Ideas were bandied about and “The Convention” element went from a meeting of dentists, doctors, and insurance salesmen all the way to demons and angels.  We ended up with clowns.

The “Suicide” element really circled the room and, to begin with, people took it quite literally.  Then the speculative nature of the workshop emerged and came up with the idea that, for clowns, their identity wasn’t their ‘normal self’, but their ‘clown persona.’  That concept allowed us to consider that the wiping or removal of the clown’s persona could actually represent a suicide of sorts.  We ran with this as one of the better ideas of the night.

The “Resurrection,” by default, then became a rebirth of the clown persona.  Fairly straightforward, once you’ve decided on the previous element, but nonetheless cool in itself.

In addition to clarifying the starting points, we needed to construct the world.  A great deal of time was spent considering whether the clowns were, in fact, Evil Clowns.  While that wasn’t fully embraced, the concept that the clowns were a part of a greater whole did emerge.  Sort of a Freemasons, but with clowns.  At the very least, a society of clowns.

Other elements were introduced as well, but none were as substantial as what I’ve mentioned here.  The idea of the exercise was to allow as many viewpoints into the mix, create a general concept of the world, and then have each participant write a short, one thousand word story based in that world.  The writer was free to draw upon any of the discussed upon ideas and allowed to ignore the ideas that didn’t fit their story.

The night held a few surprises, but overall it remained fun and lighthearted.  The end results varied substantially, but were all interesting and creative.

For those interested in reading my entry, you can grab the pdf here:  One Night – A short fiction by Michael J. Hercus.

Check out: The Unpleasantness at the Circle P by Jeff Mariotte.

White Fur by Robert Vardeman.

The Working Stiffs by Nathan Long.

And Master Blaster and the Tiger of Chinatown by Bruce Davis.

All great entries in this ongoing online anthology project…

Check out Michael A Stackpole’s Night of the Rat God!

Another bonus is that I’ll also be able to visit my mom around Mother’s Day.  I can’t stay for the actual Sunday, but I’ll make it within a couple of days or so.  She’s extra special to me and has always been there for me, so it’s nice to be there for her as well.  My moving to the US hit her pretty hard, so I’m hoping that a visit will ease that pain a bit.

Since my wife hasn’t seen too much of Canada, we’ll enjoy seeing some sites that are new to us as well.  It will be her first trip to Vancouver Island and her first ferry ride too!  If the weather holds, it will be a great vacation for many reasons: My dad, my mom, the beautiful landscape, and sharing it all with my wife.

The Chain Story

A few days ago, the web-presence for The Chain Story went live, heralding the beginning of something wonderful!

Several dozen writers have combined their talents to bring their readers into the 21st Century by delving into the speculative world, via the internet.

These aren’t just any writers, either.  They include names such as Jeffrey J. Mariotte, Nathan Long, Michael A. Stackpole, and Robert E. Vardeman.  More names will be made public in the future, but they have all earned their place in their reader’s hearts.

The concept is this: Free, high-quality short fiction, posted to the internet by the authors themselves for their readers’ enjoyment.  Each story will link to the other stories via a common fictional location, known as The Wanderers’ Club.

The Wanderers’ Club is set outside of space and time, or rather, it exists in any space and time, allowing its members to share wild and wonderful stories as diverse as any imagined.

Follow the continuing adventures as each link adds to the chain…

Our Facebook presence will help members communicate with each other in a more social manner, in addition to keeping abreast of the workshop’s schedule and discussion topics.

Why not drop by and introduce yourself?

The Fair will host a diverse collection of Second Life merchants, all of whom work under the strict policy of producing original material and honouring all copyrights, trademarks, and protected properties of others.  That means no Superman costumes, no Coke ads, no ‘borrowed’ textures or prims (the building blocks of the virtual world).  Everything must be creator-owned and created from scratch.

Our workshop will be offering several pieces of fiction, art, clothing, costumes, and furniture.  All of which has been lovingly created without compromising the rights of others.

The fair was the brainchild of The Artist’s Voice, a group of merchants who have banded together to promote their own creative rights, as well as the rights of others…many of whom may not realize that their products, likenesses, or copyrights are being infringed upon.  Promoting a campaign of awareness over enforcement, The Artist’s Voice hopes to gain support from retailers and customers alike, to curb the rampant abuse of protected material throughout the virtual world.

Please join us in supporting this wonderful cause and enjoy some of the best shopping on the grid!

Both Nancy and Sherry are long-time members of the workshop and both are amazing artists, so when Nancy came to me and volunteered to come up with a logo, I jumped at the chance.

What you see to the left is the final incarnation of the logo, which was actually the seventh go around (hey, seven is a lucky number!).  Luckily for me, Nancy was an amazing sport about the whole thing and calmly accepted all of my suggestions for change.  She also added a whole lot of her own and I think her talent shines through!

Sherry’s contribution came in the form of the planetscape artwork.  Sherry is an amazing digital artist and her work perfectly captures the speculative theme of the workshop.

It didn’t start out so polished though…in fact, this was the first draft:

The foundation is there, but it’s not quite a finished logo either.  They grey was stolen from the original logo, but it looks drab and unappealing here.  The group name is lost in the border of the logo as well, which doesn’t help to link the two brand names.

Which brings us to the fifth iteration:

We’re much closer to the end product here.  The colour has been set and the artwork has been added, both of which make a world of difference.  The workshop’s name has also made it into the logo itself and is more prominent but, this time, it seems like it’s floating there…not really attached to anything.  There was also some concern over the font being used…

Which brings us to try number six:

This version sees a slight change in the boldness of the Quillian font (something that won’t make it to the final version) and adds a drop shadow to the smoke plume rising from the ink-well.

The font used for the workshop name (the same as the Quillian name) is too small and too elaborate to read easily, so it will be discarded in the final version in favour of a simpler font.

The whole process took awhile to work through, but Nancy did an amazing job!  Now, the name Quillian has a visual companion that really helps us brand the workshop and gives the whole membership an identity.

The group is well enough established now, with some quality work being done and with some writers on the verge of becoming ‘authors’, that I wanted a name that was both memorable and easy to say.  One contest later, and our winning name emerged…

The Quillians!

n. Quillian  A member of the Fantasy & Science-fiction Writer’s Workshop.

The winning name came from the mind of Chuck Heintzelman, one of our established members.  There were a few challengers, but I chose Chuck’s entry because it had that right ‘ring’ to it and it passed the ‘Google Test’.  Meaning, it was relatively unique and unused by rival workshops (because, Heaven forbid, there be confusion over what it meant to be a Quillian!).

So, from now on, you’re as likely to hear me call my workshop by the Quillian name as you are by its longer ‘birth’ name.  Which, I think, is just fine by me…