Although I don’t usually read
stories with a supernatural element, I’ve recently finished Invitation,
designated as “cycle one” of the Harbingers collection. I have to admit
that the way it was put together fascinated me. In it, four authors—Bill
Meyers, Frank Peretti, Angela Hunt, and Alton Gansky—each have written stories
in the voice of a different character. The stories are freestanding, but tied
together by a common theme. (book cover pic)
I was told that one of the authors,
Bill Meyers, had the idea for this one, and invited other authors to join him.
It seems reasonable to put together a project such as this, since I have held
for some time that in our TV and computer dominated society the attention span
of the reader is getting shorter. But is this new type of book a fad, or one of
which we’d see more? I decided to ask one of the authors of the work, Angela
Hunt, for her comments.
What
did you think when you were invited to participate in this project?
I was delighted. I don’t usually
write supernatural suspense, but I’ve always said that a writer ought to be
able to write anything, so I was tickled to have the opportunity. Plus, my
schedule is usually full, but I knew I could easily squeeze in a 20,000-word
novella. And the other writers are good friends—how can you turn down that kind
of fun?
The
idea of several authors writing stories that could be drawn together into a
coherent book would seem to be an impossible task. How did you all handle this?
We created a series “bible,” in
which we were supposed to note things that had happened in each installment,
but then nobody wrote in it, so that idea fell by the wayside. We did, however,
hold occasional Skype conferences where we talked about the overall story arc,
and how we wanted our characters to act and react along the way. We also
suggested adjustments when we thought “our” character wasn’t reacting in a way
true to his/her personality—and I noticed that we all grew quite possessive of
our assigned characters. As if they were real . . .
Do
you foresee more books in this cycle?
I couldn’t have answered that a few
months ago, but now I can. There will be five cycles, twenty novellas. We are
about to release the final book, and Alton Gansky is hard at work on it as I’m
typing.
What
do you think about the current state of publishing? Do things need to change?
And is this type of book one of the changes we’ll see in the future?
I think the state of publishing has
adjusted to the ebook revolution and the recovering economy well. Prior to the
economic crash of 2008, publishers were publishing so much there was almost a
glut, and the lean times pared down the list. I know that’s not comforting news
to new writers, but it means writers have to be more skilled and more
persistent than ever before.
Any
other thoughts you’d like to share with the readers of this blog?
Just this: for the writer, reading
is more important than writing. And living is the most important of all. How
else will you have anything to write about?
Tweet with a single click: "Author Angela Hunt answers questions about a new type of multi-author book." Click
here to tweet.
Angela Hunt has published more than
130 books in fiction and nonfiction, for children and adults. You can visit her
website at
www.angelahuntbooks.com.