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August 01, 2009
Idiots'Books in Urbanite Magazine: Story Circles
This weekend, the August 2009 issue of Urbanite (a magazine devoted to Baltimore and the people who live there), will hit the newsstands. The August issue is focused on emerging writers and features an interview and original work by Idiots'Books.
That's right.
You heard it here first.
We are emerging.
Robbi and I are the subjects of this month's "Keynote", a recurring feature interview that frames the central theme of each month's issue. We had a very nice conversation with Urbanite's editor-in-chief David Dudley, who edited our responses and printed them in his magazine. I suspect he was interested in what we had to say in large part due because (as I may have already mentioned) Robbi and I are emerging (and at least one of us is a writer).
The good people of Urbanite commissioned us to do a piece of original work that somehow dealt with the issue's theme. After some stewing, we came up with the idea to riff on the One-Page Wonders series we did with Tor.com this past spring. Working with a folded-paper concept we found in a Cracker Jack box a few years ago, we came up with a two-sided page that contained three circles (or pieces of circles) of image and narrative, which can be combined and recombined in many, many ways. (The formula is not as simple as it was for Ten Thousand Stories).
Each of the three narrative/illustration pairs focus on the angst, trials, and fates of a struggling literary striver, hence the title, The Plight of the Emerging Writer.
Here's the front side.
And here's the back side.
And here is a short video (featuring a song by our friends at Bombadil) that shows you how it works.
Those of you who live in Baltimore (or feel compelled to go there some time soon) may pick up a hard copy of the magazine in locations around the city.
Those of you who live everywhere else, may link to the interview.
This photo appears in the print version, but not online. Why should you, remote reader, be denied the full experience?
Just below the interview is a link you can click to download a PDF of the story circle. Note, however, that you will have to print it out on the two sides of the PDF of the same piece of paper (with the top of both sides oriented in the same direction). This requires advanced home printing skills. If you have difficulty and are very, very motivated, you may take the file to your local Kinkos. (We imagine that few of you will be so motivated.)
But if you do, and if you come up with a particularly pleasing combination, please send us a photo or scan and we will be sure to post it here. And if someone feels that he can identify the correct number of possible permutations, we'd be interested in hearing. We will post any reasonable (or far-fetched) theories, as long as they are based on sound mathematics (or wild, unsubstantiated conjecture).
Posted by bogenamp at August 1, 2009 12:34 PM