June 14, 2025
Dear readers,
It’s been a slower writing month, at least on the surface. I didn’t get as much time to draft new scenes as I had hoped—but I’ve been working beneath the narrative line.
The core goal remains the same:
Complete the full first draft of the book 1 by September.
In the background, I’ve been focused on the deep structure of Acts 2 and 3, with significant rewiring of narrative flows—especially how emotional and philosophical tensions escalate. The character depth of the Pegged team has now been significantly enhanced (especially Amara and Raj). I've also been researching real-world dissident lotteries—from exile-driven encryption movements to analog games of chance used to smuggle ideas. These inform several upcoming scenes and the ideological undercurrent behind the Pegged system itself.
Overview of Recent Writing
Over the past month, the following scenes and drafts have been refined:
• B1A3S10 v.2 was published publicly: this marks the narrative tipping point—a confrontation with the system as it activates.
• Scene 11 and Scene 12 have been plotted and partially drafted, setting up the operational chaos and emotional fallout that follows.
• Act 2 structural map has been locked in: character tensions (especially Raj vs. Chang and Amara’s growing clarity) now drive the shift from ambition to fracture.
Current word count across drafted scenes: ~46,000 words.
Target for first full draft: ~120,000 words.
Alias’s Notebook Excerpts – New Format Starting Now
Why this shift?
Publishing isolated scenes out of order has proven disorienting—even for engaged readers. So I’ll hold back on posting narrative chapters until a sequence of successive scenes is complete and makes sense as a unit.
In the meantime, I’ll begin releasing: “Alias’s Notebook Excerpts”.
These short pieces do three things:
1. Clarify the conceptual spine behind the story (without spoiling plot).
2. Offer deeper context for readers—about lotteries, stablecoins, systems, power, and finality.
3. Introduce Alias as a reflecting voice, and Ava as the one interpreting (or misinterpreting) him.
Alias’s Notebook Excerpts Publishing Strategy
• Some of them will be used as interstitials—interruptions between or inside chapters.
• They might even become a separate work: Alias’s Notebooks: The Ideas Behind Pegged
• Online serialized drops: One entry at a time, aligned with the emotional pulse of the main story.
Expect the first Notebook Excerpt later today.
Building a Community (Slowly, Deliberately)
Instead of chasing growth, I’ve been working to build signal.
What’s working:
• @GM_Bulls (X) memes consistently outperform—lottery-as-liberation hits the cultural nerve.
• Ava (Nostr) Ava’s logs are becoming a steady thread—more immersive, emotionally resonant.
• @meta_teri (X) still performs well with poetic fragments—though needs threading to clarify identity.
• Banner art and visual updates are now more consistent, creating a recognizable storyworld tone.
What’s changing:
• From now on, scene drops will be rarer—but more coherent.
• Alias’s Notebooks and Ava logs will carry the project’s philosophical continuity.
• A “lottocratic” engagement mechanic is in development—where reader participation can influence what gets released next.
Feedback + Support Invitation
This project is slow by design—but not indifferent.
If you’ve been reading and thinking along with it, I’d love to hear from you.
• Was a scene especially sharp or confusing?
• Do the Ava logs or Alias notes help you engage—or distance you?
• Is there a concept you’d like clarified? Or challenged?
You can comment directly on Paragraph or reply on Nostr, LinkedIn or X.
If you’re finding this project meaningful, please consider forwarding this or inviting a friend to subscribe.
Pegged isn’t a product.
It’s a wager—on ideas that resist deletion.
Thank you for being part of it.
More very soon.
