Abaddon X
4th February 2015
Abaddon X
As we reach the final stretch in our open submissions month, we thought now was the perfect time to lift the cover – just a little – on Abaddon X…
Firstly, Abaddon X is not name of a new vigilante super group we’re forming. I know, I know: we asked and got told that “wasn’t a sensible use of funds.”
Project Abaddon X was the name we coined early last year for the as yet undecided scheme to mark the milestone that is our tenth anniversary. What would we do? Would there be cake? Is cake testing a sensible use of funds? (also a no)
A party was settled on fairly early on, but where and who to invite? Obviously there should also be a special edition, but with so many worlds which should we pick? There was also the small matter of who we would be getting to write the story; last year we had a record year for new authors writing from Abaddon.
While most of us at Abaddon Towers were popping the champagne corks to celebrate all the beautiful new faces who had joined us that wasn’t enough for David Thomas MOORE. An open subs month was settled on.
So we had a party, an open subs month and a print special edition. How could we fit these together?
Ideas were tossed backwards and forwards, but nothing seemed quite right, until team Abaddon found themselves in the prime conditions for inspiration to strike (read: the bar of a convention, it’s always the bar of a convention):
“We should do the party here, but not just here, everywhere.”
“Yeah!”
“And we should do the stories, all the stories.”
“Yeah!”
“And we should get everyone to write them.”
“Yeah!”
“And karaoke, gotta have karaoke.”
“Yeah!”
And so Project Abaddon X was settled: we would have a special collection that featured new, original pieces of flash fiction from some of our favourite worlds, by some of our incredibly talented authors (old and new), and we would also invite friends and past-authors to share their thoughts about Abaddon over the last ten years.
Plus, we would find a new Abaddon author and world to take the first step towards the next 10 years, and it seemed only logically to reveal this to the world for the first time as the concluding story to Abaddon Special Edition Collection.
And damnit, there would be cake, so much cake. Starting with a big party in London and rolling out to all the UK conventions we would be bringing cake, karaoke and free copies of the collection to everyone.
But what should we call this special edition collection?
Abaddon X will be available from summer 2015 in an exclusive print copy available directly from Abaddon Books at conventions and via the Rebellion Store in DRM-free eBook format. Stay tuned for the full line up announcement shortly, but rest assured it’ll be worth the wait…
Abaddon X will feature original, new flash fiction from Afterblight Chronicles, Pax Britannia, Tomes of the Dead, Weird Space, Gods & Monsters, Judge Dredd, No Man’s World, Ritual Crime Unit, the upcoming Extinction Biome and a yet-to-be-announced new world, from some of our iconic Abaddon authors! As well as commentary pieces on our last 10 years from big names in genre and further fan-favourite authors.