Flash Fiction Collaboration: Easter Bunny Apocalypse.

Call me insane if you like, but i have just volunteered my services to take part in a flash fiction collaboration that is the brainchild of Ksenia Anske, writer of YA urban fantasy Siren Suicides. I think i am correct in thinking that it was Ksenia’s fans who broached the subject, and she started the ball rolling from there, inviting other writers to participate in a project where a topic was chosen and a word limit was set. One writer would begin the story and then the other writers involved would follow on in turn, adding to the story until the final writer got to bring the story to a satisfying conclusion.

There have been 2 other flash fiction collaborations: Ferret (Ksenia’s original ferret story is available here) and BLOODY SANTA vs ZOMBIE SIREN.

The subject matter for this collaboration is Easter Bunny Apocalypse, and so far it appears that there will be a fantastic pool of writers willing to show what they can do, with 20 writers now taking part, some of who are published authors! Each writer will be asked to submit 500 words, with 600 being a ceiling limit, and i’m pretty sure that the project begins tomorrow – Friday 8th of March, with publishing beginning on Tuesday 12th March. Wish us all luck, whoever the final choice of participants are – We’ll need it!

And if you think that The Easter Bunny is all sweetness and smiles – THINK AGAIN!

Truly Inspirational!

Yesterday, at the behest of some of her beta readers, wonderful YA urban fantasy writer Ksenia Anske announced on both Facebook and Twitter that she would be editing her first novel, Siren Suicides LIVE on USTREAM.

Inviting one and all to stop by to see just how she works, i did just that, because Ksenia is truly inspirational, constantly tweeting encouragement to others, and at time of writing, Ksenia has only just called it a day after spending numerous hours hard at work, hammering at the keyboard, honing her skills, shaping and crafting her novel, which i am certain will be a huge success upon publication (Siren Suicides will be released as 3 books).

For me, writing only happens when i have absolute solitude and silence, but for Ksenia, this is not the case. Music tracks from Cafe del Mar play in the background, and her beta readers (myself included) chat to her as she writes, offering support and encouragement every step of the way.

Fuelled by an apple and coffee (never more than 3; usually 2), she has edited 22 pages today, and at times it has not been easy–there have been emotional outbursts involving tears and tissues, there has been scratching of head and her face has contorted into so many different shapes as she figures out what her characters will do next. Ksenia even speaks lines of dialogue out aloud: If it sounds right when spoken, it’s right once it’s written.   . Watching her work and hearing her chat to the camera has been both fun and a useful experiment, but as it approaches midnight here in the UK, Ksenia informs us all from her home in Seattle that she feels she has been less productive than usual, probably because she’s spent quite some time chatting to her readers. She has also been conscious of people watching her and feels that she hasn’t been able to dig deep enough inside herself today to make her characters express themselves as strongly as they normally would. Upon review, Ksenia stated that she would consider live streaming again, but probably only once a month or so.

I applaud Ksenia’s decision to try this experiment, but i think it does show that writing is hard enough without the added distractions that other people bring, and that sometimes, we have to be quite selfish to produce the goods.

My thanks and heartfelt gratitude to Ksenia. I hope she doesn’t mind the screen capture i took of her earlier. At least it wasn’t a screenshot of her displaying the elbows (or lack of) in her sweater!

Ksenia Anske’s blog can be found at http://www.kseniaanske.com where you will find a wealth of information about writing and also details of how to contact her.