LEAP! (Or… when we said #24hourbook, we meant 24 hour book!)

So what did I do yesterday? This:

LEAP

A novel by 29 writers from 4 cities written in 24 hours around the world

February 29th, 2012. In Kuala Lumpur, it’s Sara’s birthday, a day she dreads, even though it only comes around once every four years. In Delhi, Tanya makes a dash for the airport and the carefree lifestyle that she has always dreamed of. In London, Dave wakes up from a bad dream to find his life in fragments that he must piece together before the day is out. In Vancouver, Win’s day goes from bad to worse, as she struggles to face up to her past.

On the leap day of the 29th of February, Spread the Word brought together four teams of writers from across the globe to write a collaborative novel. Spanning Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, London and Vancouver, four characters connect, disconnect, and follow their own journeys of discovery. There was a whole lot of hilarity and hard work, and much coffee and chocolate was consumed. We would love you to enjoy the fruits of the writers’ labours. Visit Spread the Word‘s website to download the book as a pdf or an ePub file from 5pm on World Book Day, Thursday 1st March. There will be an all-singing, all-dancing e-book version available soon!

Team Vancouver consisted of…
Sean Cranbury
Alyx Dellamonica
Jenn Farrell
McKinley M. Hellenes
Alex Leslie
Arley McNeney

Edited to add: I asked them to tell me something about them, and here’s the result:

Arley McNeney’s first book, Post, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize, Best First Novel, Canada and the Caribbean and longlisted for such awards as the Saskatchewan Book Prizes and the ReLit award. Her second novel, The Time We All Went Marching, was released by Gooselane in October. Arley is a former Paralympian in the sport of wheelchair basketball and won two World Championship gold medals and a Paralympic bronze at the 2004 Athens Paralympics. She works as a social media coordinator for various nonprofits and blogs about her hip replacement on her blog Young and Hip. She can be reached on Twitter @arley_mcneney.