The Opening Salvo: The Series Opener That Vocal Inspired

Six months after my first book, I’m back. This time with The Opening Salvo, the start of a full-on trilogy based off of a Vocal challenge entry. An entry that remains some of the tightest comedy I’ve ever written with the most jokes per capita.

And the character it birthed kicked his way into my head and refused to leave until I gave him his story.

If this sounds familiar to the story of how my first book A Bloody Business started, you’d be right. With one key difference:

This entry didn’t place.

In fact, I’ve written at least ten challenge entries as part of the Dick Winchester adventures, and we’re 0:10.

But that’s fine. I still love the series. It’s why I’ve kept it up after all this time.

And as I’ve written about before, challenge losses don’t mean what you have isn’t worthwhile. The massive second life my story “SEALAB IV” has had off platform is a testament to this fact.

No matter the outcome, the fact remains:

Dick Winchester would not exist without the Vocal challenge that inspired his creation.

A Drone—and a Mailbomb

The time? November 2022.

The challenge? The Mystery Box:

A drone anonymously delivers a mysterious package to your doorstep. Write a fictional story between 600 to 3,000 words uncovering who sent it and why.

As soon as I read that prompt, my mind went one direction.

It can’t be a mailbomb, I chided myself. It won’t place if it’s a mailbomb.

…I made it a mailbomb. And, prophetically, it didn’t place. So at least I get the satisfaction of knowing I was right.

But I also recognized the opportunity to take on a project I’d had on my mind for a while: a satire of the archetype hardboiled private eye of old-school 1940’s noir. This time transplanted into the modern age.

All these elements combined with my ire at corporate America after having to spend a good chunk of my previous weekend working for my employer at that time.

And what better way to double down on the tone than to make the opening line a Casablanca reference:

Out of all the doors in this city, it came to mine.

What followed would be some of the best comedy writing I’ve ever done, especially for how few words it ended up using. I believe there’s at least one joke (if not more) for every paragraph.

Not to mention, it perfectly sets up the greater conflict of the trilogy as Dick’s underdog Winchester Delivery Services takes on the app-based fat cats of the food delivery business that have his place of residence in the stranglehold of economic subjugation.

A Late Comeuppance

Time went on, and “Dick Winchester in… The Box with No Name” remained in the undiscovered gems bin with several other stories that I’m quite proud of from my time on this site.

But I returned to the character and carried on, first with “Dick Winchester in… The Last Word” for the Word Hunt challenge, then “Dick Winchester in… The Hat Trick” for the Micro Heist challenge, and on the wheel spun.

Every time, a challenge loss, but still a unique opportunity to challenge myself by creating a Dick Winchester adventure that adhered to the prompt while still remaining quintessentially Dick Winchester. Not to mention, combining set deadline with potential prize winnings did wonders for my motivation.

And even as each story came up empty on the challenge front, the world of Dick Winchester was expanding and evolving.

Not to mention, the gonzo-looking titles attracted a few eyes scanning the challenge entries.

One of those folks was Lamar Wiggins, who first crossed paths with my work on “Dick Winchester in... Dick Winchester Episode 1: ‘Gratuity Not Included’” (Starring Dick Winchester as Dick “Dick” Winchester).

Yes, I really took the name gag as far as it could go with that one.

Not only did Lamar like my entry for the Pitch Your Pilot challenge, but when fate brought us both into contact with Donna Fox and her Vocal Graveyard challenge, he was kind enough to nominate the opening chapter of the series.

And… it co-won the whole thing!

To be clear, my faith in the quality of this series had never been in doubt. But it sure was nice to have other folks recognize the effort that had gone into it.

Not to mention, it brought in a few new fans.

Let me take a quick moment to acknowledge them here.

Acknowledgements

At the risk of a “spoiler,” I’ll borrow what I said in the book’s Acknowledgements:

First, I need to tip my hat to the Vocalites. The little fandom that sprung up around the original Dick Winchester adventures I published on Vocal gave me the motivation to keep going and to keep pushing the experimental envelope. Thank you to Lamar, Randy, Mackenzie, Donna, and all the rest of you out there for the encouragement I needed to commit to the challenge of building an actual storyline for this character. I think you’ve already seen that plot bearing fruit in the advance chapters for Book 2.

I would also be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to acknowledge my creative team who helped take this book from first draft to finished product, including Vocal’s very own Bri Craig.

You can read about the full team below from our previous collaboration on A Bloody Business:

The faces have not changed, even if their thoughts around working with me may have worsened 😉

Are We Done Yet?

All right, all right. For those of you interested in checking out the full work, here’s the Amazon link:

The Opening Salvo

And if you’re a bit more on the fence, then why not check out the “The Box with No Name” which is now Chapter 1 of the novel and gives a great sample of tone, humor, and plot:

You can also check out my author site for a full-on pitch of the book:

Or you can leave a quick ❤️ on this post and move on with your day. Whatever works best for you 🤝