Welcome to LIMINAL STATES 01.02.12 - Zack - permalink

Welcome to the website for LIMINAL STATES, my debut novel. It is an American story about American characters, spanning over a century of history. You can get a good summary of the project by hitting the about section of this website. If you want to catch up with what has happened in the online narrative, check out the alt reality narrative section. I wanted this news area to be something casual.

Those of you who are familiar with my work on Something Awful might wonder why I have not written one of my weird sci-fi serials in a long time. Here is your answer. About two years ago I came up with a concept for a novel and approached my publisher. I explained to them that people seemed to like my sci-fi serials. My publisher gave me a gentle push in a different direction. They weren't looking for fiction.

Undeterred, I worked with my editor, Richard Ember, to put together a major proposal to the publisher to convince them that some weird comedy guy could make an attempt at a serious science fiction novel. I'll admit, I really sold it to them. I said, "There will be websites and an ARG and music and videos and all kinds of original artwork." Just like that. Run on sentence and everything.

They gave in. They caved! And then it started to sink in: I had to deliver on that promise. I had to get all these other talented people onboard with my weird scheme. Josh Hass was onboard first. He is my artist whenever I can get him and his schedule allows.

When Josh and I worked together on one of my serials, That Insidious Beast, we roped in an amazing video guy named Dan Sollis to work with us. Having his talent fully engaged has been helpful beyond all reasoning.

We also cribbed music from Conelrad for That Insidious Beast, but I needed something original for this one. Incredibly, Conelrad also jumped aboard and agreed to produce original tracks based on the ideas and themes presented in the text.

These three talented dudes embarked on a two year process with me. It has had its share of difficulties, which I may relate later, but I wanted to thank each of my collaborators for their efforts.

The result of all this hard work - the novel, art, music and videos - will be seen in the coming weeks. Everything, except the complete novel itself, will be released free of charge and posted here.

LIMINAL STATES is available for preorder now and will be in stores on March 27th. A prologue serial, The Reificant, will begin appearing February 1st.