WHY I AM SERIALIZING PONTIFUS AND NOVUS VIA:
The History of Serial Fiction
Serials have existed in fiction for a very long time. Books were expensive back in the 19th century, so they were printed in installments in order to keep the price low. Charles Dickens, often heralded as one of the greatest early self-publishers, was also one of the most successful writers of serialized fiction. Another big name, Alexandre Dumas, was a very prolific serial novelist, publishing both The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers in serial format. In fact, serialization worked so well, it was considered the way to go by popular authors during the time." -- Samantha Warren
Last night, my lovely wife and I watched a low budget film: "Season of Miracles." I immediately fell in love with the story. It is about an autistic boy being accepted by a group of boys into their baseball team. Halfway through the film, my lovely wife starts noticing things like: "they never show them actually HITTING the ball!" That and some shaky acting... still, I think of when the Kendricks Brothers came out with "Flywheel."
It was a low budget film made by the AV department of their church. They did a very local distribution. It probably wouldn't go further than Albany, Georgia. But the Brothers Kendrick had stories to tell, and they persisted. Their latest film: "War Room" enjoyed a national distribution.
Again, they had a story to tell. C. S.Lewis understood the importance of story and he wrote. Someone told him that the first manuscript of Narnia was garbage... so he threw it away! [1.]
My point: More of us need to dare to invest ourselves in story. Some have suggested that PONTIFUS could someday be an Ebook. Some have told me frankly that it is somewhat disjointed and hard to follow. Better editing would likely solve that in a published edition.
Still, one writes because he or she believes in the story... feels it has a place in some cultural dialogue. Obviously such thinking propelled this writing. One of the joys of doing this is the interaction I now get to have with 'real' writers. I need to be part of creative community like Lewis had with his 'Inklings.'
We all need to feed our imaginations. We all have stories!
