Neil Gaiman Teams with Blackberry for 'Calendar of Tales’

That Neil Gaiman’s at it again — he’s only gone and hooked up with Blackberry for a new social-media-powered project to create a reader-generated calendar. Blackberry’s Twitter followers will submit story ideas to the author through tweets on a monthly basis then, if selected, send illustrations to accompany it.

Part of Blackberry’s ‘Keep Moving’ projects, it’s called the ‘Calendar of Tales’, and will be produced in a collected version and sold for charity. Famous for books like American Gods and children’s tales like The Graveyard Book and Coraline, Gaiman had this to say about the project:

I’ve been trying to figure out for years a way to collaborate with readers... I love the idea of getting some kind of feedback and I love the idea of taking what I made and giving it back to people, almost like some kind of ping pong match. So the plan is what I am going to do is create a calendar tales. I am going to write them but they are going to be inspired and illustrated by you.

January’s theme is “Why is January so dangerous?” and the responses so far are proving interesting. It’s a very short medium to get a story across — and a very short timescale to get your ideas in as it closes today, 6th February, at 5pm GMT.

Is this just a cynical ploy/desperate attempt by Blackberry to regain its ‘Crackberry’ status? Probably, but I think the idea has some legs. And you could do worse than get Neil Gaiman to write it.

To submit your ideas before the deadline, you need to be following Blackberry and use the tags,’ #KeepMoving’ and ‘#JanTale’.

Find out more on Blackberry’s Keep Moving website.