Serial Novel is A Smash, Paradigm Shift for Publishing

July 2, 2010 - PRLog -- John Gorman is always working on a project. He is constantly sending stories to literary magazines and journals. His follow-up novel however, seemed a conundrum to him and he decided to buck the system. Gorman has decided to use Wordpress to release his "Girma Dali." The story is about an African Football Star who has brought his Harambee Stars of Kenya to a meteoric rise, won the hearts of billions of Football fans and has earned the respect of world leaders who want him to use his celebrity capital to bring about peace in Africa. All of this while he is still searching for his best friend from childhood, Benga, who's been kidnapped by civilwar lords.

Indeed, this is a thriller and a half and should probably be put into the hands of Random House, Knopf, Simon and Schuster, Harper Collins. It should be touted by the like of Bill Maher, Morning Joe, Oprah, Family Guy, The New York Times Book Review, but instead  John Gorman has elected to take the maverick approach. And why?

"The roots to novel writing come from the serialized form," Gorman said. "Many of Dickens' work was seriaIized. It was more or less the standard to release chapters. In no way am I comparing myself to him, but there is nothing wrong with going back to a neat tradition. I consider what I am doing a challenge to myself. To force myself to write each day and put it into the world. I'm still a regular nobody, but I am published and I think that when you have something published a bar has been set higher for yourself. Not that I am trying to lower the bar, you understand, but I am imposing a challenge on myself to whip together, as best I can, a brilliant story with flesh and blood characters."

The task at hand does seem very unusual, but Gorman doesn't seem to find. In fact, he is welcoming commentary, suggestions. On the Girma Dali Wordpress site the Mission Statement encourages people to make contributions. John will not publish their words, but he might run with their character ideas and plot twits. To that extent, there is also a collective element to this novel.

When asked if he would turn around and put this novel into a hardback or paperback form, Gorman had this to say. "Right now I am really enjoying this project. I feel a level of freedom I don't think I've had since my fingerpainting days. I don't want to smear this with book deals, paperbacks, and all that other hoopla."

Gorman was working on a short story collection just before he launched "Girma Dali". Originally, he only planned to released new sections during the World Cup to coincide with the football theme, but that soon may change as the growing interest in "Girma Dali" builds.

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Writer of novels and short stories. Creator of Paper Cut blog focusing on the writing world, pop culture and the many cracks in between. http://www.shadesofluz.com
http://girmadali.wordpress.com/