The book looks fantastic! There’s one glaring omission on the title/cover, though…I don’t see ‘Vol. 1’ anywhere! 
Thanks for coordinating this. It was a lot of fun and I hope we see the call go out for Vol. 2 material in 350 days, give or take. 
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It’s a long standing tradition at this point for me to say “never again”.
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While planning “vol 2” …
No one has accused you of being 100% committed to consistency.
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I think we got it spot on the first try. No need to bring sequels into this.
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Next year: The Cookery Book Murders
The Pumpkin Spice Murderesses.
The Gochujang Massacre
Horrible Holiday Emu - Stories to Make You Fear Australia
Hmm. How about: - ‘Emu and the Dolphins; Rum Raiders Extraordinaire.’
Gators, Emus and Dolphins - the rise of the devils triad.
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The Gators’ Stalking; a Croc of Shit.
I am, of course, in no way implying or suggesting and certainly not promising that there would be any follow up – in fact let me reiterate that there are absolutely no plans to ever do anything like this ever again.
But, because I’m a sucker for feedback…
If you were me what would I, I mean you, or, well… we do?
- Villa Diodati 2 should be more ghost stories
- Villa Diodati 2 should be a different genre
- Future story collections should be a different genre and name
- I don’t mind either way, but make sure you invite me
- “I have utterly no idea what you’re talking about. Please, God, don’t ask for my input.”
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I like Villa Diodati for ghost stories; dunno that I’d like it for, say, a cosy mystery or a romance or a hard-bitten detective romp.
I prefer reading and writing short stories, compared to long stories. Any short story in a day or two suits me. I’ve never forgotten reading those of Guy de Maupassant.
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What about a Limerick in an Hour for a future event? Multiple submissions allowed. Here’s one of mine for a Burns Supper - the day is coming.
“The Burns night supper was tearsome
For the Haggis was awfy fearsome
It chased the piper
Until a sniper
Shot it up the rearsome”
Excellent!
“Hoots, lassie. Your rearsome is lookin’ awfa fearsome.”
Slap.
I preferred this event to our traditional NIAD format. I wouldn’t say it was less stressful exactly, but I liked knowing the genre in advance and being able to write a complete story.
I only signed up for it about a week before submission date, and discarded several ideas and half written stories, panicking that I’d never be able to finish anything.
In fact, I only started writing it on Thursday, when I suddenly had a brainwave and remembered that Shakespeare wrote several plays with ghosts.
So I started rereading Hamlet, which I had studied for A’level many years ago. The ghost speaks to Hamlet, so I thought: what if the mc is a girl called Harriet who speaks to her mother’s ghost? I had no idea what the story would be about, apart from that, and I didn’t find the ending until Saturday night.
I love the book that we’ve all produced and the many brilliant and diverse interpretations of the genre.
In the process I learnt that planning ahead doesn’t work for me. Instead, the characters need to reveal the plot.
I’m planning to do Nanowrimo, and might write short stories instead of a novel for this one.
I’d be interested to hear how everyone else came up with the idea for their ghost story and what they learnt from this process.
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Enjoyed your story v.much. I loved Harriet: “Oy Mary! Wake up!”
I agree that knowing the genre upfront helps, and I think it would help with NIAD too – just so that you can get your head in the right space before kick-off.
Shakespeare’s an interesting start-point, I went with folklore, but it’s the same idea: to get the ball rolling.
re planning: Philip Pullman says to write the story first, then plan. I’ve come to agree with him. I absolutely, 100% agree with letting the characters reveal the plot. For a short story – as we’ve just done – that’s not so hard, but it’s trickier with a novel because of scale. But if you take an iterative approach – and can keep everything under control – then you can develop such richness and depth. In the short story form, which I don’t usually write, I found it refreshing to be able to show everything and tell nothing; leaving it to the readers’ biases, er, imagination – and cultural norms – to fill in the blanks.
I noted my backstory for this event up-thread, but the biggest lesson was how much story you can fit into so few words if you just let the reader fill in the blanks. I didn’t start out with that idea, but as things developed, it became a fun project: 1,000 words to tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end, and three arcs.
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Let’s have love stories next. I’d love to see more prescriptive happily ever afters. Not the sarcastic Gone Girl type where it’s only a HEA on paper but not in actuality. Valentine’s Day 
I was a student at a college known for its ghost stories, and one of my favorite high school texts was an unforgettable prescriptive ghost story. So I merged both concepts. I learned that nothing is new under the sun.
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@auxbuss Hi! I’m really glad you enjoyed it!
I’ve just reread your story, and am now researching Dunmail as I had never heard of this folklore. Your story is scary - all those spooky watchmen, and poor Damon, what a way to die…
Re Philip Pullman, I remember his advice to school children doing their SATS where he said (something like) your teacher will tell you to write a plan before you write your story, but that’s a waste of time because your story will never match your plan; so write the story first and then your teacher will be impressed that your plan exactly matches your story.
I think that’s excellent advice as characters never do what they’re supposed to.
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