There's an interesting experiment on online fiction going on at Muy Mall, which debuted today. Mike Oliveri, John Urbancik and Weston Ochse, all fine writers, are providing free fiction, set in a shared world. It looks like each writer is starting out with two continuing stories. The writing and the design of the site are very good.
I'm not sure where it will end up, whether we're seeing the vanguard of a new fiction delivery system or if, a few months down the road, the readers will get stuck with unresolved stories. All I know is I plan on enjoying the ride. Here's the official press release:
Come participate in the shared world experience of Muy Mal, scheduled to premier on January 1, 2006 online at www.muymal.com.
What is Muy Mal?
Muy Mal is a shared world created by Michael Oliveri, John Urbancik, and Weston Ochse. It's a world very much like our own, similar in time and place, but just about thirty degrees off of reality. This is a world in which magic never ceased to exist, where evil waits around every corner and where creatures walk side-by-side with everyday folk. Muy Mal is a world that is a very bad place.
Each writer will explore their own corner of this world, though readers can expect some crossover between tales. Characters may make cameo appearances for example, and major events will affect every story. This is not collaboration so much as it is cooperation, and readers will be welcome to witness as much or as little of the world as they see fit.
Each story will be serialized, and each writer may spread their work across several serialized pieces at a time. An overall title serves as an umbrella for each writer's work, and each individual tale will carry its own title as it unfolds chapter by chapter. These titles are:
Chronicles of the Black Bishop by Weston Ochse
Seeker by John Urbancik
Asphalt & Alchemy by Mike Oliveri
Muy Mal is also an experiment in the delivery of online fiction. Thanks to the power and flexibility of WordPress, the stories will be accessible in a familiar, blog-like structure where each new chapter will appear at the top of each writer's section. Similarly, links will be available so readers may drill down and focus on specific serials. There will also be RSS feeds for each author so readers can pull content directly to their feed reader rather than visit the main site.
Unbelievably, Muy Mal's contents are Free. All of the work posted to the site is licensed under a Creative Commons license, specifically the "Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License." In English, this means readers are welcome to download and/or print the stories out to their heart's content. Give copies to friends and neighbors! We don't care, so long as the work is presented with bylines of the respective writer, it's not altered, and not used commercially.
In even simpler terms: read it, enjoy it, and please don't screw us.
If you have any further comments or questions, feel free to contact us.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Muy Mal - http://www.muymal.com/
Mike - mike@muymal.com
John - john@muymal.com
Weston - weston@muymal.com
1 comment:
Mark,
thanks for the comments. We aim to please. So far there are seven serialized stories in this world we're in the process of creating. This process of creation is designed to be interactive, so if you want certain things to happen, or of you'd like to see a certain character, let us know in the comments sections of our stories.
We really appreciate you taking the time to read them Mark. Happy New Year
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