Sometimes the stories we’re most excited about are the ones we forget to talk about. For months, I’ve been quietly publishing The Summer Garden every Sunday on Substack—a gentle serial about grief, friendship, second chances, and the unexpected community found in a neighborhood garden. If you haven’t discovered Scotty and the residents of Mill Creek Community Garden yet, now’s the perfect time to step through the gate.
Writers rarely work on just one book at a time. While readers see the finished novel, there’s often an entire queue of stories in progress behind it—drafts, edits, serials, and ideas waiting for their turn. Here’s a look at what’s currently occupying my writing desk this summer, from new thriller adventures to ongoing serial fiction and the next novel waiting in the wings.
Serial fiction may look old-fashioned, but today’s audiences consume serialized stories everywhere—from television and podcasts to newsletters and streaming platforms. As publishing tools evolve, serialization offers new ways for readers to discover stories, engage with characters over time, and become part of an ongoing reading experience.
Most writers think of serial fiction as a publishing format. Mark Posey argues it is something even more valuable: a practical lesson in storytelling craft. Because every installment must earn a reader’s return, serial fiction exposes weaknesses in pacing, structure, and chapter endings that can hide inside a completed novel. The skills it teaches—curiosity, momentum, and reader engagement—strengthen every form of storytelling.
A retired widower. A community garden. A cast of unforgettable neighbours. While Fall From Grace continues to take shape, Mark Posey has also been nurturing a very different story. The Summer Garden is a warm, character-driven serial about grief, friendship, second chances, and the surprising ways people keep growing long after they think life’s most important seasons have passed.
Every few years, someone declares that blogging is dead. Usually loudly. Usually confidently. Usually while selling a course about the thing you’re supposedly meant to do instead.
But Solar Sail Theory asks a different question entirely: not whether blogging is fashionable, but whether it strengthens your discoverability surface area. In an era of disappearing social posts, algorithmic chaos, and AI-mediated search, blogging may be less about going viral—and more about building durable infrastructure that compounds over time.
SRP has been quietly building behind the scenes, and now we’re opening the doors a little wider. In this first official post on the new SRP blog, Mark lays out what’s coming: a cleaner store experience, a proper SRP Starter Library, the debut of erotica author Morgan Pearce, more behind-the-scenes content on Substack and YouTube, smarter Kickstarters, and a renewed focus on genuine community over algorithm-chasing. It’s a glimpse of the SRP we’ve been working toward—and the one we’re excited to share.
