Machines Unbound Science Fiction Line

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Willowhugger
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri May 26, 2006 1:11 am

Machines Unbound Science Fiction Line

Post by Willowhugger »

Hey guys,

I don't know if anyone of you has checked out the books Machine Goddess or Undying Machine along with either of their sourcebooks but this is a thread to discuss them, the Shared Universe project, or the upcoming projects with them.

I'm hardly a biased source here given I wrote them but I'm actually quite proud of the result. I wrote them on a fairly steady diet of GITS, the Matrix, and a wee bit too much Gibson mixed with an Eva marathon. Stephen King said that writing was like drinking milk. It tastes like whatever you place it next and said that whatever you read or watch during the time you write will influence your work. I can only hope that's the truth.

My sig contains the Amazon links to the works.

More interesting to this board is the rather unusual policy my publishers have taken towards the fans. Everytime I read on universes the publishers are always fanatically protective of their copyrights and more than a little hostile against fan fiction or fan produced works. Surprisingly, Windstorm had me sign about a dozen agreements to be willing to work on making it an open submission line. The idea behind the "Shared Universe" was they wanted to create an environment where fans of the series could directly contribute to making the universe grow. They said they based it on BBC's Doctor Who novel series and certain practices of Japanese fandom. They've also set up a list solely for fanfiction. I wish them the best of the luck honestly as I have no objection to letting people write in a world I set up and make it "theirs" too.

Shared Universe: http://www.windstormcreative.com/fandom/shared.htm
Fanfic List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/machinesunboundwriting/

None of its yet taken off but I figure it takes awhile for these things to get going. Part of the reason I thought I'd bring it up here was because the place seems to be filled with people with a fairly deep and introspective ability to look at fiction. I personally tend to think that everyone has a book inside them so suggesting it on this spot seems to be a good place to start.

One of the things I'm also pleased about is that Windstorm gave me permission to give e-book versions to those whom were willing to look over the works. I suspect they think that it works a lot like fansubs. People who watch the fansubs are more likely to buy the actual book if they know that they like it. Anyone whose interested in perhaps checking out the universe for writing but doesn't want to necessarily buy a copy beforehand should feel free to PM me with a request and I'll send a copy of the 1st sourcebook or novel as requested.

I hope some people are interested. Ciao.

-Charles Phipps
Author of "Machine Goddess" and "The Undying Machine"
Machine Goddess: http://tinyurl.com/gkp5z
Undying Machine: http://tinyurl.com/jvw9p
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