Monday, March 18, 2013

Serial Novel - Prologue


PROLOGUE
The creak of the rocking chair didn't bother Gwen Holcomb anymore. As she sat on the couch, she ignored the sound and stared at but not really reading the book in her hands. The chair had been making that awful sound on its own for the past forty years. No sense in getting nervous about it now.
But tonight was different in many ways. Gwen knew this. Gwen dreaded this.
Still, she put any creeping, horrible thoughts out of her mind and tried to focus on something outside of her internal fears and the external ambiance of the evening. The atmosphere almost felt afraid. The air quivered with the nervous anticipation that something was coming. Something terrible.
Gwen cleared her mind, doing everything she could to think of nothing. Nothing at all. Because only nothing could keep her from dreading the horror that was inexorably marching toward her. Such a quiet evening to be pondering such horrible ideas.
Gwen looked up from her book to the window across the living room, thinking she might have heard a noise from that direction. After several minutes of staring at the window, however, the only noise in the room was the constant creak of the rocking chair, which was still moving on its own. She returned to the book, still not having read a word of it, and realized she was holding her breath.
She exhaled, but almost as though it were a premonitory response to her sudden relief, the room instantly fell to an awful chill, her escaping breath misting, dissipating visibly as it left her lips.
“I'm not ready,” Gwen pleaded. As though it was giving an angry reply, the room began to shake, old pictures on the wall began to vibrate, and the air grew from chilled menace to a threatening and frightening aura.
“You have no choice,” an unhappily familiar voice announced. “You've run out of time.”
Gwen closed her eyes, for she knew who would be arriving shortly. Knew what would be arriving.

Serial Novel - The Why

Why am I writing a free serial novel?

Because I want to. That's really the only answer. I have a story idea, I like it, I've outlined it, and I'd like to present it to everyone. And I thought it would be fun to present the novel in much the same way as Dickens did in days long gone; as a serial.

Originally, I thought I'd release it as a daily thing, since I'm a few days ahead on the story, but I realized there's something about doing it daily that isn't conducive to the narrative flow of this story. So, I changed my mind to releasing larger quantities weekly. I think this will give for a more satisfying story flow, and will give the audience a chance to spend a little longer with the characters, should they so choose. Except this week, where you will get the Prologue and Chapter One today, and more on Friday. But after this first week, once a week!

The weekly release will also help me with the entire revision thing. That said, I'm sure I will make mistakes. I'm doing this without an editor, and I can only catch so much. Please, dear readers, feel free to point out oddities, errors, and all that fun stuff as you read. I would appreciate it.

At the end of all of this I will release it as a whole, still free, for everyone to download for their reading pleasure.

Now I am doing this for free, but, if you feel like supporting this and other creative endeavors of mine, I will have a donation button to the right side of the screen and one down below. It's not something I expect anyone to do, nor am I going to be upset if no one donates. I'll be writing this book no matter what. And it will be free no matter what. So please, enjoy it as it is released and I thank you all for taking a chance with it!

Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two (coming soon)
Chapter Three (coming soon)
Chapter Four (coming soon)
Chapter Five (coming soon)