I can’t believe Season One of The Nexus is already finished! Nine books finished and out there in the world. I have to admit, it feels like quite an accomplishment!
The Nexus sneaked up on me. I had no intention of ever writing anything outside of Barrow City world–at least not under the name Sara Blake. But then this shiny new idea tapped me on the shoulder and demanded to be written. And The Nexus was the fastest, easiest, and most fun thing I’ve ever written. I’m amazed and excited to be done with the entire first season–but I’m already working on the outlines for Season Two!
I’ve always wanted to do a series like this–one formatted like the TV shows I love. A long story broken up into short reads, for people who love stories but lack the patience, attention span, or just the time for Big Fat Novels. But I didn’t want to do something that was cut up into chunks and fed to people piecemeal, either. I actually considered Kindle Vella for this series at first, but dismissed the idea pretty quickly when I realized what chopping it up into their “episodes” would do to the stories. (And my opinion appears to have been a popular one, given that Vella is now kaput!)
I know some people see the words “season” and especially “episode” and assume that’s exactly what The Nexus is–a single story chopped up into bits for no good reason. But it isn’t that at all. Every episode of the Nexus is its own story, complete with a beginning, middle, and end. (Admittedly, episode one is a little less of a standalone, but the rest are true books in their own right.) But, just like my favorite TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Magicians, and Supernatural, those individual episodes also work toward telling a longer, season-arc story.
It’s the sort of series I’ve wanted to do for ages, but that has eluded me. Here’s a secret–that was the original plan for Olive Tree Academy! But those stories sort of snowballed in the outlining process and, before I knew it, I had a full series of Big Fat Novels to write. And don’t get me wrong, I love OTA, too, but I wanted to do this TV-style season/episode format, and it wasn’t to be with OTA.
I have another series in the works you might have seen me mention here and there, called Widdershins. It’s another like this, with seasons and episodes but, again, the episodes have been running a bit longer than Nexus books. That’s not a problem, really, but it does mean they’re going to take longer to write and publish. I sincerely hope Widdershins is accepted and well-loved by readers, because it’s probably the closest to my heart of all my series, but it’s not as much fun to write as The Nexus has been.
If you haven’t given the Nexus a try yet, I’d love for you to! I’m hoping that, now the series is complete, those people who were afraid “episode” was code for “unfinished” will be more willing to dive in now that the season is complete. Give it a whirl, and see what you think! I’d love to hear your thoughts! Drop a comment here or, even better, leave a review on Amazon! Or both!
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Thanks, as always, for visiting the site and for reading! See you soon!
