April is going to be pretty crazy over here.

Well, to be fair, a few months are going to be pretty crazy, but it is going to start with April. Today, to be exact.

A little while ago, Dave Robison approached me about a project he is spearheading. About twelve years ago Dave started to build this world, which he has called “The Shattered Worlds.” He talked about said world on a podcast and the people at the new Antimatter Press contacted him and said something along the lines of, “Yo! That world you built is hardcore and we think it would be a perfect place to set a shared world story. We want you to get four other authors together to write a book set in that world. We want to publish it.” (I envision them saying this to someone beat-boxing in the background.)

Or something like that.

Fast forward a little bit. Dave contacted me and asked if I’d like to be involved. Why he wanted to hook my half-lit, dusty star to his wagon, I have no idea. Anyway, he talked to me about the project and the world, and I started getting ideas almost instantly so I said, “HELL YES.” When I got the Letter of Agreement from Antimatter Press, I just about died. That is one letter I’ve been wanting to see my whole life.

We start writing TODAY. The first episode of this book is projected to publish at the end of 2014 or beginning of 2015.

The other authors, who far eclipse me, are:

Dave Robison
Mercedes Merdock Yardley
Colin F. Barnes
Alasdair Stuart

To be published by Antimatter Press.

This project is really unique in a lot of ways. Shared worlds are always interesting and they present the challenges of bringing together multiple points of view. After many Skype conversations and email, I believe we have worked out a storyline and format that will make all of our unique perspectives and styles a strength to the book.

Secondly, this project is unique because it isn’t really one book, per se. No, instead we are writing roughly ten novellas, each which will all be “episodes” of the overarching story we are telling, and each of us will be writing about two episodes total. Our last skype call was us hammering out a story structure (thank god Alasdair is a pro at that sort of thing because I sure as hell don’t do well in that area). We have been spending plenty of time building our characters and working on outlines and structures for the first episode we are all writing (which we start writing today). Yesterday the lightening of inspiration hit me. For the first time in my life, I actually named my character (I absolutely fail at names) and Dave liked the name I picked. Fancy that. She (my character) is incredibly real to me, and I’m very excited to put in some time on the keyboard writing her story because I know that will make her even more real.

Anyway, We start writing today. We are hoping to pound this thing out really pretty quickly, as we have deadlines that are coming at us hard and fast. Then there’s the exciting editing phase, and all that. However, having played around in publishing for four years now, I know that deadlines are set and rarely met. Things will change. We will still get this done fast, but I don’t know if we will get this done as fast as the powers that be would like us to, which is absolutely fine with me. Quality over quantity.

All of us in this writing group have strengths. Dave has built the world, and he seems to excel at the big picture of things (I think I do better with small details). Alasdair is a madman when you get him to write, or structure anything. He has this scientific precision with his approach to writing that makes me endlessly jealous. Furthermore, we all know that man can write. Colin is also a superb writer who is bringing plenty of experience with shared projects to the table. His experience gives him insights into this project that a lot of us would probably miss otherwise. I truly appreciate that. Mercedes has this sort of infectious excitement that really flames me. It’s hard to talk to her and not feel completely excited about what we are doing. Add to that all of her incredible books, and the fact that she is becoming a household speculative fiction name, and I’m a little star struck.

Then you have me. I really have nothing to show for anything except for plenty of writing saved on my laptop that no one has seen, and the fact that I read a couple hundred books a year so I’ve got a speculative fiction library floating around in my head. That might be helpful, who knows.

Yeah, I have an inadequacy complex going on, but I know that this will work. All of our strengths balance each other out and diminishes all of our individual weaknesses. I’ve already learned so much from what we’ve done so far. I look forward to learning so much more, and I have to admit, it will be really cool when this is published.

So stay tuned. All of that is going to make all of this (Bookworm Blues) kind of insane. If you’ve been asking yourself why I’ve been doing so many giveaways, it’s because I’m opening up some room for me to NOT write on here so I can write on this project. I have more giveaways planned, some author interviews in the works and much more. I will still review, of course, but there will be plenty of days that I’ll need to work on this book rather than write a review.

I’m sure you understand.

And, of course, I will keep all of you lovely people updated.

(Side note: We have a working title for this, which I think we all really love, but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to share it so I’ll put it in the pile of things that will be talked about later).