Minding the Light

Publication Guidelines

We envision the Journal as a forum for sharing experiences of the Light.  Thus, as a matter of editorial policy, we distinguish between a story (“this is what happened to me”) and an interpretation (“this is what my experience means”).  We urge writers to keep the level of interpretation to a minimum, allowing each story to touch the reader as a work of art, rather than as a philosophical or theological argument.  Creative writings other than stories are held to the same editorial policy as stories.

If your story needs to be edited to conform to our guidelines, one of our editors will contact you.

Stories and Other Written Responses:  must be 500 words or less, and written in the first person by a member or attender of West Hills Friends.  Written responses should be submitted in text format in the body of an email addressed to:  mindingthelight@gmail.com.   

 Please include a title and byline with your submission.  We will withhold your name at your request, or use initials, etc.

Art, photos, music, other non-written responses:  Original paintings, photos, and other art can be submitted on paper or emailed in JPG format.  Original music and videos should be submitted as links to safe websites such YouTube or Vimeo.

We regret that we cannot always publish everything we receive.

Miss the deadline?  Don’t miss the Afterglow

Were you inspired to respond to an earlier query but missed the deadline?   If so, please send us your story anyway!   When we receive stories that meet all of our guidelines except the deadline, we’ll publish them on our website.  Eventually we hope to publish a special “Afterglow” chapter of Minding the Light. 

Afterglow.  noun.  (1) Soft radiance that remains after the light source has gone.  (2) Gentle sense of contentment after a successful event or experience.  (3)  A special Chapter of Minding the Light that contains new responses to previous Chapter queries.