...a howling success, lol...Travis Tea is a pseudonym for a group of about thirty (mostly) science fiction and fantasy authors who were amused by PublishAmerica's claim (at their authorsmarket.net site) that SF & F authors are "writers who erroneously believe that SciFi, because it is set in a distant future, does not require believable storylines, or that Fantasy, because it is set in conditions that have never existed, does not need believable every-day characters".
Atlanta Nights is a collaborative novel, banged out over a long weekend in 2004 by these amused authors, writing it as ineptly as they could, with the express purpose of producing an unpublishably bad piece of work, so as to test whether publishing firm PublishAmerica would still accept it. Plot, characterization, theme...none of them are to be found in ATLANTA NIGHTS. Grammar and spelling take a drubbing. The book was submitted to PublishAmerica--and it was accepted; after the hoax was revealed, the publisher withdrew its offer.
The distinctive flaws of Atlanta Nights include nonidentical chapters written by two different authors from the same segment of outline (13 and 15), a missing chapter (21), two chapters that are word-for-word identical to each other (4 and 17), two different chapters with the same chapter number (12 and 12), and a chapter "written" by a computer program that generated random text based on patterns found in the previous chapters (34). Characters change gender and race; they die and reappear without explanation. Spelling and grammar are nonstandard and the formatting is inconsistent. The initials of characters who were named in the book spelled out the phrase "PublishAmerica is a vanity press". The finale revealed that all the previous events of the plot had been a dream, although the book continues for several more chapters.
The authors subsequently published the book through print on demand publisher Lulu under the pseudonym "Travis Tea" with all profits going to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Emergency Medical Fund. Teresa Nielsen Hayden's review said, "The world is full of bad books written by amateurs. But why settle for the merely regrettable? Atlanta Nights is a bad book written by experts".
Contents: The authors of the chapters of this book include:
Chapter 1 - Sherwood Smith
Chapter 2 - James D. Macdonald
Chapter 3 - Sheila Finch
Chapter 4 - Charles Coleman Finlay
Chapter 5 - Julia West
Chapter 6 - Brook West
Chapter 7 - Adam-Troy Castro
Chapter 8 - Allen Steele
Chapter 9 - Alan Rodgers
Chapter 10 - Mary Catelli
Chapter 11 - Andrew Burt
Chapter 12 - Victoria Strauss
Chapter 12 - Shira Daemon (There are two "Chapter 12"s)
Chapter 13 - Vera Nazarian
Chapter 14 - Sean P. Fodera
Chapter 15 - Teresa Nielsen Hayden
Chapter 16 - Ken Houghton
Chapter 17 - Charles Coleman Finlay (Identical to Chapter 4)
Chapter 18 - M. Turville Heitz
Chapter 19 - Kevin O'Donnell, Jr
Chapter 20 - Chuck Rothman
Chapter 22 - Laura J. Underwood (Chapter 21 was "missing")
Chapter 23 - Jena Snyder
Chapter 24 - Paul Melko
Chapter 25 - Tina Kuzminski
Chapter 26 - Ted Kuzminski
Chapter 27 - Megan Lindholm/Robin Hobb
Chapter 28 - Danica and Brook West
Chapter 29 - Rowan and Julia West
Chapter 30 - Derryl Murphy
Chapter 31 - Michael Armstrong
Chapter 32 - Pierce Askegren
Chapter 33 - Deanna Hoak
Chapter 34 - Computer-generated by the software Bonsai Story Generator
Chapter 35 - Catherine Mintz
Chapter 36 - Peter Heck
Chapter 37 - M. Turville Heitz
Chapter 38 -
Chapter 39 - Brenda Clough
Chapter 40 - Judi B. Castro
Chapter 41 - Terry McGarry
Afterword (Atlanta Nights) essay by James D. Macdonald
.
Atlanta Nights is a collaborative novel, banged out over a long weekend in 2004 by these amused authors, writing it as ineptly as they could, with the express purpose of producing an unpublishably bad piece of work, so as to test whether publishing firm PublishAmerica would still accept it. Plot, characterization, theme...none of them are to be found in ATLANTA NIGHTS. Grammar and spelling take a drubbing. The book was submitted to PublishAmerica--and it was accepted; after the hoax was revealed, the publisher withdrew its offer.
The distinctive flaws of Atlanta Nights include nonidentical chapters written by two different authors from the same segment of outline (13 and 15), a missing chapter (21), two chapters that are word-for-word identical to each other (4 and 17), two different chapters with the same chapter number (12 and 12), and a chapter "written" by a computer program that generated random text based on patterns found in the previous chapters (34). Characters change gender and race; they die and reappear without explanation. Spelling and grammar are nonstandard and the formatting is inconsistent. The initials of characters who were named in the book spelled out the phrase "PublishAmerica is a vanity press". The finale revealed that all the previous events of the plot had been a dream, although the book continues for several more chapters.
The authors subsequently published the book through print on demand publisher Lulu under the pseudonym "Travis Tea" with all profits going to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Emergency Medical Fund. Teresa Nielsen Hayden's review said, "The world is full of bad books written by amateurs. But why settle for the merely regrettable? Atlanta Nights is a bad book written by experts".
Contents: The authors of the chapters of this book include:
Chapter 1 - Sherwood Smith
Chapter 2 - James D. Macdonald
Chapter 3 - Sheila Finch
Chapter 4 - Charles Coleman Finlay
Chapter 5 - Julia West
Chapter 6 - Brook West
Chapter 7 - Adam-Troy Castro
Chapter 8 - Allen Steele
Chapter 9 - Alan Rodgers
Chapter 10 - Mary Catelli
Chapter 11 - Andrew Burt
Chapter 12 - Victoria Strauss
Chapter 12 - Shira Daemon (There are two "Chapter 12"s)
Chapter 13 - Vera Nazarian
Chapter 14 - Sean P. Fodera
Chapter 15 - Teresa Nielsen Hayden
Chapter 16 - Ken Houghton
Chapter 17 - Charles Coleman Finlay (Identical to Chapter 4)
Chapter 18 - M. Turville Heitz
Chapter 19 - Kevin O'Donnell, Jr
Chapter 20 - Chuck Rothman
Chapter 22 - Laura J. Underwood (Chapter 21 was "missing")
Chapter 23 - Jena Snyder
Chapter 24 - Paul Melko
Chapter 25 - Tina Kuzminski
Chapter 26 - Ted Kuzminski
Chapter 27 - Megan Lindholm/Robin Hobb
Chapter 28 - Danica and Brook West
Chapter 29 - Rowan and Julia West
Chapter 30 - Derryl Murphy
Chapter 31 - Michael Armstrong
Chapter 32 - Pierce Askegren
Chapter 33 - Deanna Hoak
Chapter 34 - Computer-generated by the software Bonsai Story Generator
Chapter 35 - Catherine Mintz
Chapter 36 - Peter Heck
Chapter 37 - M. Turville Heitz
Chapter 38 -
Chapter 39 - Brenda Clough
Chapter 40 - Judi B. Castro
Chapter 41 - Terry McGarry
Afterword (Atlanta Nights) essay by James D. Macdonald
.
