The Fictional Newsletter 4/27/2025
I’m in Nashville this weekend to watch my son run his first half marathon. Lots of fun yesterday because Nashville is a super fun place to hang out. But my mind is always on writing — can’t help it. And since there are a lot of stories rolling through this space, I thought I would work on a newsletter that help everyone catch up on everything. Thus, the “Catch-up Edition” — what are the serials that are happening, and what’s going on with each? Couldn’t hurt, right?
So, let’s get right to it.
Dorothy: Locked & Loaded is still going strong both here on Substack and my website. We’re 30-odd episodes in, but all of the episodes are located above in the header — just click the link and find your way to the full story. And for a quick catch-up on what Dorothy: Locked & Loaded is, have a go at the honest trailer below. In essence, Dorothy Gale’s granddaughter is in Oz now, but it’s not the Oz she heard about as a child. This Oz is dark and twisted, not full of singing and bright skies and happy little Munchkins. This Oz is bent, and it’s glorious.
Honest Trailers meets Dorothy: Locked & Loaded
What’s happened so far in Dorothy: Locked & Loaded?
Let’s catch you up, dear reader!
Dot, who did two tours as a Marine, has landed in Oz and ventured out with Toto, only this time Toto isn’t a dog. His bite is worse than his bark, if you get my meaning. What would a Marine carry? A pistol named Toto., which will come in handy as things pick up and the dangers grow. The closer she gets to the Emerald City, the worse it will be. Zombie Munchkins, flying monkeys, and mechanical men — what else can Glinda throw at Oz to keep it under her rule?
After Dorothy clicked her heels and the Wizard flew away, the Scarecrow was left in charge of Oz. It didn’t not go well for him, which we find out as soon as Dot returns. He’s a drunk now, living in hiding, run out of town and his mind by Glinda. And now he’s on a road of redemption, but he’ll need help to become Fiyero again, but the road is long and weary, and we’ll see if he can stay on the wagon long enough to pull it off.
The Cowardly Lion had his share of problems long before he and his companions murdered the Wicked Witch of the West, and they’ve only been compounded by his new fame and fortune. A malignant narcissist, he thrives on terrifying everyone around him, bullying and devouring anyone who stands in his way. But underneath it all, he’s a real cowardly pussy(cat).
The Tin Man — what can we say about a creature who was once a man of flesh and blood with a real beating heart now a man made of tin with a little clockwork heart? He falls in love after Dorothy leaves, and it doesn’t go well. In fact, his ax was never bloodier. Can anyone return from this sheer horror of what he’s done? Does he even deserve redemption? Or will he continue his fall into madness?
And finally Glinda, the Good Witch — was she ever really that good? She didn’t lift much more than a finger to help Dorothy. She allowed her friend, Elphaba, to be murdered. She knew the Wizard was a coward and a liart. And then she found a mirror that showed her who she really was, and she drove the Scarecrow from the throne and set herself, and her Ruby Slippers, up as regent and queen. Good? Well, judge for yourself.
There’s a ton more story coming — just start reading and enjoying it.
Gulliver’s Travels: The Broligarchy — I’m still writing this political satire, which may not be to everyone’s tastes, but it’s an opportunity for me to use fiction to comment on the absurdity of our current existence in the United States. Sam Gulliver, intrepid reporter, has literally washed ashore to the globe’s most insane technostate, and she’s determined to get to the heart of what makes Gigaland beat. It’s funky, written in a whole new, very visual way, and if you like absurdity piled onto absurdity with a fun, wild narrative, then click on the link in the main title bar above, or start right here.
At this point in the story, just five episodes in, Sam has arrived and been noticed by the most powerful man in the world. Where it goes from here, no one knows.
The P.U.G.H. Society continues The Fictional: After Dark, and we’re more than halfway through the eleven episode. Madison was lost after her husband died, and what found her was something she wasn’t prepared for. What she found was The PUGH Society and Angelica Munroe, who’s turned out to be nothing like she appeared to everyone. Something sinister is happening behind the scenes, but all Madison can see is what’s right in front of her. What I found in this story was a jumping off point for a series to be born that’s based in the mysteries surrounding the PUGH Society but is based in Angelica Munroe.
In a world where human lives are traded behind polished glass and beneath velvet drapes, Angelica is the woman sent to close the deal. Stunning, cunning, and utterly without scruple, she is The PUGH Society’s most dangerous weapon — not through violence, but through seduction, manipulation, and slow-burn infiltration. Each assignment takes her deeper into the global elite’s darkest corridors, where pleasure and power blur, and the price of success is always personal.
In The Monaco Exchange, Angelica steps into the crypto-finance underworld, posing as a venture capitalist eager to launder billions through a blockchain casino empire — only to find that the mind-control technology at its core may have ties to Madison Adler, the woman she once betrayed.
In Velvet Kingdom, against the gilded brutality of Dubai’s desert palaces, she must play the part of a submissive trainer for a Saudi prince’s private harem, walking the razor’s edge between control and surrender as the role consumes more of her than she expects.
La Femme d’Alger takes her into North Africa’s stolen art markets, where trafficking hides beneath the sheen of smuggling networks and priceless canvases. But as Angelica plays the part of a cultured dealer, a beautiful smuggler who once crossed paths with Madison recognizes more than Angelica intends to show — and begins her own seduction.
In Hollow Silk, among the neon decadence of Hong Kong and Bangkok’s fashion world, Angelica faces her most intimate reckoning: a designer human operation offering her a clone of herself — flawless, obedient, and devastatingly familiar.
Finally, in Opium Protocol, Angelica enters the neo-wellness cults of the Pacific Northwest, where enlightenment is just another commodity, and surrender comes laced with sensory overload and chemical bliss. But the deeper she goes, the more she begins to question where her loyalty to PUGH ends — and where her own desire to be undone begins.
This is not a story of a hero. Angelica is not here to save anyone. She’s here to take everything — and the more she gives of herself to close the deal, the closer she comes to losing who she was entirely.
It’s funny because this story, The PUGH Society, was about Madison from the beginning, and then, as I was writing it, I realized that it was actually about Angelica. Madison is a big part of this story, and we’ll see her again, but she was just the beginning of someone else’s tale. After Opium Protocol, we come back to Madison, who had more of an impact on Angelica than we knew. So, if you’re enjoying The PUGH Society, get ready to take a long ride over 6-7 more seasons of this winding, twisted tale of intrigue and debauchery — as I’ve said, think John Wick, but without the guns and violence.
I like working through all of these ideas, even just writing about the stories themselves in posts like these, because it helps me flesh out the narrative. The more I play with the images, create the audios and videos that goes with the stories, the more I see how they play out. And then all I have to do is write them.
And there we go for this newsletter — a quick catch-up on some budding series. Everything isn’t going to be a series. We’ll see Gaius Darkspell again, and I’ve finished Pledge Night, and there will certainly be excerpts from novels and other short stories and whatnot. Fun times, fun tales and fun takes.
Check out The Fictional and The Fictional: After Dark on Substack!
Hope you’re enjoying it all as much as I am.