We Didn't Know What Was Coming
In December of 2019, We had no idea what the next year would bring. In fact, we thought it would just be another "normal" year for writers. There were some hints of a strange virus running around, but hey, who had time to worry about that? There were New Year Parties to plan and writing goals to set for the next year.
Ah, writing goals. The ban and joy of an author's existence. And sometimes, well, some of us, just can't leave well enough alone. So we adopt this "go big or go home" mentality, and hey, some of us were coming out of writing slumps or heading toward new, and noble, changes in our writing careers.
On impulse, after finishing Nano and realizing I had a lot of stories I wanted to write in the following year, and because I wanted to really stretch myself, I set up a challenge for the year, and even a Facebook group for it. It's something some call Milwordy or the Million Word Challenge - to write one million words in one year. And the year I chose? 2020. Forty people joined that group, and off we went.
To be clear, some writers struggled to write that year, and I totally get it. By March, our world had radically changed, there was no toilet paper to be found, and there was a certain underlying terror. At the same time, the line between protecting the public and shuttering businesses, which killed some of them, divided America in a way few things had in recent history. Some writers froze. I am not those writers.
My Escape
When things in life get bad, my escape is to head toward writing. The words flow because, hey, nothing else is working, so I might as well concentrate on what I can do, right? Well, that's how it works for me. At the same time that I embraced my "million word challenge" a friend threw down another gauntlet: write 52 short stories in a single year - one a week, 2,000 words minimum each, because according to Ray Bradbury, you can't write 52 bad short stories in a row.
It's not a bad theory, and it turns out you can write some pretty good stories under pressure. So I did. For a bit, those stories went on to Kindle Vella, unedited. Then they moved to Kindle Unlimited for a minute, but not all of them made it to either place, But when I finished the year, I had all of those stories. Some were over 2,000 words, but I'd written them all in the same world: The World of Solitaire.
I had all kinds of thoughts: I should rearrange those things in a book, or make a few collections and publish those, or enter them in some contest or other (I did that with a few, and they actually won some awards). But I didn't really pull them together, and eventually Vella died. I pulled the stories that made it to Kindle Unlimited down, and I've been sitting on them. For FIVE years. (Do not recommend this method).
The Call for Short Audio
But this year, at the NINC conference in Florida, I sat down with Scott Curry from Spotify. And he told me about this cool new thing they are working on: a series of short audio that would be free to those who have a Spotify Premium membership. Authors get paid on a similar model to other audio/music subscriptions, but here was a place where short audio could actually sell.
You see, they don't sell on ACX because of the credit system many subscribers use: one credit gets you one audio book. Well no one is using a credit on a 20 minute short when they can get an 8 hour audio book for the same credit. I wouldn't - it doesn't make sense. (It also does not pay authors that well, but that's another story).
In fact, I have a bunch of short audio, not just the Solitaire Series, that would fit this model. But when Scott asked, "Do you have anything like that?" my answer was "Yes." In fact, I had 52 short stories I'd been sitting on for five years. And now they can find a home.
The Solitaire World
So what was this Solitaire World? Well, it got inspired by two things: both very real, and both a part of my imagination I wanted to explore.
The first was the use of the Ace of Spades in the Vietnam war. A bit of history (something you'll hear in the stories as well) is that in 1966, a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army wrote a letter to the president of the United States Playing Card Company president Allison Stanley. She referenced remarks by Congressman Craig Hosmer that the Viet Cong thought images of women and the ace of spades brought bad luck. He asked for a thousand aces for his men to leave as calling cards for the enemy in order to incite fear.
At first, the Viet Cong had no superstitions about the cards, which featured the Goddess of Liberty and the spade at the time. But it boosted soldier morale, and when they left them laying all over the villages and jungles when they won victory, the cards gained significance. Many cards were changed, stuck together with maps drawn in between them. Sometimes these were operational maps, but many were modified during the war in Vietnam and then similar tactics were employed in the Gulf war.
It's believed that these maps led to caches of arms, treasures, and other items to be retrieved later. The cards were then passed around or handed down so that the recipient could eventually retrieve whatever the cards led to. That idea intrigued me. Who might go after those "treasures" and how legal or illegal would the spoils be?
The second was the Solitaire Code, a code developed by a well-known cryptographer that used a triple cut of a deck of cards and the position of the Jokers to create an almost uncrackable code. The two seemed like a great combination to me, and quickly (somewhere in the first five stories) a character, Jack, came to life, someone who had upset the balance of things and could take an entire organized crime organization down. The idea would not let go, and so I chased it. For 52 weeks.
How Does This Work Now?
So far you might be like, hey, that's nice, but how does all of this work now? Well, that part is simple: The Solitaire Series is being narrated as we speak (see what I did there?) and one audio "episode" or short story will be released each week for an entire year. And they'll be available in most places you would listen to audiobooks or podcasts, but the primary emphasis will be on Spotify, where if you already have a premium membership, you can listen as a part of that membership.
Each story will be between 15-20 minutes of audio, the equivalent of around 2,000 words each. One will drop every week on Friday starting January 3rd, just in time for your weekend listening pleasure. From time to time, there will be story bundles of audio available. You can listen on Spotify (uploaded through our sponsor, PublishDrive), YouTube, audio platforms like StoryTel and others, or you can purchase episodes directly from this website. Those episodes will be delivered via BookFunnel so you can listen on a variety of devices.
But you get to choose where and how you listen. There will be exclusive merch available throughout the year, and at the end of 2025? Those stories will come to eBook and print. But not until the year is over. But as a subscriber and a listener throughout, you'll get a first look at everything.
Sound good? Use the form below to sign up for the weekly newsletter. Mostly, that will just talk about the audio coming up, and provide you with links where you can find it. But there also might be a few surprises in there from time to time, including meet the author and ask me anything events.
Join us. Solitaire 2025 is going to be epic!
And Then 2020 Happened: The Origins of the Solitaire Series