Three Little Words

I may have mentioned it once or twice but serial storytelling is kind of my thing. 

When I was a kid, from all the G.I Joe mini-series, the pilot of DuckTales, to the entire first season of X-Men and then the mythology of The X-Files, ‘To Be Continued...’ quickly became my favorite phrase ever. Seeing those words appear on the TV screen struck several emotions:

Rage over an episode’s end right in the middle of the action. 

Relief that there would be a resolution. 

Excitement while anticipating the conclusion.  

Annoyance that I had to wait in the first place. 

This was before binge watching, people! 

One of the best stories about between season anticipation was relayed by Sir Patrick Stewart, as he encountered some Star Trek fans the summer of 1990. The Best of Both Worlds cliffhanger had them so rattled that they shouted to the talented actor “You ruined our summer!”

It’s safe to say that if not for the mesmerizing draw of those three words ‘To Be Continued’ I would not have become an author.

Today, serial storytelling has become the gold standard. Ever since The Sopranos expertly introduced the season arc concept to such a wide audience, television has basically evolved into telenovels. You name it - Breaking Bad, Ozark, The Expanse, Game of Thrones - almost all of the mass-consumed popular stories of late have been built on this concept. But it’s not new! Literary work has been published in installments for centuries!  Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle both owed their success to periodicals. And, hello? Comic books are the poster children for serial storytelling! The effectiveness of the Avengers movies and the MCU may actually be responsible for what Amazon’s doing next...

Starting this week, Amazon introduces Kindle Vella, a new platform for prose content specifically designed for episodic releases. Just like how The Sopranos took an old idea and made it new again, Amazon is hoping readers would be keen to be kept anticipating the next chapter of an ongoing tale just as their viewers wait for the next episode of The Boys to drop. And, just like their Prime Video television shows, Kindle Vella promises all new series will have the first several episodes available instantly, enough to whet the whistle of the reader. Well, when I heard this, I was all ears. And, I just so happened to have a short piece perfect for the format.

Available NOW, The Edicts of Evolution is my debut Kindle Vella series.  Originally designed to be a novelette, this eight episode mechanical murder mystery is what you get when you cross the rigid reasoning skills of a computer with the resolve of a stubborn gumshoe, and I was keen to make sure that when each episode ends it strikes the same chord as seeing the words ‘To Be Continued.’ 

The first three episodes are FREE to read, so give it a try! I hope you check it out, because the more of you that do, the more the Kindle Vella platform succeeds, and then you can be assured this won’t be my only series...