It was bound to happen… the seperate books for this “mated anthology”, with the same characters but often with wildly different turns of fate would evolve into tiny universes of their own. This was how the Yiniverse (The Yin Book) and the Yangiverse (The Yang Book) came to be named. It was also a way the editors could keep it straigh in their head, what could and couldn’t happen in any story, in either anthology.

The Yin Book is compromised of ten female writers, under the editorial direction of Paul Anderson (whose crazy idea it was to have editors of the opposite gender for each book) and The Yang Book, ten male writers under the direction of Jodi Cleghorn. Each story in each anthology stands alone, but it also connected not just to the stories within the anthology it appears, but is also mated to the narrative arc of the other anthology. While each anthology is intended to be a satisfying read, it is only be reading both anthologies that then entire story will be revealed. Both anthologies are book-ended by the same Prologue written by Jodi Cleghorn and the Epilogue by Paul Anderson.

Over the next three months we will slowly reveal both universes to you, firstly through the eyes of our writers as they share what it was like to be part of a colloborative writing project, secondly through the authors sharing the development of their stories and lastly, in the lead up to our 10th October launch, we will be sharing parts of each story.

For now, sit back and become reacquainted with this year’s writers, Paul Servini, Emma Newman, Chris Chartrand, Carrie Clevenger and Tony Noland as they share their experiences of being part of Chinese Whisperings, 2010 over the next five days.