What’s your best Dearborn story?

That was the question posed by the Dearborn Historical Museum earlier this month, and residents and former residents have deluged the museum with favorites — dozens and dozens of them, written out and signed, up close and personal.

As a result, a prospective book project announced by the museum as a fundraiser three weeks ago is officially on. It will contain more than 100 favorite stories, it is expected to be priced around $20, and it should be back from the printer as a soft-cover publication before Dec. 1.

The book, the first of its kind ever compiled by the museum, is titled “Best Dearborn Stories: Voices From Henry Ford’s Hometown.”

“I’ve always believed that people love to share stories about themselves and their towns, so I’m not at all surprised at the response,” said L. Glenn O’Kray, vice chair of the Dearborn Historical Commission and coordinator of the project.

“Even though we set a very short deadline for submitting the stories, I think it just encouraged everybody to sit down and write instead of putting it off. We had an original goal of 300 stories, but realistically that would have been too many for one book. We do plan to keep additional stories as they come in, anticipating that we’ll have more than enough for a sequel next year.

“As it is, we should have the books available for sale at the museum in plenty of time for Christmas shopping.”

Publishing costs are being underwritten by the Museum Guild of Dearborn, a nonprofit group of more than 20 clubs that support the museum. The Guild is finalizing a contract with a printer for a rush job on the book, which will be sold at the museum’s gift shop at the McFadden-Ross House, 915 Brady.

Profits from sales of the book will go to the museum, which has begun a membership drive to help keep its doors open after city funds run out during the current fiscal year ending June 30, 2012.