A note about drabble anthology stuff.

Having just had an (otherwise) depressing as fuck (we just lost a personal old friend and an icon and he was my age) conversation with my agent, I have the following:

I am to write a proposal - a page only will do it, so no problem there - for Glenn Yeffeth, EiC at BenBella, proposing a (probably) trade paperback 275 or so page anthology. My own mental interim working title: Drabble: All the Worlds in One Hundred Words.

Since Glenn is apparently not buying fiction right now, drabbles actually fall right under what he's looking at: vignettes, scenes, memories, interpretations. One thing every anthology proposal does need is what they call a four-legged anchor, four reasonably well-known names as the "anchor" - without that, they mostly toss the proposals. Since as far as I know, only Amy and I fit that req, I would have to poke a few writer buddies and see if they want to play. Everything else, assuming the proposal flew, would be from this community.

Do you want me to go ahead and do that? I especially want Teppy's viewpoint, since the weekly drabble is her baby and I won't make one move without it being okay with her.

I think it's an outstanding idea, Deb. (The anthology in general, as well as asking a few other writer buddies if they want to play.)

We all know about permission statements/releases being needed for anything that gets published, so no one will have their work appear without their prior knowledge and approval.

I'm assuming it's opt-in on a per-drabble basis, meaning, if there's a drabble someone would rather not submit, but they DO want to submit the rest of their drabbles, that's possible.

I especially want Teppy's viewpoint, since the weekly drabble is her baby and I won't make one move without it being okay with her.

Well, it's a collaborative effort, in my mind; I could offer up all the drabble ideas in the world, but if no one wanted to write them, it would be a pretty boring community. Yeah, the original idea came from me (not the concepts of drabbles in general; just the idea that we do this non-fanfic drabble community), and yeah, I come up with the topics each week, but I still feel like we all -- anyone and everyone who's written even 1 drabble -- have co-created this.

But, in simple terms, and for what it's worth, I say go for it!

Tep, yep, opt-in. My thnking is, by topic challenge- and those were entirely yours. So you got first refusal on the idea.

So the way it is works is we pick out particular ones we want to you to consider? (Obviously limiting ourselfs to ones that fit the 100 words or under word limit.) That would make more sense and less work for you than you scrolling through the thread looking for stuff. Is that what you mean by "opt in"?

I have been drabble-absent for months. I miss it. I'd love to take part in the anthology, though--I'm really proud of some of my older drabbles.

Side note--Tep, do you have a complete list of topics, by chance? I've been thinking about starting to fill in the ones I've missed.

Obviously limiting ourselfs to ones that fit the 100 words or under word limit

No. The drabbles for the anthology would be 100 words exactly. The book would have certain touches in common with, say, Bird by Bird: the drabble not only as expression, but as a writing tool.

After all, you don't write eighteen or fourteen syllables and call it a haiku.

Looking for limits to school me, I seek ten deca-words. I caution myself against syllables. They stand between me and an utterance of truth. Truth. A quarter away from my limit, always.

Nearly a drabble, nearly a truth. Perhaps this is only half a drabble. Perhaps it is a half-truth.

Should I deal in either thing, in drabbles or truths? Will either school me toward something better? Will the boundary between me and truth be brought nearer by my hope to say a thing in these few words?

I answer myself: Respect the limits of truth. The drabbles will follow.

Aside from the four cardinal points of authors people have heard of, how many other people would they accept drabbles from? As a rough guess, that is.

And Gus writes the introduction.

I think this is a kick-ass idea. Were I still teaching English, I would use the resulting book as a teaching tool. As it is, I'll just buy a copy for everyone I know.

Obviously limiting ourselfs to ones that fit the 100 words or under word limit

No. The drabbles for the anthology would be 100 words exactly. The book would have certain touches in common with, say, Bird by Bird: the drabble not only as expression, but as a writing tool.

After all, you don't write eighteen or fourteen syllables and call it a haiku.

If people have a drabble that they've previously posted that they'd like to submit for consideration, and it's over/under 100 words, can they go back and edit it down/up to 100 words?