I’m editing a book!

Not to get too maudlin, but after not dying last year, I’ve done a lot of things that I’ve wanted to but was too scared/repressed to try. I’ve dyed my hair crazy colors (currently pink/purple), wrote and published a novella, am mid-novel, and I’m meeting a tattoo artist once I can walk up a flight of stairs. What’s next? An anthology for Coming Together.

Coming Together is a series of charity anthologies. All proceeds from Under the Mistletoe will benefit Project Linus, which provides home-made blankets to children in crisis. Stick around after the call to learn how I became involved with Project Linus and why I care so deeply about the organization.

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Coming Together: Under the Mistletoe

Submission Call

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow because we’ll be heating up this sexy December anthology.

I am looking for your best winter stories. Are your characters cuddled up inside while a blizzard rages, or are they snowbirds spending Christmas Day on the beach in the tropics? Who belongs on Santa’s Naughty List? Is your billionaire a Scrooge? Is this the year they come out to their family? Do they have a special someone to kiss when the ball drops?

While the theme is winter, you may also add in your favorite December holiday, but this is not mandatory. I’m looking for compelling stories with compelling characters and a rich plot as well as beautiful poetry.

Guidelines

• Your story should be set between December 1 and December 31 whether explicitly or implicitly.
• All orientations, ethnicities, pairings, and interpretations of “winter” are encouraged.
• All sub-genres and time periods welcome (contemporary, historical, paranormal, sci-fi, steampunk, you name it).
• All heat levels from sweet and romantic to down and dirty—as long as it is plot driven.
• HEA/HFN preferred, but not required.Deadline is September 1, 2016

• Stories up to 7,500 words
• Poetry is welcomed and encouraged
• No underage, no scat, no non-consent, no incest

Coming Together is a charity organization. You retain all rights to your stories, and previously published stories and poetry are welcomed (as long as you hold the rights).

Please use Times New Roman font, size 12, and double spaced with one inch margins. No extra lines between paragraphs. Set indentations to .5 – do not use tabs or spaces to indent. Use .docx, .doc .rtf formats only.

Only submit your final, best version of the story to delilahnight@gmail.com with the subject line “Under the Mistletoe insert your title insert your name.”

Do not send multiple versions of the same story. Up to two stories/three poems will be considered from each author. Include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable and be clear which one is which), mailing address, and up to 250 word bio. Do not paste your story into the body of your email

You will be notified as to the status of your story by no later than October 1, 2016.

Coming Together is a non-profit organization, and all Coming Together authors and editors have generously donated their talents to various causes. Compensation for inclusion in this work is a PDF contributor copy of the finished product and your name on Santa’s Nice List (or Naughty, if that’s your preference). You retain all rights to your story. All proceeds go to Project Linus, which provides home-made blankets and hats to children in crisis.

Questions? Email me at delilahnight@gmail.com

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My oldest daughter nearly died of a bacterial infection at seven days of age. She had a bacterial infection, and by the time we reached the hospital, she was in critical condition. She went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing. Two days later they told us she’d also had a stroke.

My husband and I lived in her Pediatric Intensive Care Unit room. We couldn’t hold her. We could only stroke her right leg–the only limb without something attached to it–and talk to her. My husband read her George’s Marvelous Medicine, while I chose to go to the gift shop and buy books like Pinkalicious to read to her. I wrote a hospital diary. He tried to work. But mostly we watched her, and watched her monitors as if we could will her into good health.

One or two days after she’d turned a corner and had been taken off the ventilator, her nurse came in with a hat and a blanket. A gift from Project Linus.

My daughter couldn’t wear any clothes because of all the IV’s and leads and so forth. She looked like a science experiment. But when we put that little hat on, and covered the hospital blanket with the Project Linus one, she looked like our daughter again. It gave her back something that being so highly medicalized takes from you–a bit of self, of personality.

It’s a small gift–the anonymous gift of a blanket or a hat. However, knowing someone sat and went though effort of making and donating them was balm to my heart. Project Linus was a ray of light in a month of darkness.

We are among the fortunate few with a happy ending to this sort of medical crisis.

One of my daughter’s kidneys failed permanently, but the other is in good health. She needed some physical therapy and a brace on her foot as a toddler, but hasn’t needed any sort of aid since two years of age. There was no other physical or mental impairment.

Today she attends second grade at a Singapore Public School and is a straight A student. She is in an advanced gymnastics class, and also takes ballet. She wants to be a fashion designer or an artist. She’s awesome.

Every year we donate to Project Linus in our daughter’s name, but this year, I’m going to donate all the proceeds of Under the Mistletoe, too.

Please consider submitting a story or a poem

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