Herstory

The hagsharlotsheroines story

Hagsharlotsheroines is over two years old now and we're changing and growing. We are starting to feel a little shackled by the boundaries of our initial concept. We're ready to step into new landscapes, expand our horizons and make some new (writer) friends.

The team and membership has grown and with this fresh blood, new ideas have flooded in. We don't want our history to define us - or more importantly to limit our creativity. We no longer want to limit ourselves, and of course our members, to writing about women from history, legend and myth. Or to focus exclusively on the past. We're ready to untie those reins. And though we'll always be fascinated by herstory we now welcome quality creative writing on all themes, in all genres, and non-fiction as well as fiction exploring issues of gender and identity.

So now we are inviting in stories about the future, and the present as well as the past. We welcome fantasies alongside stories grounded in fact. We invite in ghost stories as well as stories which move fluidly between time zones. We welcome creative non-fiction as well as fiction.

But first you need to know the hags harlots heroines story.

Herstory, In the beginning ...

Once upon a time, two friends were sat in a bar. At some stage in the evening, one friend dared the other to write them a story - and email it to them. When the other friend said they couldn't think of anything to write about, the first plucked a theme out of the air, "Write about a famous woman from history" they said.

As promised the story duly arrived in the first friend's inbox. Tagged on to the bottom was a note saying "YOUR TURN!"

Days later, hearing the second friend chuckling as they opened up their mail to discover a new tale, their nosy workmates, Laura Wilkinson and Becky Bradford couldn't resist asking if they could have a read.

Now a word of warning: story writing is infectious! Like a virus it spread around the office and soon we were all at it. We were amazed to find how many great stories there were already out there, just waiting to be discovered. The lives of women in history have - with some glorious exceptions - been largely ignored. For us, as women blessed by having the freedoms and choices of those born in the latter half of the twentieth century, researching and writing about their lives had an added significance: here were women who had come before us, pioneers who had ventured into new and uncharted territory.

It was only when others started asking if they could have a butcher's that we realised that perhaps they might be suitable for a wider audience. The most committed and prolific writers, Laura and Becky had, unbeknown to each other, started printing down the tales from their email inboxes and stashing them away in folders marked "for publication?"

It is at this point in our story that Helen Wilkinson, ideas entrepreneur and a published author about women's lives and gender trends, who coined the phrase ladettes, takes centre stage. Helen had already ventured into the heady dot com world and as Laura's sister had been privy to many of the best tales. One rainy afternoon in Brighton Laura asked Helen what she thought the chances were of getting a publishing deal. As the two sisters talked the idea behind this website was hatched. Helen had clearly thought it all through. She knew how tough it was for first time authors to even get past the front gates of the major publishing houses but her knowledge and experience of the web where she had already done some online publishing inspired another, more dynamic idea. This one was even rooted in the origins of the tales themselves, which was of course in new technology. The main thrust of her vision was to self publish and in the first instance publish online. She offered to host the site through her consultancy and its site, www.genderquake.com and outlined her conviction that we could build a vibrant community. The stories and the site itself could be a creative and playful forum for showing how sexual politics - and the role of women in society - have been constantly evolving. And that, quite simply, is how we began.

Many months on, with our membership based story telling site we are now creating a platform not just for writers and the tales themselves - but an experimental and creative forum where anybody interested in exploring how the past informs the present can come together to read, write and be inspired by 'herstory' and in the process develop their creativity, research, writing and internet skills. It's been a long, arduous labour of love but it has been worth it. The moment of birth wiped out the months, days and hours of pain and hard work and we are very proud of our new born venture. We hope that she will grow up strong and secure and live a long and fruitful life.

• Laura Wilkinson
• Helen Wilkinson
• Becky Bradford
• Kim Rooney