The Toy Chest is the third novel anthology from Prints Charming Books. This one is the work of thirty authors, including me. I also collated it, ringmastered it, and wrote the bracket novel which is also called The Toy Chest. Toby's mum, Lilliane, sometimes takes him to visit Great Aunt Martha, who is in her nineties. Martha is the custodian of the toy chest, a brightly-painted wooden chest containing toys. The chest is lent to children in the extended family for a while, passing from child to child and returning to Martha in between times. Now it's Toby's turn. Toby's ambition is to have a dog, but the chest full of toys is a pleasant distraction, even if he does feel a touch too old for teddies. The sentient chest tells him the stories of the toys, and Toby grows to respect them all, even if they're not his personal cup of tea. The chest gives Toby some simple rules to follow and, unusually for a child in the domestic fantasy genre, he heeds them. Toby's mum also had her turn with the chest as a child, and Toby is intrigued to find a loved toy of hers in the chest. Is it the same one? Well, it is and it isn't, as the chest puts it.
The stories are strung through the novel as the stories told by the chest. At the end of the story, Toby gives up something he wanted to keep and is rewarded.
This was an easy-going project. Stories poured in, the commissioned cover art was what I'd asked for, and the formatting didn't give me too much of a headache. The cover is a touch gaudy for some, but I tried to make it look like the toy chest; brightly-painted and full of possibilities.
About the Blog
Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)
The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. If you enjoyed a post, or want to ask about any of my books or my manuscript assessment service, leave me a message.
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