SPOTLIGHTING: Supernatural Thriller Writer Scott Nicholson

by Connie Flynn

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I’ve written about 20 novels, but McFALL is my first attempt at serialized fiction. McFALL is a supernatural thriller that features a return to my characters from The Red Church, a Stoker Award finalist, and Drummer Boy, set in the rural Southern Applachian Mountains.

I wrote the book for Amazon’s 47North imprint, and we are publishing it in six episodes.

Each episode has 15,000 to 16,000 words, or what would be about 60 pages in a printed book. I designed each episode so that it did all the usual work of a novel—build character and setting, further the plot, allow room for theme to develop—while also leaving a mild cliffhanger to build anticipation for the next episode.
   
The most exciting challenge was the high wire act we were attempting, since the first episode was published while we were still working on the later episodes. Each episode was edited and proofread individually, so we had to be careful to make sure there were no plot holes that we couldn’t cover in later episodes. I am not an outliner by nature, so I wasn’t really worried about painting myself into a corner.

I tried to develop a rhythm with each episode, much in the way a television miniseries will have each episode add to the whole story arc while being entertaining on its own. Amazon also helps make the serial easy for readers to follow by automatically sending a new episode to the reader’s Kindle every two weeks. Readers can jump in at any time and get all the episodes that have been released, and it’s the same price no matter when you buy it. The full book will be compiled and released in print and audio later this year.

The serial project was a great opportunity for me to grow as a writer and try something new while sticking close to my supernatural roots, and I hope we can continue the storyline in a future book.

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This book is a Kindle Serial. Kindle Serials are stories published in episodes, with future episodes delivered at no additional cost. This serial currently contains three episodes out of an estimated six total episodes, and new episodes will be delivered every two weeks.

"If Evil had fortified secret strongholds across the globe, the red church was certainly one of them."
Award-winning author Scott Nicholson returns to the Blue Ridge Mountain legends and setting of his bestselling thrillers, The Red Church and Drummer Boy.
When wealthy developer Larkin McFall moves to the small Appalachian Mountain community of Barkersville, generations-old tales of supernatural phenomena, sudden deaths, and odd disappearances resurface. Larkin laughs off the stories as superstition, while promising to bring a bright new future to the dying town.