Now accepting submissions for "The Fairy Tale Chronicles" #FairyTaleChronicles #KidsChronicles

The Fairy Tale Chronicles: A Collection of Stories Written and Illustrated by Children

The original anthology in the Kids' Chronicles series of anthologies, "The Talisman Chronicles: A Collection of Stories Written and Illustrated by Children," is an anthology of stories written and illustrated by children. A second one, after several requests, was opened for submission, and in 2015, "Superhero Chronicles: A Collection of Superhero Stories Written & Illustrated by Children" was published. It has been requested by some kids that we create another anthology, and so we are complying with this request.

The third volume of the Kids' Chronicles series of anthologies published by Your Kids' Creations is called "The Fairy Tale Chronicles: A Collection of Stories Written & Illustrated by Children."

This is the new topic for children to write about for a new anthology in 2016. 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.

Kids should shoot for 300 words or over for their stories but because these are kids writing, shorter stories will be accepted. The story should be entirely the child's creation, but the child may have help from his or her parent with things like spelling and grammar.

A list of charms is below. Children are to select a charm that best represents their story. 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. 

Each child will need to send in a one-line to one-paragraph long author bio, written in the third person and will need to e-mail a copy of the signed parental agreement.

Deadline for submissions is June 15, 2017.

List of charms below:

Cat charm 

Dragon charm 

Mermaid charm 

Wolf charm 

Book charm 

Unicorn charm 

Heart charm 

Fox charm 

Fairy charm 

Butterfly charm 

Dragonfly charm 

Anchor charm 

Skull and crossbones charm 

Feather charm 

Charms will be crossed out when no more of a specific type are available and new ones will be added as charms are taken for stories.

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 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 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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How do I prepare the art sent in to be used as illustrations for The Talisman Chronicles?

Are you wondering why my work on the illustrations for the anthology are taking so long? Here's a look at what I am doing, using one of the illustrations drawn and submitted by one of the children who are contributing stories to the anthology.

Original:

 drawn by Maddison, age 7

To make the pictures presentable for print so that the lines are clean within the book, I trace around the picture in a drawing program on my computer and then fill in the colors, trying to get close to the colors chosen by the children. I try and trace the picture as exactly as possible. Of course, even filling the colors in leaves some edging that I have to trace back over in the color it is edging against. (Not sure if I am explaining the process well.) It's not difficult, but it is very time-consuming. 

Below is the ready-for-print version:

Please note: There will be both a color version and a black and white version of the book. 

Also, if anyone who sent a picture for the anthology would like me to e-mail them the updated version (to use in blog posts, to create gifts at sites like CafePress , Zazzle or Printfection, etc), just let me know. (If the picture you sent did not have any color, I will have also added color to it for the color version.)

My own daughters have done some drawings for the anthology. I will share them in a later post.

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Table of Contents and Blurb Reveal for "The Talisman Chronicles"

Blurb (rough draft):

Children of all ages, including teenagers, have been finding magical charms all over the world. In some cases, the talismans take them on a magical adventure and in other cases, the magical charms give them a vision of someone else's magical adventure. These stories have been gathered here in The Talisman Chronicles as each child tells their story. Delve into the imaginations of children and enjoy these enchanting stories, written by children from around the world.

Below is the Table of Contents for The Talisman Chronicles. If your child has contributed a story, please make sure that their story is listed here and that their name is spelled correctly. Also, make sure I have the correct age for their age when they wrote their story (or their age now, if that's what they'd prefer), and, if I do not have an age for them, please let me know. I also need short author bios for each child. At the moment, I only have some author bios. (They don't need to be more than a sentence long, but they can be. They just need to say something about your young author.) (The children's ages will be listed under their bylines with their stories but not on the Table of Contents in the actual book. I am just listing them here in order to find out which of them I am missing the ages for.) 

1. Introduction
2. Prologue
3. The Dragonfly Charm by Angelina Destiny Marie Carte', age ?
4. King Beanameatus by Henry Gatenby, age ?
5. Pirate Dogs by Maddy Willoughby, age 6
6. Ember's Wish by Caitlin Shambrook, age 14
7. The Lost Fairy by Isabella Fyfe, age 8
8. The Excuse by Nathaniel Khalinsky, age 11
9. The Dolphin Adventure by Maddison Cook, age 7
10. Mommy Mermaid by Cameron Fyfe, age 4
11. Dragon Magic by Amelie Crimp, age 8
12. The Lucky Dragon by George Redhead, age 6
13. The Steel Fairy by Gabriella Fyfe, age 11
14. Tiana, Ariel, the Bear and the Knights by Stephanie Hart, age 4
15. The Talking Cat by Connor Fyfe, age 7
16. The Dragon and the Two Brothers by Romy Cole, age 5
17. Project Seahorse by Amelie North, age 7
18. Love and the Love Heart Locket by Jade Tonks, age 12
19. Stitch Gets Lost by Aijay Willoughby, age 5
20. Grandpa Ted's Fishing by William Hart, age 6
21. Mermaidina and the Catfish Snack by Lila Cole, age 2
22. The Three Shooting Stars by Jack Redhead, age 9
23. Georgia and the Thunderstorm by Charlotte Cook, age 4
24. The Dragon Orbs by Harry Redhead, age 10
25. Lizzie and Coraline: A Mermaid Adventure by Isabella Fyfe, age 7
26. Why Butterfly? by Nathaniel Khalinsky, age 11
27. The Metal Dragon by Gabriella Fyfe, age 11
28. The New Princess by Maddison Cook, age 7
29. Ben's Dragon by Cameron Fyfe, age 4
30. The Healing Cat Charm by Isabella Fyfe, age 8
31. The Iron Mermaid by Gabriella Fyfe, age 11
32. The Magic Book Talisman by Isabella Fyfe, age 8
33. Epilogue

I can be reached at Rebecca (at) Fyfe (dot) net.

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How to Help Very Young Children "Write" Stories

I know many parents who think that at three and four years old, their children are too young to be able to write stories. Contrary to that belief, I have found that, although they might not be able to physically write out a story, children of that age are often perfectly capable of telling beautiful stories.

Don't believe me? Here are some examples of stories my children dictated to me when they were three and four years old (Scroll past the sections in the blue font if you believe me and just want to get to the "how to" part of the post.):

Written by my daughter Gabriella, age 3:

Marbles and Flowers

There once was a really beautiful fairy named Gabriella. She was playing marbles in the sky with God. Rumbles of thunder could be heard as marble crashed against marble.

Later, she found a flower that belonged to her friend and had been left by her friend for Gabriella to find. Gabriella wanted to show God her flower. When she got to his house, she had a nice cold drink as it was a hot day.

Written by my daughter Isabella, age 3:

Princess Kolluna

There was a princess who lived in a nice castle. Her name was Kolluna. She liked playing with balloons.

One day while at the beach, she blew up some balloons to play with, and a big monster showed up. He was a bad monster. He had yellow scales, two tiny eyes and tiny little baby teeth. He had noticed her because of her bright balloons. He wanted to eat Princess Kolluna.

The princess ran into the ocean and some mermaids came and rescued her. She was so happy that the mermaids helped her that she gave them each one of her balloons as a thank you.

Written by my son Connor, age 3:

Princess Mommy and Her Dogs

There once was a princess named Mommy. She lived in a castle. Her castle had a moat around it and, in her bedroom, she had a very big, comfortable bed. She had four dogs. Two of her dogs were girls and two of her dogs were boys. Their names were Tyler, Ben, Rosie & Helen. They were very small dogs. They had long fur and long tails. Their fur was pink.

Princess Mommy fed her dogs every day and took them on lots of long walks. She threw a ball for them, and they all loved to try and get to it first and bring it back to her. Princess Mommy loved her dogs and her dogs loved her.

One day, little Rosie went missing. Princess Mommy looked everywhere for her. She looked in the dining hall, but Rosie wasn’t there. She looked in the rubbish, but Rosie wasn’t there. She looked in the kitchen, but Rosie wasn’t there.

Princess Mommy was very worried about her little pink dog Rosie, and the other dogs were sad too because they missed Rosie. Princess Mommy looked in one more place. She looked in the castle moat, and there was her little Rosie! Rosie had decided to go for a swim.

Princess Mommy got Rosie out of the moat and gave her a bath to clean all of the mud off of her. She was very happy that she had found Rosie and the other dogs were happy too.

Written by my daughter Gabriella, age 4:

The Little Pink Flower

Once their was a little pink flower. She grew amongst the grass at the park. She saw other, really beautiful flowers being picked by people who would comment at their beauty and she wanted very much to be pretty enough for someone to pick her. 

Days went by and she watched as other flowers got picked but she was left. Then one morning, a lovely princess was walking in the park when she noticed the little pink flower and thought the flower was very pretty.

She liked the flower so much that she had to pick it, and she took it home to give to her husband who she loved. The little pink flower was put into a vase of water and was very happy.

Written by my daughter Isabella, age 4:

The Magic Dress

Once there was a little English princess named Bella. One day, she found a beautiful dress on the ground outside her castle. She took the dress inside and put it on. It was a magical dress and, when she wore it, she found that she could fly. She flew to America, and in America she bought a wand and a sweetie. Then she flew back to England. 

She flew high in the sky and when she looked down, she could see crocodiles way below. She used her wand to bring more fairies to her so she wouldn’t have to fly alone. Before she stopped flying, she flew to a castle and became best friends with another princess named Gabby. She had so much fun in the dress! When she got home, she changed into a normal dress and put the magic dress back on the ground where she found it.

Written by my son Connor, age 4:

 The Princess and Her Castle in the Clouds

There once was a pretty princess named Mommy who had long red hair. She lived in a castle that sat way up on top of clouds. Whenever she wanted to get down, she used a long, pink ladder. She loved looking way down at everything below her and could see lots of pretty sights, but it was such a long climb down that she didn’t climb down very often. Sometimes her friends climbed up to see her though.

One day, her pink ladder fell over and she became trapped in her castle in the clouds. She became very lonely and after a few days, she began to wonder if she would ever find a way down again. 

Then a boy who was a prince named Connor happened by. He looked up at the castle on top of the clouds and wondered who lived there. Princess Mommy looked down from the castle top and yelled down to the Prince below, “Please help me! My ladder broke and I can’t get down!”

“That’s okay,” said Prince Connor. “I have a ladder too.” He went home and came back with a long orange ladder. The princess used the ladder to climb down.

The princess thanked him and then decided that she no longer liked having her castle in the clouds. She looked around and found her pink ladder lying in the grass. On the side of the ladder was a magic button. She pushed the magic button and her castle slowly came down and landed in a field of grass. It still sits there to this day.

They all wrote/told many more stories at those ages than I am showing here. These are just some examples to show you that it can be done. Each story varied greatly in how complex or how simple.


Here are some tips to help you coax some stories out of your very young child:

1. Ask questions. What does her main character look like? What is his or her name? How old is the main character? And here's where it gets tricky. When your child seems as though they are just going to tell you about a pretty little girl and nothing more, ask "What happened next?" If she or he still doesn't know where to take the story, ask questions that give ideas, such as, "Did something scare her? Is there a game she liked to play? Does she have any friends?" and so on. And the answers can lead to other questions, such as "Why was the monster chasing him? What happened during the game? Did his friends go on an adventure with him?" and so on. Each question can lead to more questions.

2. IMPORTANT. Do not try and change your child's mind on the direction they choose for their story. I once (and only once) tried, innocently, to lead my daughter in a direction for her story that I thought would be easier for her to continue on from, but she adamantly refused my leading questions and went her own way with the story, which is what should have happened. I should never have tried to lead her story. Not only do you need to not interfere so that you can end up with a story that is authentically your child's own, but your child needs to feel as though the story has come from him and not from you. Your child will feel much more pride in the story he has told when he knows it has come completely from his own choices and ideas.

3. Let your child lead. If your daughter seems too tired or not very interested in telling her story, take a break from it and try again later or another day. Some very young children will be better at this than others and some children will enjoy this process more than others.

4. Praise your child's finished story. Make sure you let him know how proud of him you are and how wonderful you think his story is. Children love to be praised for their efforts.

Sometimes, the story your child tells will barely make sense, and that's okay too. Writing has a lot to do with the process. It's like alchemy for words. Your child's words might start out producing nothing more than a slimy gunk (which, because it is your child, you will think is the sweetest bubble gum goo), but keep at it, and every once in a while, your child will produce gold.

And don't forget that all of the stories you record your child telling are a form of memory storage. Until I looked up my children's stories from when they were younger to add to this post, I had forgotten that, for a while, my son always wrote stories about a character he called "Princess Mommy." Reading those words again brought a warm feeling to my heart and a smile to my face.

Your only job, as the typist of the story, is to help your child brainstorm and to correct any grammar problems. You should probably also spell correctly as you type up your child's story. ;)





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What Your Kids' Creations Can Do For you

Send me your child's short stories and drawings, and, for a fee, I will make them presentable in their own book at Lulu.com. Once the book is uploaded into an account at Lulu.com created just for you, you will own all rights to it. You will be able to buy as many copies from Lulu.com as you like. You can even sell copies of it to others!



What I will need from you: I need 12 short stories (anywhere from a paragraph long to a page long) that your child has written and a minimum of 12 drawings that your child has drawn. (Drawings in marker are the easiest for me to transform for the book, but I can work with some pencil and crayon drawings too.)

If your child is too young to write or type, you may have them dictate a story to you and type it for them. For very young children, you will often have to ask leading questions, such as "How did she get away?" or "What happened next?" in order to keep the story going.

You will have to provice a recent photograph of your child if you want a "author portrait" added in the back of the book.

I will clean up the artwork so that it prints beautifully in the book, set the book up with the right layout and format, create the cover, and add in a relevant description, keywords and title. It will take me 3 days to prepare the book for you, and it will cost $50. Then it will be up to you to purchase whatever number of books you wish from Lulu.com at Lulu.com prices.

For an additional $25 fee, once you've purchased your book, I will take a few of your child's best drawings and upload them into a few products in a store for your child at Zazzle.com. I will make sure the art is cleaned up and perfect for printing, resize it to fit different products, add keywords to the images, and add titles and descriptions to the products. Again, all rights to the art, the store and your child's stories will still belong to you, and ownership of the store will be in yours or your child's name. (For $100, I will add all 12 of their designs to products in their store, with or without your purchasing the making of a book.)

Examples of books created by children can be found at Moonduster's Book Store. Click "preview" under the books to see a few of the inside pages.)


Dreams Of Three


Dreams Of Four

Examples of children's stores can be found at Imaginative Minds and Through Innocent Eyes and Kyra's Art

The books are a great way to inspire the creative side of your child and inspire a love of reading and writing in your child. It's also a great way to boost their confidence.

The store is another way to inspire your child's creative side. It may also earn them a little money from time to time, which helps boost their confidence as well.

Buying gifts from their newly created stores and buying their book is a great way to find the right gifts for grandparents, parents, godparents, teachers and others for Christmas, birthdays, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Grandparent's Day and other occassions!

Example Of Some Of What I Do

This, of course, depends on how much work you want done on your child's art and how much work the actual art requires to be presentable in a book, but this is just to give you an idea of the kind of work that can be done for your child's book and/or items in their shop.

I take something like this:


I try and clean it up for the book and along the way it starts looking more like this:


I could add a poem or drawing that the child has written.


And I come up with this:



Not all pictures require that level of clean-up for the book, but they often do for products.