So I’ve written this linked story collection that I’m calling “semi-autobiographical” and in which one of the protagonists is named Shya Scanlon, and is, despite doing things I haven’t done, an honest representation of myself. Responds, in other words, to fictional situations in a manner authentic to my sense of myself. Anyway, I happen to be reading a book called Out Of My Skin by John Haskell, and in this book, the narrator is, I believe, also named John Haskell.
Perhaps it’s because I noticed the ease with which Molly Gaudry found a home for her great anthology idea, but I’ve suddenly been overcome by the urge to create an anthology of fiction in which authors create characters named after themselves. There is quite a bit of such fiction, it seems–enough, at any rate, to indicate I’d be able to pull together work that uses this device for a variety of reasons and to a variety of effects.
But I hereby put the idea before you good people, to see if it passes scrutiny. Is there already such an anthology? Is this something that seems like a good/strong theme for a collection? Can you think of stories and/or novels to recommend for it (I’d think I might include excerpts)?