All About My Next Project, TREMONTAINE
If you follow me on social media, for many months now I’ve been mentioning or retweeting mentions of my next project. Sorry for the long tease! This is a very new thing I’m part of — it definitely falls outside the traditional publishing establishment — and I’m so excited to finally tell you more about it. My next project is a serialized, digital, fantasy series ((It is for adults, but I think my YA readers, especially fans of Huntress, will also enjoy Tremontaine.)) titled Tremontaine. Created by the brilliant Ellen Kushner, author of the Swordspoint novels, Tremontaine is a prequel to Swordspoint (set about 15 years earlier) and is written by a team of writers including me, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Joel Derfner, Racheline Maltese, Patty Bryant, and guest author Paul Witcover. Tremontaine will be published by Serial Box, a startup digital publishing company that, according to this PW article, is aiming to become the HBO for readers.
What does this mean for you, the reader? Basically, Tremontaine is structured like a TV show. There will be 13 episodes (which are really novellas), released once a week. They’re designed to take about an hour to read, just like the time commitment for an hourlong TV show. The first episode (the pilot) will be free, so you can get a taste of what is to come. Each subsequent episode includes both the ebook version and an audiobook version (like a podcast!) for $1.99. If you subscribe to the series, the cost is $1.59 per episode (including both book and audio). You can subscribe to a series at the Serial Box website and read it on the web, on your phone or tablet; you can also download the Serial Box app (it’s in the Apple Apps store and also on Google Play right now) and read it or listen through that. You can even just buy it on Amazon for your Kindle. There will also be an omnibus edition at the end of the series with all the episodes collected in one place.
But why wait? Because Tremontaine is a doozy! Let me tell you more about it. (Also, check out the amazing cover art by Kathleen Jennings — isn’t it striking?) Here’s what Tremontaine is about:
Welcome to Tremontaine, the prequel to Ellen Kushner’s beloved Riverside series that began with Swordspoint! A Duchess whose beauty is matched only by her cunning; her husband’s dangerous affair with a handsome scholar; a Foreigner in a playground of swordplay and secrets; and a mathematical genius on the brink of revolution—when long-buried lies threaten to come to light, betrayal and treachery know no bounds with stakes this high. Mind your manners and enjoy the chocolate in a dance of sparkling wit and political intrigue.
What that lovely pitch doesn’t tell you is this: The Foreigner is a dashing young woman from a land and culture inspired by the Maya of Mexico and Central America, and basically everyone is queer. It is so fun! And also rather vicious. When you put a bunch of Swordspoint-loving writers in one room for three days and pound out a 13-episode-long story arc (this is what we did), you get All The Delicious Deadly Treats. Three of the 13 episodes are written directly by me, but because the series is so collaborative, I definitely feel like I and all the writers have contributed to every episode.
You can subscribe to Tremontaine here. The series launches on Oct. 28, which is only five weeks away. I really hope you’ll enjoy it!