Shoal Hope

The First Eight Chapters

Shoal Hope, Book One

Chapters One - Eight

Shoal Hope

“…a period piece in period style, namely naturalism. …using the means of naturalism to explore an issue much larger than naturalism ever did...…or perhaps, explore what naturalism was blindly groping towards, namely an understanding that the pervasive human tragedy can only be made sense of if you include the tragedy of the relationship between humanity and the natural world.“

Christian Ford

I’m finally at a point where I can begin to release the audio-book of my novel, Shoal Hope.

I will be releasing it here on Substack in a series of one hour-long mp3s.

This novel is the work of more than two decades, between writing, editing, rewriting, re-editing…. And then, recording, and getting good enough at mixing so that I could produce a decent audio-file…. I’d like to make these recordings available for anyone interested in hearing them. An e-book edition will also be available.

This “Substack Moment” we’re currently in gets its energy from the chance that; after many years of internet “profits” going only to those who could funnel us “content creators” onto their “free” services; Substack puts its artists and writers in a position to make a living from their work. Of course, for this to actually happen, one needs to build an audience and this audience needs to feel that paying people for what they create is actually a good idea.

At this point I neither have a large audience nor many paid subscribers.

If this is to change I’ll need your help.

If you find anything of value here there are a few things that you can do.

Remember, I’m not Substack, or WordPress, or Netflix, or any large, deep-pocketed corporate entity. This is truly a one-man-band.

The only way I can get a wider audience is if you take the time to find some way to share this site with others who may also enjoy what’s here.

Every “Like” and much more importantly, every share; whether via your favorite social-media feed or by word-of-mouth, sharing directly with individuals you know; is a tremendous opportunity for me to find a wider audience.

Beyond this, if you can, every new paid subscription makes a great difference to me. It signals a form of reciprocity. It means that my efforts have made a difference to someone.

It also gives me a chance to to make a living.

This first installment of Shoal Hope is a chance to see whether any of my work can “make it.” There’s still a lot of work, many more hours, needed to wrap up this audio book. Your response to this installment will have a great deal of influence on whether I push ahead and complete it or use my limited time in other ways.

If I can get a pulse of paid subscriptions it will mean a lot. My goal here has always been to provide access to everyone whether they can pay or not. This can only happen if enough of those of you who are able are also willing to pay for my work.

I’ve begun a Podcast series with a High Def recording of these first eight chapters of Shoal Hope.