Foreword: Words from the Silent Majority
By Hamish Gilbertson, Editor and Moderator, WritersNet
Looking for diverse reading experiences between two covers? You have picked up
the right book. WritersNet (
Like any book, this book started with a sentence. But you won’t find that
sentence in this book or its sister volume, The WritersNet Anthology of
Prose: Nonfiction and Children's Literature.
The sentence was posted on a number of the discussion boards of our web site,
Writers.net. WritersNet member, Bryan Wolford wrote, “I was thinking of all the
writers that post here and began wondering what would happen if we asked
Writers.net if they would publish an anthology of all of us writers.” He wasn’t
sure of details but wondered whether the WritersNet community could pool their
writing talents to produce such an anthology. Bryan was humble in signing off:
“Just an idea. I’m just trying to think of ways that we could all help each
other out. But if anyone is interested . . .”
People were interested. Discussion on the topic ebbed and flowed over the
following days. Some site members were a little skeptical about the merits of
such a project and worried about whether the process of producing an anthology
would alienate members whose work didn’t make the cut. There was much debate
about the form the process would take and how work would be selected. Then one
prominent member of the site made an offer that made the project possible and
assuaged the fears of his fellow “writersnetters.”
Professional editor Gary Kessler was prepared to head up the project, handle
submissions, edit the anthology, and underwrite its production. While we at
WritersNet had always been supportive of the project as a natural extension of
the community bonds we had been striving to build, we were scratching our heads
as to how we could bring it into being. In one long post to our “Unpublished
Writers” forum, Gary made the anthology possible. WritersNet brought writers
from all over the world together to share ideas and experiences, tribulations
and triumphs and to make writing a little less lonely pursuit. The community
created was about to create a testament to what the writing talent that gathers
at WritersNet could produce. Only fitting that a member of the community should
turn the anthology idea into the anthology you are reading.
Within a week of Bryan’s suggestion, submissions were arriving in Gary’s inbox.
I wondered if we would achieve the target of 60,000 publishable words.
Thousands of people visit WritersNet every day, but how serious are they about
their writing? Most discussion is carried out by a fraction of the site’s
audience. Was “the silent majority,” who are happy to read rather than participate
in discussion, going to get involved? Well, it seems I underestimated the
dedication of our silent majority. Boy did they get involved.
Four months have passed since the project got under way, and Gary reports
receiving 254,000 words for consideration. After this huge response to our call
for submissions was processed, the two volumes, necessitated by that response,
total 207,000 words or, more aptly, hours of reading enjoyment.
In some ways the end result is less important than the process that created it.
The anthology project was designed to give writersnetters a chance to work with
a professional editor to produce publishable work, a chance to be part of a
publishing venture and hone their writing skills. The only way this book
differs from most books you will read is that its editor has approached
submissions with a view to making pieces publishable rather than deciding
whether they are publishable. Even those authors whose work did not make it
into the published volumes benefited from work shopping with an experienced
editor.
This anthology has its origins in snatched moments, weekends, and late-night
writing sessions. People crafted the sentences it contains in special, and not
so special, writing spaces around the world-the spare room, the kitchen table,
the study, or, maybe, the commuter train carriage. Some contributors you may
have heard of, most you won’t have. WritersNet made it possible by providing a
place in cyberspace for these people from four continents and various places in
various time zones to meet. But the achievement belongs to the participants.
WritersNet’s purpose is to provide a forum for writers and publishing
professionals to discuss writing and publishing realities in a way that reduces
misinformation and debunks myths. Stephan Spencer-president of web design
company, Internet Concepts (
People say published writing represents but a fraction of the great writing
produced every year. The WritersNet Anthology Prose: Fiction and its
sister volume show that you should never underestimate the talent of the silent
majority or, as we call them in the world of on-line discussion forums,
lurkers.
Enjoy the anthology. And drop by our site sometime. You never know who you
might meet or what you might learn. Don’t worry, you will find us very tolerant
of lurkers. But you may find active involvement more rewarding. ;-)
The two-volume set of the WritersNet Anthology of Prose likely is far
different from any other anthology you have encountered. The seventy-six
authors from four continents (North America, Europe, Asia, and Australasia)
whose work appears in this collection have shared writing critiques and tips,
strategies for submitting to literary agents and publishers, and dreams and
aspirations for publication with each other in cyberspace on the WritersNet
discussion board. But their work, as demonstrated in these two books, is as
diverse as is their own background and nationality. This anthology is not held
together with the thread of theme, as is currently popular with such
collections. Rather it is held together by a sense of community and common
interest and purpose through the incredible shrinking of isolation offered by
Internet science and by the determination of the individual authors to hone
their writing skills and to reach their reading audience.
What all of the short stories and essays appearing in this anthology share is
that they all were submitted to an on-line evaluation and editorial workshop
sponsored by the WritersNet web site. Writers were invited to submit one or
more works of prose. To maintain focus poetry was excluded from this particular
workshop, even though many poets are active on the WritersNet discussion board.
The combined total of each writer’s submissions was restricted to 4,000 words,
and submissions that were graphically violent or sexual in content or that
simply did not hold together--or that couldn’t be refocused--as integral works
were not accepted. The purpose of the workshop was for the author to work
directly with a professional book editor to bring a sample piece to a
publishable quality level in content and presentation, if possible. Those works
that could be brought to this level were to be published in the WritersNet
Anthology of Prose. Any profits above actual book production costs for this
project will be donated to the Salvation Army in remembrance of the September
11th terrorist attacks at New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
What came as a surprise to those of us working on the project, however--and a
tribute to the ever-striving nature of writers--was not only the high number of
submissions for the project but also the overall high quality of the work submitted
and the professionalism of those who submitted. As noted by WritersNet web site
moderator Hamish Gilbertson in the foreword, we had hoped we would receive as
many as 60,000 total words in submissions. But more than 250,000 words of
material had been submitted when the submissions were closed, and much more was
offered after that. Thus, the anthology has had to go to two volumes: this one
on fiction and volume two, The WritersNet Anthology of Prose: Nonfiction and
Children's Literature. Over 80 percent of the submitted works were cleared
for inclusion in the anthology, and although this was intended as an web site
community--building educational project for beginning and intermediate writers,
half of those who submitted work were previously published authors. Two of
these authors, A. C. Crispin and Michele Wallace Campanelli, whose work appears
in the nonfiction volume of this anthology, have best-seller credits. A few of
the short stories in this volume of the anthology have already won recognition
in literary contests.
Because of the nature of the work-shopping project that provides the base to
this anthology, the resulting fiction collection of sixty short stories by
fifty-three separate authors provided in volume one is much more eclectic than
is normal with such works. The stories have been organized into loose
categories, as marked in the table of contents. But they defy the normal
“common thread in content” rule. Thus, you can find something here to entertain
you whether you are looking for a coming-of-age story of a young woman trying
to relate to boys--or, for that matter, of middle-aged or older woman trying,
or not trying, to relate to middle-aged or older men-or a malicious eyeball in
a rooftop pipe trying to lure young victims to their deaths. You can also move
in time from an evil master’s medieval castle, through topical concerns with
acts of terrorism, to a futuristic superheroes’ battle with baddies and in
dimension from the inner mind to fantasy kingdoms. There truly should be a
surfeit of satisfaction for any and all tastes in fiction between these covers.
Enjoy.