I’m excited to share something I’ve been quietly refining, debating, sweating & ruminating over, behind the scenes for the last several months: I’m serializing my novel Astral Academy here on Substack, before it lives in the world as a paperback.
The MetaStory:
Astral Academy is the next novel in the world of Club Daze & The Subtle Realm—a speculative, metaphysical, science-bent series that explores consciousness and power of the mind. Astral Academy is written as a stand alone, so there’s no need to read the first book in the series to enjoy the world.
SYNOPSIS
Astral Academy, by N.J. Simat
When Natasha Price inherits ChudaPharma after her father’s death, she also inherits his unfinished obsession: proving the existence of the Astral Plane. With investors pulling out and the company’s ruthless CFO pushing a profit-driven DMT project, Natasha secretly launches Astral Academy, a covert program designed to train gifted teens to explore the hidden realm her father never lived to validate.
Working with a team of scientists, dream researchers, and skeptics, Natasha prepares her recruits to enter altered states and unlock extraordinary abilities—lucid projection, universal knowledge access, and deep interspecies communication. But one student, the brilliant and volatile Devin, turns toward darker astral practices, aligning himself with Natasha’s corporate rival and threatening to sabotage the entire mission.
As pressure mounts and resources vanish, Natasha must secure definitive proof of the Astral Plane before her enemies dismantle everything. What her team discovers will reshape ChudaPharma—and the limits of human consciousness—forever.
How the Serialization Will Work
The novel is structured into 45 chapters that are arranged into four parts; each chapter will roll out in serialized episodes.
Here’s the reading model:
Each Episode (chapter) is released weekly, on Sunday
Each PART is completely free while it’s being serialized. Roughly 3 months.
When all four parts are finished, I’ll be releasing the paperback version. Paid subscribers will receive the free ebook.
Where It Lives
The serialization will live in its own dedicated Substack publication (so you can opt in just for the fiction). Only the episodes/chapters will be sent to your inbox for a streamlined reading experience.
If you want the chapters delivered straight to your inbox, you’ll need to subscribe specifically to the Astral Academy publication. (I’ll also include the sign-up link in every episode)
Why I’m Doing It This Way
I’ve always loved the intimacy of episodic storytelling—the shared rhythm, the anticipation, the sense of reading a world together. This format lets me share the book as a living experience, while eventually giving it a proper home in print.
I do hope you’ll come along for the ride.
—N.J. Simat
Interesting premise! If I’d understood how publications work before coming to Substack, I would’ve done mine (dystopian novel, on hold) this way. You provide a good model of what to do! 🙏 and also excited to read the book