Five Dollar Fiction

FIVE DOLLAR FICTION

VOLUME ONE

I know you got the email I sent out to everyone on my mailing list last February. If you didn’t see that email, you won’t see this one either. It’s probably sitting in your spam folder. So, I decided to post this email here on VOCAL in the hope that you have noticed my Facebook posts about the short stories I’ve recently had published. So, you came here to VOCAL to check them out, right?. Many of those short stories are the direct result of that February email.

Not long ago (February, duh!) I had an idea about creating an anthology of short stories. That may not be a very original idea, but the manner in which those stories would be created and the purpose for which the anthology would be published, borders on genius. Okay, maybe I’m a bit over enthusiastic about my proposal, but hear me out.

I propose creating an anthology that I want to call “Five Dollar Fiction”. It would be a collection of one hundred short stories. The book would have only one writer, myself, but I would write the stories to the prompts of one hundred separate individuals. The most altruistic element of the project is in my insistence that the majority of any proceeds from the sale of this book would benefit some existing charity. I would invite my collaborators to decide which charity would benefit. Philanthropically speaking, I’m not exactly like Paul Newman, but it’s a step in the right direction. Maybe Volume Two can be all for charity. We’ll see. Anyway, think along the lines of improv shows like Second City.

Each collaborator will send me five prompts.

1) a person’s name

2) a feeling or emotion

3) the name of an inanimate object

4) the name of another living creature (need not be human)

5) a working title

Once I receive their prompts, I write a short story for them. After they have read their story they can “buy in” to the ownership of the books’ royalties by sending me five bucks. Hence the name of the anthology. Those five dollars entitle them to one half of one percent of the property. When the book is ready for printing, the participating collaborators will determine which organization will be the beneficiary of thirty-five percent of the profits from any sales. At that time, each collaborator will have the opportunity to forswear their interest, adding their percentile to the charities total. Of course, each collaborator may keep their interest in perpetuity, should they so desire.

What’s in it for me, the author? Glad you asked. First, the prompts help to spur my creative juices and from the short stories generated by this process I will discover/invent a plethora of characters and situations that may lend themselves to a longer work. Those characters would never occur to me without the prompts. From these short stories might come a play, a movie, or a series. In fact, my short story “I Am A Muralist” is a retelling of “Maritime Miracle”, but from the Octopus’s point of view.

Of course, since you have done the math in your head, you know the collaborators compensate me five hundred dollars, (provided they all opt in). A paltry sum in exchange for my time and talents. I will provide the bulk of the charitable share by claiming only fifteen percent of the whole. The charity starts with thirty five percent and could realize as much as eighty five percent if all collaborators relinquish their share.

The first person to take me up on this proposal turned out to be a couple. The Flynns sent me five prompts which resulted in one of the first shorts I published on VOCAL. I went with their working title. They were also the first to send five bucks for fiction. I framed it.

The Flynns prompts:

1) Maureen Talbot, 2) Jealousy 3) A diamond ring, 4) Her four-year-old son, 5) ”That Night”

“Anamchara” was written to prompts sent by my niece. Her prompts:

1) person: Katelyn Doneghan, 2) A feeling/emotion: hope, 3) Object: a book , 4) the name of another living creature: Barn Owl, 5) A working title: “Anamchara”

My brother-in-law provided the impetus for “Maritime Miracle,”

1) Person: Pearl Rosewater, 2) Feeling: Longing / longingness, 3) Object: paint brush 4) Living creature: octopus 5) Working title: “Walking in the Spirit”

“Dancine in Light, Dancing in Love” was written for my sister, the dancer. Her prompts: 1) Dancine, 2) Joyful, 3) a thrift store skirt, 4) a cat, 5) “Timeless” (NOTE: She still owes me five bucks)

If this sounds like fun, send me your prompts. Will you be one of my collaborators?