I received one signed contract from a continuation author whose opening author hasn't responded to emails. And I have room for another entry or two in the book. The solution: Someone writes a piece of fiction whose opening will work with the following continuation:
The Crotaline leader approached. "How's that functional requirement specification coming?" he snarled.
I ignored the taunt and lunged for his groin with my sword. The barbarian dodged, but my sword intelligently countered, slashing wickedly into his femoral artery. Blood sprayed from the wound in great, copious spurts. My sword drank from it wantonly.
"Snap out of it, Kearney. The planning review meeting is in twenty minutes."
My intelligent sword and I were undeterred.
This continuation originally went with New Beginning 18 . The new opening shouldn't be funny, and should involve swordplay that turns out to be this businessman's fantasy. We'll change the word "Crotaline" to whatever we have to based on the opening we use. Here's the one rule: once you've composed your 150-or-so-word beginning, you have to continue working on the piece. It could be a short story, the beginning of your nanowrimo novel, a piece of flash fiction, whatever. To avoid being accused of being another James Frey, making up openings, this has to be the actual opening of some larger work. So don't do it unless you plan to finish it, whatever it is. And don't do it unless you are willing to permit its publication by signing a contract, if you haven't done so already.
2 comments:
Things are definitely twisting up.
For a brief moment, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It was very brief. I'm laughing my ass off now.
(Now, I'm thinking about trying to write a short story that meets these qualifications. Dammit, EvilEditor™! Way to torment your minions, though.)
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