I paid to see Wells, not some stand in hack...

Hello all, I'm Matthew Buckley. A couple of weeks ago, Rob asked me to fill in for him. I feel like a sixteen year old who has been given the keys to the family car.

I've been trying to come up with a worthy topic every since. I thought about talking politics, but that is so divisive. And besides, after listening to Rob over the past argue in favor of libertarianism, I'm completely sold on the party. There is nothing more to say on that subject.

And although I came up with a nice laundry list of possible topics, I finally settled on one that I swore I would never do. I wanted to talk just a bit about my second book.

No, this isn't a shameless plug, at least I don't want it to be. To prove it, I won't even tell you what the name of the book is. It's not the book itself that is interesting (ok, I think it's interesting, but I'm severely biased), rather it's how the book was written that is interesting. As far as I can tell, it's the first published book of it's kind.

If you've spent much time on the Internet lately, you'll likely have heard about wikis. A wiki is a web site that anybody can edit. You don't just read the page, you participate in it's building.

And while wikis are used for all sorts of really neat stuff, from encyclopedias, to keeping track of your favorite TV show, I've always thought a wiki would work great in writing fiction.

Think about it, nearly every other entertainment medium is a collaborative effort. A good movie requires a person (or several persons) to write the screenplay, somebody else to direct it, others to act in it, others to make the effects, others to edit it, etc. etc. etc. Television is the same way, even art is often designed by one person, and painted by several.

So that is where my second book comes in. I wrote my second book entirely in a wiki. I invited anyone and everyone to come and participate. Admittedly, there were only about 15 people who showed up and edited the site. But nearly all of the suggestions were good ones, and made the book better.

An example of how this collaboration works: There is a scene in the book that takes place in primary. A primary teacher wrote to me and told me that she is teaches primary, and thought that the reaction would be different from how I described it. After a bit of thought I realized she was right, and modified the book based on her suggestion. The end result being a better book.

Although I only had a few participants, my publisher is allowing me to put a link to the site in this book, and so the third (and likely final) Buckley book will hopefully have more folks involved.

So, if you'd like to get a jump on the project, here is your formal invitation. My third book is about Scouting. Everybody has a wild scouting story, why not share yours and get it in my book? As with the second book, anybody who helps edit, or contributes a story, gets a free book (assuming the book gets published). You can find the site by going to http://chickenarmpits.blogspot.com and clicking on the link 'third book'.

Should be fun.