2026 New Readers Start Here
Coming soon:
Simple rules (for solo role-playing) → estimated publication 3/8/26
Deep rules (for solo role-playing) → estimated publication 3/22/26
Chapter cluster: Ice World
Begins with “The Price of What’s Gone Unsaid” → on or around 3/9/26
Chapter cluster: The Far Shores
Begins with “Place of Silver Heels and Crimson Hate” → on or around 3/9/26
Chapter cluster: Dhamma War
Begins with “A Man of Means Who Means Business” → tbd
Chapter cluster: Dancing Grrrls
Begins with “Riot at the Dance Hall” → tbd
Original Backbone (2022)
Reading style guidance:
Here is a list of all the published chapters. This page is a useful navigation tool, so I recommend bookmarking it and returning here whenever you feel lost or like you aren’t sure what to read next.
You can read the chapters in chronological order of publication, which is how they are first listed below.
If you want to read it in reverse chronological order (which is Substack’s default, for whatever reason), click here.
If you want the more choice-driven experience, look at the map below and then select the related story path. The individual paths are broken out by main topic or character and are after the chronological list. Likewise, I am doing my best to provide links within the individual installments prompting you to follow them so you can stay on that story path.
A friend pointed out that it might be useful to only read one or two a day, rather than trying to take out a whole bunch at once. I think that’s good advice, but don’t let me stop you from doing what works best for you.
Please comment if you want to play it like an interactive game, and I will respond when I can.
I hope you enjoy it!
Entries in order of publication:
Hey bae (all paths)
The Front Matter (all paths)
Nine Years Gone (me & you, Karin, the park, Cade, photos, three ways)
Going to the Chapel (Karin; First Cut)
After Dinner, Upstairs … (me & you—smutty bit partially locked for free subscribers)
Would You Spot Me? (me & you, SOMA, Zadok)
A Pool Scene (me & you, Everything Fails, Grand Story of Not; other paths)
Lava! (me & you)
My Private Collection (me & you, TVS & The Black Book of Fear)
Git! (me & you)
The Backbone (literally this document you a reading now)
Wendy (Wendy, obvs)
Come Close or Feel Far (me & you)
Estienne (Wendy)
Walk Down Main Street (me & you)
The Dream I Had Last Night (me & you; Dream #1)
Please Tell Me You Didn’t (me & you)
Another Dream (Dream #2)
Morning After (me & you; Dream #3)
Nikki Comes to Visit (me & you; Nikki)
A Litany of Crows (me & you)
Comic Sans (me & you)
The Long-Awaited by Few—Probably Brand New to You—Revelation of the Complex, Bizarre yet Astonishingly True Nature of the Semimalevolent Entity Known as Dwizaal: a pseduodemonic paranoid fiction in rather disastrous array (D, Scenes from the Tank)
Openings (me & you)
Inhibition (Dream #4; me & you, Zuy)
The Jupiter Room (me & you, Loona, Pem, Ecks; later on, Zuy)
Seth (Wendy)
Gay’s Hypothesis (Horace, Seth, Wendy)
Rockin’ Offa da Toppa Dis Apocalypse (me, Klava, Roxy)
A Microfiction Universe within the Secret of Secrets (Dream #5)
Secret Garden (me & you)
Alithea Arrives in Soma (Alithea)
Slaggin’ at da Violet (me, Riley; smutty bit at the end)
Subterranean (Dream #7)
Occupied (Dream #8)
Nice Folks (me, Dad, Mason)
The Ones We Keep (me, Dad, Mason)
Intersection of Tradewinds & Povich (me & you)
Planes of Existence (me & you, Nikki)
The Sweet Sweat Ponged Party (me & you, Dag; Dream #10)
Checking the Tapes (Seth, Wendy)
A Peach In the Cage (Seth, Wendy)
Eager (Dream #11)
Vestigial Vestments (me & you)
I Wouldn’t Expect You to Understand (Dream #14)
Fused (Dad)
Impacted (Dad, Dream #15, Made to Remember)
New Neighbor (Desi)
Pass Without Notice (Terry)
Soaked Through (Dad)
A Haze (Mom, Mitz, Mars the planet)
He Doesn’t Get to Have a Chapter Named After Him (new path: Secrets school; Mickie kind of)
The Hidden Shrine (Camp O-Bag, Mars the deity, Lilamara)
Vampires Come at Night (Dad, Dream #16, Dream #17)
Garbled (me & you, Garance)
Christmastime In the Library [Ed. Near the end of Part I in the linear verszh.]
Cinda Ashe (Wendy)
Rust & Dust (Dream #12)
Packed In Salt (Alithea)
Back Cement (Dad)
A Locked Door to the Shadow Plane of Existence (Klava kind of)
Three Scenes In a Game I Do Not Understand (Dream #22)
Wrecking Ball (Dad)
By Hand, On the Floor (Thieves; me & you; Dream #23)
Flower Arrangement (me & you)
Possible, But Unlikely (Wendy; Mickie)
If These Warlocks and Devils Have Their Way (Dad; Klava [in absentia]; Bill; Scenes from the Tank)
Looked Over (Bit; Avan)
On a Precipice of Dream’s Edge (me & you)
No One Ever Does (me & you)
Death Shroud (Nikki; Bruno)
Reading the Backbone: A New Introduction by the Author for the 2023 Crowd (new readers’ guide)
Resolutions (me & you; ablated chapters)
Places of Residence (me & you; Dream #19)
A Lampshade (me & you)
Snake People (new path: Snake People; smut at the end)
Let Me Steal This Moment From You Now (Wendy; Mickie)
Wasteland Redux (me & you; Horace)
Up Through the Cracks, Like Grass Under Concrete (new path: First Cut)
In My Solitude (First Cut)
The Old Crane, on Page Road (First Cut)
Malefic Tastemaking In Metafictional Markets (new path: Mall)
Revisiting Confessional Rededication (me & you)
Vita Obscura (me & you; new path: Iz)
Can’t Catch Me (me & you)
Everyone’s a Pop Rocket (secrets school)
A Small Misunderstanding of Epic Proportion (me & you)
Of Secrets and Secretists (me & you)
Backslide (dream #39; me & you)
The Death of Wil Florencemachen (new path: Wil F; dream #40)
Down the Axon Highway … (new path: Alumna abscondita)
In a Sense, You’re Alone Here (Alumna)
The Liberation (First Cut)
And the Voices Say … (me & you)
My Mind, My Body: How They Fit Together & Come Apart (all paths)
Blast Along Clean (me & you; Cade)
Cut Outs (Mall)
Poderós (Mall; locked cos smutty)
Not for Certain (me & you)
Prospero’s Books (me & you; dreams)
Underwater! (me & you)
Allothogenic Love (dreams)
Timetwists (dreams)
A Short Walk (Dad)
Cleaved (D)
Items of Lasting Value (me & you)
Meetings & Exchanges (dreams)
Soul Chambers (heirloomers; me & you)
Keep Coming Back (Desi)
That Which Has Not Yet Left Us (dreams)
One More Will Do It (Desi)
This Feels Familiar (Desi)
Mickie (Wendy)
Need to Go Forward, Need to Go Back [content advisory: self-harm] (Mars the planet, D)
The Dreamwar Corridor (dreams)
Book 15 (me & you)
Good Way to Go Out (Desi)
Pushed Around from Shore to Shore (dreams; New path: The Other Mystery; Verna)
Black Friday Dream (Dreams; secrets school)
Way Down, In the Underground (me & you; Wendy)
The Death Cage in Taruma Kivuli (Dreams: Dreamwar)
After a Day or Two (me & you)
Lifestyles of the Dipshit and Lamous (me & you; mentions many other paths)
Lie Down (Alithea; New path: The Eight Gates)
You Can Only See It from Outside of It (me & you)
It Will Do You Some Good to Read It Again (me & you)
Brush the Leaves Aside So You Can Reach Us (me & you; D; Mars the planet)
A Thicket of Yews (me & you)
The Price of What’s Gone Unsaid (new starting point for 2026 audience)
Restoring Coherence (new path: The Codex of Coherence)
STORY PATHS (2022-2025)
Path: Alithea
Spread (smut)
Path: Alumna abscondita aka Lori Gayelder & The Sisterhoods of Secrets
Path: The Codex of Coherence
Path: D
Path: Dad
Discharged
Man With the Beard
Back In Again
Shave and a Haircut (Two Bits)
I’m Just Going to Sit Here a Minute
Ossuaries
The Funeral
Dad’s Truck
Yard Waste
Dad’s Ring
Thank Yous
I Wish I’d Done a Better Job
A Pile of Black Stones, A Pile of White
I Know One Day Soon
Path: Desi
We Will Have Some Time Together After All
Path: Dreams
The Dream I Had Last Night (Dream #1)
Another Dream (Dream #2)
Morning After (Dream #3)
Inhibition (Dream #4)
A Microfiction Universe within the Secret of Secrets (Dream #5)
Subterranean (Dream #7)
Occupied (Dream #8)
The Sweet Sweat Ponged Party (Dream #10)
Eager (Dream #11)
Allothogenic Love (Dream #13)
I Wouldn’t Expect You to Understand (Dream #14)
Impacted (Dream #15)
Vampires Come at Night (Dream #16, Dream #17)
Rust & Dust (Dream #12)
Three Scenes In a Game I Do Not Understand (Dream #22)
By Hand, On the Floor (Dream #23)
Places of Residence (Dream #19)
Timetwists (Dream #26)
Dreamdash (Dream #28)
Backslide (Dream #39)
The Death of Wil Florencemachen (Dream #40)
Encoding 1100 (Dream #45)
Prospero’s Books (Dream #46)
Meetings & Exchanges (Dream #48)
That Which Has Not Yet Left Us (Dream #49)
The Dreamwar and Other Diversions of Ignorance (Dream #50)
The Sheriff and How My Dad Would Rather Not Pay Her
My Dad Sees Both Sides of The House
At the Dinner Table with the Mystic Set
Vampire Theater
The Escape Tunnel
The Backporch/Reg In the Sand
Three White Horses …
… And One Dark Horse
Walking Back and The Biohazardous Waste
The Death Cage in Taruma Kivuli
The approach
You aren’t coming at this the way it’s set up
Organizing the tent
People play sports out here?
Could there be another way to live?
Pregnancies
The Lottery
First Blood/You Don’t Have to Keep Coming Back
Liquification
Avan Closing the Time Loop
Pushed Around from Shore to Shore (Dream #52)
Black Friday Dream (Dream #54)
Path: Eight Gates
Eight Gated Agate Stage
Gate 1—North
Gate 2—Northeast
Das erste Geheimtor
Gate 3—East
Gate 4—Southeast
La Segunda Puerta Secreta
Gate 5—South
Gate 6—Southwest
Winčhékpa Kin Kektúwa
Gate 7—West
Gate 8—Northwest
Path: Exit to the Wastes
Beyond the Somatic Walls …
… A Beautiful Wasteland!
Path: The First Cut
Throat-clearing, an Introduction, and All That Jam (up through the line: “I dunno what else to tell you. That’s me.”); I may replace this chapter with “The First Thing to Fail”
Going to the Chapel, which is linked from …
Wendy Was Her Name-O (new chapter)
Three Worlds, Technically Four
Path: Heirloomers
A Locked Door to the Shadow Plane of Existence (Klava’s stuff)
If These Warlocks and Devils Have Their Way (Bill; Archie & Klava mentioned)
Soul Chambers (Bill briefly seen; Klava mentioned)
Back In Again
Shave and a Haircut (Two Bits)
Search for Klava (just what it says)
Path: Island Retreat
The Island Retreat
Writing in the hut / A Visit from Dane
Movie Night Slumber Parties
Poolside Alfresco
The Retreat Masquerade Ball
Path: Karin
Path: Library
Ed. Note that these chapters are really meant to be interstitial in character. While you may certainly read this novel anyway you like—multiple ways, in fact, and I hope that you do and gain new pleasures from it each time—they’re not really at their best read in a linear, one-right-after-the-other fashion. But you do you, boo. If it’s your jam then that makes me very happy.
I’m Never Getting Out of Here
Who Am I?
Path: Mall
Path: Mars the Deity
Path: Me & You (2022)
And the Voices Say … (October 2023: second starting point)
Underwater! (temporary placement; order will change)
A Thicket of Yews
Path: Nikki
Nikki Walks Me Through the Weight of My Words
Path: The Other Mystery
Path: Scenes From the Tank or …
Path: Secrets School
He Doesn’t Get to Have a Chapter Named After Him (ft. Master Cunin)
Everyone’s a Pop Rocket (ft. Master Furrow)
Black Friday Dream (ft. Master Tonn; Lily)
Master Whip’s First Lesson (ft. Master Whip)
Path: Smut
Ed. This is less of a proper path and more a collection of erotic stories; or, chapters that have an erotica element in them. They are locked for your protection.
After Dinner, Upstairs (ft. me & you)
Slaggin’ at the Violet (ft. me)
Snake People (ft. Dr. Thanerthope)
Poderós (ft. Mall)
Embrace the Snake (ft. Dr. Borgogni)
Lie Down (ft. Alithea)
A Sudden Need (ft. me & you)
Path: Snake People
Embrace the Snake (locked cos smut)
Path: Teresa Anderson
Teresa Anderson Is My Duplicate
Teresa vs. the Simulation
Path: Terra Cimmeria aka Mars the planet
Need to Go Forward, Need to Go Back [content advisory: self-harm]
Well this looks super interesting. The wonder of Notes doing wonders here (thanks @Claudia Befu for posting).