Call for Submissions

Romance Collection

/ Diane

Are you looking for a great story laced with romance? Look no further than our Romance Collection.

Looking for more adventure than romance? Read Northern Survival.

Looking for a story about a woman coming to the crossroads in her life with a touch of romance? Read The Salvation of Mary Lola Barnes.

Looking for a future thrust into archaic times laced with innocent first love? Read Natural Selection.

Looking for a hot and heavy, drop your clothes at the bedroom door romance? Read A December Knight.

Have you written a similar romance? Is it ready for the world to read? Submit it. It might the next book added to our Romance Collection.

To learn how to submit, check out General Submissions.

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Seeking Similar Adventure Stories for Children

/ Diane / 2 Comments

Mystery Light in Cranberry Cove by Candy McMudd is a story for ages 10 and up. It’s about Prim, who is 12, her younger brother Henry, age 10, and their mother who arrive at their cottage in Cranberry Cove to spend the summer. Her cousin, Shona, who is the same age, comes with her.

They meet up with another cousin, Ellis, also the same age, and together they stumble onto the biggest mysteries of the cove.

It’s a story about adventure, ghost stories, pirates, searching for treasure, seaside exploring and discovering family history. It takes place in the 1990s and returns readers to a simpler time when kids enjoyed outdoor activities and were not tied to screens.

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Call for Submissions: The Tantalizing Tattler

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Quarter Castle Publishing is making a Call for Submissions for short stories laced with romance for its first issue of The Tantalizing Tattler.

The Tantalizing Tattler is a new publication meant to revive the clean-telling of stories laced with romance. It was inspired by magazines of the past, ones girls as young as 14 had sneaked away from their mother’s nightstand and hid in closets to read. While these stories were about adults in adult situations, they were void of descriptions of bedroom activities and harsh language. At their essence, they told a good story. That’s what The Tantalizing Tattler aims to do.

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A Common Headline from the Past: Lost at Sea

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Genealogy research had uncovered my grandmother’s grandparents: Martha and William McDonald. They had at least one child: my great-grandfather William Aaron McDonald.

Little is known about this family, just a few names and dates. The further in time one travels, the less information surfaces about individuals and the more questions arise, such as what was Martha’s maiden name and what happened to William Sr.?

A few years ago, a genealogist from a far-flung branch of the McDonald family tree, who researched William Sr., wrote to say William had been ‘lost at sea’. To be exact, William had drowned 160 years ago today on October 7, 1860, when the fishing schooner he’d been aboard floundered.

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Anniversary of the Saxby Gale

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Maritimers are always talking about the weather. I think it’s because if we wait five minutes, it’ll change. We have the winds from the west bringing heat waves, winds from the north delivering cold fronts, the Gulf Steam transporting warm, humid air and the Atlantic Ocean that tries to maintain a constant weather day except for when it’s stirring up a storm.

All this activity makes for a lot of material to discuss. It also makes for a lot of data to analyse to predict the weather for the day. Forecasting the weather for an entire week is difficult at best. Predicting the weather for more than ten months into the future is impossible (though I realise almanacs can be somewhat correct at times). However that’s just what Lieutenant Stephen Martin Saxby (1804-1883) of the British Royal Navy did when he warned the public of a devastating storm that would strike the Maritimes in 1869.

Saxby was an amateur astronomer. He used his knowledge of the moon and Earth to predict the weather according to celestial events. It was known as meteorological astrology. In 1864, he published The Saxby Weather System in which he outlined his theories, explaining his method of predicting the weather.

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Call for Submissions: “The Sea, Our Home” Short Story Collection

/ Diane / 2 Comments

Quarter Castle Publishing is making a Call for Submissions for a short story collection to honour those who lived and died by the sea.

Atlantic CanadaThe goal is to tell the stories of life by the sea. It’s a unique existence, one in which the tides and winds set the pace. There are many joys, hardships and tragedies from living by the constantly changing waters gracing our shores in Atlantic Canada. For families who have spent generations breathing in the intoxicating saltwater-laced breeze, the sea is in our blood; it is our home. We will live here and die here.

The collection is entitled The Sea, Our Home – Honouring the resilient men and women who forged a living along the rugged coastline of Atlantic Canada throughout the centuries.

The contest is open to all residents of Atlantic Canada, and those who once lived here and still love and miss the sea. First-time authors and seasoned veterans are welcome to submit their short stories.

The deadline for submissions is March 15, 2021.

To learn more about this call for submissions, visit The Sea, Our Home Short Story Collection page.

Deadline Approaches for Short Story Collection

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The deadline for submitting a story to be considered for the Halifax Explosion 100th Anniversary Short Story collection is one week away. Stories can be emailed (quartercastle@bellaliant.net) up until Friday March 31st 11:59 pm or postmark-dated March 31st.

The goal of the fictional short story collection is to pay tribute to the many victims, survivors and heroes who emerged from the disaster, to remember their stories and to educate readers further on the life-changing event of the twin cities of Halifax and Dartmouth.

To learn more, visit Call for Submissions.