Writers looking for a little inspiration need not travel further than Main Street, as the Dartmouth Bookstore now carries a new line of interactive greeting cards intended to bring out the creative side in everyone. The bookseller will be one of the first stores in the country to stock the innovative new cards from Tell Tale Press, as part of the bookstore's effort to carry items unique to the Hanover area.
While the new cards are blank on the inside, they feature an image on the front that is connected to a short story on the reverse. The short, snappy stories are just the beginning: Tell Tale Press also operates a web site that supplements and expands the stories.
Readers and writers are encouraged to continue the stories themselves. To that end, Tell Tale press sponsors a writing contest based on the cards; writers can submit their own endings to the stories. Winners will be chosen biannually and awarded over $400 in prizes. In the past month alone, Tell Tale has received dozens of stories from across the United States, and from countries as far away as Botswana.
All cards are written by Tell Tale Press founder and president Harvey Solomon. Before founding Tell Tale Press, Solomon worked as a freelance journalist and a screenwriter for television programs such as "Law and Order." The inspiration for the story cards, however, comes from everyday life.
"Basically I'm a writer and the inspiration comes from all over -- an article I read in the newspaper, the title of a book I saw on the subway. Ask any writer, we're all sponges. We hear things and we see things and that translates into the stories," Solomon said.
The cards vary in both design and content, and are divided into eight collections: collegiate, culinary, fashion, gay, Hollywood, indulgence, resort and New York. Each collection features three cards that revolve around the central theme.
In addition to continuing each story online, the web site also provides additional materials to spark the imagination. From faux baggage claim tickets to lists of beach movies, the online content is designed stimulate the creative drive.
In the collegiate collection, one card describes a university modeled on the seven deadly sins. The related material on the web site includes a menu for Gluttony Hall and a flyer for a lecture by Gordon Gecko.
With hundreds of greeting cards already on the market, Tell Tale Press will have to work hard to carve out their own niche.
"We need fiction. We need storytelling," Solomon explained. "From the beginning of time we've told stories and that is what we are trying to do."
