Announcing a Swashbuckling Adventure Poem

I rarely plug anything in this space, but today I’d like to announce a project that I hope will interest some readers. For a while now I’ve been working on a long, loosely structured narrative poem about a heartsick billionaire. It’s called The Travels of Blad J. Garamond.

Rather than attempt to publish it piecemeal through journals, I’ve begun posting it directly online. In other words, I’ve turned it into a blog—but Mr. Garamond, a man of superlative taste, prefers the term “serial.”

(I invented the main character, actually, during my first blogging job, with the art book publisher Abbeville Press. Back then I imagined him as a digital-age connoisseur of print, a medium to which he may yet migrate someday.)

I’ve prepared a number of sections in advance but will be writing much of the poem on the fly. One of my models here is the classic movie or magazine serial; another is the comic strip, an old form that’s found new life online. The poem is even illustrated, though not by me—I’ve brought in a ringer, the wonderfully talented Lisa Perrin.

I don’t have a set schedule in mind for the project, or even an end date. All I can say is that I hope to throw in enough swordsmanship, horsemanship, romantic rivalry, and Venetian speedboat chases to earn my readers’ patience—and keep them as curious as I am to find out whether Blad can win back his beloved Geneviève. 

Start reading here: bladjgaramond.com.