The Return of Serial Fiction

Years ago well-known authors like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens would publish their novels in pieces in magazines. Readers would subscribe to the magazines and read each section of novel as it came out. The concept fell out style eventually, but in recent years it's starting to come back thanks to the Internet.

image courtesy of: stockfreeimages.com

Mariel Cove is just one of the latest books to be released in serial - or episodic - form. Stephen King's unfinished novel The Plant was published online parts. Cracked.com writers David Wong and Robert Brockway have both released serial fiction that was later collected into full-length novels which are currently available on Amazon.com. David Wong's novel John Dies at the End has been turned into a movie. 

John Dies at the End 

And that's just the barest tip of the iceberg. Amazon.com has an entire program for Kindle books released as serials, appropriately named the Kindle Serials program. "Kindle Serials are stories published in episodes. When you buy a Kindle Serial, you will receive all existing episodes on your Kindle immediately, followed by future episodes as they are published. Enjoy reading as the author creates the story, and discuss episodes with other readers in the Kindle forums."

Mariel Cove is not released as part of the Kindle Serials program, but it is an episodic series, and that's amazing for me. It's incredible to be a part of the return of this tradition. 

Our readers are lucky, however: unlike traditional serials, and unlike the Kindle Serials program and books like Stephen King's, we don't release any episodes until the entire season is complete. Stephen King lost inspiration for The Plant and it remains unfinished. Charles Dickens died in the middle of his last serial, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and things like that happen sometimes. Books don't always get finished...

Mystery of Edwin Drood

Mariel Cove has a complete first season; the first episode is already up for sale - early - on Amazon.com (it can be found here), and future episodes will be released on the schedule that can be found on our website, but the whole book will be released sometime soon to give our readers the choice of buying episodes casually or buying the whole book. 

We have a new technology for an old format - as writers, as publishers, not just those of us in Mariel Cove but all of us interested in the revival of the novel serial, we get to make it our own. Kinks that may have existed in the old system can be ironed out in this new system. I can't put into adequate words just how exciting it is to be a part of that.




Sources:

Brockway, Robert. "Rx: A Tale of Electronegativity." Rx: A Tale of Electronegativity | Rx: A Tale of Electronegativity. Robert Brockway, 2012. Web. 30 Mar. 2013.

Farnell, Chris. "Serial Novels: New Platforms for an Old Format." The Literary Platform RSS. The Literary Platform, 26 Sept. 2012. Web. 30 Mar. 2013.

"Kindle Serials." Amazon.com. Amazon, n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2013.

King, Stephen. "Plant: The Zenith Rising." StephenKing.com - Plant: Zenith Rising, The. StephenKing.com, 2000. Web. 30 Mar. 2013.

"The Mystery of Edwin Drood." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Mar. 2013. Web. 30 Mar. 2013.

"The Plant." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Mar. 2013. Web. 30 Mar. 2013.

"Serial (literature)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Mar. 2013. Web. 30 Mar. 2013.

Wong, David. "John Dies at the End by David Wong." John Dies at the End by David Wong. David Wong, n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2013.

Cultural Evolution

I came across an interesting essay on the University of Michigan website today and it made me think quite a bit about Mariel Cove and its place in lesbian fiction. The essay, which can be found here, is part of a series on lesbian history and looks specifically at cultural issues. It covers a lot and it's pretty dense, but it's well worth a read. 

The essay covers three main aspects of lesbian cultural history - sports, fiction, and film - and it talks about the ways women have acted and been viewed in each field. It talks about female athletes who "were interpreted as unruly heterosexuals," lesbian writers who chose to write queer narratives through the eyes of gay male characters to avoid being outed, and intentional cues that were put into classic films that an audience of the day would have understood were meant to hint at a lesbian relationship. 

The essay also discussed an interesting concept: women's music festivals. 

Currently numbering over twenty nationwide and with origins in 1970s lesbian-feminist movement, these festivals provide public venues for women- and lesbian-identified music, performances, and comedy acts. The music festivals, according to Morris, offer a collective space where “love between women wins approval and sanction, not punishment and ostracism” (Morris, 21). Moreover, at these festivals, women have opportunities to learn skills and work at jobs that are traditionally male-dominated, such as serving as producers, agents, security, press, stage crew, and budget planners.

Reading about the women's music festivals was immensely fascinating for me because in our book, the tiny cluster of homes and shops known as Mariel Cove is home to a series of four women's festivals. Women from around the country flock to the island for a week during each festival to engage in the various festivities and enjoy the beautiful location. Like the music festivals, these fictional festivals are a safe place for women - lesbian or otherwise. One of our characters, Lia, works for the Wiccan festival that takes place in Season 1.

However, the women's music festivals discussed in the essay have one major problem; it's a pretty big problem, and it's one that Mariel Cove specifically looks avoid: the people who run and attend the music festivals attempt to put a rigid definition on what constitutes a "woman" and what constitutes a "lesbian," to the exclusion of everybody else:

...the politics of identity policing are above all present in women’s music festivals. Debates are continually waged between organizers and protestors about how “women” as a category should be defined and about whether or not transgendered women and men, boy children, biological men, and S&M activists should be allowed to attend these “women’s” festivals.

There's more on this topic later; they go more in depth, discussing the issues the lesbian community at large has had with finding a good definition to describe itself. The problem with this attempt - which is one of the main points of the article in general - is that it excludes so many groups of lesbians who are already viewed as being on the fringe of society as it is. Lesbians come from all types of women and they can look like anybody, so it's problematic to point to any particular group of women and say, "You aren't the right or proper kind of lesbian because you're ___________. Only we, the ___________, matter."

One of the complaints I hear frequently from the other authors is that it's hard to find good, diverse lesbian fiction and TV shows. The women are all the same: middle-class, city dwelling, white, early- to mid-thirties, feminist, democratic, insert-your-label-here. But what about the other lesbians? What about the older women? Or the women who live in small towns? What about the African-American or Latina lesbians? And outside of these basic labels, what about the women who identify as bisexual, or who don't like labels? What about transgendered women? 

Mariel Cove is a haven for women where many lesbians have moved because of the safe environment it provides, but we don't scrub our fiction clean until only one type of lesbian remains with perhaps one or two token "outliers" so we can claim diversity. Mariel Cove was written with the idea that lesbians consist of a large group of very different women, so why should our characters represent anything other than that simple truth? After all, look at us: there are six writers and one editor, and we're all so different that if you offered to take us out to dinner I'd wager we'd spend three hours just trying to hash out where to go (and even then I doubt we'd all agree; we'd just be tired of arguing =P ). If just the measly seven of us are so vastly different, why on earth would we assume that all of our characters should be the same?

After reading the essay from the University of Michigan, I've realized something very important. My favorite part of Mariel Cove isn't how much fun I had writing the story, or how intriguing the mystery is, or the great sex - my favorite part of Mariel Cove is the fact that we've managed to construct a story that does a far better job of accurately representing the diversity of lesbians - of all queer women - than most other works out there, and it does it in a way that feels completely natural. 

The book comes out April 1st - I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject when it does. Until then, you can read a free sample here. Give yourself an idea of what Mariel Cove is all about =)

Sources:

1. Garrett, Emma, and Rachel Silveri. "Lesbian History: Cultural Issues." Lesbian History: Cultural Issues. University of Michigan, n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2013.

Welcome to Mariel Cove

Good morning! My name is Kimbar Halvorsen and I'm incredibly excited to be starting out on this exciting new journey. What new journey, you ask? Well, that's an excellent question. The journey is this blog. The journey is all of you - the readers we will be able to engage with along the way.

The journey is Mariel Cove.


What is Mariel Cove?

Mariel Cove is a book, an erotic lesbian mystery written in the format of a TV series by a team of six queer women from a variety of backgrounds. The first book - or rather, the first season - follows the lives of fourteen women who live in a small cove town on the east end of the fictional Conch Island, which lies just off the edge of the mainland of Washington State. 

Sex. Scandal. Secrets. That's our motto, and Mariel Cove is full all three of those things, but that's not all it has.

The most important aspect of Mariel Cove is not sex or the mystery. It's the diversity. The characters are as diverse as the writers themselves - these women are not all middle class white women. These women come from different walks of life, come in different body types, skin colors, and nationalities, and come from different backgrounds. These women represent a community as varied as the lesbian community itself. 

The plot is carefully woven, the island backdrop is beautiful and wild, and the sex is passionate. 

Finally - a lesbian novel by and for real queer women!

Mariel Cove will be released as a complete ebook on April 1st, 2013 on Amazon.com. It will also be released in twelve episodes, with the first episode going for sale on the same day as the complete ebook and subsequent episodes coming out every Monday. 

The website for Mariel Cove - where you can learn more about the characters, the writers, the project, and read a free excerpt from the series - is http://marielcove.angelsofanarchy.com/

What should I expect from this blog?

The purpose of this blog is to explore some of the important themes found in Mariel Cove, as well as important topics for the LGBT community at large. The blog will look like this:

Every Monday, starting April 1st, you will be able to read a cast commentary from the authors that will discuss that week's episode. On Wednesday, one of the authors will write a blog discussing some aspect of or theme explored in that week's episode. On Friday, you'll get another post from me on some topic that I feel is equally important.

An example of some topics you can expect to be discussed:

• The changing face of women's music
• Kink and consent
• LGBT youth

The topics run the gamut, just like the writers and just like the characters. 

Stay tuned before April 1st, though; we're not going to leave you hanging for two weeks. There will be an update each Friday until Mariel Cove is finally released. Until then, check out the website above and get your hands on that free excerpt. 

Enjoy =)