Interview with Grace Bridges

As some of you may know, I have been participating in a microfiction project called Avenir Eclectia. It is about the descendents of a generation starship and their struggles to survive in very unforgiving environments.

I asked the creator of the project, Grace Bridges, to answer a few questions about Avenir.

1. What does "Avenir Eclectia" mean? Where did you get the name from? Why did you choose it?

I knew I wanted something completely unique and I liked the idea of a double word. Avenir was easy - it's French for future, and also the model of my brother's car, though that was more of a coincidence. Avenir is the name of the original generation ship that made the journey across space to found the colony. Eclectia is the name of the colony proper, on the planet, called thus because of the wide and "eclectic" variety of people needed to make it work. As things turned out, the Avenir remained in orbit, was expanded, and over a hundred thousand people still live there, so that the colony is effectively divided in two, yet bearing the double name.


2. What inspired the initial design and setting for the Avenir Eclectia universe, e.g., particular books, authors, experiences, or specific real world landscapes?

I wanted to have something for everyone. Space for the sci-fi writers. Mysterious ocean angels and giant beetles for the fantasy. Demons and cataclysms for the horror writers. Everyone should have a place where they are comfortable; to think, yes, I am at home in that setting. The specifics grew from that as I considered initially some of the people I wanted on board.



3. Why did you choose to do this as a microfiction project versus as a novel in chapters?

Microfiction is easy to write. Easy to finish and easy to publish. It is also very well suited to the collaboration of many authors. Their threads weave among each other, touching and crossing, yet individual. This is what makes it fun for everyone to be involved. If it were a novel, I think I would have had to write it all by myself!



4. What lead you to open this project up to other authors? I tend to think of authors as being very protective of their worlds. I imagined that it was not easy to do this.

The world of Avenir Eclectia was created specifically to be shared in this way. So in that sense there was nothing to be protective of. We built up the entire world together, as we wrote one tiny story at a time. I have plenty of other worlds of my own to retreat into - this one was intended to be created by us all working together.



5. After several months of managing this project, what have been the joys and disappointments of doing a shared universe project?

I am constantly amazed that so many people are enthusiastic contributors. Since starting up last March, we've posted three stories a week and never come close to running out. In fact, we now have several months' backlog! But never fear - new contributors, and any who have been absent for a while, are always pulled to the front of the list. It's been a fountain of creativity and I love to see what people have done with the very sparse ideas I set forth in the beginning. The storyworld is now very rich and varied, with its own culture and history.
My only hardship is the constant administration to do with reading submissions, asking for tweaks, maintaining the site and all the indexes, post tags, etc. But I do it gladly.


6. What can we expect from Avenir Eclectia in the future?

When we have collected enough stories, there will be a special edition anthology from Splashdown Books containing the stories to date. But not all - a few of our authors want to withhold their threads from the anthology and create novel-length works of their own. I also have a vague idea for a novel of my own, but I have a lot of other projects before I could think about writing it. I may in fact look for a collaborator to help with that.

Also coming up very soon is a CD and MP3 release of the Avenir Eclectia soundtracks composed by Michael L. Rogers. This is very exciting for us!

Grace, thanks for the answers.

In case anyone is curious about Grace's other pursuits, check the small press that she started called Splashdown Books. There is a great selection of Sci-Fi and fantasy to keep you entertained--inspired--for many, many eons.