[Fiction] Death by Advertising - Table of Contents

A contemporary fiction series in 8 parts. Complete here on Substack. Track generations of Midwestern writers through this mini-saga of their lives and loves - as their mysteries are revealed...

Jul 12, 2025

∙ Paid

THE NAMESAKE STORY FOR THIS ANTHOLOGY was originally a popular standalone, but later became the inspiration for an trilogy of its own, then a crossover to another trilogy, and (finally) this anthology.

Good stories never die, they just get sequels. In this story, we left both Tessa and Detective Johnson with little tag-end mysteries of their own to solve. And also a hint of romance for each.

Completely outside of this book, another standalone story called “The Caretaker” had one of its characters revived to tell his own story in “Triangle: A Memoir”. That had enough story left over for it's own sequel, “Last Chance”. Of course, that then compiled into it's own “Caretaker Trilogy”.

But like its original book, again, a character at the end of that book then started telling his own story – borrowing from his father and his grandfather's legacies: “Death by Marketing”. These two original standalone stories then became prequels, again. And so the “Death by Marketing Anthology” was created, with that Caretaker Trilogy inside it.

But wait – there's more... One of my First Readers then noted that Detective Johnson arrived with his own happily-ever-after mentioned at the end of Death by Marketing – and asked, “How did THAT happen?” So - “Death by Sales Pitch” then showed up to fill in that gap. Which then created the “Death by Advertising Trilogy”.

What proved to be my last original fiction before my sabbatical from fiction writing, “The Chrysalis Cure” was loosely connected to all those above. As I prepared it to take its place into this anthology, just a few lines shifted around made it an appropriate final piece having a writer-farmer relative who bequeathed an Iowa farm to his nephew. (You can see a lot of threads still hanging out like Irish pennants, just waiting for additional stories to be born.)

All told, a delightful four-year journey for a couple of standalone short stories with seemingly dis-related characters – who turned out to be telling their own stories, spaced out over five generations.

You'll note that we split “Triangle” into two parts, positioning Death by Sales Pitch in between. This was to make the individual stories together better, and establish a rhythm to those stories throughout the assembled work. Plus, you are kept wondering what happened in these various stories as you read linearly through this work. (But you’ll enjoy the pause — unless you choose to read these in a different order…)

Whether the nephew himself picks up writing is indefinite – just another reason to have one of the writers here pick up that sequel and continue the series.

But one thing is consistent – there are happily-ever-afters for all the couples throughout.

If you want more by these authors, please see the backmatter – they've both written many enjoyable and clean stories, with mystery and romance and adventure enough for many pleasant hours of clean reading.

For now – enjoy.

Each of these stories are released in full. Right here on Substack.

Here is the complete list, so you can read in order, or fill in the one’s you may have missed.

Paid subscribers get bonuses with each story.