* CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL - CALL OUTS FOR NEW STORIES *

I just received an e-mail from the lovely editors at Chicken Soup for the Soul, asking for stories for a new, upcoming anthology named, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Curvy & Confident - 101 Stories about Loving Yourself and Your Body. 

This sounds like a book that's perfect for us women of a "certain age" and I'm definitely going to begin working on a submission for it. The deadline is June 30, 2016.

After reading the email, I was motivated to check out the Chicken Soup for the Soul website and see if they had other call outs going on...and they sure do! Following are the current ones, with various deadlines. Be sure to check them out!

Angels & Miracles   
Best Mom Ever!       
Blended Families
Dreams and Synchronicities
Parent to Parent
Stories about Cats
Stories about Dogs
Stories about Teachers & Teaching
The Joy of Christmas
        AND
The Spirit of Canada (for Canadian entries only)
College Student Stories (for current students up to age 24)


Here's the link to the Call Out page: http://www.chickensoup.com/story-submissions/possible-book-topics. They even give suggestions about what to write about.

As always, I encourage everyone to submit stories, even if you've never done any writing at all. Just take your time and write from your heart. If your story doesn't get chosen, you haven't lost any money, because there is no submission fee...but if your story IS chosen... "If your story is chosen, you will be a published author and your bio will be printed in the book if you so choose. You will also receive a check for $200 and 10 free copies of your book, worth more than $100. You will retain the copyright for your story and you will retain the right to resell it or self-publish it." Pretty neat, huh?!

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE AND PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHERE YOU SUBMITTED YOUR STORIES!



"The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say but what we are unable to say." - Anaïs Nin (1903-1977) 

* Nostalgic Sundays *

Time for another Nostalgic Sunday

In my last *Nostalgic Sunday* post, on March 4th, I mentioned buying something on Ebay that pertained to Parks College. (My dad was a student and then a professor at Parks in the late 1940s to the early 1960s.) I also said I couldn't get the pictures from Ebay to copy well onto my blog and that you'd just have to wait until I received it to see pictures.....Well....Ta Dahhhh......

It's a hardcover journal, approximately 8" x 11", made by a young man who was interested in going to Parks College......around 1931!



 When I look through this book, I know I'm touching something special. Something that meant a great deal to a young man who was trying to decide what he wanted to do with his life.

I'm fairly certain this was a class assignment, most likely for a high school senior. He wrote about the advantages and disadvantages of choosing aviation as his "life's work." There is a total of 39 pages, the last sentence in his Preface is this: The success of this book is due to Miss ______ who is our teacher and guide.

I'm keeping both the student's and teacher's names anonymous. I feel as if I need to guard their identity, as if they were part of my own family.

 He glued newspaper clippings in it.

There's a booklet of tuition prices which includes "Parks Flying School" and "Airplane and Engine Mechanics' Course."

There are quite a few pages of hand printed information about the history of aviation, including the Wright Brothers and Charles Lindbergh.

(you can click on the photos to enlarge them)

I'll definitely ask a friend who works in the Parks' archives department if he can find out anything about this man. I truly hope he was able to fulfill his dream!

*And welcome to my newest follower, Belleu80, I hope you'll stop by often and always enjoy what you read and see. Thank you!*

"The engine is the heart of an aeroplane, but the pilot is its soul." -- Unknown