On July 7th, 2022, the Montecito Journal (www.montecitojournal.net) began a serializtion of my novel Montecito. This is the initial Montecito Journal cover graced by the suited shark standing atop Montecito Union Elementary — an image that would become the story’s mascot.* The initial installment was the opening chapter of the novel — less than 2,000 words.

The Montecito Journal’s serialization plan was to print the first four chapters of the story over four weeks and then release the rest of the novel online, but by week four, a curious thing happened …

August 4, 2022, most popular reads at www.montecitojournal.net:

After being inundated with calls and emails about the serialization, the Montecito Journal ditched their plan to stop at four chapters and started printing multiple chapters per week - 3,500 plus words per week …

On August 9th, the Montecito Journal printed my very first “review” as a letter to the editor:

Montecito ran for another twenty-four weeks, finishing on February 2nd, 2023, with the final four chapters and a thank you from me to the readers. For its entire run — thirty weeks in all — the installments of Montecito were the most read weekly feature on the Montecito Journal’s website:

The week that the final installment went live, the final three installments of the serialization were the three most read features on the Montecito Journal’s website:

In the subsequent two issues of the Montecito Journal, the editors printed fifteen of the dozens of letters to the editor they received in praise of the story:

I am incredibly grateful to the Montecito Journal for gifting me this opportunity to publish my story, receive feedback, and discover that there was an audience for my work.