Mr. Abernathy

Welcome to the home of my new novel: Mr. Abernathy.

First, some background. This story began as a spec script that I was writing just prior to the WGA strike. During the strike, I shelved the project and began working on other non-screen pieces. But the story stuck with me, and when the strike ended, I looked over the notes and outline with fresh eyes. It needed… something, and I felt whatever that something was, it wasn’t going to fit into the screenplay structure the story had been born into. I took the narrative outline, tore a large subplot out of it, and began reworking it as a short story. But the short story became more and more complex, and turned into a novella-length draft.

Which brings us to here. After a lot of thought and debate and advice-seeking about what to do with the draft I had, I made the choice to use it as a starting point for a complete rewrite. I decided to rewrite each chapter sequentially, and then publish them online as a serial novel, one chapter at a time.

“But Tony,” you say, “you’re giving a novel away, for free? Why on earth would you do that?” Well, for starters, I don’t want to spend six months on a complete rewrite (or two) and then shop it around. It’s a story that I like, and I want to get it out there to my audience. And I have other projects that I need to be working on.

Also, it’s a one-off project for me, and one that I’d like to just experiment and toy with. It’s my first foray into manuscript-length genre fiction¹, so it will be interesting for me to get feedback along the way from savvy readers. It will be a lot of fun as an author to work by the seat of my pants as I rewrite and publish it a section at a time, and I hope that the serial web format will be fun for the readers as well.

The first chapter will be published here on 10/1/08, with subsequent installments appearing at an interval that I haven’t finalized yet. I’d like to say every 2-3 weeks.

I hope you enjoy solving the mystery of Mr. Abernathy with me. It should be a good ride.