The thing about secret projects is that whole keeping them secret part. I've been to four different conventions this year in various corners of the globe, and at every single one of them, somebody I didn't know has said, "is it true that you're writing a serial fiction thing?" or "I heard you're working with Yoon Ha Lee on something" or "you're doing a project with Serial Box, right?" At which point I would hem and haw, which does absolutely nothing to dispel the notion that yes, all of these things are true.

So, without further ado, let's release the cat that's already halfway out of the bag: I give you The Vela, a brand new season of fiction from Serial Box! The writing team is Yoon Ha Lee, Rivers Solomon, S.L. Huang, and yours truly. It was a privilege and a delight to work in collaboration with these incredibly talented folks, and with as different as our voices are, I think this particular house blend is pretty special. With our powers combined, we've written something that is really exciting and lots of fun and will make you go "hmm" (in a good way, we hope).

The Vela is a science-fiction thriller, with all the political machinations and spaceship battles and planetary-scale drama that implies. Suffice it to say, it is a world different than my solo work, and I've never written anything like it before. Here's the teaser:

Orphan, refugee, and soldier-for-hire Asala Sikou doesn't think too much about the end of civilization. Her system's star is dying, and the only person she can afford to look out for is herself. When a ship called The Vela vanishes during what was supposed to be a flashy rescue mission, a reluctant Asala is hired to team up with Niko, the child of a wealthy inner planet's president, to find it and the outer system refugees on board. But this is no ordinary rescue mission; The Vela holds a secret that places the fate of the universe in the balance, and forces Asala to decide—in a dying world where good and evil are far from black and white, who deserves to survive?
 

If you're not familiar with Serial Box, here's how it works: A writing team develops and divvies up a novel-length narrative, with each of us writing individual chapters. This "season" of fiction is then released digitally, one chapter per week. You can either buy the entire season in one chunk, or subscribe and pay for each chapter as it's released. And yes, you can totally pre-order (it'll be out in 2019).

I hope you'll check this one out. If you have any questions about how and when you can read it, get in touch with the good people at Serial Box. As for me, I've got a deadline for something else entirely I'm running at full-tilt toward. Stay tuned!