Songs of a Mermaid
(Tales of Urban Women)
"She would be half the world away, floating in a turquoise sea, dancing by the moonlight"
~ Janet Fitch
Women, all dream. Dreams they have before they grow up into reality. They sing songs, songs of despair, songs of melancholy and songs of unheard lyrics. Does that voice reach out? To myriad people into that other world outside their ‘homes’ where they live. Women walked out of their own seas and became human long time back. They chose a life, they are not the mermaids anymore and they are here to tell you their tales. Tales of their courage, tales of their love, tales of their own ghosts, tales of their seas!
By now you must have all reached somewhere closer to what I am trying to portray through my words. Together we will create another fiction anthology with beautiful songs that you all will sing through your words on the paper. Will you not write a tale of your woman, who had certain fears of her own, she avoided the world, she hid something. Her heart was brave, she had braved myriad storms with her chin up, she had fallen in love with her lover, she had stayed away from her own rains. She was just another face in the city of urban women where she was living her tale. How did her songs then were of mermaids’? Because she did not let a tear fall over her own lap, a droplet would have ruined it all. She knew she had to smile. The only way to put her own ghosts to rest! She was one of those urban women who had a tale to tell.
Some guidelines for you to follow:
1. Each story needs to be sung on the paper in First Person only and in the Past Tense. You have to become the voice of someone else.
2. The word limit should be between (3000-3500) words maximum.
3. Only one story per household will be entertained.
4. Type in Times New Roman, 12 pt. and check for grammatical structure and do sound proof reading before sending your piece.
5. The story needs to be placed in the urban period which means you can choose to write down with the backdrop designed between 20th or 21st century.
6. No abusive (particularly the *F* word) language should be used.
7. Send your tale with Songs of a Mermaid in the subject line with your current Bio and a clear HD image in a single mail only, to editorialmagazinecc@gmail.com
8. You can explore varied subgenres for the portrayal of your woman’s tale. Whimsical, Fantasy, Mystery, Drama, Thriller or even Macabre.
9. You can use the word ‘Mermaid’ anywhere in your story if you desire or the juxtaposed version would be more than enough. (Which means no use of that term anywhere).
10. The last date for the submission of your tale is 30th July 2021 midnight IST.
The tales from each household will be then read carefully by the editorial board and the selected writer's names will be declared on 30th August 2021.
Each writer who will travel along within this book, whenever the paperback comes out will have to buy his/her author copy.
Happy singing songs of a mermaid!
Warmly,
Monalisa Joshi
Director, Founder & Chief Editor
P.S. Remember it’s the song of those women and not a mermaid.