Sometimes the “story” of a story is fascinating in the way it snakes its way to a finished product. For me, it started in the Caribbean in April 2004, while I was vacationing with my parents. At that point, OurEcho was just a thought swimming around in my head. Then one morning while reading the ship’s newsletter, I came across a reference to a pirate that had roamed those waters some 300 years earlier - a female pirate. I was intrigued. When I came home, I dug up what information I could on this red-haired adventurer. I won’t spoil the story, but I found her to be one interesting character. I had this vision of posting serial fiction on the web and decided immediately that Anne Bonny would be the central character of the first sponsored story. I’m sorry to say it was another year before I did anything about it. I was trying to get OurEcho up and running and, through some internet ads, I located a promising writer named Jamie Wilson. She knew of Anne and was also intrigued by her legend. I told her of my plans to write a creative historical narrative of Anne’s life. We decided to each write a sample chapter or two and compare the results. For those of you who have attempted fiction, you know it’s hard. It only took one chapter to figure out who was better at it and it sure wasn’t me. So we agreed Jamie would write it and I would try to get it to the masses. Things slowed down again at this point. Both Jamie and I became busy and not much happened for months. By March 2006, OurEcho was up and running and I was eager to get Anne Bonny cranked up again. I tracked Jamie down and we again started corresponding. She had since done research on Anne and quickly delivered the first three chapters. We were close to posting the first installments of the work in early April when the story took another turn. Through a chance email I sent to The Writing Salon, I began a two month conversation with its directors James Nave, the noted poet, and Allegra Huston, a well-known editor (and the daughter of the legendary director John Huston). Anyone acquainted with me knows if you sit too close to me for more than a minute, I’ll put the squeeze on you to help with OurEcho. I’m almost embarrassed to admit it, but I put the squeeze on James and Allegra too. To my surprise and delight, they were eager to participate; currently we are sponsoring several joint projects, with others to be announced soon. In a meeting with James and Allegra in Charleston, SC (the very place Anne Bonny began her journey some 300 years ago), The Writing Salon and OurEcho agreed to jointly sponsor Heart of a Pirate. Jamie Wilson is writing the story and Allegra Huston will edit. We will also try to provide an audio reading of the story (maybe even from a name you will recognize) and hope to announce that shortly. I ask you to give Jamie all the support you can. Fiction is hard enough, but in this serial format, she is only seven edited installments ahead. It’s like writing with a gun to your head. All you really have to do is come in and enjoy the story, and tell your friends about it. And keep coming back, of course. I am adding a Writer’s Diary as part of the process. It will give you an opportunity to “get into the head” of Jamie as she writes. I encourage you to comment on the story as it unfolds. You will find Jamie has done extensive research on Anne and has even done some of the writing while actually on a tall ship like the ones Anne once waylaid. I hope you enjoy it. 
Serial fiction has been around for quite a while. In fact, this was a concept used by Charles Dickens and his publishers in the 1800’s. His books were serialized, starting with his first book, “The Pickwick Papers.” He produced his work over a period of weeks or months and it was circulated in installments of 32 pages and he was paid for each installment as he made them available. In this manner, he didn’t have to wait until he had a completed book to get paid and he received almost instant acclaim for his words. Each installment hooked his readers, leaving them eagerly awaiting more, assuring that they would buy the next chapter. This method was also very profitable for his publishers and worked to their advantage, as they could collect on each installment, and use parts of the profits to publish future installments. That is what we will be doing at Our Echo – presenting our readers with a serialized project – keeping them coming back to read every chapter as it is available – and hopefully, while on the site, they will be tempted to read the works of others. |
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