Tina Hunter writes primarily in the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres, however a touch of horror has been know to infect her work. She’s attended many writing courses over the years and currently works as a slush pile reader for a Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy publishing house.

2009 was the year Tina broke into print with four flash fiction stories published in two anthologies as well as her story in The Red Book. Tina was intrigued by the collaborative venture offered by Chinese Whisperings and is now back for more in The Yin Book. She is currently working on several other short stories, a novella and is cleaning up two novels to be sent out to publishers later this year.

Tina currently lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with her husband and two loving dogs, River and Masey.

Innocence – The Red Book, 2010

Soon to be written – The Yin Book, 2010

Creatures of the Night: Flash Fiction Challenge #1 - Absolute Xpress
FLASH FICTION ANTHOLOGY: Within, you will find an eclectic collection of flash fiction that covers everything from the horrific to the humorous. There are real gems here—all waiting to scare you, thrill you, and make you laugh.  Read these stories in a safe place, preferably where you can bolt the doors and lock the windows, because tonight you will dream about Creatures of the Night.

Tina’s stories: Mistakes Bite and Demon Disease

Three Little Pigs and Truth Will Out in Seven Deadly Sins: Flash Fiction Challenge #1 published by Absolute Xpress

Writer Tina Hunter

Twitter

Facebook

I was a little nervous when I was approached to participate in this anthology. What would it be like to build a story out of a minor character from someone else’s story? What would it be like to work with the writers before and after me in the anthology to make sure that the stories flowed together? Not to mention, what would it look like when it was all done?

In the end, I’m very glad I decided to go through with it.

With a small foray into collaborative work behind me, this project was so much better than I expected. There were bumps in the road, a sign of any new venture, but the editors were were very supportive and communicative.

I will admit that I misunderstood the goal of the project. I went into my story thinking that I had to somehow tie all the previous story lines together into one story. It turns out I only needed to include one story line. Luckily, the editors were kind when they told me I was doing things all wrong and an extensive, but not impossible, rewrite was completed. I like the finished product.

I learnt quite a bit about myself and the collaborative process because of this anthology. I learnt that collaboration means more than being willing to compromise, it means being willing to completely change directions when both parties realize that something isn’t working. And why not? It’s only words on a page. I also learnt that I very much enjoy the collaborative process and look forward to doing it again sometime in the near future.

When I started out to write Innocence, the character “Robin” had already been created by the author before me and the character had some interesting history that I thought I could exploit. I didn’t have to write any back story to know who my character was, that was all taken care of for me… and that was where the seed of the story grew from.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, I misunderstood the task given to me. Once I knew that Robin was a young man dealing with a terrible burden, I wove all the other story lines into and around my story. I dropped in a gang of minor characters from the other stories and added in resolutions to two stories where the endings were left open. I am still proud of my efforts. But of course all these story lines needed to be cut out.

Robin’s story started to become more of his own story after the rewrite. The characters were cut down to only the bare essentials, and some of them became new distinct characters. With less “plot” to worry about I was able to showcase Robin and what he was going through in a much different light than before. He was able to become a main character, instead of just a point of view character in a sea of other people.

His story is about what you would do for a loved one, and how far you would go to protect them. It’s about rage and controlling it, and wanting to do the right thing even if you aren’t sure how.

The original story, while I’m proud of it, won’t ever be posted. It was a great exercise for myself but I think it’s better if you – the reader – come up with your own conclusions to the stories found in “The Red Book”. That’s part of the joy of reading a book like this.

There is a secret about Innocence and I will share it with you as my parting note. Due to the time shift between stories if you read “The Red Book” from front to back, you’ll know how Robin’s story ends before it even begins.