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Post by Christian Soldier on Aug 31, 2009 22:20:54 GMT -5
Anomalous... what? That's what you're thinking, right? What follows is a CGT(Cool God Thing): The story has several distinct beginnings, so I'll start with Jeff. We all know Jeff Gerke. We all also know that Jeff speaks at several conventions a year. This last year, people kept asking him about the idea of publishing short fiction. Not just at one convention. No, but at almost every one them. One of whom was a feller by the name of John Turney. John, you see, had a vision. He envisioned a world where Christian Spec-Fic authors could write and share within the same fictional universe. More over, he envisioned a world where said authors could publish their work and be read by an appreciative, informed audience, and he passed this vision on to Jeff. At the same time, I had an idea. It was a bad one. I just knew it, but it would not leave me alone. It gnawed at me, shaking the bars of the cage in which I had imprisoned it. I had to let it out, but not just anywhere! I wanted it to be put out of its misery with as much mercy as possible. So I set up a post in the Admin area of the anomaly... and waited. Jeff was at a convention, and didn't reply right away, so my idea ran rampant still. I was literally itching to get it off my mind so that I could come up with yet another crazy idea. After all, who wants to read short fiction, other than me, anyway? I check the Anomaly one day and saw, to my surprise, a response that blew my mind away: he liked it! The next several hours of my life are blank to me, but I've been told that I was swinging from several of the radio antennas on the FOB. When I came to, lying in a puddle of my own sweat and coffee, I ran back in and got the ball rolling. Not only, I learned, was it a great idea, but folks had been pestering Jeff on the same subject. When I mentioned I couldn't do it alone, I got forwarded an e-mail address: John Turney's. Next thing we knew, we were brainstorming through e-mail like you wouldn't believe, and Anomalous Fiction was born. Further discussions brought up the concept of the Twin Universes , a place where authors could write their stories and continue on a massive world shared with everyone. We wanted something like the Star Wars and Star Trek worlds with multiple authors furthering a massive general story. So we worked out the details and produced two worlds: one sci-fi, one fantasy. Both are rich enough that an author has a good start, but open enough that there is a lot of fleshing out to do. Of course, a story doesn't have to be written in these worlds to get published through AF. No! As long as it meets the Submission Guidelines of AF and meets our demanding standards of quality it's in! We chose the e-Zine format because we wanted portability. All of the other Zines out there was Web-zines, minus RGR. A web-Zine is where all the content is posted on the net, and the user has to download yet more content to read each story. I have a very slow connection here, and I know I would rather download it in one swoop, so we decided to go with publishing it on some sort of portable format, which is what makes it an e-Zine. The format in question had to meet one very stringent requirement: it had to be free. Who has the $300 to spend on Adobe software that takes forever to load and longer to make? The CGT isn't over, yet. One of my favorite secular authors, CJ Cherryh, is self publishing some of her older works through the ePub ebook format. Considering her level of tech skill, or lack thereof, I wondered at that, and looked into it myself. The readers for it are fairly small, and it is completely free to make... FREE!! So I tried it out and it was easy! I literally slap it into OpenOffice, save it, and feed it through Callibre and what comes out is readable on every smart phone, e-reader, and computer on the planet. Wow! And it's small, too. 37,000 words compressed down to less than a megabyte. It, literally, met every requirement I could think of. Here's what I need from you guys: 1)Head over to the the temp site and give me some good feedback on everything in it. 2)Check out the Submission Guidelines and send me some un-published fiction. 3) Any artists out there: We're going to need covers. While I do plan to use Deviant Art and such to troll for art work, I would rather get it from people who want to have their work on the front page of AF. We are extremely excited to be able to announce at long last, and I pray that God would revel in the Glory we send his way.
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Post by beckyminor on Aug 31, 2009 22:46:45 GMT -5
Hey Glyn, Sounds like you have a great idea gaining momentum here! I pray that it will all take off at an alarming rate. And I like that you are taking the e-zine tack, in order to reach the huge segment of the population that has latched onto portable devices as their preferred source of information/entertainment. Seems like a concept that can't go wrong, to me. One thing I didn't see in the submission guidelines was anything about preferred word count. Does that mean however or long or short your piece is, it still gets a look? Again, I pray the Lord uses this in an awesome way. Becky
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Post by Christian Soldier on Aug 31, 2009 23:03:05 GMT -5
I was thinking that if it is too long, we can serialize it. Too short, well, nothing wrong with a quick story. I suppose that will depend on how many really short works we get. Enough and we'll put a min cap.
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Post by Jeff Gerke on Sept 1, 2009 7:28:57 GMT -5
Awesome post, Glyn.
Do go ahead and list something about wordcount in your guidelines. I've already fielded one e-mail about that today.
Jeff
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Post by Christian Soldier on Sept 1, 2009 8:07:40 GMT -5
Move'n!
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Post by beckyminor on Sept 1, 2009 8:10:02 GMT -5
And then this whole thing got suddenly larger...got Jeff's announcements in my e-mail this morning! ;D How exciting to have everyone on the MLP mailing lists hearing about Anamolous Fiction.
Prepare to be inundated, I think.
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Post by Christian Soldier on Sept 1, 2009 8:27:47 GMT -5
Oh.Yeah. I've already gotten some nibbles. I think tomorrow will start the storm. Two edits to the submission page: There is no word length limit nor requirement. Each work will be considered on the merits of the story itself. We may ask to serialize longer works to make up to excess length.
And this one:
If your work has alredy been published, this includes being posted on searchable forums and websites, then your work will most likely be rejected. We prefer first time publishes; however, if your work is either: very difficult to find, the venue it was published in before has almost no readership, or the venue no longer exists or holds the rights to your work, we will consider your work on a case by case basis. Please specify if your work has been published before.
I'm not sure why I forgot that bit. Does it make sense to everybody? Sound too harsh or soft?
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Post by JenLenaMom on Sept 1, 2009 8:36:13 GMT -5
Sounds like standard E/web-zine language I've seen.
*wishing I could access the site at work, darn municipal filters*
I'll have to shake up my flash drive and see what I can find when I get home.
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Nova
New Member
Posts: 37
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Post by Nova on Sept 1, 2009 8:47:16 GMT -5
Christian Soldier I'm very excited for all aspects of your endeavor. I had a idea that i had that if you think it would work i would be willing to do. I was thinking it would be cool and helpful if you had a map of Dias-Domhan. I am by no means an artist, but i pride myself at my ability to make good fantasy maps using programs like paint. Its kind of hobby of mine and Ive developed some techniques. It be willing to draw up a map of this world for you following the specification you've given on the site. Then as the stories of the world move and develop i can add cities or landmarks to the world that have played major significance in the stories. The look of the map changes aS stories are told. I just find with Fantasy that seeing the look and feel of the world can do allot for imagination.
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Post by Christian Soldier on Sept 1, 2009 15:28:10 GMT -5
Go for it, Nova!
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Post by dizzyjam on Sept 1, 2009 16:52:04 GMT -5
This sounds awesome. I'm already working on a short story and have another one in mind. I'll have to see if either of these universes are places I'd like to add to or not, but I was thinking: If someone is willing to draw a map and keep updates for the fantasy world, why not someone else come along and do a star chart ala Star Wars The New Jedi Order and keep up with that too? If I had that talent I'd volunteer, but alas it's not in my ability to do this, but it's still something I'm thinking about and thought I'd throw it out there in case someone was thinking about it, but wasn't sure if it'd be a good idea or not.
Meantime, I'm anticipating just being able to read in this new twin universes of stories and hope that even if I can't operate in either of them, that my other works can be published.
Something I was thinking too: once this gets going, a coordinated crossover between authors would be a really cool thing that could later be published in its own book by MLP as I know that MLP will be publishing some of the short stories from this site on a yearly basis if I was reading Jeff's e-mail correctly this morning. If that's too far ahead right now, forgive me, I'm like that - always thinking miles ahead on things.
This is an opinion of mine based on the way I look at Christian entertainment in general and Christian speculative fiction specifically: I think one of the things about this endeavor that should be considered is to make the writing of the Twin Universes to be as mainstream accessible without losing any of the Christian spirituality and viewpoint in it. I've always thought that if we're to put out entertainment as Believers it should be for reaching the lost primarily and entertaining Christians secondary. If it's too "Christian" the lost will be turned away, but obviously it will have to be Christian since that's the whole point. I think some major editing on each submission should ensure a fluid continuity between the stories - even if you have to go back and re-edit some older material as new things develop. This will also ensure a flow and steady build up of spiritual tension between the stories to keep the mainstream reader reading and letting the Spirit of God do His work in their lives to bring them to Him.
I don't know if that rings true with anyone else, but I don't want to be entertained at the sake of losing even one soul that could be brought into the kingdom.
And by the way, I've been thinking that we've needed a universe for everyone to play in for some time now. So often lately I've read a story that I've wanted to jump in and help tell a side story of - that this really does meet a vision of mine. I do hope this much success and I hope I'll be a part of it and look forward to the possibilities.
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Post by Christian Soldier on Sept 1, 2009 17:33:09 GMT -5
I agree on the starmap, and I hope someone will step up or I get enough time to do it later.
Could you give us more info on your crossover idea? Are you referring to some of the MLP authors writing short stories for AF? Hmm...
Our hope is to share the Love of Christ without being preachy. I want to show Christ to the world in a setting where they may not realize what they're seeing until the last moment. After all, the point here is to glorify Christ, introduce Him to the world, and to enrich the lives of believers everywhere.
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Post by dizzyjam on Sept 1, 2009 18:34:39 GMT -5
Perfect statement on that last part. I hope it becomes the actuality in a big way.
A crossover idea would be an idea where one or more persons (whether you and John or anyone who gets published regularly in said universe) come up with a specific story idea that would take like anywhere from twelve to thirty short stories on a basic level to tell. Bigger stories could take even as much as a hundred if needed. There could be specific short stories occurring ahead of time to plant the seeds and set the stage for this crossover story and then when the story occurs the authors involved (preferably ones that have already proved themselves in the universe) could write anywhere from one to three parts of the story whether all grouped together or spread out through the crossover. The editing would have to be tight and the authors would have to be willing to give on things they write so that the overall story is told properly, but if the said author already has an ongoing story happening and is writing something in that ties in with their overall story without throwing the casual reader into too much of a confusion, but more geared toward enticing them to read more by this author in this universe, then the editor needs to recognize this and not try to edit such an "extra" out for the sake of the crossover.
Here's a few examples of ways things could work with a crossover: Let's say that each author has a specific storyline going on of their own set in this universe. Now let's say that a story occurs where four of these stories will intertwine into an even greater story. Remember the X-Cutioners' Song crossover from Marvel's X-Men? Probably not, happened back in the nineties, but part one was told by an X-Men comic book, part two by X-Factor, part three by the other X-Men book, and part four by X-Force. There were twelve parts and they went back to the first X-Men book for parts five and nine, and followed the same order for six through eight and ten through twelve to end up with X-Force as book twelve.
Another example is two "recent" Star Wars planned "crossovers" that was more a part of the ongoing series. The New Jedi Order had various authors that either wrote one book, two books, or even three books in the series. Most didn't write again in the series after their offering, but one after two books early in the series came back to finish it off in the end with the last book. Then there was the Legacy of the Force which was three authors following the same format I described above for the Marvel crossover.
Another way to do a crossover is to have certain ones tell the "main" story and that will be structured by the creators and editors very well to even be read all by themselves. Then other authors could read the basis of the crossover and write "tie-ins" that don't affect the main storyline but show how the effects of what happens in the main story affects them. Good editing again needs to be done here to make sure nothing disagrees with the main storyline (Marvel wasn't always good at that when they did this), but if the story is a major turning point for the universe, then it only follows that other authors that are writing in the universe should tell what is happening to their characters too.
Still another crossover is the kind where like what Crossgen comics tried to do is where each author that comes on board is writing their own ongoing story for the universe and none of the stories are supposed to intertwine on any ongoing basis. Each author will be dealing with their own characters and stories with said characters. Then if in the universe any meeting of the characters were to actually happen then each author would tell the same story EXACTLY word for word from the characters, scene for scene, but from the perspective of the main character they were already writing about. It would read almost exactly the same, but the quotes of the characters would be the same so there wouldn't be any arguing over "this character wasn't acting like himself" or "why did he say it this way here, but over here the words were switched around or shortened?" Where Crossgen went wrong was promising from the beginning that their stories wouldn't get involved in one great big crossover where people reading one storyline would have to pick up another to understand what was going on in the book they were reading. They began to do the very thing they said they wouldn't and loyal fans dropped them like a hot potato. Here, we don't have to worry about that because no such promise has been made from the beginning. So therefore, following this pattern: If a major crossover happened between characters and authors storylines, another way to do it would be to make sure that each author tells it from the perspective of their character or team and give exact quotes and correct characterizations of other authors characters when writing them in their part of the story.
I hope that these various ways to do a crossover is found to be helpful Glyn. Whether MLP authors get involved should be up to whether or not they are already involved in the universe they would be writing, in my opinion.
Another thought: There could always be a number of various small crossovers between just a few authors and not everybody here or there that push the storyline further and would be elements towards building to an even greater universe wide crossover. You could even have two minor crossovers happening at the same time that at first glance won't have anything to do with each other. A universe wide crossover should be a rare thing and not an annual event, but should be like waves on the ocean and occur regularly and be a part of something building to an even huger story. In between will always be smaller crossovers that would bridge the gap between the larger stories.
One thing to avoid in the universe wide crossover that I always found corny in any of the comicbook crossovers is the thing where all the heroes get together to combat whatever evil has come against them. If it doesn't fit the character's past storyline, then it shouldn't happen. Period. These kind of things shouldn't be forced. And if it's logistically impossible to get a hero from one point to another then don't force that either. Let the hero experience the events where he or she is at and let the author show us the effects if any from what's happening elsewhere. If no effects, than that's okay, but if it's universe wide, then at least making a reference to it would be the thing to do.
Okay, I think I'm done now. Hope this helps out.
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Post by tonylavoie on Sept 1, 2009 19:21:42 GMT -5
CS, this is awesome! There have only been a couple of magazines that I've wanted to "put on my resume" as it were...looks like I've got one more. Couple of suggestions on the site: #1, get a "contact us" page up there asap. #2, the hyperlinks fade into the white background (i.e. on the "Twin Universes" page), so that I had a hard time reading them on my laptop here. Same with black text on the darker brown background in the upper right corner - it gets lost there. There's a lot of information on each of the universe's details pages. I ended up skipping through a lot of it. Might be less intimidating to have the section headers on a page by themselves (or, better, with a brief description of what those headers are pointing to), linking to each section separately. Just an idea. Excellent news! I'm looking forward to it! -Tony
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Post by Christian Soldier on Sept 1, 2009 20:32:16 GMT -5
David: Your cross over idea sounds fascinating, and definitely something to check out later. Thanks for the idea!
Tony:
Good points! The text on the right will be replaced with the cover and some colored text about it. As for the links, I hear ya. I'll fiddle with the code and change it here in a bit. A contact page is, indeed, a must and I'm not sure why I didn't include one; however, my e-mail is listed on the submissions page.
Lastly, you're right about the TTU. I hadn't really thought about that part. What I'd really like to do is have a map with clickable links within it for both. I'll also be breaking it down into an e-Book for convenient downloading and viewing.
Thanks for the feed back!
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