Why subscribe?
When you subscribe you’ll receive twice weekly serial chapters from my serialised speculative novel ‘INGRESSION’. This original, completed and edited work has only been read in full by a handful of beta readers. Comprising ~120,000 words across 100 chapters, it’s being delivered to subscribers over a 50 week period. That’s an average of 10,000 words to enjoy every month - for the price of a coffee.
Or keep reading if you want to know more…
A woman with “a desperate plan, an unnecessary man and a limited lifespan.”
What’s the novel about?
INGRESSION is an adult speculative fiction novel which fuses elements from the dystopian, first contact and climate fiction sub-genres – with a hint of swords and eagles fantasy. Its target audience is readers preferring (or crossing into) accessible science fiction; who enjoy character-driven plots and strong, contemporary woman protagonists. The main character, Paysha Anoman, is inspired by (amongst others), the eponymous hero of The Ballad of Halo Jones and Camina Drummer, as portrayed in the televised series The Expanse.
“On a drowned yet parched future world, a young woman is forced into a dangerous journey when seeking to cure her body’s fatal flaws. The key to her survival lies with friends old and new, a mysterious mentor, and a deadly secret she struggles to hide within her mind. But it will take far more than a desperate plan, an irrelevant man and a limited lifespan to avoid her premature fate. So when an enigmatic artefact promises to aid her quest in exchange for her innermost thoughts, she must risk making the ultimate sacrifice to save both herself and those she loves.”
What you get when you sign up…
Here’s the deal on when and how often I’ll be posting chapters, what else to expect in various posts, and the three subscriber tier packages:
Mondays: Expect even-numbered chapters around 16:30 UK time.
Thursdays: Odd-numbered chapters are scheduled for 13:00 UK time.
Most Sundays posts go out just for paid subscribers/founding members. These relate to additional commentary, background resources, new discussion threads, reader feedback etc.
There are occasional housekeeping announcements.
Benefit Tiers
Paid Subscribers
Receive every chapter, sent twice weekly.
Have access to all previously published chapters.
Can view additional material & resources.
Can contribute comments and participate in private chat threads.
Link to the novel’s curated Spotify playlist.
The ‘Above & Beyond Fan’ Plan
Receive all the benefits above, plus a free ePub of the completed novel when the end of the novel is reached.
Free Subscribers
Can read the Prologue and all Act I chapters (1-12) any time. All subsequent chapters will be archived behind the paywall 3 days after being sent out! If you snooze, you lose.
A word about Word Count
The average chapter length is 1,200 words but obviously this can vary. In any week you might receive anything between 2,000 to 8,000 words. Over a month you’ll receive just over 10,000 words on average. That’s equivalent to two short stories every month for a year!
‘Life matters, even when free will is a human-conjured illusion.
Reality? Not so much.’
Stay up-to-date
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Whether you decide to subscribe or not, if you know someone who might be interested in reading my work then please share the Consilience Series with them.
Why create “The Consilience Series” publication?
I’ve been writing prose and poetry since early 2018, including several competition listed short stories, more than a hundred Substack posts, a bunch of poems and a speculative fiction novel - the one that likely brought you here. I’m now halfway through drafting the second Consilience novel in the series. I estimate that’s more than 400,000 words in total, and I think you deserve to read most of them.
The website (or Substack app) you’re now on helps me to enable that goal, and is certainly easier than most alternative methods. Like thousands of other writers and authors, the struggle to get seen by an agent, to be picked up by a large publisher and to wait two years or more to get your book into the world can seem like camping out in a casino. I’m not discounting it ever happening, but I’ve never been much of a gambler. Meanwhile, I want to bring my readers closer and provide more mutual benefit.
‘Maybe love can overcome logic and death. Maybe…’
What kind of community am I looking to build?
Obviously, a committed group of readers eagerly awaiting every chapter and devouring it as soon as it hits their inboxes! Failing that, a community of people who are happy to critique what they’ve read. Who participate in the comments or chat sections and are willing to share their knowledge, experience and opinions. But tucked up in a cosy chair, being entertained by my novel without saying a word to anyone here is, of course, also perfectly fine. It is, after all, what the vast majority of fiction readers do…
What experience do I bring to this novel?
I’m a writer and poet who put creative pen to paper only four decades after winning a school English prize. Between those milestones I’ve attempted to be a pilot, a doctor and a library cataloguer, but was lured into government sanctioned drugs and corporate computing.
I’ve flown planes and hovercraft. I’ve dissected human brains and delivered babies. I’ve architected data systems for MRI scanners and blockchains for gene therapies. These experiences have helped to inspire and inform my writing. Happier communing with nature more than most people, both inspire my poetry and prose.
My contactable parts are indexed under ‘ReidItWrite’.
Are you now convinced to give The Consilience Series a go? Then please sign up below!
