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Rumpus Book ClubShya Scanlon Experiments with Web Serialization
Beginning this Thursday, Shya Scanlon will be serializing his sci-fi novel, Forecast, in semi-weekly installments across 42 web journals and blogs.
Forecast is a sci-fi tale of relationships and identity under constant surveillance. The novel opens in a world where the weather has gone berserk, and electricity is created out of negative human emotion. Here we meet Helen, the suburban wife of a lying weatherman, who watches her neighbor’s yard through the “Window” function of her TV and considers wearing her Anti-Surveillance Mask to turn on her husband after work:
Still exhausted from work, and annoyed with herself for not having thought of it sooner, Helen decided right then and there to surprise Jack when he got home by having her mask on. Put a little spark back into things, maybe. He’d be happy, she reasoned, to see that she shared his concerns about being watched, and maybe he’d pay some attention to her. Maybe they’d watch some TV together.
It’s an interesting way to release a novel, one with the potential to weave together diverse sectors of the literary blogosphere.
Participants in the Forecast 42 include both well-established literary journals and some of the most exciting independent literary ventures on the web, including: Puerto del Sol, Redivider, Opium Magazine, Juked, Emerging Writers Network, Kottke.org, HTMLGIANT, Keyhole, Word Riot, flatmancrooked, Monkeybicycle, 3:AM Magazine, Pank Magazine, and Gigantic Magazine.
There are four ways to follow the serialization:
1) follow Shya’s Twitter posts, @shyascanlon
2) befriend Shya at facebook.com/shya.scanlon
3) check Shya’s website, which will be updated with links to each chapter as it goes live
4) each chapter will link back to the previous chapter, and forward to the next once it’s live, so you can use the participating sites themselves to navigate the novel
Chapter 1 will be released this Thursday, July 16, on Juked.
July 14th, 2009 at 7:27 am
Forecast is going to get people talking. Definitely.
July 14th, 2009 at 9:15 am
I just want to add that the editors and bloggers involved have been amazingly helpful and easy to work with. It’s a testament to the supportive nature of the online literary community that something like this was even possible, let alone organized so painlessly. Thanks, everyone!
July 14th, 2009 at 10:06 am
What a nifty idea, Shya. This is going to be fun to witness.
July 14th, 2009 at 11:24 am
This is a great web site! Helpful too. Look for the serialization on Twitter and Facebook. Check out my first and recently released novel, Long Journey to Rneadal. This exciting tale is a romantic action adventure in space and is more about the characters than the technology.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:28 am
Opium’s thrilled to be a part of it!