Wednesday, February 12, 2014

7 Authors, 7 Voices, Flowing into 1 Story


“Writing is one of the most solitary activities in world.” (Paulo Corlho, The Zahir)

In essence, Paulo’s statement is true. In the end, it is the author alone with his words, ideas, and characters. Trust me, my wife, Kathy, is the ultimate “writer’s widow” and I love her dearly for her patience and support. Recently, though, I received an invitation from my publisher, Helping Hands Press, to participate in a short story series with six other authors. HHP provided a starting premise and a couple of characters. Nothing more. The intriguing aspect of the project was the first installment, where all seven authors would collaborate and contribute to the short story.  

1 short story written by 7 authors? My first thought was: yeah, right! It ain’t gonna work (sorry, Gio). But with the publication of Colony Zero, Contact (ebook available on Amzon) Colony Zero - Volume 1 - Contact

I was totally blown away and pleased with how well the voices and plot flowed together.

Through a long series of emails we ironed out the back story. Travis Perry tackled the first segment, laying the groundwork for the remaining authors. I then picked up the story in the second segment, building on what Perry had started. And on it went. It was a truly gratifying experience to watch the story unfold and see the characters grow.  I want to give a shout-out to my fellow authors on the project. It was great working with Travis Perry, Mark Carver, Lisa Godfrees, Tracy Krauss, Grace Yee, and Shannon Laws
Travis Perry   Mark Carver   Lisa Godfrees  Tracy Krauss   

As a team, we took what started out as a solitary activity and made it a true collaborative project. If you read Colony Zero, drop me an email. I'd love to know what you thought of the story. There's more to come.

4 comments:

  1. Hi, Mark! Thanks for the shout out. And I agree--it did turn out well. It was like something I used to do as a kid where the first person would speak one sentence of a story, then the second person would add another sentence, and it would go around the group until the story was finished. Although in this case, when we got to my niece, she would always say "and then they died" so that was pretty much a story ender every time. LOL

    I love working with all of you!

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  2. Thank you Mark for the bump! I look forward to working with you and the other authors on this project.

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  3. I blogged about the story setting...(since I blog about story ideas). Hope you enjoy it!

    And it is nice working with everyone :)

    http://travissbigidea.blogspot.com/2014/02/realms-of-exile-from-siberia-to-planet.html

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