Roundup of Memories Contest

The last five sentences in my just-out book, Counting the Cost, go like this:

Ruth stood and searched through the brightening vista for the source of that sound. At last, she saw it. It was the jingling of the trace chains on Ollie's chuck wagon as his outfit moved out on the spring work. For today was the sixth of May. The day after Cinco de Mayo.

Counting the Cost is based on the life of my uncle, a cowboy. It is full of family history, and to celebrate that, Inglestone Publishing is hosting a Roundup of Memories, and we're doing it when Heck Benham, our hero, would have been out on the spring work.

You can participate as a Blogger-about-the-contest, as a Memory-poster, or do both.

For Bloggers (if you're not a blogger, skip down to Memory-poster part):

1. Post a blog inviting your readers to share a short (300-500 words) favorite family memory or family history story. (Use the information in the Memory-poster section.)

2. Post your blog sometime between today and May 13.

3. After you post, send an e-mail with a link to cm@inglestonepublishing.com . Your blog will be added to the list that will appear on Inglestone's blog, on my blog, and that will be transmitted to the 3,000 names on Cecily Markland's Bee-line list.

4. When you send the link, give us your mailing address for a thank-you gift. We'll send a copy of my booklet, Using Family History in Fiction, plus your choice of:

· A copy of Counting the Cost or

· A “gold nugget bag” of chocolate coins

So, let us know if you'd rather have the book or the chocolate. Tough choice.

For Memory Posters:

1. Submissions should be a memory of your own or a story of one of your own ancestors.
Submissions should be 300 to 500 words long and you may submit as many as you wish.

2. To submit your entries, simply visit http://www.inglestonepublishing.com/, click on the Roundup of Memories image near the top of the home page, then fill out the simple form. Or, click here, and it will take you to the form.

3. Submit entries by May 20. Selected submissions will be published on the Inglestone Publishing Web site; and the winners will be announced May 25.

Contest winners will receive:

An autographed copy of Counting the Cost

Copy of Using Family History in Fiction
Gold nugget bag of chocolate coins

Grand Prize Winner will receive all of the above, PLUS $10 gift certificate to Amazon.com

So there you go. I'm fascinated, as I teach workshops and do firesides on Writing Family History in Fiction, at the stories people share that are parts of their family history. These are things that need to be written down, and if you don't write them, who will?

Here's a way to get a memory or two down on paper. You'll be preserving something for posterity AND getting chocolate in the bargain. It doesn't get any better than that.