Current Assignment: It's time to write your first chapter introducing your person, place, and thing.
This is the first pass at trying to come up with a framework for the
Linotypo Universe. The framework has to be open ended enough to allow
for the literary tastes, styles, and genres of our group. Think of
this as a proposal, something to work with -- a starting point. We can
always change it.
The Framework
The
Linotypo Universe is a place where anything can happen. I suppose it
is a place that boarders on the Twilight Zone. Perfectly ordinary
things happen and many characters live out their entire lives oblivious
to the crazy magic that others see. It's a world where you can turn
the corner and find yourself in another time and another place. The
world is stitched together like a drawing by Escher with impossible
connections and hidden passageways between worlds that are there one
moment and gone the next. Only some of the characters can wander this
hyper-labyrinthine universe. They are the special ones with the gift
of seeing, really seeing how the world is. Some don't realize that
they see anything different than anyone else and live out mundane lives.
This
World is adjacent to a place that is a little like Faerie. People can
stumble into Faerie and walk on the Faerie roads. I suppose this means
that there can be a fairy-like race of folks who are indigenous to the
Twilight World (World 2?) and who cross into World 1.
This
is a world where the modern meets the ancient at the cross-roads of the
future. It's a world where people can travel in time and space just by
the power of thought.
The stories set in
the Lintypo universe can make as little or as much use of the "Twilight
Zone" like nature of the world. You can write a straight story or a
fantasy story or a science fiction story as long as you observe the
conventions of the world.
Some Guidelines
All
characters must be your own, invented by you, and clearly identifiable
as your own. Since Linotypo Press will be publishing these books, we
will need to respect the intellectual property of others.
Stories should have some connection to modern day Long Island. Be creative.
If
you are doing Science Fiction or Fantasy, try to leave clear
connections to the rest of the Linotypo Universe. For example, modern
day Long Islanders could come home, open their front door, and step
onto the bridge of a space ship in orbit around the planet Zorgoblatz.
Or they could stumble out into their garden only to find that a Knight
in shining armor is waiting to take them on an adventure.
Each
story should make use of two or more elements from other writer's
stories. In this guide you'll find characters, places, and things
contributed by other writers. If you have a question about a
character, place, or thing created by another writer, please ask that
writer directly. If you can't contact them, you ask the current Editor.
Your
novel should be between 25 to 30 thousand words. It can be longer if
you wish, but we are shooting for novella length works that can be read
in one or two sittings.
When you start
working on your novel, please tell the Managing Editor so they can put
your work on the "In Progress" list and assign you an "Editor".
When
you have finished your novel. Reread it carefully. Make any changes
that are necessary to correct internal consistency. Proofread and
spell-check the novel. Then you should give a copy to your assigned
Editor.
Editor have 1 month to read a
completed work and provide feed-back and corrections. Editors should
make sure that the world fits within the Linotypo Universe and that the
writer has followed the guidelines.
When
the writer and the Editor have completed editing and revising the
work. The novel should be formatted appropriately and sent to Donavan
for typesetting.
Getting the novel ready
for typesetting is easy. Just save your file in "rtf" Rich Text Format
and email it to Donavan. Once Donavan has your rtf file he'll convert
it to LaTeX and typeset it using a standard template. This way all the
books published by Linotypo Press will have the same format.
Each
book will be published by Linotypo Press and sold electronically via
LuLu (a print on demand service). E-prints and hardcopies can be made
available. The price of each book will be set at cost (unless the
members of Linotypo decide we want to charge a dollar or two more per
copy -- in which case we'll have to decide what to do with the money
generated).
Linotypo Press will have an
online store (on LuLu) and will keep a list of all the published books
on the Linotypo website (coming soon!!!).
Writers should read every book in the "series" so that they will be familiar with the whole story as it unfolds.
This is an experiment. We'll discuss the process and our progress at each of the meetings.
The first goal is to have fun, finish a novel, and experience the pleasure of being read.
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