Anthology Selection

Neither of us realised how difficult a task this would be. So many good pieces, so many talented writers, and we wish we could have published every single response as a celebration of everyone’s generosity and commitment. But as that would have resulted in a volume twice the size of War and Peace we had to be practical!

As the original Messages were written as stand alone pieces, despite the links between them, we looked for an element of self containment; writing that did not necessarily depend on the posted message. We also focussed on closure, often one of the most difficult things to achieve in short fiction and poetry, and looked for endings that offered some kind of fulfilment, though not necessarily any firm resolution, and certainly not necessarily happy endings. And finally, we had to consider variety, and how the pieces worked all together.

Again, thank you to everyone who took part in ‘Your Messages’; all your names will appear in the book, regardless of whether your work has been chosen or not. And please be assured that every piece has been read by both of us very carefully indeed. Thank you for that.
We hope to ‘meet’ all of you again.

Sarah & Lynne

19 comments:

  1. Gasp! My entry got picked! OMG, that's AMAZING! I think I'm still in shock....yep, I am!

    Thank you thank you thank you and I'm so honoured that my piece will be one in amongst so many others from very talented authors!

    Cheers!

    Jamieson Wolf
    jamiesonwolf@gmail.com

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  2. I'm so, so chuffed to be a part of this. Thanks so much for selecting my two flashes. I can't wait for the launch party and the publication of the booklet. I'll be pushing it on my blog to try and make as much money for the charity as possible. Thanks so much for running the YourMessages project. It was great fun and publication is just the icing on the cake.

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  3. omg whoohoo....I'm sooooo totally excited .... thank you! thank you! thank you! ... I'm so excited

    Looking forward to being at the party (even if I have to rob a bank to get there!!)

    xoxo
    gina

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  4. Thank you so much for including my piece. I'm so looking forward to meeting you both and others who took part in this great project.

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  5. Well done all those selected! I look forward to reading my copy of the main book and re-enjoying these pieces too.

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  6. Thanks you.
    I'm so thrilled and really excited.

    :)

    Looking forward to meeting people at the party.

    Big smiles.
    x

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  7. I can't stop smiling. Is this really happening? Somebody pinch me, please!

    Must have been so hard selecting from so many incredible responses. I can't believe how lucky I am to have had mine included. Thank you Lynne & Sarah.

    It's going to be fascinating meeting you all at the launch party.

    That wasn't anywhere near 300 words .

    Kathryn
    x

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  8. I'm so excited that my piece is to be included, I can't wait to see the booklet and reread them all in the flesh.
    Thanks again for running such a great project, I feel I was part of something really special :)

    Nicky
    xx

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  9. Thank you so much.

    I feel honoured and excited to have been included amongst so much great writing.

    I'm looking forward to meeting you all at the party and special thanks to Lynne and Sarah for creating this amazing project.

    Cx

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  10. thank you, how wonderful...

    It was a really inspired project, and I really enjoyed taking part..

    my contact details are
    annieclarkson@yahoo.com

    thanks
    Annie

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  11. I'm honoured to have a piece of mine chosen. Thank you kindly.

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  12. Thank you very much. See y'all on the 31st. Happy holidays to everyone! x

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  13. Hi!

    Thank you so much for selecting my work. I'm so pleased and I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone else and seeing their stories in print next year!

    I messed up and forgot to include my proper address details when I submitted which I am guessing is why I've not been emailed. I'm one4thefuture and my story is on the
    21st- my name is Cath Selby and my email address is
    one4thefuture@hotmail.com OR cathrinmarina@hotmail.co.uk

    like Kathryn said, probably not 300words.x.

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  14. Thanks for choosing my piece amongst the wonderful contributions. I'm so excited. Congratulations to everyone! Too bad I can't meet you all at the launch. Have a lot of fun on the 31st January, it's been wonderful to meet you all here. Good luck with your writing in the future.

    Brigita
    www.pausesbetweenthenotes.com

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  15. Hi to everyone,

    Thanks for choosing one of my pieces, I will be telling everyone about the book and booklet.

    I hope to be there on the 31st, and meet all the brilliant writers of these messages.

    Jim

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  16. A true honour to be among you all. Looking forward to seeing all your faces on the big night. Perhaps we could make it fancy dress?

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  17. Fancy Dress, and the theme is 300 words...

    yeah,

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  18. Like everyone else, I'm really pleased to be included in the collection, & I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible in January.

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Add Your Own Message Here
If you want to take part - great. All you need to do is add your response to our message here as a comment, but remember it has to be exactly 30 or 300 words, and it needs to be posted before 8am GMT the morning after the original post for each day. Please also remember to add your Name and Email Address to the end of your message, so that we can get in touch if your work is selected.