![A meme screenshot from the animatd show Bob's Burgers. A character says angrily [via subtitles], "It's a PREQUEL, you ASS!"](https://www.serobertsonfiction.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/meme-prequel.webp)
In writing/self-publishing parlance, a “magnet” is the bonus content offered to subscribers of a newsletter. (Also sometimes called “cookies,” which I kind of like more. Although there’s also the lingo “magical cookies,” not entirely unrelated to “butter,” both of which loosely mean “things put into a story specifically because they’re fun/cool/satisfying and people enjoy them on a lizard-brain level.” Like fanservice, except not specifically sexual. There’s a lot of food-related slang, is what I’m saying)
The concept of a magnet/cookie is to entice people to join your newsletter by offering free stuff. But I’ve also seen it as a reward more than a bribe: “if you like the books, here’s some more.” Bonus content, in other words. And that’s the spirit I’ve tried to take into this enterprise.
Long story short, I’m working on magnets for both of my series. This project fit well between Therapist 8 and 9, and letting the draft for Strangers cool off. I don’t usually write short works — the Therapist series was written in novella form specifically as a challenge to myself — so this has been a fun exercise.
For Healers, I pulled together some shorts I had written before but hadn’t done anything with, then wrote a new one. They don’t stand particularly well on their own if you haven’t read the series, but I can live with that. One takes place during book 1 (Keifon’s friendship with the toymaker on the caravan), and the others fill in between books 1 and 2 (Keifon has some Big Thoughts about blending cultures; Agna reunites with Rone; all three of them attend a New Year’s celebration). It was more emotional than I expected, returning to these characters — even/especially? at this early point in their story.
Therapist was a bit more of a challenge; every idea I’d had with even a little bit of staying power was reserved for the Potential Future Novellas list. Except that once I started brainstorming, more ideas started flowing after all. Hooray! I settled on a prequel story to start with: how Francesca arrived in the otherworld, narrated by Ithronel, who will later become the head of her household staff.
And predictably, I feel like I could continue this prequel into a whole novella, but we’ll set that aside for now.
I expect it to take another month or so to edit these and make sure they’re as polished as they can be, “even” for a newsletter freebie. As bonus content, I still want them to be good.
That’s what’s happening now. Exciting stuff.