Year of Darkness - An Introduction

For the next month and 3 weeks, we're trying something a little different on the Yorkshire Writers' Lunch blog. 

A few years back, prior to COVID, a few of our members collaborated on a project titled 'Year of Darkness', at the suggestion of Jo Cameron-Symes. This refers to 536AD, a particularly grim year during the Dark Ages where Europe, the Middle East and areas of Asia passed 18 months without sunlight due to abnormalities in the climate. 

As you can imagine, this provided quite a tantalising premise for our collaborators to adapt. As well as 536AD, we moved forward 250 years at a time, allowing elements of each entry to echo down the future plots.

There will be eight entries in Year of Darkness trilogy, featuring 6 collaborators. Here is the running order:

1. 536 by Nick Stead - 01 August

2. 786 by Nick Stead - 08 August

3. 1036 by Jo Cameron Symes - 15 August

4. 1286 by Vivien Teasdale - 22 August

5. 1536 by Vivien Teasdale - 29 August

6. 1786 by Annabel Howarth - 05 September

7. 2036 by Gareth Clegg - 12 September

8. 2286 by Owen Townend - 19 September

We will resume normal posting from 26 September onward. Until our next collaboration at least.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy Year of Darkness collaboration. Lights, please...