Who doesn't love a good short story? Or a collection of them all?

It's the reason why story compilations like My True Love Gave to Me, Chicken Soup for the Soul and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes have sold so well. People love having the ability to read multiple stories in a short amount of time - especially when they lead busy lives and may only have a few minutes spare to read. Plus, a heap of stories in one book? Talk about a bargin! 

Anthologies are also great as they bring a whole group of diverse authors together who all have a range of different ideas. The result of a lot of hard work coming together to create something can definitely be magical. 

One Million Project is an ebook that compiles 24 short stories by 14 different authors. The stories range from time traveling and fantasy to contemporary and humor, and best of all - it's raising money for Cancer Research, The Railway Children, and the homeless. It's called the 'One Million Project' because $1 from every download will go towards the goal of raising $1,000,00.

So not only are you getting an entertaining read, you're also helping raise money for a great cause!

We were fortunate enough to get the opportunity to speak to Jason Greenfield, the man behind it all. Check out our interview with him below!

Hi Jason! Thanks for joining us here at Wattmag.

Jason Greenfield: Hi Dorothy. Thanks for inviting me. :) 

There's a really diverse group of stories in this book from a whole group of different authors. How did you manage to get so many awesome people involved in this project?

JG: Some were aspiring writers I already knew, whose creativity I admired, such as Sarah Wilson and Dan Impossible. Others came through contacts and recommendations so for example, in the summer of 2012 I was at a wedding in Malta and met a guy called Eric - we talked writing and stayed in touch. A year later I asked him if he would like to contribute a story and while he was unable to do so himself, he put me in touch with his nephew who writes under the name Cosmo Clinton and Cosmo brought New York Times bestselling list author and former UK charting musician Tony O Neill to the OMP.

So it came down to two things - delving into my contacts (and contacts of contacts) and explaining the creative and charitable aspirations of the One Million Project.

How long did it take to get this project to come to life?

JG: I had the initial idea around April of 2013 and began to slowly gather contributing writers as well as a few artists and some people to help promote the finished product. The writers were great and I got most of the stories within six months of asking, but we had some difficulties with editing promises which delayed things. After two years of no work being done on that, I gathered all the stories myself and set to putting them together and we published on Amazon on November 30th 2015.

In July of this year (2016) I embarked on a massive expansion of the OMP Network using mostly new contacts I'd made on a writing site called WriteOn which I'd joined in 2015. Since then the network went from just under 30 members to presently 85 (not including a dozen or so people in our new and separate Promotions Network). Now we have many more great writers for future editions and some very professional editors (who are working on our own online OMP Magazine) - in a way I wish I'd held off publishing last year so we could have had a sleeker collection. These are all lessons leaned for the future - shorter stories, more writers, tighter more focused genre collections and of course I can stick to writing and have actual editors take care of that part! ☺

What encouraged you to raise money for such important causes like Cancer Research and helping the homeless?

JG: In general I have wanted to give back to society and help people who need help, for years - I just wasn't able to think of how to do that in any meaningful way. I had also been thinking I wanted to do a collection of stories, but couldn't think of a creative hook apart from getting other writers involved. Then one day it occurred to me to marry the two ideas together.

I chose Cancer Research and the Homeless because those were two issues that had really impacted on me. The former because my mother had cancer about 14 years back - thankfully she went into remission although it did recur once more. I was very upset and shaken up at the time and even to this day she still has check-ups and took preventative medication for many years.

There was also a period where it seemed I couldn't read a newspaper or turn on the television without seeing reports on people who had, in most cases, lost their homes or been driven from them by abusive parents/situations etc, through no fault of their own. I couldn't help but be affected and one of my core beliefs is that nobody in the modern world should be deprived of the basic right of a roof over their head and food to eat.

I specifically chose CANCER RESEARCH UK and EMMAUS because although they have bases in the UK where I am, they are International Organizations and the OMP is something I hope can help globally - and part of the reason I have recruited so many creatives from all over the world (The UK and US are most represented but we also have Australians, Canadians, Indians and a surprisingly large percentage of Lithuanians among others!).

Another aspect of the OMP is that we also hope to spread awareness of many other good causes and issues - such as the WAY Foundation, which is close to the heart of one of our writers, Rhian Rawling (Widows And Young people - they deal with helping those who have lost loved ones), animal conservation, children, gender issues and more. In fact, no cause is off topic and we hope to attract bloggers to our website and magazine to discuss any worthy issue they would like to air. Our networkers are already blogging on a regular basis.

https://theonemillionprojectcom.wordpress.com/

Compiling all these stories together for such a great cause was definitely a success! Now that you've done that, what's next for you?

JG: Well I mentioned above how we also want to create a platform of Awareness for causes and issues in general - that will be ongoing and hopefully grow as OMP becomes a recognizable charitable and creative brand. We'll also add more ONE MILLION PROJECT collections to raise more money for our charities and if we hit a certain level of success, expand the groups we donate to.

Since the expansion of the creative network, we have some 60 plus new and excellent writers waiting to contribute towards follow-up collections. Originally I had planned an OMP 2, OMP 3 etc but lately I've been thinking of themed anthologies such as OMP: Thrillers which would encompass Thriller, Horror, Mystery/Detective etc - OMP: Fantasy which might include Science-Fiction, sword n sorcery and the more way out genres.

We are also looking into OMP MUSIC. This would be similar to our writing collections but in album form with musicians contributing tracks instead of stories. We could also possibly do audio book reading of our existing and future stories and I am also adding artists to those, doing 4 pieces of art per story which will be embedded into the downloads. Some have already been uploaded and others will be added as and when we receive art.

In the more distant future, once things build and we have sponsorship, we'll look to put on events and collect donations for our charities and if very successful maybe transition to a Foundation status. All sales and donations going to our goal of raising a million pounds and perhaps more. If everything works out, we can do this indefinitely, providing great entertainment and opportunities for indie creators and helping give money to charities, making the world a better place and spreading awareness.

First and foremost OMP is adaptive, so given new contacts and new opportunities, we might launch other strategies towards our goals, maybe something big thought up by someone who joined upon reading this very article!

How can people help out with this project?

JG: Buy the book - the download will cost you roughly the price of a cup of coffee for 24 stories worth of entertainment (future collections should have 40 plus stories), give us a review, comment and interact on our Website and Facebook pages (blogs will be on the former) and tell friends. Share, Like and Tweet us. My aim is to trend #OMP, #ONEMILLIONPROJECT and get as well known as the Ice Bucket Challenge was a few years back, except this time round you get thoroughly entertained for your money instead of doused in ice water!

We also need contacts - if you are an artist or writer, you may wish to join the network and become directly involved - in return you'll be part of a great support system (my hope is to encourage members to collaborate on projects and for everyone to help promote not just your OMP stories but your private body of work). That said, we would especially like writers with established followings and professional contacts and skills that can help with our promotion and media.

The OMP is also looking for recruits directly to our Promotions Network headed by Dr Sheena Macleod - this network has only been active for two months but already we have compiled impressive databases of contact information for UK libraries, bookstores and other literary venues (which we hope to expand to the US and globally) as well as conceiving, planning and putting together a bimonthly OMP ONLINE Magazine and blogging strategy. We are also setting up teams for marketing, promotions, fundraising, sponsorship/events, advertising and more and have just begun to expand recruitment.

The ethos of the OMP (creative and promotional networks) is friendly, supportive and encouraging - to promote our overall goals in the areas of charity and creative endeavour and also to provide opportunities for our writers/artists/musicians to be read/viewed and heard by a wider audience. Everybody involved is donating their time, skills and work for free. Original copyright of all donated work remains the intellectual property of the creator and they are free to re-use their work wherever they wish. There are no formal time commitments for those members who are helping in other areas such as blogging, editing, marketing etc - existing members work around their own schedules.

Thanks very much Dorothy for including me in Wattmag and thank you all for reading.

Keep up with the OMP journey here:

http://www.theonemillionproject.com/

https://www.facebook.com/OMP-Artists-1019236041474275/?fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/TheJasonGreenfield?fref=ts

https://twitter.com/JayGreenfield 

One Million Project is available for purchase on Amazon now.