Mundane Mischief: Rube City Chronicles, Vol. I

I have always liked the idea of serialized fiction. I enjoyed reading it along with the anticipation of the next installment. I have wanted to try my hand at producing it, but couldn’t think of a good venue for such an enterprise.

Sure, it could go here, on this blog. But, I don’t know, that doesn’t seem formal enough for what I wanted to try.

Enter Kindle Vella. It’s a quirky service by Amazon where authors can post serialized pieces…mostly fiction, though I did see one item involving crockpot cooking. So, I guess the sky’s the limit.

I decided to try a story involving magic, mystery . . . and murder. All the “m” words, really. Mystery tales seem to fit the bite sized story nuggets on Vella. That’s why I’ve started Mundane Mischief: Rube City Chronicles Vol. I on the Vella platform. The first four episodes are up now. I plan - and hope - to post a new episode every Monday. If you like what you see, I’d appreciate likes, reviews, and sharing the link to the story. Frankly, I’d appreciate the latter in any case, but you do you.

Here’s the deal with Vella. The first three “episodes” of a story are free. After that, readers spend “tokens” on them. The longer a segment, the more tokens it costs. It’s like being in a Chuck E. Cheese arcade, but without the pizza, games, or animatronics. If I’m not mistaken, Amazon account holders get 200 free tokens. After using those up, you can - obviously - buy more. As of this writing, 200 tokens cost $1.99. Typical episodes cost a fraction of 200 tokens.

This is an interesting experiment for me. Will anyone read this thing? Who knows. I hope so.

I hope the combination of noir mystery, urban magic and humor is your cup of tea. Give it a try. You don’t have anything to lose.

At least not for the first few episodes.

Cover photo adapted from a picture by Julius Frost on Unsplash.com