ABOUT THE BOOK

The Origin of Oakfallow

The Oakfallow Project began in 2003 when author and editor Becky Farris conceived of the idea of this haunted house story, but she wanted the story to feel organic in a way that she could not accomplish alone. The story itself is centered about a group of paranormal researchers who come to investigate the urban legends surrounding the massive estate. So to create as a way of recreating the mentality of the characters, Becky decided to approach the story like a game. While their would be ultimate guidance from her, like a Dungeon Master in a Dungeons and Dragons Game, each author would create their own character or characters and they would interact as the authors saw fit. No "player" would know if they would encounter an unruly preseance in the house until Becky told them and their experiences would all tie into the estate's bizarre and haunting history. This manner of collaborative fiction made it possible for each character to react in ways that Becky, in some cases, did not expect. Once the groundwork for the game was put in place, the two other authors credited, emerged as strong voices who also guided certain aspects of this literary experiment. They were given more freedom by Becky to create their own "experiences" which led to some extremely memorable moments in the story.

Initially the Oakfallow Project started with more than seven participants, Becky included. As it progressed, some characters met an unseamly fate and some authors chose to end their participation. Oakfallow was written over the course of two years, and resulted in nearly 2000 pages of material. Over the course of the past three years, Becky has been editing the story into a more readable tome. Because of its organic nature, the story grew like wild vines, going in many directions and containing many sidelines.

All of the Original Participants were asked if their material and characters could be included in a printed release. Of these participants, Carissa Starr and Ash Isengrim were the only authors who solidly committed. Between the three authors, there was more than enough material to produce a book. Other participants were content to allow their characters to be rewritten where needed to fill in the core story gaps, but were mostly pleased to have had the fun of it's rather unexpected outcome...and of course, want a printed copy!

Now that she has a more readable project, Becky has turned her edited beast over to Threadhoppers Press so a portion may be serialized for public enjoyment before Print Release. The rest will be made available for purchase in print or to download in the Threadhopper's Press Bookstore.

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