FREE! Yes, you read correctly. For the first time The Red Book and The Yin and Yang Book are free and complete. But only for the next 48 hours on Kindle.

WHY READ CHINESE WHISPERINGS ANTHOLOGIES?

Unlike other anthologies, Chinese Whisperings stories are interconnected. The anthology is created in a sequential fashion one writer at a time, one story at a time. Each story stands on its own merits while contributing to a larger, connected narrative. It takes around nine months to complete each anthology because of this.

Yesterday you read how The Red Book works. The Yin and Yang Book built on this idea, but rather than a chain story we created a “mated anthology”. A prologue sets the scene, and ends on a cliffhanger. Medae Newman has stolen a priceless painting from her employer, but as she attempts to escape the painting is impounded, a victim of seeming bad luck as the airline Medae is flying with is shut down. Does she stay and try to retrieve the painting, or does she run?

We follow the consequences of each side of this decision, as Medae’s actions, and those of her pursuers, ripple out across the airport and the wider world. In The Yin Book ten female authors explore the consequences of escape, whilst in The Yang Book ten male writers imagine what would happen if Medae stays to retrieve the painting. Across both realities lives intersect, interact and interrupt each other. Characters live and die depending on this choice. Futures are written and unwritten for better or for worse as one act of revenge spirals out of control. Both realities clash head on to be resolved by a common epilogue which brings the story full circle.

Love, romance, sex, death, revenge, espionage, abduction, smuggling, politics, fraud, business rivalries, celebrities and murder—and internet dating. All human life is at the airport!

THE YIN AND YANG BOOK

7.30AM. THE INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL OF A MAJOR EUROPEAN AIRPORT IS POISED ON THE BRINK OF CHAOS.

7.35AM. PANGAEAN AIRLINES, EUROPE’S PREMIER CARRIER, IS PLACED INTO RECEIVERSHIP, CANCELLING ALL FLIGHTS AND IMPOUNDING THOUSANDS OF ITEMS OF LUGGAGE.

The Yin and Yang Book follows the complicated web of events stemming from a suitcase, a stolen van Gogh painting, one woman on the run from her employers and the consequences of her decision to stay or go.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Twenty writers came on board for this anthology. All the original Red Book authors returned, and were joined by a further twelve writers, including Yeovil Prize winner Dan Powell, Crooked Fang author Carrie Clevenger, and thriller writer Richard Jay Parker.

Prologue by Jodi Cleghorn (Ed)
Three Monkeys by Paul Servini
Three Rings by Chris Chartrand
Dogs of War by Tony Noland
This Be the Verse by Dan Powell
Providence by Dale Challener Roe
No Passengers Allowed by J.M. Strother
Thirteen Feathers by Rob Diaz II
One Behind the Eye by Richard Jay Parker
Chase the Day by Jason Coggins
Somewhere to Pray (Kurush) by Benjamin Solah
The Guilty One by Emma Newman
Excess Baggage by Carrie Clevenger
Where the Heart Is by Tina Hunter
The Other Side of Limbo by Claudia Osmond
Freedom by Laura Eno
Cobalt Blue by Jasmine Gallant
The Strangest Comfort by Icy Sedgwick
Lost and Found by Jen Brubacher
Kanyasulkam by Annie Evett
Double Talk by Lily Mulholland
Epilogue by Paul Anderson (Ed)

If your looking for a unique reading experience this is it. Until tomorrow The Red Book and The Yin and Yang Book are free. What are you waiting for?

FREE! Yes, you read correctly. For the first time The Red Book and The Yin and Yang Book are free and complete. But only for the next 48 hours on Kindle.

WHY READ CHINESE WHISPERINGS ANTHOLOGIES?

Unlike other anthologies, Chinese Whisperings stories are interconnected. The anthology is created in a sequential fashion one writer at a time, one story at a time. Each story stands on its own merits while contributing to a larger, connected narrative. It takes around nine months to complete each anthology because of this.

The Red Book has each successive writer taking a minor character from the preceding story and telling their story as the major character in the next story. Each writer also references events from the preceding story to tie the ten stories together. The anthology can be read forward, or backward, and you can begin with any story you want because of its circular nature. (We’ll focus on The Yin and Yang Book tomorrow.)

You’ll see Miranda, the character from the opening story appear in the second, Something Mean in the Dream Scene, and you’ll find out exactly what happened to Dr Slovosky in Kraeppelin’s Child (and is that Miranda in the alley way at the end with Clint?) Susie Lim graces several stories and across years and two continents, as does the character of Robin. And you’ll have to read to the end to find out whose body is on the gurney in One in the Chamber. Characters will congregate at the local university and The Thirsty Whale. And they’re likely to follow you around long after you’ve put the book down.

THE RED BOOK

In a small North American university town ten lives are intersecting…

Miranda reaps what she has sown.
Mitchell understands there is no resisting fate.
Clint dreams of forging a violent destiny.
Elizabeth is about to make a discovery.
Robin hides a terrible secret.
Simon hasn’t slept in ten days.
Sam is pursued by nightmares.
Susie has lost everything.
David has just been found.
Jake atones for past evils.

Ten ordinary people struggling to keep their sanity in an insane world.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Eight other hearty souls set off on the initial experiment with us, including Emma Newman who has gone on to publish From Dark Places and 20 Years Later as E.J. Newman and is currently working on the Split Worlds series. Jason Coggins has gone on to write three series of Bloggin’ Brimstone. Tina Hunter co-founded Tyche Books last year under the name Tina Moreau. All eight authors also penned follow up stories for the Yin and Yang Book and many have contributed to Literary Mix Tapes anthologies as well.

Mercurial Jodi Cleghorn (Ed)

Something Mean in the Dream Scene Jason Coggins

Kraepelin’s Child Annie Evett

Discovery Paul Servini

Innocence Tina Hunter

Not Myself Dale Challener Roe

Not My Name Jasmine Gallant

Out Of The Darkness Rob Diaz II

Heartache Emma Newman

One in the Chamber Paul Anderson (Ed)

If your looking for a unique reading experience this is it. And for today and tomorrow The Red Book and The Yin and Yang Book are free. Just imagine us spruiking in our best market voice.

An administrative glitch and the loss of our Customer Services Rep at our printers has meant the Chinese Whisperings anthologies are not correctly listed (and in some places – not listed at all) in Amazon stores across the globe.  So we’ve had to delay the official launch and the Amazon chart rush which was set to explode today!

To honour our original release date of 11/10/11 we’ve opened pre-launch orders  for both our anthologies. The moment the administrative glitch is sorted and a new launch date is set, we’ll drop your books in the post, so you will receive them before anyone else – even if that means you receive your books BEFORE the official launch.

Finally, in accordance with our parent company, eMergent Publishing’s, philosophy on paper and bytes being complimentary, all our paperbacks are bundled with a complimentary eBook so you will never be too far from your favourite Chinese Whisperings’ stories.

Thanks for riding all the storms with us and supporting us across the past three years. We hope you enjoy the stories, as  much as we enjoyed writing and producing them.

~ Jodi, Paul & the CW authors.

xxx
CHINESE WHISPERINGS: THE RED BOOK

Australia – $14.99 + $4.00 p&h

Europe – €5.99 + €2.50 p&h

UK – ₤5.99 + ₤2.00 p&h

USA – $14.99 + $3.00 p&h

Elsewhere – $14.99 + $8.00 p+h

XXXX

CHINESE WHISPERINGS: THE YIN & YANG BOOK

Australia – $22.95 + $4.00 P&H

Europe – €7.99 + €2.50 p&h

UK – ₤7.99 + ₤2.00 P&H

USA – $22.95 + $4.00 P&H

Elsewhere – $22.95 + $8.00 p+h

All proceeds from the book go towards the victims of the devastating floods that hit Pakistan in August 2010. Paul Anderson, Jodi Cleghorn, Laura Eno, Annie Evett, Emma Newman and Benjamin Solah all have stories in the anthology – that’s 10% of the anthology represented by Chinese Whisperings authors!

Details about the book follow, and a link to purchase the book is at the bottom of the post.

Look at the image on the cover of this book.

A man and a boy knee-deep in water. Father and son? Uncle and nephew? Teacher and pupil? Or perhaps just a kid, lost, tagging on to an adult in the hope that he will be taken somewhere safe, dry?

They are wading away from the light into the darkness and gloom. The unknown. Fear. Hunger. Disease. But they are also wading towards you. They can’t ask for your help. You must choose to give it.

A simple way of doing that is to buy this book. Proceeds go to helping the victims of the Pakistan floods.

Now please take one more look at the cover. And remember, they can’t ask…

50 Stories for Pakistan features work by the following authors: Robert J. McCarter, Joanne Fox, Erik Svehaug, Susan Lanigan, Anne Mullane, Lisa Ricard Claro, R.J. Newlyn, Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Martin Webster, Jonathan Pinnock, Trevor Belshaw, Julia Bohanna, Iain Pattison, Laura Eno, Dave Clark, Pam Howes, Alun Williams, Annie Evett, Jennifer Stakes, Rebecca Emin, Marjorie Tolchard, Marit Meredith, Paul Malone, Ewan Lawrie, Jarred McGinnis, Alex Tomlin, Gail Richards, Benjamin Solah, Ruchira Mandal, Alyson Hilbourne, Ramon Collins, Darren Lee, Riaz Ali, Nasim Marie Jafry, Heather Parker, Shazia Bibi, Andrew Parrott, Brigid O’Connor, Rob Innis, Tony Williams, Annemarie Neary, Emma Newman, Robert Long, Beryl Brown, Vanessa Couchman, Joanna Campbell, Sylvia Petter, Rosemary Hayes, Paul Anderson, and Alice Turner.

The introduction was written by award-winning author, Vanessa Gebbie.

This book was edited by a dedicated team of volunteers: Amy Burns, Nick Daws, Claudine Lazar, Jayne Howarth, Dan Powell, Jodi Cleghorn, Danny Gillan, Laurie Brassard, David Robinson, Maureen Vincent-Northam, Gillian Best, and P. J. Kaiser.

50 Stories for Pakistan

Helping the victims of the floods

Produced by www.bigbadmedia.com

Book Preview

I don’t normally make appeals on behalf of myself on this site, but this appeal is rather urgent. I was hoping to make this post later in the month, and tie it into some giveaway freebies, but sadly time and circumstance has forced my hand.

On October 10th, the very day that the Yin & Yang Books will be launched, I will be running the Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon on behalf of mental health charity Mind.

This is a subject very close to my heart. I’ve suffered from mental health problems for most of my adult life, including serious bouts of depression that have, at times, impacted on my ability to edit stories for both The Red Book and The Yin Book. The fact that I’m still here, and still able to edit, is testimony to the support of my family and friends, but also the work of mental health professionals.

When I needed them most, organisations like Mind did not let me down. Now I don’t want to let them down. I have set a fundraising target of £500. However, I only just noticed this morning that if I don’t raise £200 by tomorrow(!) then I may lose my place in the race. Nothing like the pressure of a deadline to get you focused.

So, if you feel you can afford it, please do pop along to my fundraising page at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/panderson1979. If you are a UK resident taxpayer, then please fill in the Gift Aid declaration, which allows Mind to reclaim the tax on donation, which amounts to an extra 28p in every pound.

With the global recession, times are tough, I realise that. Tougher still for charities, and their ability to continue with their work. No matter how big or small, your donation will be appreciated. And if you can’t give money, then please give some publicity. Let others know, perhaps they’ll feel like donating.

As an added incentive, there will be two giveaways. Every person who sponsors me will be eligible to receive free ebooks copies of not only The Yin & Yang Books, but also The Red Book. Not only that, but the person who gives the largest sum of money will receive a paperback copy of The Yin & Yang Books when they are available.

Just mention Chinese Whisperings in the comments section when you make your donation, and you’ll be entered into the draw. The winner will be selected at random after the race on 10 October.

So what are you waiting for? Spread the word, and please donate!

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.

From the marketing/publishing side of the tracks, what has been the biggest surprise, both from the ‘most challenging’ aspect and the ‘most rewarding’ standpoint?

The most challenging thing has been trying to get hardcopy paperbacks sorted out. We’re a small start-up, without sufficient capital to order in advance, so we needed to find a print on demand partner who would bear the costs of printing upfront. In order to do that, we had to decide to hand over control of selling the book to the POD company, to allow them to recover their costs first, then pass on our share (from which we would then share with our writers). So far, so simple. But finding someone willing to do that, then having to negotiate the tricky ground of passing business checks (it would be so much easier if we were a public limited company, but that would then undo our entire business ethos).

So yeah, that’s been challenging. Or as I like to call it “a complete pain in the arse”.

Most rewarding comes from the publicity point of view – the phenomenal help that Twitter has provided us with. From spreading the word about the project, to landing us a radio interview in the United States, to helping us find many of our new roster of writers, Twitter has been invaluable, to an extant that I could not have foreseen.

What was the closest you came to giving up on CW?

What day is it today? Really? Well in that case, it was yesterday…

I’ll admit there have been a number of times since the start of The Red Book when I’ve considered calling it a day. When writers dropped out, when depression got too much for me, when the whole thing seemed cursed and doomed to failure.

But you know what? We’re a family here on this project. When one of us is down, the others rally. When Jodi has been close to giving up, I’ve been there. When I feel I can’t carry on, Jodi picks up the pace and we carry each other through.

So while we might both have, once or twice, come close to giving up on CW, we’ve never given up on each other. And that keeps the whole thing going.

Let’s see if we can provide a late surge and push him across the finish line in first place – Vote for Richard!

What was the closest you came to giving up on CW?

For me, despite all the ups and downs in 2009, and moments of sheer hard work and seemingly impassable blocks… the closest I came to giving up on Chinese Whisperings was in 2008 when we used the idea for a conceptual, collaborative anthology as a stepping stone into a much larger and grander publishing idea. For six months it was totally forgotten as the bigger idea  got all the discussion and active thought time.

When that larger idea stalled – I knew we had to return to our roots. The ‘small’ anthology we’d first got excited about. As they say – from little things big things grow!