Diving Into The Piper’s Reach Shoe Box

Today is the posting of the 4th letter in the Post Marked: Piper’s Reach series (this is Jude’s second letter). What began at the beginning of the year is now rolling out weekly even as Jodi and I write new letters.

It’s a weird situation re-reading the early letters, knowing what revelations and intimate details lie ahead in the coming weeks. Yet their future is uncertain and unknown. I am about to sit down and read Ella-Louise’s 8th letter before writing Jude’s response.

We’ve maintained our strict “no spoilers” policy which has made for entertaining reading and frustrating writing.

I have come to love Jude and Ella-Louise as characters. In the initial letters there is a hesitancy, an uncertainty of themselves and of each other. Ella-Louise reaches out from the past, interrupting Jude’s acceptance of it and questioning who and what he was back then. Jude saw Ella-Louise from one perspective when they were growing up but is forced to confront it by reliving the significant events.

They remember different events, different versions or perceptions of shared moments. As the letters continue Ella-Louise and Jude offer the reader an intimate insight into their lives and their memories.

See if you can spot the continuity error in Jude’s letter today; you will need to re-read Ella-Louise’s last letter. Jodi and I like to think of it as two characters remembering different aspects of the past. As a writer, I cringe at the mistake. However, it lends an authenticity to the writing of Jude and Ella-Louise.

At the conclusion of the letters, I would love to compile them as an ebook. There’s something quite ironic about archiving a story written in letters as a digital footprint. But I love the contradiction.

In the meantime, their letters are being collected in The Shoe Box for you to read.

The Wrap – Piper’s Reach Blog Tour

“To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart.” ~ Phyllis Theroux

http://postmarkedpipersreach.wordpress.com

Post Marked: Piper’s Reach is an ambitious organic narrative collaborative project between Jodi Cleghorn and Adam Byatt traversing an odd path between old and new forms of communication, differing modalities of storytelling and mixed media, all played out in real and suspended time.

THE BLURB
In December 1992 Ella-Louise Wilson boarded the Greyhound Coach for Sydney leaving behind the small coastal town of Piper’s Reach and her best friend and soulmate, Jude Smith. After twenty years of silence, a letter arrives at Piper’s Reach reopening wounds that never really healed. When the past reaches into the future, is it worth risking a second chance?

The above is what we pitched to our prospective audience, in the hope someone would like to offer their blog to host an interview. It went beyond what we expected. Here are some numbers:

9 days, 9 interviews, 43 questions, more than 12,200 words written. I haven’t been able to get stats for each blog, but this is enough.

I never expected such a response. From an initial pitch, to a workable project (which is still going), to a blog tour and now a launch.

Today, the first letter is live. Ella-Louise reaches out to her best friend, Jude, after 20 years of silence. Each week, every Tuesday, another letter is posted. We have no end in sight for our characters, so we’ll see where this all ends up.

It has been such a rush creating and writing the character of Jude. Jumping back into the beginning of the process (we started writing in secret 3 months ago) helped me go back to see where Jude was at the beginning, compared to what he is in my head now (3 months and 6 letters written by Jude and 6 by Ella-Louise).

During last week, Jodi and I talked about the psychology of our characters (thus not contravening the ‘no spoilers’ policy) and revealed interesting truths about who our characters are, how they think, and how they respond.

Check out the interviews for an understanding of our project and what it means to us. Behind the Scenes – The Making of Piper’s Reach

I hope you, as reader, will enjoy the story as much as we have had in writing it.

Post Marked: Piper’s Reach Blog Tour – Victoria Boulton

As launch day rapidly approaches for Post Marked: Piper’s Reach, today on the blog tour, we drop in on the delightful Victoria Boulton (@Vicorva).

In this interview, Victoria asks us why we decided to write our story completely in letters. She also asks us about the origin of our characters, how they are informed by the process of letter writing and what we love about this project.

A letter is intimate and personal. It is a private, shared moment between two people – Adam

There is a sense of freedom and danger in pursuing a non-traditional form of story telling – Jodi

Ella-Louise is broken and burned out, living a sea change to try and reclaim her life. This is the most intimate connection I have ever had with a character. I’m drawn to the first person POV, but this is something altogether different – Jodi

Jude is the essential every man. But at the same time he’s vulnerable, he’s loyal and has a deep centred sense of place and purpose – Adam

To read the rest of the interview click here.

Post Marked: Piper’s Reach Blog Tour – Nicole Murphy

Today we have the extraordinary privilege of being hosted by Australian fantasy, science fiction and romance writer Nicole Murphy.

It begins by asking “Why text messaging to brain storm a new project?” before exploring the importance of place to the project.

Location is important because where you live shapes who you are, what you do, the opportunities available (especially during adolescence) and the way people see and treat you – Jodi

We created the fictional town of Piper’s Reach before we even had characters. Location puts the characters into a frame of reference… it became the framework for understanding the relationship between the characters – Adam

To read the full interview click here.

Post Marked: Piper’s Reach Blog Tour – Alan Baxter

Today’s stop on the Post Marked: Piper’s Reach Blog Tour is at the wonderful home of British-born, Australian based dark fantasy, sci-fi & horror writer, Alan Baxter. He teaches Kung Fu and loves his heavy metal.

Jodi and I are going to rifle through his CD collection while we’re here talking about the role music plays in the lives of ourselves, and our characters Ella-Louise and Jude.

Jude’s preference for songs from the past is perhaps an indication of his inability to grasp the present situation with Ella-Louise. Even though they have different musical tastes, the music they share amplifies their emotional connection – Adam

Ella-Louise uses music as a mirror to her past, and later the changing dynamic of her relationship with Jude. The lyrics she shares are tiny glimpses inside her, but for every answer they illuminate, twice as many questions are spawned – Jodi

You can read the rest of the interview here.

Post Marked: Piper’s Reach Blog Tour – Tuesday Serial

Pull up a comfy chair, grab a cup of tea and your favourite cardigan as we stop the Piper’s Reach blog tour at Tuesday Serial.

Tuesday Serial is the place to go to link your serialised web fiction.

Today, the lovely PJ Kaiser has opened the fridge and declared the cupboard a free for all, and has asked us a bunch of questions about the new project.

It was Adam’s idea for the characters to be two long-lost friends getting back in touch with each other and Adam later sent me a text message asking if I thought perhaps these two had harboured crushes but they’d never synced up to let them hook up… and hey presto… my character appeared – Jodi

With no real idea who our characters were, we continued to toss ideas back and forth. We had no endpoint in mind when the first letter was written, a bit like a shot in the dark, a character hoping, trying, wanting to reconnect with the past, but not sure if there will be reciprocation – Adam

To read the full interview, click here.

Post Marked: Piper’s Reach

POST MARKED: PIPER’S REACH

In December 1992 Ella-Louise Wilson boarded the Greyhound Coach for Sydney leaving behind the small coastal town of Piper’s Reach and her best friend and soulmate, Jude Smith. After twenty years of silence, a letter arrives at Piper’s Reach reopening wounds that never really healed. When the past reaches into the future, is it worth risking a second chance?

Yesterday marked the beginning of the unveiling of #thesecretproject between Jodi Cleghorn and myself.

Post Marked: Piper’s Reach will launch Tuesday 10th April and will roll out one letter a week. Each week one letter will be available on the website (sshhh… it’s still a secret) as a downloadable PDF handwritten letter. See if you can guess whose handwriting it is and who wrote which character.

But we need your help. We’re looking for some lovely friends to invite us over (between Monday 2nd – Monday 9th April) for a cuppa (we’ll bring the scones and jam and cream) and a chat about Post Marked: Piper’s Reach.

To help foster the conversation (because we’ve been keeping it a secret), we’ve assembled a few points of focus so we don’t have rely on religion, sex and politics as conversation starters. If we get really stuck, we can talk about the weather (Piper’s Reach is known for its epic storms and some really lovely scenery).

Break out the fine china (for Jodi) and the tin mug for me.

• The original Concept/Pitch
• Creating a location by text message
• Organic writing process
• Characters & authors’ emotional involvement in the writing
• Back story
• Instantaneous vs delayed gratification in the digital age
• The music

If you are interested in having us over, please leave a comment. Our minions will talk to your minions and there will be plenty of cake to go around.

The Secret Project

Back in January, Jodi Cleghorn sent me a cryptic text asking if I wrote letters when I was a teenager. I was prolific. A friend once joked she could make an inspirational calendar from my writing.

Jodi fished for a bit more information before telling me she had a pitch, but would give nothing away. I was on a camping holiday a little south of where Jodi lived, in the first week of January, so she dropped in.

We sat in the ocean with our children splashing around us and after finding out we had a similar writing background as teenagers, she pitched an idea. It’s one that traverses an odd path between old and new forms of communication, differing modalities of storytelling and mixed media, all played out in real and suspended time. It incorporates our love of letter writing and music.

A succession of rapid-fire text messages over the next two or three days brainstormed the concept into a feasible project. We established a setting and our characters. I kept scribbling ideas and suggestions in my notebook as we bounced ideas backwards and forwards. My phone bill was ridiculous that month.

Since then our characters have taken on a life of their own and we are constantly surprised at the emotional investment we have given these fictional people.

For months we wrote in private, dropped cryptic notes and photos on twitter and thought about a launch. Now, the launch of #thesecretproject is imminent and we want to spread the word.

Launching on April 10, 2012, is our collaborative project, Post Marked: Piper’s Reach.

Post Marked: Piper's Reach

Post Marked: Piper’s Reach – The Blurb

In December 1992 Ella-Louise Wilson boarded the Greyhound coach for Sydney leaving behind the small coastal town of Piper’s Reach and her best friend and soulmate, Jude Smith. After twenty years of silence, a letter arrives at Piper’s Reach reopening wounds that never really healed. When the past reaches into the future, is it worth risking a second chance?

Before the launch, would you be interested in hosting an interview with Jodi and myself?

If you do, drop some details in the comments box and our minions will talk to your minions and we’ll bring the cupcakes and tea.

Comic Superhero Episode 14: Dangerous Liaisons

Previously in Comic Superhero…

Andrew’s infatuation with Emily grew deeper and deeper following the party.  When he should have been studying he was surfing facebook to find pictures of Emily from that night.  A sudden text message from Emily broke him from his reverie.  It was an ultimatum to meet her at the coffee shop.  Alone…

With phone in one hand, Andrew looked quickly from left to right and back again, closing the lid on his laptop.  He wondered if someone was watching him, spying his perving on Emily.  Every instinct told him to give Jackson the head’s up, let him know what was about to happen but he resisted.

“How the hell did she get my number?” he asked himself aloud.

It was a nervous wait for Andrew.  It was too long to simply shrug it off but close enough to keep pricking his mind.  He was besotted by the images of Emily.  If it was a trap, he didn’t particularly care, but it didn’t feel like one.  Friday arrived and Andrew set off, unarmed and unprepared.

The people were beginning to filter into the shopping centre.  The early hour meant most teens were still comatose with the sleep of the damned.  The only ones up at such a stupid hour in school holidays were the ones who had to process groceries and pack shelves.

It was too early for Phat Albert’s comic book store to be open, leaving Andrew with few hiding places.

He ambled past the coffee shop.  It was an older establishment in its décor of separate booths with high backed bench seats.  A loose arrangement of tables lined up out the front.

Andrew took up a vantage point in the corridor leading to the toilets giving him a clear view of the coffee shop.  Scoping the passers-by he looked for signs of a double-cross.  There was no sign of Bianca or Catherine.  Joshua might turn up at the comic book store but Andrew Phat Albert hadn’t yet arrived.

He doubted Emily would be tardy and she did not disappoint, arriving just before his phone ticked over to read 9:02.  She joined the queue at the counter, checking her phone.

Leaving his vantage point he went to join the queue.  He thought about offering to pay for her drink, as a gentlemanly gesture, but two suits and ties blocked his passage.  She ordered a caramel latte while he ordered a hot chocolate with extra cream.

As they waited for their orders, Emily stood with her arms folded, not paying attention to Andrew.  She looked at the actions of the barista and stepped forward when her name was called.  Taking two sachets of sugar Emily headed towards the far end of the coffee shop and slid into a vacant booth.  Andrew frowned as he looked towards Emily, who had still not made eye contact with him nor acknowledged his presence.

Andrew took his order from the counter and made his way to where Emily was sitting.  Sliding into the booth he slopped his drink.  A hasty mop up operation followed.  Emily did not offer to help but sat with her hands clasped together in front of her, her latte releasing wisps of steam.  She seemed distracted, lacking her bravado and self confidence.

Andrew noted the booth provided privacy from potential gossip mongers, but there was only one way in and out.  He sensed a trap but when and how it would be sprung eluded him.

Silence followed and Andrew had no idea what to say to open the conversation.  Emily took charge.  She looked directly at Andrew who sat back involuntarily.

“If you breathe a word to anyone what I am about to tell you, I will make sure your humiliation will be a circle of hell.”

The bravado faded quickly as she reached for her drink and held it between her hands, stroking the foam cup with the tip of her forefinger.  Andrew waited for Emily to continue.  She didn’t look at Andrew but addressed her question at her drink.  The voice was soft and uncertain.

“Were you serious the other night, at the party, when you said you were sorry about embarrassing me in class?”

In simple honesty, Andrew answered.  “Yes.”

“And what about when you said you have no idea about what you want to do when you leave school?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I realised that I had made fun of you in class and wanted to set things straight.  If I tried to beat you at your game, I failed.  I didn’t see any point in trying to beat you anymore.  All I can do is the best that I can in my studies.”

Emily shuffled in her seat, took the lid off her latte and stirred in the sugar.

“I have something to tell you.  That thing about my Dad; it isn’t true.  He’s still alive.  My parents separated in the holidays before high school started.  Mum and me stayed together but a bit after the divorce we decided to make a fresh start somewhere else.  And so I came to this school.”

She paused, sipping her drink.

“My Dad was always at me to do my very best.  I tried and tried.  I showed my Dad all my work and assignments, all close to perfect.  He applauded my work and congratulated me on my efforts.  I tried to please him by doing as well as I could.  When he left I thought I hadn’t done enough; that somehow he was disappointed in me.  I suppose I was still trying to impress my Dad and win his approval.”

Andrew watched her fingers interlacing and releasing.  He felt pity for Emily as she divulged, her super villain persona self-destructing.  He tried to understand where she was coming from.

“We’ve always been competitive,” said Andrew, “and it’s been fairly friendly.”

“But I had to beat you.  When you embarrassed me in English class, I just snapped.  I felt like a little girl who’d been told off.  I wanted revenge so badly and I got it.  I watched you squirm.  I saw you make mistakes, almost destroy your friendship with Jackson.  And I was glad.”

“What changed your mind?” Andrew asked.

“When you apologised the other night.  I began to wonder if I was doing the right thing.”

“Why are you telling me this?”  Andrew asked.

“I honestly don’t know,” said Emily.  “If I did, I am not sure I would want to admit it.”

A perfect storm developed.  The combination of close proximity to a beautiful girl, her revelation and his infatuation, combined to create a situation every teenage boy fantasises about but is never sure how to proceed.  Andrew’s gut urged his mouth to speak.  Before his brain could sound a Brown Alert and prevent emergency evacuation from any orifice, three words were spoken.  And there was no chance of a retraction.

“I like you.”

Comic Superhero Episode 13: Black Magic Woman

Previously in Comic Superhero…

Emily left the end of term party in distress after checking her phone.  Andrew followed her outside to find her crying.  In defence, Emily blamed Andrew for embarrassing her in class.  In sympathy at her distress, Andrew apologised and admitted that Emily was right about his lack of ambition and direction when school ended.  Their conversation was interrupted, leaving Andrew alone under the streetlight…

Andrew spun around like a dervish while the young couple laughed.  He scratched his head with both hands and scurried back to find Jackson.  On his way to rejoining the others he kept scanning the shadows for Emily.

Thumping Jackson on the shoulder, Andrew indicated he should follow.

“Where you been?” asked Jackson.

“I think I’ve done something stupid.”

“How stupid?  Are we talking viral YouTube stupid, or just regular stupid?”

Andrew replayed the highlights reel of his conversation with Emily, heavily edited for discretionary reasons.

“What’cha do that for, you berk?” asked Jackson.

“I don’t know,” said Andrew lamenting his behaviour.  “She was upset.  And what she said about what I did to her in class made some sense.  It explains her behaviour.”

“But why did you apologise?” asked Jackson.

“I don’t know.  An apology seemed the best thing to do.”

Jackson shook his head.  “You confront your mortal enemy, where you could lay the final blow and end this conflict.  But you end up apologising.  Nothing good can come of this.”  A moment later joined he dots.  “You’ve really got the hots for her, haven’t you?”

In his mind, a judge’s gavel sounded and the jurors’ verdict proclaimed, “Guilty.”  An admission or denial of the facts as presented meant the same conclusion.

“I don’t know,” was the best Andrew could utter.  Someone had scratched the record; the needle jumping to the same point.

“Maybe your honesty is the weapon that will finally defeat her,” said Jackson.  “You can’t beat her at her own game, so your tactics might work.”

Looking at his phone to get the time, Andrew declared it was time to go.  “Come on, let’s bail before I do anything else stupid.”

In the darkness of his bedroom Andrew mentally hit the rewind button and played back the evening.  He was at peace with his confession to Emily, figuring it was easier to come clean. Trying to work out a way what was wrong or how to defeat her was wasted time.

He couldn’t care less about what Emily did to him now.  She had humiliated him enough, so whatever she had planned really didn’t bother him.  What he did remember was how she looked in her swimsuit.

In the days after the party Andrew bunkered down into his books, studying and revising for the final exams.  There was enough paper scattered across Andrew’s desk to stock a stationer’s, each labelled with a different subject.  A rainbow of highlighters decorated each important date, fact and formula.  There was the odd question mark dotted about the pages.

A variety of technological devices occupied the remaining space on the desk, proving multi-tasking and short attention spans are keen bedfellows.  In the corner of his eye, his facebook news stream clicked over intermittently.  A news post featuring photos of the weekend’s party entered the stream.

Putting his pen down, he flicked through the photo album of the night seeing an array of wacky faces, secret snogging and too many hairy full moons from the guys in the pool.  He laughed at the photos, glad to not see too much of himself.  Clicking “Next” a photo of Emily and Bianca filled the screen.  Emily was holding a can of soft drink as her dark hair fell over her shoulder and her pendant reflected the flash of the camera.  She was in her jeans and t-shirt so it was before she went in the pool.  Her smile caught Andrew’s eye.  There was no hint of the sadness Andrew saw later.

Study and thoughts of exams abandoned, Andrew spent the next hour trawling through profiles and links to find photos of Emily at the party.  He paused at each photo, savouring her image.  One in particular caught his attention.  Emily was standing in the shallow end of the pool, her hair a dark waterfall over the rise and fall of her chest.  In the photo she was looking away from the camera, staring off, focused on something else.

Conflict boiled in his stomach.

“I am in deep smit.”

The girl on the screen was a beautiful dichotomy.  In Andrew’s mind she was articulate, witty, smart, brilliant.  She was also the architect of his misery and suffering.  He recalled the sad, upset girl he saw under the streetlight and couldn’t reconcile the two images.  Such pain had a cause.

Maybe Jackson was right, he thought.  Every villain reveals their weakness and implodes with the pressure.

Typing Emily’s name brought up her profile.  He was about to click on her ‘photo’ tab when he noticed her birthday.  It was the Monday following Mike’s end of term party.

In his smit-addled brain Andrew shuffled memories and ideas like pieces of a puzzle, hoping to make sense of all the new information.

“I’ve just had an apostrophe,” he said.

“I think you mean an epiphany, Smee,” his brain countered.

Eager to share the revelation, Andrew tapped out a text to Jackson.  “It was Emily’s birthday on Monday.  That MUST be the reason why she was upset at the party.”  Dropping the phone back on the desk he went back to the pictures of Emily.

A message notification pinged on Andrew’s phone.  He expected to see Jackson’s name.  Instead, an unknown number lit up the screen.

The message was short and straightforward.

“Meet me at the coffee shop near the comic book store.  Friday 9 am.  Come alone.  You cannot tell ANYONE.  Emily.”