Show Home is going offline

If you read the first 15 chapters of Show Home, thank you. Knowing that even a handful of people were turning up each week to read it meant a lot to me. It also helped keep me honest - moving step-by-step through a narrative and having something reader-ready every Sunday.

However, I’ve decided to take it offline. I just unscheduled the next three chapters and will complete the remaining 30 chapters privately. The reason is straightforward. Show Home is a commercial thriller and I want to give it the best possible shot at publication; and I think that means releasing it under a pseudonym.

I came back to this Substack to write honestly about life. The novel I’ve been serialising here is a different kind of thing entirely. Matt Wilven writes one kind of book. The new pseudonym will write another.

Having chapters publicly available also complicates the submission process in ways that aren’t worth the trade-off. The work deserves the best chance I can give it.

This Substack isn’t going away. I’ll use it when I have something worth saying about writing, or books, or whatever is preoccupying me (I have a fun one planned for next week). I might even try some short stories. Just without the weekly deadline.

If “the currently unnamed author” lands an agent or a deal with Show Home, you’ll hear about it here first. If he doesn’t, I’ll consider putting it out myself somehow, somewhere and let you know, so you can finish it.

Thanks for reading.

Matt