" ... a groundbreaking piece of fiction ... a pioneering project synthesizing literature and technology into a new and exciting format." - Vince Darcangelo, Boulder Weekly
A groovy mystery
The Daughters of Freya is a groundbreaking piece of fiction, but you can't find it at your local bookstore-check your inbox instead.
The Boulder Weekly
Vince Darcangelo
As a journalist, I live by e-mail. Being in contact with more than 100 people a day precludes more intimate contact except for the most necessary of communication. The downside of this efficient, electronic-messaging world is that human relationships take a back seat to productivity. Which leads to the question, "Who is on the other end of all those e-mails?"
This was the question asked by friends and writers Michael Betcherman and David Diamond, whose long-distance e-mail discourse (Betcherman lives in Toronto, Diamond in California), evolved into a mystery novel. The result is The Daughters of Freya, a groundbreaking book released in e-mail format.
"In January of 2003, [Diamond] suggested writing a book together that would all be e-mails, taking advantage of the fact that you don't know who is on the other end of an e-mail," says Betcherman.
Though originally conceived as a traditionally published book of e-mails, at the suggestion of another friend the book evolved into a pioneering project synthesizing literature and technology into a new and exciting format.
"There've been a lot of other attempts to use the Internet to get people to read, and most of them have really been trying to get people to open an e-mail and read a chapter of a book," says Betcherman. "They haven't been very successful because people don't want to read it that way. The way we use the Internet mirrors the way people actually use the Internet. You go to your inbox and open an e-mail and you're reading an e-mail. They're not written as chapter prose. They're written as e-mails."
The Daughters of Freya is a mystery in which journalist Samantha Dempsey investigates a mysterious sex cult in California that has recruited the daughter of one of her friends. Reuniting with a college chum who's now a West Coast magazine editor, Dempsey begins investigating the Daughters of Freya and its charismatic leader, Simone, and discovers that this is more than some kooky California cult-there is something sinister going on behind the sex and the New Age preaching.
"It's a conventional narrative in the sense that it's a mystery with good guys and bad guys and clues," says Betcherman. "But with the storytelling we wanted to take advantage of the delivery, take advantage of the Internet, of the way we were using the story, by looking for opportunities to make it as suspenseful as possible."
The e-mail format allows The Daughters of Freya to be told in "real time." Readers receive between three and five e-mails a day for three weeks, following Samantha's investigation through missives exchanged between her, her family, her friends and others.
The e-mails also include links to websites that provide further information. Adding to the suspense is the fact that readers can't read ahead.
"The idea was to try to give a sense of a real-time experience in the way that as she's investigating the story, you have to wait for the next development. You can't just turn the page," says Betcherman. "The few occasions that [Samantha]'s in jeopardy, those e-mails would come 15 minutes apart, so if you were at your computer you would get a real sense of suspense building up because you know she's in jeopardy and you have no way of finding out what's happening except to wait for the next development, just as people would in real life."
So far, reader response to The Daughters of Freya has been very positive. Betcherman says that he constantly receives e-mails from readers who have finished the story but continue to check their inbox for further installments. For less than $10, The Daughters of Freya is comparable to most mystery paperbacks, and cheaper than a hardcover. And for those nervous of the unique format, the first few installments of the novel are available for free at the book's website, www.emailmystery.com.
To order The Daughters of Freya or sign up for the first three free installments, visit www.emailmystery.com.
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