Sip, Swallow & Scream | Chapter Guide
If you're new to the party, start reading - the party is almost over!
If you’ve been following me for a while, you probably know that I’ve been writing mystery novels — four of them, in fact, but that they are in various stages of repair (aka, writing and rewriting). And they all star my favorite main character, Sesame Swallow, an amateur private investigator in Baltimore (which incidentally is where I have lived for the past 20 years).
What started as novel writing has evolved into serial writing as well. And while this is not the first Sesame Swallow mini-mystery I published (if you were on Medium with me, you know), and there have been various novel excerpts published, too — look at the navigation bar and click on Sesame Swallow, this is the first major Sesame Swallow story to be published here on Substack. In fact, I only finished the story in May, so I’ve been waiting for months to share it with everyone to read.
Below, I’ll share some of the posts leading up to this story, as it’s in these posts that you’ll find outtakes, audio, and the author’s notes to tease the story that will start this weekend, on Saturday, September 6th.
This story is 14 episodes long and will take us right up to Halloween night, which is perfect because the last scene takes place on Halloween, and that seems totally appropriate for a Halloween-themed murder mystery that leans heavily on Edgar Allan Poe.
“Let’s go on the ghost tour,” she said.
“It’ll be fun,” she said.
What could happen? A lot happened. Like fucking everything. One day you’re packing cute shoes and a dress for a masked ball that you spent months trying to get tickets to. The next day you’re trekking through a boggy cemetery in a pair of boots you’re happy you got on sale. And before you know it, you’re walking down the creepiest cobblestone street in the creepiest town in America on the creepiest weekend of the year to find a creep who killed the rando ghost tour guy. Hold the candy corn. Pass the bourbon. Happy Halloween, bitchachos!
Let’s go solve a murder!
The first teaser for the story landed around 9 months ago. This is what happens when you are writing multiple projects all the time. In this first teaser, you get an introduction to the characters and the story, which is told in 1st person by Sesame herself (as all her stories and novels are): Teaser for Sip, Swallow & Scream #1!
This second teaser is an audio teaser, and I love this voice for Sesame. What would a Halloween weekend in a themed village in Pennsylvania be without a hayride, your besties, a little whiskey and a murder to solve? Teaser for SSS #2!
Detectives don’t run on whiskey alone. After a long night of contemplating clues, sometimes a girl needs her coffee. Audio teaser for SSS #3!
Sometimes when you’re trying to solve a murder, someone is trying to murder you. And when he or she is dressed as the Masque of the Red Death, and you’re sneaking around in a hidden, underground room hot on the trail of a missing manuscript worth killing for? It can happen. Teaser for Sip, Swallow & Scream #4!
Collateral damage can occur, and sometimes detectives have to rely on a witness or someone who was involved in the incident, whether knowingly or not. And if you don’t have the muscles yourself, well, bring them with you. Teaser for SSS #5!
Chapter List and Links for Sip, Swallow & Scream!
I’ll add the last one when it’s published on Halloween. Stay tuned! We’re almost there!
And in November, it’ll be all Sesame novel work (updates, excerpts and everything else I can think of) all month long!
