4. Have your child and some of his or her friends write poems and make it a contest. Make sure they don’t put their names on the poems, and then collect the poems into a pile. Read the poems out loud, one by one, and tell them all they can vote for one poem, other than their own, that they thought was the best one. Then tabulate the votes and the winner gets a treat, like a candy bar, a sticker or a new notebook (depending on what you can afford to give and how old your child is). Do this once a week, at the same time each week, because knowing that it is coming up will have them all thinking about their poem throughout the week.

5. Get your child a library card. As in the first point above, reading is important for your child if she is going to develop the ability to write. Reading a variety of stories and books, as a library card will allow, will help her to become familiar with different writing voices and styles.

6. Self-publish his stories and drawings so that he can hold a physical book of his own creation in his hands. This can be done through places like Amazon’s CreateSpace, Lulu.com and Blurb, Inc. Or you can create the book by hand using your printer and the right materials. If you are completely lost on how to create the book, use a service such as Your Kids’ Creations. Having a physical book of his own words and drawings that he can hold, read and share with others inspires a confidence in his own writing that is hard to capture in other ways. This confidence will inspire him to write more.

7. Do some writing yourself. Seeing a parent take writing seriously and spend time writing emphasizes the importance of writing in a child’s mind. It’s a case of leading by example.

8. Have your child write and illustrate a poem. This helps show your child the connection between the beauty in words and the beauty in the world around her. It helps to make the connection that you are painting a picture with words when writing. As an extra step, you can even put her masterpiece on a mug, poster or magnet at Zazzle.com for her to keep as a physical reminder that she can create beauty with her writing, or just to show her how proud you are of her work.

9. Help your child create a newsletter. Let him take pictures of his friends or other things with a digital camera, or provide him with pictures if a digital camera is not available, and he can write stories about sports he loves, games he plays with his friends, or just interesting news about his friends and family that he’d like to share. Help him put it all together in a newsletter format. Print up several copies and he can hand them out to his friends and family members. He can even let his friends participate in the newsletter by contributing stories to it.

10. Let your child have his or her own blog or use other social media outlets. With the proper supervision, writing for her own blog or keeping in touch with her friends through other social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook can really help inspire your child to reach for even greater creativity. Using a blog source such as Blogger.com makes it easy for her to choose a template and set up her own blog (though, depending on her age, she might need your help), and you can set it to not allow comments or to only allow comments after they’ve been moderated by you. She can share her writing of stories and poetry as well as her drawings and even simple journal entries in her blog. The blog can be set to private or public and you can monitor it to the extent that you think is necessary. Facebook and Twitter accounts can also be set to private and you can only allow them to authorize friends you know, but this frees them to chat freely and be creative with their friends.

There are many ways to inspire creativity and a love for writing in your child. Even as simple a thing as writing a letter to his or her grandparents can help bring out the creative writer in your child. It’s up to you to encourage your children and to lead by example in their lives. If you put importance on writing in your life, your child will see it as important too.

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The Courage to Imagine

Children have more courage than any adult I have ever known. They have the courage to imagine. They use their imaginations to create whole worlds and to act out the stories they wield through the power of their minds. Children still believe in magic, the magic of their imaginations, of creating something from nothing. They have the ability to see things that we, as adults, can no longer see. And they have the courage to believe in a better world than the one in front of them.

They believe in hidden worlds within our own, worlds with fairies and pixies and mermaids, worlds with unicorns and dragons. They create new creatures, never before seen in any legend, fairytale or myth. They draw what they see behind their eyes, what their imagination shows them and they create stories from what they draw.

Children are well-equipped to follow their dreams, because they are willing to imagine where that will take them. They are not afraid to face their dreams. They have the courage to imagine.

We would all benefit from listening to imagination of children.


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