Zeck was always meant to have the energy of a serial. Plans are made, but their outcome is ruled by chaos. Victory is triumphant but fleeting. Control is tenuous. Moments of quietude are all the more precious. Cliffhangers are common (if not every week). Endings may provide closure and satisfaction, but not finality.

When I completed the audiobook version of the first Zeck installment, with plans to serialize it as a podcast, this felt like the perfect combo. Each week, when an episode of the podcast debuts, the same chapter will be here on Whatnot Etc., in text form. Patreon will have early access to episodes and a variety of bonus content.

The books are still available for purchase, in paperback, ebook, and audio formats, and those are arguable easier ways to read them. But the weekly episode has always called to me.

This will continue through the serialization of Zeck vs Colonel Destroyer, and future books will be written with this format in mind. While I think these weekly installments work for the books are they are, I’ll always have this in the back of my mind moving forward. When Zeck in the Fog of War debuts, when we visit Fortune’s Landing and unravel a thorny mystery in a seaside cyberpunk neo-noir setting, I’ll be writing those stories in the serialized format I was too afraid to try when Zeck first premiered.

That being said, as much as I love long, heavily serialized stories that pay off lengthy arcs, I also appreciate it when series like that provide on-ramps for new readers/listeners/viewers. I think the best place to jump in as at the beginning, but a close second is at the beginning of any given arc. Zeck vs Colonel Destroyer has the vital info you need if you didn’t read Zeck, or forgot what happened. Fog of War will do the same. Fortune’s Landing takes place in the same universe, but is a completely separate story. I say this not to urge you to wait, but because I am trying to build a universe of fiction that rewards but does not demand. Stories that are aware of their place in a larger fictional universe, but not beholden to that in a way that makes it feel like homework.

My goal not to crush you with the weight of a fictional universe. My goal is to tell stories, and they will be fun, and sad, and horrific, and sometimes just a chill hang. And they will exist in as many formats as I can stuff them into.