Spies on the Fly! Adventures in Serial Fiction
Going Behind the Scenes of the "Steeled Spies" Project
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.
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.
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.
The base concept was that of a revolutionary organization taking centerstage in Haven’s political climate, capturing the imagination of many citizens, and the interest of Lita and General Knox, with Roger playing the part of the Force’s inside hound. We also devised an elevated characterization for Steele, “the ghost of the Cold War spy.” Someone who was extremely literate of history, and aware of how the Old World’s global chess game had ended. It gave him a veiled but palpable skepticism, but one that never overrode duty or his affection for those Enlightenment ideals.
The original story would’ve adopted a more conventional spy plot framework where in the subterfuge and duplicity was purely of wolfkind’s doing, largely absent of interference from ACES, and relying solely on double agents and Steele’s knack for discernment to sort out who’s playing who. Fun, easy stuff with plenty of sendups to the greats like Ian Fleming and le Carré. This mid-century atmosphere was also amplified by the terrific art of Spookitty, who both entertained my initial ideas of a 50s/60s UPA style, and the final cover design inspired by graphic design legend Saul Bass. With the visual identity of the series established and the ideas all set and ready to go, all the pieces had seemingly fallen into place.
And then I sat down to write the damn thing.
Writing Steeled Spies has been an exercise in free-handing a serial adventure story. With the core plot set in motion by the events in novelette “Lions Among the Lambs” the stage had been adequately set for a fun, fast affair. But two things would happen every time I sat down to write the next chapter.
Life would find a way to get in the way. I have written some chapters under ridiculous turnaround times, usually called for because something would always come up at home or at work that demanded my attention first. No matter how much I tried to plan ahead and write ahead, the curveballs came fast and furious.
Something would just change. There would be a moment at which my creative impulses took over, and wherever the original idea zigged, I zagged. Instead of a lively world populated with all sorts of potential turncoats, the whole enterprise deliberately vanished. The sudden strange revelations would bring the typically confident and easygoing Lucille Devenreux to a breaking point. Things would just take gnarly turns.
What this ultimately lead to was one of the most discovery-based writing processes I’ve been involved in. I’d always have to stop at some point and reorient, keeping tabs on past plot beats and making sure things would line up, reincorporate, and flow with the pace and characterization, as well as keep up on the interior logic of an increasingly fantastic situation
Sometimes I’d get a little worried I was undercutting Lucille so I’d give her a chance to prove herself and stand up for herself. Sometimes I’d just take time to let Roger and Lita vamp as I found their dynamic to be fun and full of room for classic noir-like patter.
But I’m also going to be honest with you, I don’t think I’d recommend free-handing a serial to most writers. For all the joy of discovery and creation, the mystery unfurling before your very eyes, it stressed the living hell out of me at times. Not just because I was always looking over my shoulder to make sure the continuity tracked, not only because my own dogged perfectionism left me second-guessing characterizations and direction, but simply because to write in this style is best done when you have the luxury of time. And no matter how hard I tried, I could never get enough time to really savor the experience and make everything click and gel.
All the same, I am damn proud of this handsome, strange little production. It was a project I really wanted to go for, a character who I had been sitting on since pre-production all the way back in 2021, and a story that, as it grew, taught me more about my world than I had ever really considered, allowing me to weave concepts in from across timelines and series into a narrative that feels, in the end, quintessentially 365 Infantry, where genres collide and sharp-eyed wolves whip through the insanity of the 25th Century.
It has been quite a learning curve rolling out (I really should’ve had “Lions Among the Lambs” live for all at the outset) as well as making it, but I don’t take the knowledge I’ve gained lightly, for as a great star once said: “Man’s got to know his limitations.” And fortunately, not only did I learn mine, I’ve been having fun all the while. And I hope that this story keeps entertaining readers as it has entertained myself.