On Beginning to Release a Serial Novel

Hail and well met, Slayers of Giants! Welcome to Tilting at Windmills. As I’ve mentioned on previous episodes of my podcast/YouTube show, I’m going to be switching up the format AGAIN. Back when the shop was called Writers Not Writing, I interviewed authors about how they procrastinated. It was lighthearted fun for the listener, and I had a blast because I got to meet some amazing up-and-coming authors and some big-name New York Times bestsellers, Hugo and Nebula award winners, Emmy winning screenwriters, and more. I really enjoyed it.

And then the world changed.

It felt inappropriate to be focusing on procrastination in a time when we all need to get off our butts and speak out while we still can. I started asking interviewees how they were using their art and their platforms to speak out about the rise of fascism.

As this shift was happening on the show, my life changed. I moved to Spain, and people expressed a lot of interest in what that moving process was like. So the show changed. I started co-hosting with my wife Chrys. But our situation in Spain fell apart for a number of reasons. Now my soon-to-be-ex-wife-and-still-best-friend is returning to one side of the US, and I’m moving to the other. I could go back to interviewing authors about their day-to-day lives, but that feels wrong because I’m not in the right headspace to do so. I could cancel the show altogether, but that feels wrong, also. Too much in my life is coming to an end.

Instead, I’m going to start sharing a novel in serial form, one chapter a week. I think you’ll enjoy it. It’s a piece of literary comedy with a fantasy twist. It’s been a lot of fun to write, and it’s hopefully timely and timeless, a story about a man who seems insane because he is happily fighting back when the world has gone mad. I hope that, by releasing it as a serial, I can get your feedback throughout.

So when that starts appearing beginning next week,  please comment away on whatever platform you’re finding this, and consider becoming a patron of my Patreon or subscribing to my Substack so you’ll get a little reminder each week when a new chapter comes out. I hope to see your reactions and suggestions soon when I share Chapter 1 of  Tilting at Windmills.