Thanks for the posting, and for the invitation to comment on your comment. (Just so your readers know, I’m one of the authors.)

I’m glad you enjoyed the story – and flattered you couldn’t resist the temptation to read ahead although as you point out, that does defeat one of the purposes of the project, increasing the suspense by delivering the emails at random times.

The random delivery has another effect on readers that you also touch on – it transforms the reading experience. Readers are used to being in control – if they want to find out what happens next all they have to do is turn the page. In our project, that control has been taken away, making the experience, for want of a better word, more “virtual.” Although readers don’t interact with the characters, the fact that they have to wait along with them to find out what happens next involves them more directly in the story than in a traditional print book. (After all, we’re not really in control of our own lives, as much as we might like to think otherwise.)

This effect is enhanced by the fact that the emails arrive directly in the reader’s inbox. The very act of picking up a print book has a distancing effect. As much as a reader may be drawn in by the story, they can never lose the awareness that they are observers. In The Daughters of Freya, this separation between the reader and the characters is blurred. As one reader put it, “I found myself wondering throughout the day how the characters were getting along and had to remind myself that they were fictional.” Another said that “when the story ended, I felt as if my friends had stopped writing to me.”

In order to sustain this effect, it is crucial that the project mirror way people actually use the Internet. Previous attempts to publish on the Internet have not been too successful, largely, I would argue, because they have generally invited readers to read a chapter book on a computer screen. In our project the form is integrated with the medium. Readers open an email … and read an email (written in informal, chatty email style, with each writer having their own email idiosyncracies.) And just like regular email, our emails link to external websites which we’ve created specifically for the project, with newspaper and magazine articles, photographs and other content that is part of the mystery. Again, to repeat myself, the prime directive is to mirror the way people actually use the Internet. (In future projects we hope to incorporate video and audio files.)

I’d be interested to hear any thoughts you or your readers may have about this.

If anyone wants to find out more about the project, I invite them to visit the website – http://www.emailmystery.com, or contact me at michael@emailmystery.com

Best regards,

Michael Betcherman