The Man from Chateaulin

 The annual summer holiday collaborative story writing projects with Alex and Haydn has produced such anarchic stories as A Detective Inspector, a Week-Old Haddock and the Means to Destroy Paris and The Good Ship Munders.

The earliest of these collaborations, and probably the most bonkers, was The Man from Chateaulin, written while on holiday near Chateaulin in France. I decided to give Wattpad a go and I've published it as a serial there. If you like Inspector Clouseau, this might be for you.

You can read it here. 

A Detective Inspector, a Week-Old Haddock and the Means to Destroy Paris

The comedy spy-fi story A Detective Inspector, a Week-Old Haddock and the Means to Destroy Paris that I co-wrote with Alex and Haydn is out now on the Tall Tale TV podcast.

This is the second of our joint stories to be published, after last year's The Good Ship Munders.

Tall Tale TV has previously published Alex's Unveventful Day of the Bodger; a complillation of three flash fiction stories that included Alex's Brothers in Qualms, Haydn's The Final Battle is But a Game and my own Escapades in Time; and my short stories Observers and The Righteous Indignation of the Naked Mole Rat.

The Good Ship Munders Sets Sail

 The Good Ship Munders, a collaborative story conceived by Alex and hijacked by Haydn and myself, is now out at Aphelion.

Several of my earliest stories were published at Aphelion and it's very nice to be back there.

Quivira

My 16,000 word novelette Quivira, co-written with Jonathan Gillespie is now available at The Society of Misfit Stories. 

Described (by me) as Avatar meets Lord of the Rings, I'm hoping it will be picked up by a major film director!

Multi-Author Collaborative Story Now On Line

My collaborative story Something On Your Mind?, co-written with 8 other authors, is now on-line at Kaleidotrope. This is my third blind collaboration set aboard the orbital habitat Astropolis. I gave the other authors the setting and asked them to write a short scene with their own character but with no idea of the overall plot and I then stitched all the sections together into an whole story.

Return of the Blind Collaborators

My first collaborative story The Blind Collaborators, published 10 years ago in Aphelion Webzine , has been republished in their 'Best of 20 Years' selection.

It was a fun story to write in which I gave my collaborators a brief outline of what to include in their sections without telling them the plot and then I tied them all together in an overall story.

Collaborative Story Sale

I'm very excited to have sold my third blind collaboration, this time to Kaleidotrope magazine. This time my co-authors are Stewart C Baker, Anatoly Belilovsky, Robert Dawson, Kate Heartfield, Holly Heisey, CL Holland, Laurie Tom and Deborah Walker - the most I've ever collaborated with.


Once again the story is set on Astropolis, a two hundred year old orbital habitat that has been the setting for several of my stories.

Space Station Inspiration

Deborah Walker, one of my collaborators on two different Astropolis stories, has just had a story published in Nature magazine, and in this blog post explains how Good For Something started life on Astropolis.

Astropolis

Astropolis is an orbital habitat that has been in orbit of earth for around three centuries, gradually growing and expanding as new modules are built and added until it has reached over a kilometre in diameter. It’s home to several thousand inhabitants, including representatives of some alien races. There are markets and gardens, offices, restaurants, shopping malls and mile upon mile of service corridors and shafts linking it all together. Some of the oldest sections of Astropolis are now defunct, but they lie cocooned within so many layers of newer modules that they have been left in place, abandoned and gathering dust. There are observation decks that look out on nothing but the hull of a new adjunct, docking bays that lead nowhere, recycling systems with nothing to recycle and corridors with no access.


As well as three of my own short stories, Astropolis has been the setting for my three collaborative stories. It’s an ideal setting because the numerous different styles and technologies fused together to form the great habitat allow authors to write what they want without fear of contradicting each other. All three have been blind collaborations, where I give the other authors the setting and minimal guidance, and then I join their contributions together to form a whole.





Astropolis stories:



The Blind Collaborators – Aphelion – Sept 2007
      Reprinted - Aphelion – Feb 2008
Travel by Numbers – Nature – June 2008     
     Serbian translation – Antares – Mar 2009
     Estonian translation – Algernon – Apr 2009
     Spanish translation – Alfa Eridiani – May 2009
     Reprinted – Paralelisomos – Dec 2013
     Galician translation – Nova Fantasia – Sept 2009
Up To My Neck In It – Hypersonic Tales – Aug 2009
     Spanish translation - Aurora Bitzine – Oct 2009
     Reprinted – Paralelismos – Dec 2013
Three AM – Golden Vision – Jan 2010
Crowd Control – Perihiloion SF – Sep 2014
Something On Your Mind? - Kaleidotrope - Oct 2017

Crowd Control at Perihilion SF

My multi-author collaborative story Crowd Control is on line today at Perihilion SF.

See if you can spot the joints!

New Collaboration

My six-author collaborative story Crowd Control should be on-line in a week or so, but selling the story has inspired me to start work on another collaborative story that I started thinking about a long time ago. This time I have 12 other authors joining me! Should be fun!

Crowd Control

I'm very pleased that my collaborative story Crowd Control has been bought by Perihilion magazine. This was written as a blind collaboration in which the other authors didn't know what the plot was - much like the original story The Blind Collaborators.

My co-authors in the venture are Aliette de Bodard, Nancy Fulda, John Murphy, Deborah Walker and Sylvia Spruck Wrigley. I'll write more about the process of creating the story in a future post.

Appearing In Somebody Else's Collection

A while ago I worked with Ken Schneyer on one of his short stories Grapple With Thee, a minimaly sfnal futuristic legal / political tale of corporate greed and single-mindedness.

Ken has been nominated for the Nebula and Sturgen awards and his work has appeared in many top-notch magazines, so it was a pleasure to work with him. It's even more exciting that Ken's first collection is being published imminently in print and ebook format by Stillpoint Digital, and Grapple With Thee is included among the thirteen stories therein.

Entitled The Law and the Heart, the collection is described thus:

Exploring the seams where humanity and technology, society and individuality intersect, Nebula- and Sturgeon-nominated author Kenneth Schneyer presents thirteen mind-bending, thought-provoking tales of near and far futures that will amuse, amaze, and unsettle. The law will change, and the heart will change, and the heart will change the law. These stories confront the question of just what makes and keeps us human.

 

 

I'm looking forward to getting a copy soon.

 

The Spreadsheet of Ideas

Writing and editing Gap Years has kept me busy for ages. I've also recently done some work editing my novelette for the Ancient New anthology, written a flash fiction story and completed work on a collaboration with Ken Schneyer. I'm currently working on a collaboration with several other authors, but at the moment I have nothing to write until I hear back from them.

So, with time available, I sat down to do some writing and shockingly discovered that for the first time in several years I have nothing ready to write at the moment. My great spreadsheet of ideas lists 4 short stories and 2 novels, but even the short stories are not well-enough developed to start writing yet.

So I'm doing some plotting, working on synopses of the novels, biding my time...

2011 Writing Review

At the begining of the year, I had several plans for what I was hoping to accomplish in terms of writing this year. We're approaching the finale now, so how have I done?

The main accomplishment has been finishing my second novel Gap Years. After some initial editing it was read by my beta readers, then I kind of ignored it for a while, but now I'm almost done with the final edit. Definitely by the end of December...

I wrote 2 of the short stories that had been waiting for ages, plus another 2 flash fiction stories that I thought up along the way. I wrote my first complete TV screenplay and plenty of suppporting material for a potential TV series. I've also collaborated on a short story with Kenneth Schneyer and recently started on another experimental collaboration with several authors. Details on both of these will be forthcoming.

What shall I do next...

From the Pen

Okay, I don't really use a pen much for writing, but it sounds better than saying 'from the keyboard'.

This week, Jonathan C Gillespie and I have, we think, completed our collaborative novelette Quivira. It crept up to be a novella for a while, but editing has brought it back down. It's been interesting and fun working with Jonathan, seeing how ideas develop from one section to the next as we each developed the story. The strange thing is that while editing there were some sections that I couldn't remember whether I wrote them or not.

I had intended to get back to my new novel Gap Years after several weeks away from it, but instead a new story concept that has been rattling around for a while won out and I started work on that instead. Snowdonia (not its full title) is neither a prose story nor a graphic story, but something indefinable. I think it's going to be rather interesting.

A New Begining

After a week or two of editing, critiquing and researching I have begun work on Gap Years. Current total 1200 words. That's more than 1% complete already. :o)

Meanwhile, my collaborative story with Jonathan C Gillespie is coming on apace. Around 9000 words now and the good thing is it gets longer when I'm not looking!

New Collaboration

Over the past couple of weeks I've been working on a collaborative story with Jonathan C Gillespie, whose stories have twice appeared in Murky Depths. Paston, Kentucky appeared alongside my own Looking In, Looking Out in issue #1 and his more recent contribution Best in Class is a finalist for the Parsec Awards.

We're working on a science fiction / fantasy hybrid that's just reached the 4000 word mark. It's probably going to be closer to 10,000 words by the time we finish. It's a novel and fun experience having another author to bat ideas around with. I'll let you know how we get on.

Aphelion's Best of 2007

The new edition of Aphelion is out, containing the editors' selection of the best of 2007. Included in the short story section are two that I included among my favourites of 2007: Michelle Dutcher's A Pocket Filled with Posies and John Hickman's Audience of One.

In the 'Serials' section (which includes novelettes and novellas) is The Blind Collaborators, the collaborative story that I wrote with Lee Alon, Nathan J Kailhoffer, Iain Muir and the enigmatic TauPhoenix. It's a thoroughly enjoyable story, which I can only say as I didn't write most of it. For the full story behind the collaboration, click here. You can also view the comments made at the time on the Aphelion forum.

Second Collaborative Story

It's a whole year since the launch of my first collaborative project that resulted in last months publication of The Blind Collaborators. After receiving much critical acclaim I have now launched the second collaborative story project.

It will again be set on board the orbital habitat Astropolis and will be written with up to half a dozen other authors, none of whom will know the ultimate aim of the story until after it is complete.

I'm really looking forward to seeing who joins up and what they produce.