I’m excited to let you know that I have just scheduled Chapter 12 of Pebble’s Bond on Substack, with more on the way. Chapter 7 is now live.
I have also adjusted the options for a paid subscription: receive all 34 chapters, (2 per week in September, 3 per week beginning in October), as well as the audio files for just 10.00 (USD) per month, 100.00 (USD) per year, and 200.00 (USD) for a Supporting Member.
Want to know why and how I wrote the story? I talk about that, without giving too much of the story away, in the Behind the Scenes posts, which are totally free.
Check out Pebble’s journey through pain and loss to forgiveness and peace, and, if you will, share Pebble’s story with your friends and followers. Just use this link
I so appreciate your help in getting Pebble’s Bond out into the world.
Pip: Fantasy novels, Substack launches, and the art of asking your friends nicely — Marcia Lee Laycock is keeping busy, and this site is keeping up.
Mara: That’s the territory today. We’re looking at the rollout of a Christian fantasy novel called Pebble’s Bond, serialized on Substack, with behind-the-scenes posts tracking the writing process alongside it.
Pip: Let’s start with the launch itself — how it began, how the world got built, and how readers are being recruited.
Pebble’s Bond: The Launch, the World, the Ask
Mara: The story here is a serialized fantasy novel landing on Substack in real time — chapters going out weekly, paired with a companion series pulling back the curtain on how the whole thing came together.
Pip: The first Behind the Scenes post sets the tone directly. The announcement reads: “I’ll be posting chapters of that novel beginning one week from today, August 24th.”
Mara: That’s a public commitment with a date attached, which is a different kind of accountability than just saying a book is coming. The chapters are live, the companion posts are live, and readers can follow both tracks simultaneously.
Pip: The second Behind the Scenes episode, Creating Pebble’s World, moves from announcement into craft — what the setting actually looks like, the place called Ter Elsker that Pebble calls home.
Mara: And there’s a warmth to how that episode closes. Readers are invited to respond, with the note that the author won’t “growl at you the way a certain character in Pebble’s Bond does.” The world-building is already leaking into the conversation around the book.
Pip: Which brings us to the third post, Help Your Friends Find Pebble, and this is where the math gets honest.
Mara: Very honest. One paid subscriber, roughly forty readers at the time of posting. The ask is straightforward: share the link with anyone who likes fantasy, send proof you did it, and your name goes into a draw for a free book — either a dystopian middle-grade novella or a Christmas devotional collection.
Pip: A raffle for word-of-mouth. There is something genuinely old-school about that, and I mean it as a compliment.
Mara: It’s a direct, low-friction way to turn existing readers into a distribution network. The novel is out there — the work now is getting it found.
Pip: A serialized fantasy, a behind-the-scenes companion, and a reader raffle — the infrastructure of a small literary launch, built by hand.
Mara: More of Pebble’s world is still coming. Worth watching how the readership grows alongside it.
Good morning everyone. Most of you know that I am posting my Christian fantasy novel, Pebble’s Bond in a series on Substack, along with short bits called Behind the Scenes, all about the process of writing it.
So far I have only one paid subscription and about 40 readers.
So … would you do me a favour and spread the word by sending this link to all your friends and family, especially those who like to read fantasy? I will be forever grateful. Send me some kind of proof that you have done so and I’ll put your name in a draw for a free book – your choice between a distopic middle-grade novella (Fredrik’s Choice) or a collection of Christmas devotionals (Love in the Room.
The next episode of Pebble’s Bond will go live on Friday. I’d love to know what you think of all this. Don’t be shy, I won’t growl at you the way a certain character in Pebble’s Bond does. 🙂
Hello everyone and thank you so much for hanging in here with me. It has been a while since I posted, I know, but I hope to do so more regularly from now on. I do wish I could slow the days down a bit. How did it get to be the end of January already??
What’s Up Next?
Well ….I’m really excited to join with others once again for the Abundant Rain Writing Pilgrimage, starting with a meet and greet on Feb. 3rd – that’s this Saturday! We’ll have some special bonuses for you that morning (11:00 a.m. MST) and will outline how the pilgrimage will work. We’ll be using a revamped copy of Volume 1 and will get the link to you as soon as we can. In the meantime, there will be a download of the PDF. Do join us, even if you can’t, or don’t want to, do the whole pilgrimage. Here’s the link to get you started
Feel free to share that link with anyone you think may be interested in joining with other writers of faith as we walk this path together.
Update on My New Fantasy Novel:
For those of you following my progress with Pebble, my next fantasy novel, I have been working on it slowly, and hope to have the first draft ready for Beta readers soon. If you would like to be a beta reader – (all that means is, you read the pdf I send and give any feedback you wish) – let me know and I’ll put you on the list. Please pray that I’ll be consistent in the work and that the Lord will lead as I write.
BTW, the other series I’ve been working on has been popping into my head a lot lately too, so stay tuned for more on that as the days go by.
A Bit of Personal News:
Many of you know that we had a tragic thing happen over the holiday season, with the suicide death of a young man who left his wife and three little ones behind. It hit us hard, since it was in the family, though we did not know him well. Please pray for the young mom, that she would find help and support and above all that she would find the Lord.
Otherwise, our Christmas was great, with my 3 daughters, their husbands and our 2 grandkids all in attendance. Little Sparky was a delight – I think he loved tearing the paper off all the presents more than the presents themselves. 😉 And Thea was thrilled with the big blanket picturing the front cover of my children’s book, Merrigold’s Very Best Home (a lovely gift from my publisher at Seritona Creative Publishing).
The New Year roared in with very cold temps that kept us inside most of the time, except when we had to venture to Calgary for some medical appointments, mostly for my husband. We were very glad to finally have some tests and prodedures scheduled after many months of things falling through the cracks. It really does help when you have a family doctor who gives consistent care. Spence is scheduled to have a hernia repair done on Feb. 6th. Prayer appreciated for the surgery and for the recovery. 🙂
Livy’s Life
Liv seems to be adjusting to life with her new companion, Little Duffer. I’m not so sure about Spence and I!! 🙂 We keep renaming him – Little Terror, Little Stinker, Mr. Pest, Psycho cat, etc. etc. He is most persistent about joining me as I work on my laptop!
(sorry, for some reason it’s not letting me adjust the size of those 2 pix).
February is shaping up to be quite busy but one of my priorities is keeping in The Word more. I’ve taken on the challenge to read through the Bible in 90 days (thank you, Mary DeMuth!) Tomorrow will be day 30 so I’m 1/3rd of the way through! It truly is wonderful to read large chunks of the scripture and get a more ‘big picture’ view. Our God truly is an awesome God!
Thank you all for your interest and support, once again! I love to hear from my readers, so do pop me a note if you have a minute! Or, if you feel so led, use this link to support my writing. thourgh paypal.
