So,

This entire anthology was created out of an experiment. I wanted to tell a story of ten different people in ten varying situations. Romance, action, horror, scifi, I wanted it all. But most importantly, I wanted to tell a story, a shout at the cosmos if you will, about humanity surviving and even at times thriving, despite a computer software’s best efforts to break them down and enslave them. AI was only the gem of this idea, with all it's hang ups and insanity. But this anthology was not and is not intended to be a protest against it.

What I had hoped, and what seems to have happened, was that it became a reminder of a promise: that no matter how dark it gets around us, we have hope if he hang on to the light.

The other intention was the anthology not entirely be written by me. The experiment was that if I take a group of extremely talented writers, give them the barest of guidelines, could they write a cohesive story? What would that story look like? I wanted to know these things, but to understand it, I needed those extremely talented writers. But where to get them?

I put out a call with the expectation to get nothing but echoes and well wishes back. Yet, I had several exceptional individuals step up, and at times I was humbled by the talent I was surrounded by on this endeavor:  BlazeFox7 ,  kiyofox,  vixyyfox,  fromthedead each stepped up and gave me incredible tales out of the barest of bones. Their stories added flesh and breathed life into its very lungs.

I have learned things as well from this endeavor. First the good:

The barest of descriptions when working with others is better than a complete one. You give someone the skeleton of a society you can step back and watch them add flesh and bring your monster to life. If you give them a detailed description, all they can do is clothe the corpse.

I’ve learned that deadlines are a good thing when writing in an anthology or collab effort. It gives someone a goal to shoot for, especially when their effort could get lost among everything else they’re doing in the day. I, myself am included in that and were it not for the questions from a few of you I might have accidentally dropped the ball on this.

It’s good to give a hint of a premise, but never the full story. Originally, I made a list of ten ideas. Each of those ideas, I did have a full story ready to write for it in case I needed to. But I did my best to never tell anyone what that story was. To tell you the truth, I don’t even remember the ideas for the stories now. Everyone’s tales had surpassed the ideas I had, some by a good magnitude.

There’s a couple of personal things I’ve learned as well. It’s never good to juggle too many projects. Your brain gets overloaded and finds it hard to fill in the details for the multiple projects you’re running. I lost a book in the middle of this project, one that before I started this I was thrilled to tell but has now drifted to the back burner. I’ll get it written one day. It’s just another idea in a sea of them it seems that wants to be told.

At times my brain hates sticking to a given premise. This is part of the reason I took down the commission info on my main page. My creativity has its own directions and ideas. It wants to wander down it’s own paths, drinking from whatever trough it chooses. It hates to be told it’s only allowed to draw from one certain thing and gets a bit ornery when I try to force it. This is part of the reason that my own stories have taken the length of time they did to write. I can make it do it, yes, but it doesn’t like it and will attempt to buck any chance it gets. When that happens you get some strange things not fit for human consumption.

All in all, I consider this experiment a resounding success. I have learned more than a couple things, and this expansion of knowledge has helped my own writing immensely. The story, the way it’s written anyway, I consider to be one of the more underrated works here on FA. The reason for that though is not my own writing. It’s for all the wonderful work I have gotten from everyone who agreed to volunteer for this. Thank you so much.

What happens in the future?

I may revisit Ex37 someday. If I do, I will create more stories and ask for more help writing them. As it stands right now, Ex37 will stand here on FA. I will check in from time to time. No one has asked to curate the account, which is fine. So, the story ends there for the time being. A testament to one true piece of wisdom: that sometimes living is about taking our own flaws and differences and making the best out of them. That is and always will be what makes us, as a species, special.

Thank you everyone. Thank you for all of your hard work in these past several months.