Take four authors, give them all the start of 10 short stories written by a fifth author, then ask them all to finish the story in their own words, with no preconceived conclusion, and what do you get?
A punster would say 鈥渁 novel idea.鈥�
And all puns aside, that鈥檚 what Crazy Twists is.
Crazy Twists features 10 story beginnings by A.J. Terlesky covering mystery, horror, romance, speculative, magical realism, and realistic literature set from historical to futuristic. Then the other four authors, Heather Deane-Clark, Nina Goodman, Brenda Tee and Susan Ward continue each story independently, creating a diversity of outcomes in 40 tales.
Terlesky, a short story writer, came up with the idea for the book, first by testing the waters with her mom, Nina Goodman. A group of her local friends got involved, and the result was brilliant.
鈥淓ach person would take the same start and see how that evolved,鈥� said Terlesky. 鈥淲e found that each writer鈥檚 completed story was so incredibly imaginative and varied that it captured everyone鈥檚 attention.
鈥淭his approach is definitely something that totally rejuvenates the short story concept and provides super entertainment for the reader.鈥�
Terlesky said the idea to publish the book came from attending the 2022 Big Island Book Fest in Courtenay.
鈥淭he organizers and other authors there encouraged us to look into self-publishing our stories,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey provided helpful hints and supportive material about how to do this.鈥�
Fittingly, the book will be launched at this year鈥檚 , Oct. 14 at the Florence Filberg Centre.
It can also be purchased online at
