I don’t know how many read the first wovel from Underland Press, Kealan Patrick Burke’s The Living. But it proved to be in the end one hell of a ride.

So, what is a Wovel? Part choose your own adventure books for the new millennium and all grown up; part serial pulp adventure; all awesome. In Underlands own words:

Every week, the author posts an installment. Installment length hits the sweet-spot of online reading—long enough to get interested, short enough to read in the cubicle at work. At the end of every installment, the author writes in a plot branch point. Does the heroine kill her lover? Will the zombies catch the soldier? Is the box empty, or is it filled with bees?

THE READERS DECIDE.

On Monday, the post goes up. Voting is open through Thursday. The author writes Thursday and Friday. The editors edit Friday and Saturday. The post goes back up on Monday. Part literature, part exquisite corpse. The pace of print journalism, the imagination of fiction, the spark of reader participation.

Burke’s The Living just wrapped up and a new one is now underway so now is the perfect time to try out this writing experiment.

The first installment of Jemiah Jefferson’s FirstWorld is now up and voting will remain open until Monday, November 17.

What is Firstworld about?

March 2036. The world has been divided, not by geography, but by standard of living and technological status. Some have nothing but their ideologies; some their addictions, their cunning, their desperation. The luckiest, safest, healthiest live in the first world–all of them employees of FirstWorld Corporation. A global communications network, a consortium of manufacturers and energy suppliers, a system of belief: this is FirstWorld. They are your doctors, your teachers, your bankers, your technicians. They are everywhere and they are you.

And a brief sample:

“A few steps down the hallway, Lalia’s bedroom door is open. The girl is barefoot, wearing her brief pajamas, wireless goggles, gloves, and sensory induction patches affixed to her limbs and temples. She moves with slow, smooth, controlled movements; it looks like Tai Chi, but in the gamespace, Lalia might be fighting off legions of fire dragons, dolphin-tailed berserker mutants, or just some redneck with a sword.”

For more information on Underland go here.

For the Wovel go here.

Read/Post Comments

_{A publisher, publicist, author, or artist and have news or announcements you think should be noted at BookSpot Central? Email us at admin@fantasybookspot.com and let us decide!}

Related Entries

Topics: FirstWorld, Jemiah Jefferson, Kealan Patrick Burke, The Living, Underland Press, Wovel