I guess it's official. This was announced in Publisher's Weekly:
Regular contributor to Relief Journal and creator of the website Write About Now J. Mark Bertrand's SUICIDE COP, in which a homicide detective suspects the disappearance of a famous televangelist's teenage daughter is linked to corruption and murder, to Dave Long at Bethany House, in a very nice deal, in a three-book deal, for publication in Spring 2010, by Chip MacGregor at MacGregor Literary (World).
This is short notice, but if you happen to be a Prime Time America listener, I'm booked to appear on the show today to talk about Rethinking Worldview. It's a live interview, and it should be on the air somewhere around the 4:30 PM mark, give or take. If you're not in the listening area, you can follow the link to the Prime Time America site and listen online.
Medieval knights, to prove their virtuosity with blade and lance, used to organize a feat of arms, an aggressive, exuberant -- and sometimes deadly -- display of just how good there were. This blend of prowess and pageant, in addition to testing skill, provided stirring entertainment for the onlookers. I've often wondered if something similar could be done today, substituting writers for warriors, a feat not of arms but of words.
Inspired by class I took years ago called Fiction Forms, here's how I'd go about it. Each author who entered the lists would write three short stories, each in a different genre. Let's say suspense, romance, and fantasy, though we could choose alternates easily enough. The idea is to take a recognized form, where readers have definite expectations, and give it a unique bravura spin. By working in three categories, the author displays flexibility, the way a knight would by trading sword for axe or mace.
The entries would be written to deadline, and only the authors who submitted all three stories would make the grade. The results would be indexed centrally for reading, and we'd determine three winners: (1) the author whose three entries, averaged, receive the highest number of reader votes, (2) the author with the individual story receiving the highest number of reader votes, and (3) the author who receives the highest number of votes from the other entrants.
Of course, there are many details to be worked out -- minimum and maximum word counts, which three genres would be represented, deadlines, voting mechanisms. But I wonder if a modern-day feat of words, undertaken for no other purpose than to delight readers, is an idea that would find any traction. What do you think?
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