Site News

The Elephant Words Giant One Year Shake-Up

This week at Elephant Words sees the biggest change around thus far in the writing roster, as we take our first birthday as an opportunity to shift things around.

First up, we say goodbye to three of the site’s founding contributors:

Josh Hechinger, our very own Young American, is moving on to free up more time for his many other writing projects. First and foremost a comic creator, Josh has used EW as a way of flexing his prose muscles, and his pieces have always been energetic and with added AWESOME!

Rol Hirst has strayed away from the site before, but finds it difficult to stay away from EW for too long, so I shan’t eulogise him too much, beyond saying that I don’t think he has written a single dud piece, though he will almost certainly argue this. With any luck he will take his time away to work on projects that will show everyone else what the readers and writers here already know; that he is a great writing talent, and he should already be being interviewed about his latest novel on Richard And Judy’s sofa.

(Mainly because, you know, he’d hate it.)

Douglas Noble was already a critically acclaimed and hard-working writer and sometime comic artist when he took on EW, and this last year has only seen him get busier. He has treated EW as an opportunity to workshop ideas, and his writing has always been thoughtful, literate and brilliant. Knowing Douglas, he probably has big plans for the future.

All three writers will be missed incredibly. Quite honestly, the site couldn’t have existed, or have been as creatively successful as it has been, without all of their work and commitment, and I hope that they will stick around to see what happens next.

Nicolas Papaconstantinou (that’s me) will also be taking a six week break from contributing to the site, to recharge his batteries.

To take over from the outgoing writers, we are welcoming some familiar faces, as well as some altogether new blood:

Chris Beckett has been supporting the site from the very first week, and has regularly contributed pieces to the forum area. He is a versatile and talented writer who has found himself quite busy in the last few months, so we are very lucky to have him for the next six weeks.

Andrew Cheverton, comic writer and artist extraordinaire, is another founding writer at the site, and is making a welcome return for a six week stint, starting today. Andy was a prime mover in encouraging and helping me to put together the site in the first place, and he tends to use EW as an excuse to write outside his comfort zone, so it is always cool to see what he comes up with. When his work thrills you, you stay thrilled for a while.

Monk Eastman is the talent behind the shared-world flash-fiction site “50 Years From Now”, and he has very kindly agreed to fill-in at EW for the next month and a half. His writing at 50YFN is pretty smart and rich stuff, so it should be interesting seeing what he does with the lunacy that is the EW schedule.

And finally, we welcome Dan Lester as our new regular contributor. Dan is a bit of a guerilla creative, using his website and small-press comic Monkeys Might Puke to showcase his slightly lunatic short movies, comics and other shenanigans. I have literally no idea what his contributions to the site are going to be like, and that is pretty exciting all by itself.

Thanks again to all of the outgoing contributors for their stellar work, and to all of the incoming writers, we look forward to seeing what you can do!

And to all of our readers, because we know that you’re out there, thanks for reading. Remember, if you like what we’re doing here at Elephant Words, please give us feedback, either in the forum or the comments, or if you’re a bit shy, by using the ratings. And if you fancy a go at making something up after seeing one of the pictures, well, what’s stopping you? We’d love to see what you come up with!

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Elephant News - As One Departs, Another Returns

Today, we say goodbye to one of our founding Elephant Words contributors, and at the same time say hello again to another.

Andrew Cheverton has decided to take some time out to devote himself more fully to some comic projects that are close to his heart.
Chev has been with the site since way before launch, and in fact Elephant Words may not have happened if, over a couple of phone calls and trips out for coffee, he hadn’t offered words of enthused encouragement when the idea first started buzzing around in my head.
Chev’s writing has a versatility and class to it that will be missed. He has approached every week as an excercise in delivering quality work, and has put an awful lot of time and effort into making his pieces interesting, and I think it shows. We look forward to seeing what he gets up to, and hope he’ll still drop in and read the site, and won’t stay away as a contributor for long.

Taking on Chev’s slot, at least for the next six weeks, is Rol Hirst. Regular readers will notice that Rol returns only six weeks after taking a break from contributing, and we’re incredibly grateful that he’s back to take on the Elephant challenge.
Rol was another of the founding writers on the site, and his work is always funny, always smart, and often incredibly insightful. He’s also one of the most supportive and generous of the writers we have here, and it’s great to have him back, for however long we get him!

Good luck Chev, and welcome back Rol!

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Elephant News - The Grave Doug Freshley

Elephant Words contributor and all round nice guy, Josh Hechinger, has a comic book coming out in a couple of months.

It’s a Western, written by Josh, and drawn by mpMann, and it’s looking pretty sweet.
Following Josh, you’d think that he’s obsessed with frenetic, Asian influenced action, but Grave Doug has a nice authentic Western voice to it that I’m sure you’ll all dig.

The Grave Doug Freshley #1- Previews order code - FEB083472 (I’ve left it a bit late, but your local comic shop should still be able to order that baby for you)

Tags: JoshHechinger, MP Mann. The Grave Doug Freshley

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And The Winner Is…

This week’s image is up, and another round of daily burst fiction starts here at Elephant Words, beginning a new six-week run that, for the first time, sees a new writer added to the roster.

After an intensive audition period, during which all of the proffered stories were rated by the readers and ruminated over by the EW writers, site creator Nick Papaconstantinou has made the decision to offer the unenviable task of replacing departing writer Rol Hirst to David Baillie, whose story Broke Down? Again? is available to read (or reread) here.

David will literally fill Rol’s place in the schedule, with his first story posting on Friday the 15th of February. For a taster of his work, David’s website features a large selection of his comics and prose.

Our thanks to all of those who sent in their audition pieces; we hope that you will continue to read and enjoy the site, and perhaps contribute future stories in the Forums. 

It goes without saying that everybody here at Elephant Words wishes Rol all the best with his future writing endeavors, and that one of those will include a return here as soon as he is able. Naturally, his website will continue to offer readers the opportunity to read his work, as well as updates on his new writings and publications.

In the meantime, the stories start here again tomorrow.

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Forum Crash and What Happened Next…

Ladies and Gentleman,

Earlier today, one of the main tables used in The Elephant Room database crashed, and had to be restored from the hosting company’s backup, which was as near as I can tell two days old. This means that anything that you have posted to the forum in the last two days is probably lost for good.
Read more

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15/07/2007 - Elephant Words Launched!

After a week of auditions, the first six contributors at Elephant Words are being finalised, and the site is now live!

This week, the pieces that each contributor wrote for the audition image will be published daily… Next Sunday, the first image chosen as part of the project-proper will be posted, and then it’s “game on” for the first six!

Remember to come back regularly and catch up on the great writing being done here, and please come along to the forum area and tell us what you think… I think we’re all incredibly excited by the idea behind the site, and we hope you will be too!

Yours enthusiastically,

Nicolas Papaconstantinou

Elephant Words Site Audition Launched!

The Elephant Words website is about to enter it’s beta phase!

After weeks of fidgetting, coding and pulling out my hair, I think the site is finally ready to start looking for contributors, and to help this process start, I am holding auditions between today (Sunday 08/07/2007) and Saturday 14/07/2007.

This is pretty short notice, but that’s in keeping with the fast pace that will be expected of the lucky writers who will make up the first wave of contributors to the site.

The first image and some information about auditioning is available here: http://elephantwords.co.uk/2007/07/07/08072007-first-image/

Please feel free to join in the fun, and if you know anybody who is a bit creative with the written word, invite them along as well.