Sideline Ink Publishing Invites YOU to become a published author by submitting ONE chapter for our crowd sourced novel entitled:
Eve's Apple
An eternal novel for the ages
Wait a minute, how can we write a novel together when we haven't met? Well, read on, my future co-authors:
This novel will be written together because you only have to know your chapter and a bit of the storyline that I have included below. I'll write the first and last chapters, and you will write one of the chapters in between. Other writers will join us, and together, in a very short amount of time, we will have our book. Additionally, Sideline Ink Publishing is going to publish the book in volumes. Each volume will be a self-contained novel, with a beginning middle and end, but the end will lead to the next volume of the story.
If you're interested in being a published author in the novel Eve's Apples, we'd love to have you submit a chapter for consideration.
Here's how it's going to work:
This project will include chapters from people from all walks of life. The goal of each author is to try and write one true childhood story of about 1,000 words, which is approximately 5 pages (double spaced, sized 12 font).
We are looking for our co-authors to write a story of their childhood that is a PAINFUL, SEMINAL EVENT. A Seminal event is an event in a person's life that affects him/her/them for the rest of his/her/their life.
You can do it. It's easy to submit, but first you have to write it. YOU CAN DO THIS! After all, as has been said many times. "Writing is easy, all you have to do is sit down and open a vein."
Read Chapter One of Eve's Apples, then sit down and write your 1,200 word chapter. If we like it, we'll include it in Volume 1 or a subsequent volume of EVE'S APPLES, our eternal novel for the ages.
Read Chapter One of Eve's Apples, then sit down and write your 1,200 word chapter. If we like it, we'll include it in Volume 1 or a subsequent volume of EVE'S APPLES, our eternal novel for the ages.
AFTERWARDS, if you are still interested READ our FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ's) or send us your questions @ sidelineinkpublishing@gmail.com
EVE'S APPLE (An eternal novel for the ages written by many people throughout the world)
CHAPTER ONE:
Thirty-six year old Jack Concannon put his pencil down and stared at the ad sketches he had been drawing all morning. His neck was stiff and so was the rest of his body. He got up to stretch and get a fresh point of view. He looked out onto the cold January scene playing out below his downtown Chicago high rise office window. He shivered as he stared at the people bundled up below. Chicago winters depressed him and yet there he was, stuck at work. He took a moment, and looking down and to the left from his vantage point, he saw the Picasso sculpture, slathered with ice, right in the middle of Daley Plaza. It cheered him up to see the massive rust colored abstraction. He shook his head and felt for the poor souls battling the frigid Chicago air, when out of the corner of his eye, he saw an old woman near the Picasso selling apples.
From twenty-one floors above the scene, Jack couldn't really see the old woman's face but he could see that her back was rounded and her hair was very white. She seemed to be having little success pushing apples on those who passed her. Fixated, Jack stood at his window for ten minutes and counted 63 people who passed the old woman without anyone buying a single piece of her fruit.
As much as he hated the cold, Jack decided to go down and buy one of the old woman's apples. Why, he did not know. But something in his gut told him, practically insisted, that he get up and go try and help the lady out. Putting on his coat, Jack pulled out his wallet and saw that he only had two bills in it, a twenty and a five. He hoped the woman wasn't begging, as he realized that he wouldn't be able to ask her for change.
When he reached the street, Jack looked to where he believed she would be, but did not see her. He considered the possibility that she might have gone home. That was fine with him. He was a little hungry, to be sure, but he wasn't much of an apple lover.
As he turned to walk back up to his office, he saw the old woman walking towards him, as if coming out from somewhere behind the Picasso structure.
"You were looking for me?" she asked as he approached.
"Yes, I suppose I am." Jack said, a bit startled. "How much are they?"
"Oh, I don't sell them."
"You don't?" Jack was confused.
"No, I look around and give them to specific people. This one's for you." And before Jack could respond the woman pulled an apple from her basket and extended it towards him.
"You give them away to specific people?" Jack asked.
"Yes, I've been waiting for you to come down."
Jack looked around. He knew she didn't know him. Then he nodded his head as his advertising knowledge kicked in. He understood. This was just her way of selling apples. Many of the people walking through Daley Plaza worked in high rises that surrounded the area. This old woman was trying to make her customers feel special even though they were just like everyone… He realized he was getting pitched, and he didn't quite like it. Still, this apple saleslady was old and it was cold, so he pulled out his wallet to give her the five dollar bill.
"Well, thank you," Jack said, feeling very generous as he tried to hand her the five. "Stay warm."
The woman shook her head and declined the money. "Not necessary. The apple is a gift. Give the money to someone who needs it," she said with a smile that seemed to momentarily make her look eighty years younger. For an instant, Jack watched as the elderly woman in front of him seemed to shape shift into a little girl holding a basket of apples, no older than five. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes, convinced his brain was playing tricks on him.
When he looked at her again, she was no longer a little girl.
"Can I tell you something, ma'm," Jack said, feeling the need to explain the look of surprise and awe that she surely must have just seen on his face.
"Sure," she said.
"Well, for a minute there, when I looked at you, please don't laugh when I tell you this, but when I looked at you just then, you looked like you were about five years old."
The old woman nodded as if she understood or as if she somehow remembered being five. Jack couldn't be sure.
"I was five once," the old woman finally said with a laugh. "But that was a long time ago."
Not wanting to be rude, Jack quickly said, "Oh, probably not so long ago."
The old woman patted his hand that held the apple, and she nodded. "It was a long time ago. And I was five years old once, just as you were. Would you like to know what I saw in you when you saw me as a five year old, Jack?"
Jack was stunned. "What you saw in me? What are you talking about? How did you know my name?" He looked around as if he might possibly be being filmed or videotaped. It occurred to him that he might be on some weird game show that he hadn't yet read about. But when he looked around, he saw no cameras.
"I saw you as a five year old, your boots full of ice water, afraid to go home and tell your mother that you had fallen through the ice while walking on a small creek where she had warned you not to go."
"What?" Jack gasped, completely mystified but immediately remembering the time he was five when his boots were filled with ice water, and he was afraid to go home and tell his mother, because he had fallen through the ice while walking on a small creek near his family's home. "Do I know you?"
"Well, we just met. I'm Eve, by the way. "
"How'd you know my name? How'd you know about the time I fell into the creek, and my mother's warning, and my boots full of ice?"
"How did you see me holding a basket of apples as a five year old?
"It just came to me. Did you sell apples when you were five?"
"No, I didn't,' Eve said.
"Oh, so you see then, it's not the same."
"I gave them away when I was five. Never sold them."
Jack thought back to a few minutes before. He had imagined the old woman as a five year old holding the basket of apples. He had assumed she was selling them back then, even as he assumed she had been selling them when he had looked out the window..
"Why don't you sell them? Why would you just give them away?" he asked, confounded by it all.
Eve shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not much of a salesperson."
"But then why do you do it? You've got to be freezing out here. I know I am."
"Well, you're freezing because your feet are frostbitten and so are your hands. I'm perfectly warm and I like to hear people's stories."
"But I didn't tell you a story."
"Yes, you did."
"No, I didn't. I came out here to buy an apple from you and then somehow I saw you as a five year old and you saw me as a five year old."
"You don't always have to talk to tell a story. Sometimes people can read it on your face."
"Some small piece of the story, maybe, like maybe you could see that I was cold as a boy or something, but all the details you described. That, you can't just read from my face. How did you know so much about me?
Eve shrugged her shoulders. "I could just see it in you, that's all."
"What about her?" Jack asked, pointing at a woman walking by. Do you know her?"
"Not yet."
"But if she stopped and got an apple from you, would you be able to know a bit of their life story."
"Yes."
"But how?"
"I see it in their eyes."
"Their eyes?"
"Yes, everybody's eyes, if you look at them close enough, reflect the light of childhood memories. Often, those memories are painful. I think because you were so cold just now, your memory of falling through the creek ice as a little boy came back to you."
Jack was incredulous. He didn't believe the old woman but he really didn't know how to argue against what she was saying. He had never really looked that deeply into someone's eyes, and was afraid if he did, he might scare the person he was looking at. Still, he was fascinated by the idea.
"What about her? What can you tell me about her?" Jack said, pointing at a young woman who looked up at the two of them, just as Jack was pointing at her.
"Excuse me?" the young woman said to Jack, offended that he was pointing at her.
"Sorry," Jack said, "I thought I recognized you." The young woman walked away, not happy to have been singled out. When she was a safe distance away, he turned to Eve and asked, "What do you know about her?"
"I know she had a very hard time at the age of nine when her father left her mother."
"How? How can you possibly know that?"
"It was in her eyes, didn't you see the sadness she carries?"
"No, I didn't see. I saw she was angry at me for pointing at her, that I could see."
"Well, I have to go now. It was nice talking to you, Jackie."
"Go? Go where? And how do you know my name, that's not in my eyes."
"I"m going home. It's late, and I know your name because that's what your mother called you when you were five."
Jack closed his eyes and had a flash of his mother calling him 'Jackie.' When he opened his eyes, Eve was gone.
CHAPTER TWO
Your chapter. It's the next day, and Eve gives you an apple, and she can see your childhood story. YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE IN THE DALEY PLAZA. YOU CAN PLACE EVE IN ANY PUBLIC AREA IN THE WORLD. She is always giving out apples. And today she's giving you one, and finding out what your childhood story is.
NOW: A few "rules" or "guidelines" to help you write your story.
Pick a "FAKE NAME" to be your character. DO NOT USE YOUR OWN NAME. Give your character an age, race, gender, social circumstance, etc.
Have your character meet EVE and get an apple from her. After EVE and your character talk, your character discovers that Eve is not selling the apple, but rather, giving the apples away, but your character feels compelled to tell her a childhood story.
Then have your character tell his/her/their childhood story. The story should be interesting and have a beginning, middle and end. Generally, your character's story should involve some pain. (death, loss of some kind, injury, a childhood experience that led to insight, etc.)
Here's an example of what I am talking about taken from CHAPTER ONE:
"I'm Sorry," Jack said, "I thought I recognized you." The young woman walked away, not happy to have been singled out. When she was a safe distance away, he turned to Eve and asked, "What do you know about her?"
Notice that Jack is speaking in the present tense, but the story is in the past tense. Note that the line is: "I'm Sorry," Jack said, "I thought I recognized you."
After you have written your story, have someone you trust read it, then clean up all of the grammar mistakes you can find, then send it to us.
Sideline Ink Publishing is committed to publishing the book as soon as we have a final draft to them.
One final note: YOU WILL RETAIN FULL copyright of your chapter, BUT YOU WILL BE ALLOWING SIDELINE INK PUBLISHING to use your chapter in the novel. You will be credited with writing your chapter, but no other compensation will be given.
We look forward to hearing from you.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ's)
"
From twenty-one floors above the scene, Jack couldn't really see the old woman's face but he could see that her back was rounded and her hair was very white. She seemed to be having little success pushing apples on those who passed her. Fixated, Jack stood at his window for ten minutes and counted 63 people who passed the old woman without anyone buying a single piece of her fruit.
As much as he hated the cold, Jack decided to go down and buy one of the old woman's apples. Why, he did not know. But something in his gut told him, practically insisted, that he get up and go try and help the lady out. Putting on his coat, Jack pulled out his wallet and saw that he only had two bills in it, a twenty and a five. He hoped the woman wasn't begging, as he realized that he wouldn't be able to ask her for change.
When he reached the street, Jack looked to where he believed she would be, but did not see her. He considered the possibility that she might have gone home. That was fine with him. He was a little hungry, to be sure, but he wasn't much of an apple lover.
As he turned to walk back up to his office, he saw the old woman walking towards him, as if coming out from somewhere behind the Picasso structure.
"You were looking for me?" she asked as he approached.
"Yes, I suppose I am." Jack said, a bit startled. "How much are they?"
"Oh, I don't sell them."
"You don't?" Jack was confused.
"No, I look around and give them to specific people. This one's for you." And before Jack could respond the woman pulled an apple from her basket and extended it towards him.
"You give them away to specific people?" Jack asked.
"Yes, I've been waiting for you to come down."
Jack looked around. He knew she didn't know him. Then he nodded his head as his advertising knowledge kicked in. He understood. This was just her way of selling apples. Many of the people walking through Daley Plaza worked in high rises that surrounded the area. This old woman was trying to make her customers feel special even though they were just like everyone… He realized he was getting pitched, and he didn't quite like it. Still, this apple saleslady was old and it was cold, so he pulled out his wallet to give her the five dollar bill.
"Well, thank you," Jack said, feeling very generous as he tried to hand her the five. "Stay warm."
The woman shook her head and declined the money. "Not necessary. The apple is a gift. Give the money to someone who needs it," she said with a smile that seemed to momentarily make her look eighty years younger. For an instant, Jack watched as the elderly woman in front of him seemed to shape shift into a little girl holding a basket of apples, no older than five. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes, convinced his brain was playing tricks on him.
When he looked at her again, she was no longer a little girl.
"Can I tell you something, ma'm," Jack said, feeling the need to explain the look of surprise and awe that she surely must have just seen on his face.
"Sure," she said.
"Well, for a minute there, when I looked at you, please don't laugh when I tell you this, but when I looked at you just then, you looked like you were about five years old."
The old woman nodded as if she understood or as if she somehow remembered being five. Jack couldn't be sure.
"I was five once," the old woman finally said with a laugh. "But that was a long time ago."
Not wanting to be rude, Jack quickly said, "Oh, probably not so long ago."
The old woman patted his hand that held the apple, and she nodded. "It was a long time ago. And I was five years old once, just as you were. Would you like to know what I saw in you when you saw me as a five year old, Jack?"
Jack was stunned. "What you saw in me? What are you talking about? How did you know my name?" He looked around as if he might possibly be being filmed or videotaped. It occurred to him that he might be on some weird game show that he hadn't yet read about. But when he looked around, he saw no cameras.
"I saw you as a five year old, your boots full of ice water, afraid to go home and tell your mother that you had fallen through the ice while walking on a small creek where she had warned you not to go."
"What?" Jack gasped, completely mystified but immediately remembering the time he was five when his boots were filled with ice water, and he was afraid to go home and tell his mother, because he had fallen through the ice while walking on a small creek near his family's home. "Do I know you?"
"Well, we just met. I'm Eve, by the way. "
"How'd you know my name? How'd you know about the time I fell into the creek, and my mother's warning, and my boots full of ice?"
"How did you see me holding a basket of apples as a five year old?
"It just came to me. Did you sell apples when you were five?"
"No, I didn't,' Eve said.
"Oh, so you see then, it's not the same."
"I gave them away when I was five. Never sold them."
Jack thought back to a few minutes before. He had imagined the old woman as a five year old holding the basket of apples. He had assumed she was selling them back then, even as he assumed she had been selling them when he had looked out the window..
"Why don't you sell them? Why would you just give them away?" he asked, confounded by it all.
Eve shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not much of a salesperson."
"But then why do you do it? You've got to be freezing out here. I know I am."
"Well, you're freezing because your feet are frostbitten and so are your hands. I'm perfectly warm and I like to hear people's stories."
"But I didn't tell you a story."
"Yes, you did."
"No, I didn't. I came out here to buy an apple from you and then somehow I saw you as a five year old and you saw me as a five year old."
"You don't always have to talk to tell a story. Sometimes people can read it on your face."
"Some small piece of the story, maybe, like maybe you could see that I was cold as a boy or something, but all the details you described. That, you can't just read from my face. How did you know so much about me?
Eve shrugged her shoulders. "I could just see it in you, that's all."
"What about her?" Jack asked, pointing at a woman walking by. Do you know her?"
"Not yet."
"But if she stopped and got an apple from you, would you be able to know a bit of their life story."
"Yes."
"But how?"
"I see it in their eyes."
"Their eyes?"
"Yes, everybody's eyes, if you look at them close enough, reflect the light of childhood memories. Often, those memories are painful. I think because you were so cold just now, your memory of falling through the creek ice as a little boy came back to you."
Jack was incredulous. He didn't believe the old woman but he really didn't know how to argue against what she was saying. He had never really looked that deeply into someone's eyes, and was afraid if he did, he might scare the person he was looking at. Still, he was fascinated by the idea.
"What about her? What can you tell me about her?" Jack said, pointing at a young woman who looked up at the two of them, just as Jack was pointing at her.
"Excuse me?" the young woman said to Jack, offended that he was pointing at her.
"Sorry," Jack said, "I thought I recognized you." The young woman walked away, not happy to have been singled out. When she was a safe distance away, he turned to Eve and asked, "What do you know about her?"
"I know she had a very hard time at the age of nine when her father left her mother."
"How? How can you possibly know that?"
"It was in her eyes, didn't you see the sadness she carries?"
"No, I didn't see. I saw she was angry at me for pointing at her, that I could see."
"Well, I have to go now. It was nice talking to you, Jackie."
"Go? Go where? And how do you know my name, that's not in my eyes."
"I"m going home. It's late, and I know your name because that's what your mother called you when you were five."
Jack closed his eyes and had a flash of his mother calling him 'Jackie.' When he opened his eyes, Eve was gone.
CHAPTER TWO
Your chapter. It's the next day, and Eve gives you an apple, and she can see your childhood story. YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE IN THE DALEY PLAZA. YOU CAN PLACE EVE IN ANY PUBLIC AREA IN THE WORLD. She is always giving out apples. And today she's giving you one, and finding out what your childhood story is.
NOW: A few "rules" or "guidelines" to help you write your story.
Pick a "FAKE NAME" to be your character. DO NOT USE YOUR OWN NAME. Give your character an age, race, gender, social circumstance, etc.
Have your character meet EVE and get an apple from her. After EVE and your character talk, your character discovers that Eve is not selling the apple, but rather, giving the apples away, but your character feels compelled to tell her a childhood story.
Then have your character tell his/her/their childhood story. The story should be interesting and have a beginning, middle and end. Generally, your character's story should involve some pain. (death, loss of some kind, injury, a childhood experience that led to insight, etc.)
ALL stories should be written in the PAST TENSE, but DIALOG is written in the present tense.
Here's an example of what I am talking about taken from CHAPTER ONE:
"I'm Sorry," Jack said, "I thought I recognized you." The young woman walked away, not happy to have been singled out. When she was a safe distance away, he turned to Eve and asked, "What do you know about her?"
Notice that Jack is speaking in the present tense, but the story is in the past tense. Note that the line is: "I'm Sorry," Jack said, "I thought I recognized you."
After you have written your story, have someone you trust read it, then clean up all of the grammar mistakes you can find, then send it to us.
Email us the chapter or any questions you might have at sidelineinkpublishing@gmail.com if you're interested in writing a chapter (approximately a five page, 1,200 story) for our novel. You can do it!
Sideline Ink Publishing is committed to publishing the book as soon as we have a final draft to them.
One final note: YOU WILL RETAIN FULL copyright of your chapter, BUT YOU WILL BE ALLOWING SIDELINE INK PUBLISHING to use your chapter in the novel. You will be credited with writing your chapter, but no other compensation will be given.
We look forward to hearing from you.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ's)
QUESTION: How will I know if my chapter is accepted?
ANSWER: We will notify you by email within two weeks of receipt of your chapter.
QUESTION: Will you be editing what I submit, if it is accepted?
ANSWER: SLIGHT editing may occur, but nothing of significance to your storyline.
QUESTION: Do I have the chance to accept or reject your edits (or will they strictly be grammatical and spelling corrections?) .
ANSWER: You will have some editorial control . All grammar decisions will be done by Sideline Ink Publishing. Structural issues will be referred back to the author for review and edit prior to publication.
QUESTION: If my chapter is accepted, will I get notice of the publication date?
ANSWER: YES. All authors will get advance notification of publication date.
QUESTION:Do I get a free or discounted copy of the final book?
ANSWER: Upon publication, each author will receive one free copy of the book.
QUESTION: How much is the book likely to cost?
ANSWER: The approximate cost of the book will be $12.99 and will be available on Amazon.com as well as through bookstores around the country. It will also be available through Kindle for approximately $2.99.
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