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Call for Fictional Stories as Fundraiser
for TQHF & Salute to Women's History Month
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
Albert Einstein
As a fundraiser for
The Quilters Hall of Fame July 2009 induction ceremonies
of Merikay Waldvogel, Women On Quilts is sponsoring an invitation to women to
write a creative story about growing up as a female, between 1902 and 1942* in
the US.
A panel of three independent jurors, all published writers and needle workers in
quilting and other creative arts, will select all the final stories which will
be bound into an eBook, including photos and drawings that you might want to
include with your story. Each participant who enters this challenge and
fundraiser will receive the eBook (a downloadable PDF) to use and share as they
like, and it will be available to download from the
Women On Quilts page. The eBook will be
copyrighted, but you will hold the copyright on your story and photos. It
will never be sold or profited from monetarily, but it will be shared and
enjoyed by women all over the world.
The jurors will use this criteria: submissions must be based on the theme and
“rules” described as:
- 750-1000 words, English language submissions only.
- The main character is a female, of any age, ethnicity and location in
the US.
- She is living alone or in a family sometime between 1902 and 1942.
- THE THEME OF YOUR STORY IS THAT she and her family, if she lives in one,
is just getting by each month, or living on less than that, and she does not
see herself as poor or recognize her life situation as a struggle due to her
or their financial level.
- She has a creative passion that must be at minimum mentioned in the
story.
- You can use first or third person and write in narrative, diary or
dialogue format.
See the March 13 blog post on
http://womenonquilts.blogspot.com for more
details than this list conveys.
JUROR’S CRITERIA FOR CHOOSING FINALISTS
An entry must meet the “rules” above. Then the jurors will chose the entry they determine is the most creative and realistic fictional story because it
draws the reader in, and when the story ends, the reader feels better for having
read it. The story will also have caused each juror’s imagination to soar so
that she could not get
the after-effect off her mind, nor did she especially want to. And, the juror
will be excited to pass it on to others.
Having first designated a number in place of your identifying information, I
will send your story anonymously to the three independent jurors who live across the US. All of
the entries will be sent at one time to each juror. They will score them with numbers
on a pre-determined scale. Then, I will tally the scores, and if there is a need for
discussion due to a tie, a conference call will take place.
The panel will choose four stories as finalist. There will be one overall finalist and three more, each designated as Juror’s
Choice. The four writers will be featured on
Women On
Quilts at the conclusion. I will host a special teleseminar and open
discussion with them. We will hear the backstories, which led them to write their
story, and learn how creativity and imagination operate in their lives.
The deadline for submitting your emailed story is Monday April 20, 12 noon,
Pacific Standard Time. We have determined not to set a specific number of
stories to include in the eBook at this time. Since it is an eBook,
we have leeway. The length of the stories and quality of submissions will
determine how many we include, as we realize some people will be downloading it.
In
the Introduction to the eBook, each juror will write about their
experience with reading the stories and they will explain their reason for their Juror's
Choice award. I will describe why I chose writing as the challenge and this
theme to raise funds
for The Quilter's Hall of Fame, an organization dedicated to telling the story
of meaningful and creative contributions made by women and men in quilt history.
FUNDRAISER
*Marie Webster was an early 20th century entrepreneurial woman and founder of
Practical Patchwork Co., as well as an author of the first book about quilts and the woman
who made them. She lived and worked from her Marion, Indiana, home from 1902 to 1942,
and her
home now holds a collection of quilts and ephemera that honor women in America's
quilt history, past and present. Marie had imagination that led her to develop
unique quilts, kits, patterns, and a book, which she published five years before
women had the right to vote. Her love of 'creating' led her to write the first
magazine article with color pictures of her quilts, which appeared in 1911, the same year the
first International Woman's Day was celebrated.
A $10.00 or more donation to
The Quilters Hall of Fame
(TQHF) (located in Marie's colonial revival house) will help the museum underwrite the costs of the 2009 Honoree
Exhibit as well as the transcription of the
Quilters' - Save Our Stories
(Q. - S. O. S.) interviews of some
of the founding members of the Marie Webster Guild, formerly The Friends of
Quilters Hall of Fame. Q. - S. O. S. is the oral history project of The American
Quilt Alliance.
100% of the donations will go to this project. However, a
donation is not mandatory to participate in this invitation. Likewise, you
needn't enter your writing into this invitational fundraiser in order to donate
at this time to TQHF.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMITTING YOUR ENTRY
Email your story to me at
interviewsbykim@gmail.com no later than Monday, April 20, Noon Pacific
Standard Time,
3 pm Eastern Standard Time.
Send it within the body of an email only, not within a Microsoft Word document or any other form or
file.
Include your name, phone number, city and state, and email address. Also,
include the word
count, and put it at the left top of the email.
Do not send photos or jpeg files with the email. Instead,
if you have any pictures, collect them and scan them as needed, then print them
from your computer, ideally onto one sheet, and send them by regular mail. This sheet
of small pictures does not have to be of great quality, because we will get
the jpeg files from
you, if your story is to be included in the eBook. Please limit the use of photos, etc., to only those related directly to your story.
To send your photo sheet and donation by check made out to TQHF in the amount
you desire, mail to:
Kimberly Wulfert Publishing
226 W. Ojai Ave.
Ste. 101 #107
Ojai CA 93023
Each donor’s name will be listed in
TQHF Triple Anniversary Program Book for
their July 2009 event.
We would like to have some idea how many stories we might receive so that the
jurors can plan the time they’ll need to set aside. So, if you would, please give us your name
and email below, if you might or do plan to submit a story.
The results will be announced in May 2009, with the exact date to be determined. If there are any
changes in dates or additional information, I will email you this list with the
updates. You are not obligated if your name appears, and this list will be kept
private to me. Please direct your questions to me, not to TQHF.
We look forward to hearing from you and reading your story, and thank you for your participation. |