New books, live readings, a growing creative house—and what's coming this fall
Summer is winding down, which seems like a good time to look around Scratch Writing Press and ask a fairly simple question:
What have we been up to?
The answer, apparently, is quite a bit.
This has been a summer of publishing, experimenting, rebuilding, and figuring out what I want Scratch Writing to become over the next several years.
At the center of all of it are still the books.
But the world around those books has gotten considerably bigger.
The Midas Files Gets Bigger
The biggest publishing news is the continued expansion of The Midas Files.
The Midas Protocol began the story. This year, that story continued with Call of the Minotaur, the second installment in the series.
It's a much larger chapter in the Midas story, and I've made it available in Part I, Part II, and a Complete Edition for readers who prefer the entire adventure in one volume.
Meanwhile, I'm already looking toward what comes next.
The planned third Midas Files novel, Tears of Dionysus, will eventually bring the main trilogy toward its conclusion. Before we get there, however, I'm developing Bingham's Notebook, a Midas Files story that will dig deeper into some of the history and mysteries behind the series.
Apparently writing one book just creates ideas for more books.
Nobody warned me about that.
Reading the Story Out Loud
This summer also brought a new experiment: The Midas Files Live Readings.
I've started working my way through The Midas Protocol chapter by chapter in weekly live sessions on YouTube.
It's been an interesting experience returning to a book I originally published several years ago and actually performing it rather than simply rereading it. Characters sound different when you have to give them voices. Jokes land differently. Scenes I haven't thought about in years suddenly feel new again.
The readings have also become another way for readers to experience the books—and another excuse for me to keep experimenting with audio and video.
I suspect that will lead somewhere interesting.
Scratch Writing Gets a Bigger House
Perhaps the most visible change has been right here at ScratchWriting.com.
I've been rebuilding the site around four main parts of the larger Scratch Writing world:
Books. Magazine. Studio. Press.
- Books is where the stories live.
- Scratch Magazine is where I get to wander through writing, technology, movies, humor, Midas Files lore, and whatever else catches my attention.
- Scratch Writing Studio is becoming the workshop for video, audio, websites, animation, and other digital experiments.
- And Scratch Writing Press is finally taking its proper place as the independent publishing imprint behind my books.
- For a long time, Scratch Writing was primarily my author website.
I'm beginning to see it differently now.
It's becoming a creative house.
Building the Press
That's also why I've spent some time this summer thinking about what Scratch Writing Press itself could become.
Today, the Press primarily publishes my own work. I'm proud of that independence and have learned quite a bit about the process of taking a manuscript through editing, design, production, publication, and promotion.
But I'm beginning to wonder whether some of that experience could eventually help other writers too.
Scratch Writing Press isn't opening the floodgates for manuscript submissions. We're not pretending to be a giant traditional publishing house.
We are, however, open to conversations.
If you're an indie writer working on science fiction, thrillers, history, humor, speculative fiction, technology, or smart nonfiction—and you think your project might fit the strange little universe we're building here—I'd be interested in hearing about it.
We'll see where that goes.
Back to the Bookstore This December
There's already one date circled on the calendar for later this year.
On Saturday, December 12, from noon to 4 PM, I'll be returning to All About Books in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, for another local-author book signing.
I was there last December signing The Midas Protocol, so I'm particularly happy to have been invited back.
This time, the Minotaur is coming with me.
I'll have The Midas Protocol along with Call of the Minotaur – Part I and Part II, and I'm looking forward to another afternoon of books, conversations, and meeting readers.
What's Coming This Fall?
Mostly, more of everything—but hopefully in a somewhat organized fashion.
I'll continue the weekly Midas Protocol Live Readings. Scratch Magazine will keep publishing throughout the week. Work will continue on Bingham's Notebook and the larger future of The Midas Files.
Scratch Writing Studio will continue experimenting with cinematic excerpts, short-form video, animation, audio, and whatever new creative tool inevitably convinces me to lose an entire Saturday figuring out how it works.
Across Pittsburgh and Football Fan's Diet will continue developing as independent web projects within the larger Scratch Writing ecosystem.
And Scratch Writing Press will keep doing the thing that started all of this in the first place:
Making books.
Onward
I'm not entirely sure what all of these experiments eventually become.
That's okay.
One of the things I've learned this year is that I don't necessarily need to know the final destination before starting something interesting.
Write the next chapter.
Make the next video.
Publish the next article.
Build the next piece.
See where it leads.
There are more stories coming, more experiments ahead, and—with a little luck—plenty more news worth sharing.
And yes, if The New York Times ever calls, I promise that one will get its own article.