Unveiling the big project!
So, today’s the day I let you all know what I’ve been squirreling away at over the past few months. First I told you about securing an investor to be able to write full time (which is proving to be even better than I thought it would be) and then I told you about the schedule involved to make the project happen.
Now it’s time to reveal…
The Split Worlds!
Attendees of Bristolcon and my lovely VIPs have already been given a sneaky peek, and I’ve been so thrilled by their response! I ran a little competition at the con involving a prop I’ve made for a character in the Split Worlds (that weird looking thing on the left) and a little scroll tied with black ribbon was put in the goody bags. I’ll be emailing the entrants with the answer this week.
The Split Worlds website is here by the way.
If the Split Worlds sounds familiar, it’s because it began life as a Friday Flash I wrote quite some time ago about a shopkeeper and a very strange shop. People liked it and I started to write more stories, growing a quirky world in which I started to spend a lot of my daydreaming time.
Then I got a publisher for 20 Years Later and realised that I really should finish that trilogy before getting too sucked into the Split Worlds. But it all bubbled away in the background until it started to come out in other stories here and there. One of those stories is in the new Eighty Nine anthology by the way.
When the 20 Years Later trilogy was safely out of my head and on the page, I knew the Split Worlds was going to be the next project and I knew I wanted to do it all differently. There’s a huge story there, so a trilogy was never going to be enough. Then I realised I wasn’t going to be satisfied with just writing a series of books. It had to be more.
A Year and Day of stories set in the Split Worlds
I always wanted to write a year and day of weekly flashes, it just seemed to fit. So the first one is published tomorrow, leading up to the launch of the first Split Worlds book on November 1st 2012, which makes a total of 54 stories, according to my spreadsheet anyway! They will be available in text and audio format, as I know that some of you like listening to me read you stories.
Every week a story will be hosted on a different blog / website – would you like to host one? Let me know in the comments if you do.
You can sign up to a newsletter that will let you know where to find the story every week, and you also get a free short story when you do that, one that won’t appear anywhere else.
And there’s more
Running alongside these stories will be live events, games, treasure hunts and all kinds of opportunities for you to get to know the characters and places in the Split Worlds.
I’m also running a “thank you for helping me promote the Split Worlds” points and prizes doohicky. This is an attempt to spread the word about the project without having to do that icky self-promotion thing, and offer presents to people who help me do that.
What this really is
Now, there’s a risk this might sound a bit silly, but I really do think that this project is the best way that I can combine all of my passions, hobbies and insatiable urge to write into the best sum of my parts.
No, it’s not just that. This is the closest I can come to immersing people into this quirky world that I’m creating. You see, that’s what I’ve always been aiming for, with all these years of GMing and roleplaying, of reading voraciously and writing books and stories – I want to go to other worlds and I want to take people with me.
I want to take you into the Split Worlds, be it by writing a series of stories and books that you fall into and never want to leave, be it by writing a letter from one of the characters and posting it to your house, be it by asking you to play games that will change the way you see the world around you.
Yeah, that’s what I want. Come with me. The Split Worlds are there to be discovered.
Fabulous stuff! Will be there cheering all the way.
PS I hope you’re also going to keep a note of *how* you’re doing this – in terms of participation, engagement, role playing, making full use of digital and social media – because I think you could teach / sell that knowledge after the event (or along the way) as well as the books themselves.
Thank you! I keep meaning to keep a journal of sorts as I progress, but when you need to write 4000 words a day 5 days a week and launch and write short stories… well, it slips 🙂
I have already signed up, and am excited to read the unique story that you sent me. I love the idea of having multiple short stories in one world. It lets me get the sense of concreteness of the world that I love in long novels/series without having to look through the eyes of one character/situation for so long.
I would LOVE to host one of your stories on my blog. I’ve only just started it, but I have a few reviews under my belt and three more in the works for this/next week.
Hi Hannah, I’m glad you like the idea, I’m really excited about it too. My hope is that by the time people who have followed it throughout the year (or those who join later and catch up) get to reading the books, they’ll know so much more about what’s going on. You know, that secret thrill of knowing all the details behind what could be seen as a throwaway comment by one of the characters.
Ultimate story geekage 🙂
Thank you for your offer, I would love to take you up on it, I’ll be dropping you a line very soon!
Really liking this idea (and the two stories I’ve read so far). Would love to host a story. Drop me a line.
Hooray! That’s splendid, I would love to have a story at your place, I’ll write very soon to set a date x
yes please would love to host a story – sounds fascinating
Fantastic project. Good luck with it,
Jeez, Em, you’re like a force of nature. I get exhausted just thinking about the amount of work you’re doing – and planning – and planning to plan. Obviously, I’d be honoured to host a Split Worlds story if you’re willing to risk losing one among the bric-a-brac and dust bunnies my blog collects. (There’s a wonderful JG Ballard story called The Sound Sweep in which the protagonist has the job of visiting public places to suck up all the conversations and other stray noises that accumulate in nooks and crannies there. I often think of blogs as being prone to that kind of accretion. We need a thought sweep to come by now and then and clean them out.)
All the very best with this exciting programme.
I would be thrilled to host one of your stories. Of course, I look forward to reading them all too.
I’ll host you, Emma!
This all sounds really exciting stuff. Feels like I’m arriving late to the party but would be well up for hosting a Split Worlds story if you have one in need of a home in the next year and a day. All the best with this and everything else.
I am looking forward to this project. It’s a shame I’m “across the pond” and won’t be able to participate in your events. But I hope to be able to contibute to your worlds in some way.