Request for stories for our grandmothers topic
The deadline for story submissions is JUNE 30, 2024. We view this book as a wonderful gift for grandmothers of all ages at any time of year, but it will be published in March 2025, in time for the Mother's Day selling season. That is the reason for the short deadline. We may extend the deadline but please do not count on that. Please get your submissions in early so we can get started reading and choosing right away!
What makes this topic so much fun? Well, the moment a grandchild is born, a grandmother is born too. And what an amazing experience it is. Everyone has a great story about the unconditional love between grandmothers and their grandchildren. We are looking for heartwarming, insightful, and humorous stories celebrating grandmothers.
Stories can be written by:
• grandmothers about being a grandmother
• grandchildren about their grandmothers
• adult children about their mothers or stepmothers or mothers-in-law as grandmothers
All of the above equally applies to stepmothers as grandmothers — we are not differentiating.
Poems are only considered if they are "prose poems" that tell a story. Please, no poems that obsessively rhyme and seem like a greeting card. Also, please, no eulogies.
Here are some suggested topics, but we know you can think of many more: • My baby is having a baby!
• The joys of becoming a grandmother
• Getting your grandmother name
• Love across the generations
• Continuing family legacies and traditions
• Spoiling my grandchildren
• The wisdom of grandmothers
• What I learned from my grandmother
• What I learned from my grandchildren
• What I learned from my grown child when he/she became a parent
• The rewards of being a grandmother
• The challenges of being a grandmother
• Fun times
• Funny stories
• Babysitting
• Using technology for being part of grandchildren's/grandmothers' lives such as FaceTime and Zoom, social media, texting
• Keeping up with the grandchildren: adventures, sore muscles, exhaustion…
• Co-grandparenting with the in-laws, with your husband
• Disagreements with the parents over rules, nutrition, religion, etc. — including unwanted advice!
• Traveling with grandmothers/grandchildren
• Grandmothers as role models
• Raising your grandchildren when the parents are unable to
• Differences between grandsons and granddaughters
• Creating new traditions with the grandchildren/grandmothers
A few guidelines for you and some general information:
All submissions need to be true — we do not publish fiction. Stories should be no longer than 1,200 words. Please write in the first person about something that happened to you or someone close to you. Every part of your story must be true. No "composite characters." But yes, you can use a pen name, if necessary, to protect yourself or someone else.
If your story has been published in a past Chicken Soup for the Soul book, please do not submit it. We will not republish it. If you submitted a story to a previous Chicken Soup for the Soul book and we did not publish it, please submit it to us again if you think it will fit in this topic.
Please remember, we no longer publish "as told to" stories. Write your story in the first person. Do not ghostwrite a story for someone else unless you list that person as the author in which case, they will be required to fill out our permission form if the story is selected.
If a story was previously published, we will probably not use it unless it ran in a small circulation venue. Let us know where the story was previously published and the approximate exposure it received in the "Comments" section of the submission form.
We include stories in our books from as diverse a group of writers as possible, including the LGBTQ community and people of all ethnicities, nationalities, and religions.
If your story is chosen, you will be a published author and your bio will be printed in the book if you so choose. You will also receive a check for $250 and 10 free copies of your book, worth more than $160. You will retain the copyright for your story and you will retain the right to resell it or self-publish it.
SUBMISSIONS GO TO OUR WEBSITE. The deadline for submissions is JUNE 30 2024. This book is slated for MARCH 2025.
* * * *
Request for stories — change your habits & attitudes / change your life
Habits. Attitudes. Breaking bad habits and replacing them with good habits play an important role in self-care. Change your attitude and you can change your life. And self-care — including mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual wellbeing — is vital to ensuring that your needs are met. It's probably what we neglect the most.
We are looking for true stories about how you realized a certain habit or attitude was detrimental to you, what you did to change that, and the difference it made in your life.
Here are some ideas that might prompt you to recall a story you'd like to share:
• Your strategy for making new habits that are better for you
• Your strategy for breaking bad habits
• How you made a conscious decision to change
• How changing your habits and attitudes reduced your stress and improved your fitness, health, relationships, work, fun…
• How proper self-care improved your life
• What changes did you make to put yourself first on your "To-Do" list?
• Did you eliminate people from your life, or at least reduce your exposure to them, as part of your plan? And if you couldn't, did you at least change how you reacted to them?
• Did you take back control of your life? Take back the power?
• Did stepping outside your comfort zone help you create new, better habits?
• How deviating from your routine helped you break a habit
• Did keeping a journal help?
• How you made a new, good habit and conquered an old, bad one
• Breaking familiar patterns and how that helped
• Baby steps to change — step by step
• Learning to say "no" — setting boundaries
• Learning to ask for help
• Did you work with someone to make the changes? An accountability partner? A family member or friend?
• Did you teach someone else how to break bad habits, make new ones, change their attitude, reclaim their power?
• Have you become more assertive or outspoken? Changed how someone treated you?
You have time! If this story callout has prompted you to make a positive change in your life — that one you've been thinking about — then go for it. Make the change and then write about it in a few months.
A few guidelines for you and some general information:
All submissions need to be true — we do not publish fiction. Stories should be no longer than 1,200 words. Please write in the first person about something that happened to you or someone close to you. Every part of your story must be true. No "composite characters." But yes, you can use a pen name, if necessary, to protect yourself or someone else.
If your story has been published in a past Chicken Soup for the Soul book, please do not submit it. We will not republish it. If you submitted a story to a previous Chicken Soup for the Soul book and we did not publish it, please submit it to us again if you think it will fit in this edition.
Please remember, we no longer publish "as told to" stores. Write your story in the first person. Do not ghostwrite a story for someone else unless you list that person as the author in which case, they will be required to fill out our permission form if the story is selected.
If a story was previously published, we will probably not use it unless it ran in a small circulation venue. Let us know where the story was previously published and the approximate exposure it received in the "Comments" section of the submission form.
We include stories in our books from as diverse a group of writers as possible, including the LGBTQ community and people of all ethnicities, nationalities, and religions.
If your story is chosen, you will be a published author and your bio will be printed in the book if you so choose. You will also receive a check for $250 and 10 free copies of your book, worth more than $160. You will retain the copyright for your story and you will retain the right to resell it or self-publish it.
SUBMISSIONS GO TO OUR WEBSITE.
The deadline for submissions is AUGUST 31, 2024. This book is slated for Summer or Fall 2025.
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