Call for Submissions: “Deck the Halls”

UPDATE AS OF MIDNIGHT (AEST)

A second round of places is now open and available. If you are still interested put your name down in the comments section.

This year I missed out on taking part in Jim Bronyaur’s 12 Days of Christmas. I returned home from wild, wanderings in Malaysia to discover the shout out happened while I was away. This leaves me with a quandary; for the first year in a long time I’m without a Christmas writing project. Seems I also have a few friends without a Christmas project.

Last week we went to our son’s first school carols evening. As we sang Deck the Halls it occurred to me:

1. the song was the only vaguely pagan/non religious song sung which didn’t have to do with Santa that night.

2. it has some wickedly twisted passages if you look at the lyrics out of context of the song.

3. Deck the Halls was the song I riffed my very first Christmas story, ‘Deck the Balls’ from in 2008.

After a busy year with Chinese Whisperings, eMergent Publishing and Write Anything I just need a new project to get me through the festive season… so, I am offering the first nine writers to sign up the opportunity to join in a ‘mixed tape’ of short stories for Christmas. I will publish a story every two hours on the 24th of December in the lead up to Christmas Day (Eastern Australia Standard Time). I will also make an eBook version available for free download (here) midnight Christmas Day. The stories will be grouped together under the title “Mixed Tapes Volume 1: Deck the Halls” and be published in the same order as the song.

The submission guidelines are simple:

1. Nominate a lyric/line you’d like to use as a prompt in the comments section below – first nine people get a place.

2. Write an original story of 1500 words based on the lyric (go on, really twist it!)

3. Stories can be in any genre but must be based in or connected with the holiday season (please no religious themed stories – those with a pagan/roots slant OK).

4. all stories must have been beta read, line edited and proof read prior to submission.

5. all stories must be submitted by Wednesday 22nd December (Eastern Australian Standard Time).

6. All successful authors will be notified of submission procedure.

7. Copyright of all stories will remain with the original author.

8. Stories to be submitted via Submishmash

Any queries please DM me at Twitter @jodicleghorn. Here are the ten lines… go for it!

#1 Deck the halls with boughs of holly (Rebecca Dobbie & Benjamin Solah)

#2 Tis the season to be jolly (Chris Chartrand & Sam Adamson)

#3 Don we now our gay apparel (Jen Brubacher & Graham Storrs)

#4 Troll the ancient Yule tide carol (Annie Evett & Amanda Scotney)

#5 See the blazing Yule before us (Laura Eno & Emma Kerry)

#6 Strike the harp and join the chorus (Paul Servini & Lily Mulholland)

#7 Follow me in merry measure (Kil Connor & Stacey Larner)

#8 While I tell of Yule tide treasure (Jodi Cleghorn & Chia Lynn)

#9 Fast away the old year passes (Jim Bronyaur & Icy Sedgwick)

#10 Hail the new, ye lads and lasses (Dan Powell & Trevor Belshaw)

Picture via Modish where there are lots more wonderful vintage Christmas pics.