blueAlto

Because he feels the need to be just like me, Tater is taking some time to post episode six. Obviously, being the undisciplined writer that he is, he couldn't, like me, take just one day. Oh no, he has to take the whole bloody weekend. All I have to say is that episode six better be Pulitzer fucking quality for him to slack off like this. Arrogant diva!

Sorry, inside voice escaping again. Please give Tater a break as he deals with the trials of unexpected house guests and several other factors of life that have recently become a tad overwhelming to manage, in addition to an ongoing and multi authored fiction series. Life, as it does for all of us, comes first. His latest creation is set to be published sometime Monday evening. 

As I have had several questions via email regarding The Letters Project, the joint fiction serial that Tater and I are writing together, I thought I would take this opportunity to explain how specifically the project is being posted, both here and at Tater's site, and why.

As Tater and I have indicated already, The Letters Project is a co authored, ongoing fiction series, that is using a dual site format. In other words, one week the entry will be at my site, the next week the entry will be at Tater's site.  The reasons for this are several. 

One, it is a way of writing and publishing fiction that in the blog world, has not been done before. We both liked the idea of a common story being posted at our respective sites, taking advantage of the individual authors site's tone and characteristics, thus helping to mold the piece which that author has written.

Another reason for the posting at different venues is in the idea of future publication. It is important to us both that in the event we decide to publish the work elsewhere, that it not be considered to have been a fully published piece. By keeping the parts separate and individually archived on completely different sites, the publication options with respect to first rights of publication remain ours to dictate, should we decide to publish the work, in whole or in part, elsewhere. 

Since Tater and I both use the same blogging software, one thing we did with regard to site structure, was to write and archive this project in a separate journal than the main page of our blog.  Once again, the reasons were numerous.  Easier for archiving, for access, and it has the benefit of keeping the entries separate and distinct from that of our regular online journal.  We understand this was not explained well from the outset, and we apologize for any confusion in accessing any of the entries thus far.  We have realigned the site structure of both of our sites to make access easier.  From today onward, the following format will be utilized at both our sites.

In the sidebar of each of our sites you will find a link entitled The Letters Project. Clicking that link will bring you to The Letters Project journal where all the entries that either Tate or I have written, are archived and stored.  The first contribution to the project will be the entry that is displayed.  The next page will hold the next entry posted and so on, until the last entry displayed will be the current entry.  A reverse chronology if you will, than is used on most blogs.  We are going from oldest to newest, not the other way around.

How to find previous entries? By clicking The Letters Project link in the sidebar that I mention above, a drop down folder will open in the sidebar, and all previous entries, part one to the current installment, will have corresponding links to that entry, whether it is on my or Tater's site. Those links are now active in the sidebar of both our sites.

One thing that we do ask, is that if you are going to make comments on the entries, please use the comment field for that specific entry. If you have any further questions regarding structure and how to access the individual entries, please leave a comment on this entry and we will address it immediately. Thanks for your patience and once again, we apologize for any confusion regarding how to find and access the entries for the fiction series, The Letters Project.

Update:

Part 1 now posted in The Letters Project.

First off, just let me say a big hello and welcome to anyone who is visiting the site for the first time today. Being that today my writing partner and I are launching a new feature, I'm guessing that "new to the site" may apply to a few of you.

The goal for today's post? To talk a little bit about the project that Tate and I have been busy developing. Our motivation for it, where we want to see it go, how we want it to get there, and ultimately the role of the audience, the reader, and if there is something in that potential that may have overlooked in the history of traditional publication paradigms.

Briefly, since many of you are new here, I should say a few things about myself. Easy stuff to begin with, my name is Al, technically Allan, but everybody calls me Al, and earlier this year I hit the big 40. Piece of cake. I live in Toronto, am single, and share my living space with my dog, otherwise known as the insane canine, Singher, a black Lab and Dalmatian cross. Coolest.Dog.Ever

In my daily and off line life, I am two short weeks away from my thesis defense for the MFA in creative writing. So yes, insanity, at the moment feels like it's running in the streets. For more specific information on me, my bio is here, and these are my 100 random things.

As an author, I'm just at the point where my work is getting some larger recognition, and have been offered a few small publishing options. After a successful thesis defense (that would be the plan anyway), my main goal will be attempting to market my novel to some of the larger publishing houses in both Canada and the US. Somewhat ironically, this project began out of an idea that was meant to keep the level of writing discipline up after the highly structured MFA came to a sudden, screeching halt.

My co author, the one you people know as Tate, was someone who I met this fall and instantly hit it off with. We soon discovered that there were not many areas socially, politically, philosophically, and let's just go with "other ways as well", that were dissimilar. Writing, and the desire to pursue that as a life career, was something Tater was just beginning to give consideration to. I think we both knew at the outset it wouldn't be long until we would put our heads together coming up with something. And it seems, we were right.

So, what is The Letters Project? In a nutshell, it is a multi author fiction series that will occur once a week, and each week one of us will build creatively on plot, characters and story structure of what the other author had previously written. Though there is, of course, a catch. Beyond an initial set up of a loose plot and character abstract, and an agreement on theme, Tate and I have not talked to each other at all regarding ideas or plans for the story, or the characters. The very over used saying "when you know it, we'll know it" applies very well here.

Beyond that, everything is going to be a wait and see. We really don't know if this will last past our initial thoughts of a ten week run, or who knows, maybe this is meant to be the first online soap opera that will know a ten year run. Like I said, who knows? Overall our goal is to spur each other on creatively, while offering clear support of that goal. Anything beyond that, is simply going to be fun to enjoy on the ride. Hopefully for the reader, it will be an equally enjoyable ride

Lastly, the first edition of The Letters Project will be posted this Thursday evening (tonight). We really hope you enjoy it, and if you do, we would love you to toss a comment in the box telling us what you thought. Because judging from what we have written so far, we promise you, this is going to be something very, very exciting for all of us.

To access the The Letters Project, simply click the folder in the sidebar.