The Platypus Project
Last month in my Reflecting on 2024 blog post, I mentioned how the small independent publisher that I am volunteering for, The Platypus Project, played a significant role in my first year as a freelance proofreader. As we are now embarking on a new year, I would like to formally introduce the project’s first anthology: 31 Frights.
After University, myself and a few others on our course felt as though we hadn’t fully achieved everything we wanted. For a creative writing module, during our final year, we were expected to create our own publication and garner experience that would be vital to those who wanted to go onto work in the publishing industry. However, due to internal and external interferences, this project never came to fruition. As a result, we decided to come together to create our own passion project, which would soon become The Platypus Project.
To put it simply, 31 Frights is a collection of 31 short stories with a twist, representing the beloved month of Halloween. Each story will be their own but will be accompanied by a main narrative that joins all 31 stories together. Each story will focus on a different evil/creature, created with horror and thriller elements. The main narrivate will take place in The Old Town of Abel, which means that each individual story takes place in the same location. Therefore, 31 Frights will contain easter eggs that may hint towards other stories, characacters or events.
Currently, our talented team of writers have been working on early drafts which have already been through a round of feedback fom our editors and proofreading from myself. Our Chief Team, made up of our Project Manager, Editors, Proofreader, Creative Director and Head of Communications, are in regular contact with eachother and our writers. We aim to expand the project in 2025, which includes opening submissions for more writers to join us in the hopes that we can reach our goal of 31 stories as quick as possible!
We also have plans to increase our social reach — we want to be more active on our Facebook page which you can follow for updates, we aim to start our own blog which will be spearheaded by our Chief Team, we plan to start an Instagram page, and create our own email address which you can contact us directly on.
All of us involved with The Platypus Project all have a love for what we do, whether it’s the publishing side or the creative writing side. Some of us intend to take our experience and go into full-time work and others take part on the side as a hobby. If you would like to know more, or if you are interested in joining us, you can contact us on our Facebook page or you can reach out to me directly!
Lauren Ternent | The Editorial Geordie