Sunday, January 04, 2009

What is Spontaneous Fiction?

The old Storyteller chuckled, indicating his curious visitor should sit.

"Well," he said, settling down for the telling, "Some say Spontaneous Fiction is a bizarre occult ritual, practiced only by the mysterious Fantasy Monks of the Unreal Territories. Some," he gestured with his hand, in a way that suggested he was somehow directing the visitor's attention to the nebulous "some people" currently under discussion, "Some say it is a naturally occurring phenomenon that afflicts storytellers who have too many tales cluttering up their heads."

The old Storyteller pointed to an earthenware jug sitting next to a clay cup, "The drink dispenser is in the wall just above the jug. Bring me a bottle of the Europa water," he leaned in conspiratorially, "and I'll tell you what Spontaneous Fiction really is."

The visitor rushed to do as he'd been asked, sliding the wall panel open, and telling the dispenser what he wanted. It gave him a small plastic bottle of water from one of Jupiter's moons, which he brought back to the old Storyteller, who continued his tale.

"What it really is," he said, taking a long pull on the water bottle, "is the result of an experiment. An attempt to start a blog and post only fiction for a year (more or less)." The Storyteller gestured to the visitor's right with the bottle. "Look there to the right. The fruits of this experiment have been collected in a single volume, called The Spontaneous Manifesto. Of course," he smiled, "you can also read through the archives whenever you're here."

The visitor thanked the Storyteller and rose to leave. At the door, the visitor turned and asked one more question.

"More stories?" the Storyteller chuckled. "I suppose there might be the odd new tale of Spontaneous Fiction, from time to time. In fact, should you continue past here, you'll find a few new tales waiting to be read."

12 comments:

Kat said...

Has it really been a whole year (more or less)? It's been a great one, Storyteller. :)

Sideways Chica said...

Happy Father's Day LLB!

purplesime said...

Surely the purpose was not to publish for only a year, was it?

Say it ain't so!

purplesimon out...

purplesime said...

Yeah, I just ordered your book from Lulu. I can't believe I never got around to it before!

purplesimon out...

Anonymous said...

hehe.. that was the cutest intro ever!

purplesime said...

The Spontaneous Manifesto is winging its way to my home as I type. I got an email yesterday to say your book is coming out to me, across the pond and into London.

I can't wait.

This will keep me going until you publish your next set of stories.

Now, when is that gonna be?

purplesimon out...

Kim said...

Where the hell are you?

Krissteen said...

Dude, I am completely confused and think I slept right through my daughters wedding because your post is dated the the 14th of June and yet as I look at my calendar I see the date of May 30th but if it is truely June 14th WOO HOO cuz I did survive the wedding after all... if it's really only the 30th of May then I am fucked cuz I have SO much to do.. :)

Bored Housewife said...

Oh! so you preposted this. I was just sitting here feeling all cool about the fact that the one time I pop in to check out Spontaneous Fiction in FOREVER and you've just posted. Oh well. :) I'm still glad I stopped by. There's nothing of yours I don't already own, so I'll just read what's new. :)

purplesime said...

Whoa! Hang on Chris, this story has been posted in the future!

It now says 1 September. How do you do that?

purplesimon out...

Julia Roy said...

how is this post, posted on Sept. 2008? am i seeing into the future?!

Chris said...

No no, Julia. I am posting FROM the future. Apparently, I invent a text-based time machine sometime in 2008. ;)