Dear March (and ), come in!
How glad I am,
I looked for you before...
March is coming in, his purple hat in hand -- and do you know what that means?
Feisty Deeds II is opening for submissions! We can't wait to read your stories and envision the shape of our new anthology.
- We will be open for submissions from March 1st-31st — the entire month of March.
- We will send an email that we have received your story, but...
- We will not send any acceptances, edits, or suggestions until we have had a chance to evaluate all the stories. We will keep you abreast of our expected timeline.
The Call for Submissions is pasted again at the bottom of this newsletter, but here's some bullet points. If you're not submitting this year, scroll to the purple section for some tidbits — and the rest of the poem.
send to: [email protected]
Your story should be attached as a Word / .docx file in manuscript format. Put the time and place at the top, below the title, in the same way it appears in Feisty Deeds. Your name should be on the manuscript.
If you have any questions, you can send them to that address, or the quickest response will be to reply to this email ( [email protected] ).
If you have not already done so, please let us know your story plans:
It helps us to be able to anticipate what stories might still be coming, and what places and time periods might be represented. Hint: If you haven't decided on your idea, or have some research languishing, we are very interested in seeing stories set outside the United States and the British Isles!
If you have already filled in the survey, we have your response — thank you!
Meanwhile, for your reading pleasure...
New Feisty Deeds authors have books coming out! One of these goes back to our first Feisty Deeds, and the other looks forward to the next. If you're not quite ready to make a decision, how about you put the books on your GoodReads "want to read" shelf? That helps the books get more visibility.
Christy Matheson has a new Irish fairy tale retelling — and (shh!) her recent research on Heroic Age Ireland is coming soon to a certain anthology near you. 😉
The Knight of Terrible Valley and Aiden of Florida
Kim Gottlieb-Walker takes us back to the dramatic times of her FD story with
Lenswoman in Love
Joan Fernandez published this lovely Substack article about the process she has gone through to write her biographical historical fiction, starting with a quote about "obedience" that set off her entire journey.
Several of our authors have books releasing this spring! We can't wait to see them, and we'll be sure to tell you all about it.
And now, for the poem:
To March, by Emily Dickinson
Dear March, come in!
How glad I am!
I looked for you before.
Put down your hat —
You must have walked —
How out of breath you are!
Dear March, how are you?
And the rest?
Did you leave Nature well?
Oh, March, come right upstairs with me,
I have so much to tell!
I got your letter, and the birds';
The maples never knew
That you were coming, — I declare,
How red their faces grew!
But, March, forgive me —
And all those hills
You left for me to hue;
There was no purple suitable,
You took it all with you.
Who knocks? That April!
Lock the door!
I will not be pursued!
He stayed away a year, to call
When I am occupied.
But trifles look so trivial
As soon as you have come,
That blame is just as dear as praise
And praise as mere as blame.
Happy writing, and happy reading!
From the Feisty Deeds committee: Carolyn, Kay, Kimberly, Christy, & Elaine
The Call for Submissions (repeat)
Feisty Deeds II: Historical Tales of Batches and Brews
Dear Authors,
Our first volume of Feisty Deeds met with such enthusiasm that we decided put together a second one. So here we go again! This collection will focus on themes of eating, drinking, cooking, brewing, concocting—but with a twist (or twists), as described below.
Throughout history, women have spent a lot of their precious time and energy preparing batches and brews. We envision an anthology that approaches this central aspect of women’s lives from a wide-angle lens. We don’t want stories that just wax poetic about olives and sunsets or interrupt the plot with recipes; we want to surprise and intrigue our readers.
To get your minds rolling, we would like to read about feisty women who might:
- address problems related to hunger: scarcities in war, famine, sieges, food shortages due to winter/drought/blight
- deal with food allergies, illness (gastritis, scurvy, gout), food poisoning…
- concoct potions in the stillroom: perfumes, medicines, poisons
- practice medicine as midwifes or herbalists
- experiment with forbidden food or magical potions
- twist kitchen experiments into scientific innovation
- invent tastes beyond the ordinary
Our selection process will prioritize variety across many periods, countries, ages of protagonists, subgenres, and types of struggles—stories set firmly in a specific place and time. Surprise us with your creativity so we can put together an intriguing anthology that would never belong in the cookbook section!
Other requirements:
- Main character must be female, although a second main character or narrator can be any gender.
- Not biographical fiction; main character must be fictional.
- Word count: maximum 3,000 words.
- “Historical” is defined as taking place 50 years or more in the past.
- Stories need a beginning, rising action, and conclusion. They do not have to be happy endings but must have a clear story structure.
- Chapters from novels are not acceptable.
- Your story should begin with (a) the title (b) author’s name (c) time and place of setting.
- Please affirm that no portion of your story was generated by AI.
- We recommend you send your story to one or two beta readers for feedback before submitting.
►In the interest of fairness, please do not ask any of the editors to act as beta readers. We need to approach final versions with fresh eyes.
Note: As before, we plan to self-publish the volume via PubShare and to distribute all profits from sales to the WFWA Scholarship Fund. Therefore, all authors will be required to contribute to production and promotion costs, including cover design, graphic art for promotion, editorial reviews, contest submissions, etc. Based on our experience with Feisty Deeds I, we anticipate the cost will be between $110-150 per participant.
Submissions process:
We will set up an email account for submissions three weeks before they are due.
Submissions will open on March 1, 2025 and close on March 31, 2025.
- Submissions are open only to members of the hisfic affinity group of WFWA.
- Stories must be cleanly formatted and, in your own opinion, in final, publishable form.
- Prepare the story in Word in standard manuscript form: 12 point font and double-spaced.
- Please proofread carefully and correct typos and grammatical errors before submitting.
More information will follow, but for now, we hope that you will begin thinking about the story you might write!
We look forward to hearing from you,
The editorial committee: (Elaine Schroller, Kimberly Sullivan, Carolyn Korsmeyer, Christy Matheson, Kay Smith-Blum)
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