Spies on the Fly! Adventures in Serial Fiction

Going Behind the Scenes of the "Steeled Spies" Project

Art by Spookitty

This is going be another example of “not quite the usual faire” as what you’re about to read is an early version of the author’s introduction for when Steeled Spies is assembled into a full novella for mass market paperback and eBook. It will still discuss the behind-the-scenes process but in a frank, humorful way. Do enjoy.

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I do a lot of nutty things as a writer on this series. A magazine telling four separate stories in parallel is a pretty tall order for starters. Our main audio production being a work of in-world fiction is another. But I’d consider the biggest of these crazed escapades to be my work on our serial Steeled Spies. Not just because it was a story of espionage wrapped in a uniquely off-the-wall dystopian world, but because the only way to describe its creation is as an exercise in free-hand storytelling.

Original Concept Art of Roger Steele by Kevin John Jacob

Roger Steele was someone who I gunned for early on in series development. So much so, in the earliest drafts of stories set in the world, Roger was the original leading man, well before Lieutenant Gibson Blanc had ever been dreamt up. Steele was an enigma, something of a blank slate. A Cold War-like spy, well-read on the foundational texts upon which the dream of America was built, and always ready to throw himself into the heart of the action. It was only after consulting with fellow writer Spenser Rudolph in November of 2022 that we gave the character both a greater sense of definition, and a story to play lead in.