About Woman in the Sea, DarkSF novel by John Argo Clocktower Books

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Classic SF Novel by John Argo

*Criteria: First true e-book published online (a) proprietary, not public domain; (b) entire, not samples or teasers; (c) standard industrial novel length; (d) In HTML to be read online as HTML files, not on portable media (e.g. CD-ROM, floppies, etc.). Starting with Neon Blue in April 1996, John T. Cullen (John Argo) released his novels in an innovative weekly serial chapter format to a world-wide audience of avid readers on every continent. Readers tended to be educated, technically savvy computer users or developers who responded with understanding and enthusiasm. As with movies like Blade Runner or Chrysalis, general audiences long remained baffled and negative, but films of this type tend to become great classics, often so-called cult classics. Likewise with the wonderful fiction of authors like Cordwainer Smith, Alice Sheldon ('James Tiptree, Jr.'), and others.

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Global Fan Base. We published it starting July 1996 at our second website (The Haunted Village in innovative weekly serial chapters. We would post the next sequential chapter every Sunday evening, to be read by eager readers around the world as they arrived at work for their morning coffee or tea. In those days, few had home computers, so most sneaked a little recreational reading at work. Publishing in San Diego, we received raves from readers across the U.S. and as far away as New Zealand, Germany, South Africa, Canada, and other far-flung locations. Readers who were so jazzed that they couldn't wait for the next chapter also had the option of downloading a full TXT file—no fuss, no fee, because this was before e-commerce.

Originally published in 1996 as Heartbreaker, John Argo retitled the novel This Shoal of Space in 1998. Brian Callahan, co-publisher at the time, did the early covers and web design.

Bestseller. This novel became a bestseller at the original Rocket eBooks and Barnes-Noble websites, and later at Fictionwise.

Virtual Reality. Among the original themes in this novel was the idea of Virtual Reality (years before films like The Matrix or Inception, although we make no claim for first place—unless you consider that the VR in this novel involves arrayed microcomputers (PCs), actually laptops in effect, which were new at the time (I owned an early Toshiba). John Argo says: "I first encountered the concept of virtual paging as a technical writer working at a major aerospace firm in San Diego. When some mainframe programmers explained the concept to me, my agile SFnal mind immediately conjured what would become known as virtual reality. Ray Bradbury gets at least early credit for the concept with his short story The Veld in the 1950s, but I was having a lot of creative fun. That's what counts. The notion of arrayed computers also comes into play (start reading and enjoy the novel, please)."—JTC

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