Monday, May 27, 2013

The Chest of Charms Project

Shared-venture… The Crock of Charms Project.

FOR UPDATES TO THIS PROJECT- CLICK HERE

Affordable Manuscript Assessments is looking for writers (illustrators also welcome) to take part in a book of short stories and poems called The Crock of Charms. 

Anyone interested may write to mail AT affordablemanuscriptassessments DOT com to claim a charm. First in, first served, but some charms (i.e. tools and dinosaurs) come in multiple shapes so more than one can be issued.

PREMISE:


Three children have found a china or earthernware crock in the attic of a house that is being renovated as a boutique hotel. This is classic story-book land because it has to encompass such a variety of styles and genres. Since the crock has no identifiable owners, they open it. Inside is a hoard of metal charms.

Each of these charms has an associated story or poem, which will be written by contributing authors. The charms come in a wide variety of anything from butterflies to dinosaurs, elephants, hats, shoes, roses, clocks and so on. I will send each contributor a charm, either via emailed photo or by post, and the charm will inspire the story. A photo of the charm will appear as the header for each story.

The charm can be used as itself (i.e. a dinosaur charm can BE a dinosaur charm) or for what it represents (thus a dinosaur charm might become a living dinosaur, a statue, a fossil, a toy etc etc).

Length – up to 1000 words.
Genre – open
Age level – there are three; (1) children 4-7, (2) children 8 – 11, (3) junior teen.
Tone - MUST be suitable for general exhibition. 
Deadline – probably October 2013, to give time to get the books printed before the end of the year.
Authors may sub a bio, including links if they choose.
Authors keep the copyright for individual stories.
No payment will be made for stories.
Authors have the right (but not the obligation) to buy as many copies of the anthology as they please at cost. They may then use these for whatever they like, EXCEPT they may not photocopy stories by other people. (Suggestions are - gifts, prizes, fund raisers, author CVs.)
Stories will be edited and the edited version will be the property of the author.

Whether or not this goes ahead depends on whether enough people want to play.  As of 28/05/13 it's looking very likely to go ahead. It’s not a money-making venture (although anyone is welcome to resell copies they buy if they choose) but should make a lovely gift book and will also showcase author talents. If you’d like to be involved, let me know and I’ll add you to the list. Also, let me know which kind of charm you’d like to claim. The choices below are easy to come by, but if you have a specific subject let me know and I’ll see if I can source a suitable charm.




Some of the charms are pictured here.










RED CHARMS ARE CLAIMED
BLUE CHARMS ARE STILL AVAILABLE

angel 
anchor

ballerina/ dancer

bicycle
bird
butterfly

car

cat 
pair of cats
steam punk clock 
more steam punk clocks still available
crocodile
crown

dinosaur  (two claimed)  (extra ones available)

more dinosaurs available

dolphin 
dog

silver dragon 
bronze dragon
dragonfly
dress

elephant


fairy 

extra fairies available
fish
flower
frog


guitar 

handbag

hat 
heart
horse 
running horse 
horseshoe

koala
key 

ladybird

lantern
leaf
lizard  

musical note

owl

parrot

peacock 1 
peacock 2 
pegasus
penguin

rabbit/hare
rocking horse 
rose 

ship

shoe
shell
snowflake
spinningwheel
star

teapot 
teddy bear
tool  (axe claimed)   (extra ones available)
tortoise

windmill



Friday, May 24, 2013

How to be an Awesome Author

The new title from Affordable Manuscript Assessments and Workshops is How to be an Awesome Author. This one is aimed at primary school children who love to write.


To buy, go to http://sallyodgers.weebly.com/how-to-be-an-awesome-author.html


Contents
Introduction 4

Why Would You Write a Story? 5

Ideas 7

Let’s Get Some Writing Tools 10

Beginnings 26

Middles 35

Ends 43

Characters 46

Plots and Paces 54

Settings and Periods 56

Awesome words and Not so Awesome Words 63

Dialogue 64

Voices and Tenses 71

Punctuation 76

More Awesome Words 79

Editing 84

Genres 91

Ms Tiggy’s Beginnings 92

Ms Tiggy’s Characters 95

Mr Bock’s Glossary 97

Go and be Awesome, Author! 99