20 writers. 1 anthology. _100 Voices in the Night_. This is the idea that “Ben Marroquin”:http://storymask.wordpress.com/ of “Storymask”:http://storymask.com/ presented to me a couple of weeks ago. Flash fiction has become a popular pasttime of new writers. Websites have sprung up all over the web with stories ranging from 250 to 1000 words, as writers practice their craft and share these short works with their readers.
_100 Voices in the Night_ is a project to create an anthology of flash fiction stories in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. Twenty authors will contribute five stories each to amass a total of 100 flash fiction pieces. Once completed, this new anthology will be sent to a publisher and the first of what we hope to be an annual project will be born. Each story will be short enough to read in a just a couple of minutes, and many of them will provide brief glimpses into the larger universe of each author’s writing.
The goals of the _100 Voices_ project are six-fold:
- To create an original and unique anthology of highly entertaining family friendly stories. To the best of our knowledge, flash fiction is still such a new medium that nothing quite like this has been produced.
- To provide an avenue for authors to get published.
- To provide the authors with a great platform to showcase their talent to a whole new audience, thereby increasing their fan base both offline and online.
- To provide the authors with a viable product that they can offer to their fans and that will supplement their income.
- To provide those authors working on novels with the opportunity to introduce their novel’s world and some of the characters to a new audience.
- To provide the authors with valuable learning experiences and access to a great network of like minded storytellers.
That’s _100 Voices_ in a nutshell. It’s a project that Ben and I are both very excited about. We’re currently in the planning stages and are still inviting authors to join the team. We have several slots open yet, so if you write in the science fiction, fantasy, or horror genres and would like to join the _100 Voices_ team, please send an email to either Ben at benmarroquin(at)sbcglobal(dot)net or Jim at stitzelj(at)gmail(dot)com expressing your interest. Please also include two or three samples of your work. We’ll review your work and if we like what we see, we’ll get back to you with an official invitation to join the team.
_100 Voices in the Night_ promises to be a fun and interesting collaboration with other writers. I’ll keep you posted here as to our progress and when you can purchase a copy of the anthology.
Allow me to juxtapose 2 statements in this blog:
1) “an anthology of flash fiction stories in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres”
2) “unique anthology of highly entertaining family friendly stories”
Further logic need not apply.
But besides that, I really like the idea. I’m not a novel/fiction guy in any way, shape or form, but it’s cool none-the-less. There’s tonnes of people out there who’ve gotten into novels thanks to harry potter & I’m sure there’s just as many people who don’t want to get into “pottery” because it’s too long.
Thou seemest to think that the two cannot co-exist. I would beg to differ. ‘Family-friendly,’ in this case, means no foul language and no gratuitous sex. I suspect your quibble is with the notion of horror being family-friendly. Well, that’s a fine line we’ll have to walk. ;-)
Sounds like a great idea!
Keep us posted.
You don’t need to use foul language, gore or sex to write a truly scary story. I’ve read lots of good horror that doesn’t resort to those devices.
I completely agree, Fred. Honestly, my feeling has always been that such things often make for lazy story writing. Those things are the easy way to create that atmosphere. I think it’s much more fun and artistic to weave a scary story using conventional devices.
Melly, I definitely will. I plan to keep regular updates going on the project.
Look no further than the success of Blair Witch Project–in regards to gore. The trick is creating suspense, whether or not there is a grisly ending.
Very interesting concept. Can I join?
Kunstemaecker, please follow the guidelines stated above for expressing your interest in joining the project, and we will definitely review your work and let you know.
Nice idea! I always thought a flash fiction collection would make the ultimate bathroom book. You could quite comfortably read one or two every sitting.
And I do mean ‘sitting’. ;)
It’s not only a good bathroom book, but also good for a car trip, if you’re like me. A lot of reading on a long ride like that usually makes me nauseous if I try to read anything longer than flash, because I end up having to take frequent breaks because of the onset of reading-induced motion sickness: and no, I have no idea why, except (perhaps) for the random perversity of reality.