Serial Novel: ISLA
Missed something? Sketchbook | Stories | Dispatches
It’s a new year everyone! If you’ve made it this far, congrats.1
Some momentous things are afoot for 2026:
• More short fiction, of course. This is Tiny Worlds after all.
• A new novel – I’m daydreaming about it.
But, perhaps, something bigger and far-reaching…
I’ve been thinking a lot about what happens after typing “the end.”
The story might be finished, but the work isn’t. Getting a book from a final draft to actual readers means navigating systems that only cover part of the journey. After that, the work is released into noise—onto a crowded shelf where silence is easy to mistake for failure.
You don’t have to look far to see writers describing that feeling:
“Like I’m shouting from six feet underground.”
“It makes your art feel worthless.”
“The silence after publishing hurts more than bad reviews.”
Most writers patch together their own map. It works—until it doesn’t, and the same frustrations repeat themselves. Step back far enough and I think nearly all of it collapses into three things: discoverability, economics, and agency—how the work is found, how a writer gets paid fairly, and how writers stay in control.
Occasionally, an alternate route appears. It begins when a few writers realize they’re running into the same walls and want to stop pretending it’s a personal failure.
That’s the part I’ve spent a good amount of time thinking about.
So, I’m proud to announce the opening of Tiny Worlds Publishing—a small bookstore built by writers, for readers who still like to wander.
It isn’t trying to compete loudly or scale quickly. It’s built around a shared belief that some stories need time, context, and care—and that progress mean highlighting what came before.
The shelf is intentionally small for now. It’s shaped around work that rewards attention instead of demanding it, already making room for what comes next.
That’s the idea. Let the books do the rest.
If that sounds a little old-fashioned, good. Some ideas age well.
And this isn’t theoretical. The first book is already here.
Cherry Kills, by master storyteller Sean Thomas McDonnell, is a punk-noir novella that grabbed me from the first page and didn’t let go. Precise, ferocious, and darkly funny, it’s exactly the kind of book this shelf exists for.
Here’s a synopsis to kick-start your heart….
Cherry Kills wants to be left alone.
Unfortunately, her Alternates: an overprotective lug, a happy-go-lucky child, and a mute rabbit the size of a man, have other plans. They’ve haunted her since her father’s violent death, following her from grimy punk clubs to the TV-static halls of her apartment building. The doctor calls them hallucinations, symptoms of trauma.
But when her Alternates start interacting with the world around her, Cherry realizes it might not be all in her head.
Pre-orders for Cherry Kills open January 22.
Character art comes from Butcher Billy.
Interior and cover design are by Shane Bzdok.
Edited by S.E. Reid.
This is the first release under the Tiny Worlds imprint. It sets the tone for what this is meant to be: strange, deliberate, carefully made work—backed by a structure that doesn’t vanish the moment a book enters the world.
This is just the beginning.
But this is where it starts.
If you haven’t made it this far but are still reading… also congrats!
Incredible! Congrats! This is immediately exciting. Can't wait to see all you do with this!
So very, bloody, utterly cool.