Coming September 2026
A serial in 12 installments
Available only in print, delivered monthly to your mailbox.
Story
Notes from Dry Pond is a monthly serialized novel delivered through the mail: a story that you can hold in your hands, arriving in your actual mailbox.Set between the North Carolina communities of the real Denver and the fictional Dry Pond, and centered around the historic Rock Springs Camp Meeting, Notes from Dry Pond tells the story of the Doyle family and the vanished world they called home.Beginning in August 1968 during Camp Meeting, Hank Doyle returns to Denver after four years in New York City with a secret plan: elope with his high school sweetheart, Beverly, spend a few precious days with his younger brother, Bill, before he ships out to Vietnam, and then leave North Carolina behind forever.But the moment Hank returns to Denver, he finds himself caught once again in the complicated web of family obligations, community expectations, old grievances, and long-buried secrets that drove him away in the first place.Most troubling of all is a question that has haunted the Doyle family for nearly a decade: Did Hank’s beloved Aunt Lily really take her own life?Or was her death connected to the political and financial interests of her husband, J.R. Kent, who was a driving force behind the construction of the Cowans Ford Dam and the creation of Lake Norman—events that flooded Dry Pond, displaced entire communities, and forever altered the landscape and future of the Catawba Valley?As Hank and Beverly struggle to escape toward a new life in Los Angeles, one delay follows another. Family crises emerge. And then Bill reveals a secret to Hank that thrusts everyone into a dangerous new reality that threatens not only Bill’s future, but the entire Doyle legacy.Before camp meeting is over, another secret will be buried, old betrayals will come to light, and a surprise wedding at the campground will turn into a public celebration for Denver and a private tragedy for the Doyle family.
Format
Notes from Dry Pond is a serialized novel published monthly in printed installments and delivered through the mail, the way novels once appeared in newspapers, magazines, and literary journals.Each issue is printed on ivory paper in a half-page booklet format, approximately 5.5” x 8.5”, with a 65 lb. card stock cover, and saddle-stapled, giving it the feel of a vintage chapbook. Installments average approximately 36 pages.Notes from Dry Pond is not published online. Nor will any portion ever appear online. It is meant to arrive slowly, physically, and personally. A story at human speed.Subscription Options12 Installments ..... $40
6 Installments ........$23
3 Installments ........$12
Single Issue ...........$5The first installment, Vol. 1, No. 1, will be published in September 2026.If you subscribe after the story has already begun, you will receive the earlier installments first so you can catch up. For example, if you subscribe to six installments in December, you will receive the first four installments together, followed by the fifth in January and the sixth in February. If you later subscribe to the next six installments, your subscription will continue seamlessly from where you left off.Founding Patron SubscriptionBefore September 2026, you can become a Founding Patron of Notes from Dry Pond for $75.As a Founding Patron, you receive:* A subscription to all 12 installments of Volume 1
* Four additional bonus installments previewing other characters in Denver and Dry Pond before and after the events of Volume 1
* A collection of 10 Dry Pond postcards
* The entirety of Volume 1 collected in book form after the final installment has been publishedAfter September 2026, you can still become a Patron of Dry Pond for $100 and receive the same benefits listed above.How to SubscribeYou can subscribe or become a Founding Patron by paying online with a card using the subscription button below.Why a Serial?If a book is something you finish, a serial is something you live with for a while and savor. It is an invitation to the patient pleasures of the past.
Why? A Q&A with Kevin Keck about Notes from Dry Pond
Q: When did you first start working on Notes from Dry Pond?A: In its current form, I believe it was sometime in the fall of 2010. That’s when the story of the Doyle family came to me over the course of several hours one night and I drew the details of their family tree on a large piece of sketch paper, along with notes for each family member’s backstory.But I can recall toying with the kernel of the idea as early as 1999. I knew that there was some story that tied into Camp Meeting, and I think that it was in 2004 that I wrote the first draft of what became the prologue for Volume One.Q: Why wait until now to publish it?A: For the longest time I just didn’t have all of the particulars of the story clear enough in my head. Also, I think that I lacked the confidence to write in a voice other than the comical first-person voice that I was accustomed to. And if I'm being candid, I hadn't yet experienced some aspects of life that are necessary to writing a story like this.Q: What aspects are those?A: Profound, earth shattering loss. And that's all I want to say about that.Q: Is Dry Pond a real place?A: Yes and no. Dry Pond itself is fictional, but it's surrounded by very real places... and the name of Denver was, in fact, Dry Pond before it was changed. I take that historical fact and toy around with it.But I'm not a historian; I write fiction. My responsibility is to tell the emotional truth, even when I've invented people and events. But when I'm writing about Denver, or the real places surrounding Denver and the formation of Lake Norman, I try to be as factually correct as possible. I spend a lot of time researching old maps and newspapers. I genuinely hope that people who are new to the area—or even those who have lived here their entire lives—will become curious about the history of Denver and Lake Norman and do some research of their own.Q: Why is Camp Meeting so important to the story?A: Because it fascinates me. For more than two centuries, families have returned every August to that same place. Camp Meeting isn't simply a setting—it is the mechanism that allows one generation to hand its stories to the next. And it's the thing that makes Denver special.Q: Why are you so interested in disappearing places?A: Because once a place disappears, it takes an entire way of seeing the world with it. Places disappear twice: first physically, then from memory. Stories are one of the few ways to resist that second disappearance.Q: How much of this is based on your own life?A: More than people might expect, and less than they'll probably assume. The emotional landscape comes from my own experiences growing up in Denver and attending Camp Meeting, but the Doyle family is fictional.Q: What is Notes from Dry Pond really about?A: On the surface, the first volume is the story of one family over the course of what they call 'Big Week' at Camp Meeting, and it's mainly told from the perspective of Hank Doyle, Jr., a native of Dry Pond/Denver, who has been living in New York City in the years before the story begins. Underneath, it's about memory, place, and the stories people and communities tell to remember who they are.Q: Why publish the story as a monthly serial instead of one large novel?A: Because that's how I wanted people to experience it. Waiting is part of the experience. The internet has diminished so much of the joy of living. If someone stumbles upon the Easter Bunny, they have to get a picture and post it online instead of simply being in the moment. I wanted to push back against all of that. Everyone online is competing for your attention. I don't want to add to that noise. I want to take you away from that.
Q: Are you worried that people won't like waiting between installments?A: Not really. The people who want everything immediately probably aren't my audience. Anticipation is part of the pleasure.Q: Do I need to start with the first issue?A: Yes. The story is designed to unfold month by month.Q:Will I be able to order earlier installments if I subscribe later?A: Yes, absolutely!Q: Can I give a subscription as a gift?A: I think it's the best possible gift idea for anyone.Q: Is this a religious story?A: Faith is part of many characters' lives, and Camp Meeting is an event organized around worship, but this is not a sermon. It's a novel about people.Q: Why should I subscribe instead of waiting for the whole thing later?A: Because the serial experience is part of the art.Q: Will all of the installments ever be collected in a single edition?A: Yes, but these monthly installments are the original form of the project.Q: Are there plans for more volumes after these first 12 installments?A: Yes. I have an entire history for the Doyles sketched out that begins with Hank Doyle's great-great grandfather, the Reverend Gideon Doyle, who was a circuit preacher in western North Carolina before the Civil War, and who settles in Charleston, South Carolina, afterwards.I have extensive notes and outlines for the family, the various members of which are spread from the mountains of western North Carolina to the coast of South Carolina. I hope to tell a fairly comprehensive saga about the South from Reconstruction through the present day as experienced by different generations of the Doyles.But it's not just about the Doyle family. In this first volume, I mention a (fictional) Sci-Fi magazine that Hank reads, and I'd like for one of the installments of Notes from Dry Pond to be an actual copy of this fictional magazine, with different stories in various styles, written by different writers (all of whom are me, by the way). I already have most of the stories written for that. And I would like for it to look as much like a real magazine as possible, with period specific ads, letters to the editor, etc. I really want to make this world come alive for the reader as much as possible.And there are other little artifacts from the stories that subscribers will receive in the mail as well. But I'm not going to say any more than I already have. I don't want to ruin the surprises I have planned.Q: Is Notes from Dry Pond similar to your other books?A: Only in that they are all written by me. Most of my previous books lean heavily toward comedy and satire. They tend to be fast-paced, irreverent, and willing to venture into territory that some readers may find a bit edgy and outrageous.That said, I've always believed that humor and heart belong together. Even in my wildest stories, I'm ultimately writing about people trying to figure out who they are.If, after spending some time in Dry Pond, you decide to explore my other books, choose wisely. You can probably pick up a copy of Are You There God? It's Me. Kevin. (Bloomsbury, 2008) and not be too shocked. The same goes for my novel, Babyhead, which is about some early 20-something slackers in Syracuse, New York, in the late 1990s. But when it comes to Oedipus Wrecked (Cleis Press, 2005)... just don't say I didn't warn you. It's probably less shocking now than it was when it was first published, but I'm genuinely surprised that one hasn't been banned if that tells you anything. I wish it would get banned. It would definitely help sell more copies.
Subscription/Purchase Options
As a Founding Patron, you receive:* A subscription to all 12 installments of Volume 1
* Four additional bonus installments previewing other characters in Denver and Dry Pond before and after the events of Volume 1
* A collection of 10 Dry Pond postcards
* The entirety of Volume 1 collected in book form after the final installment has been published
Praise for Are You There God? It's Me. Kevin.
“After just one chapter, you'll want to hop aboard this crazy train and hang on for dear life.” ― Zink“Reading this book is a lot like talking with one of your buddies over a beer. Are You There, God? is a good read for anyone whose life is in upheaval or ever has been, and that covers just about all of us.” ― Dallas Morning News“Funny and entertaining…” ― New York Observer“Highly engaging...” ― Time Out Chicago“Overly revealing and not very pretty, but good...” ―Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)“Very funny!” ― Christopher Schobert, Buffalo News“Like David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs before him, the author enchants and occasionally horrifies with self-deprecating tales of familial dysfunction as he exposes the bumps encountered thus far on his road to self-discovery…. Laugh-out-loud memoir that also offers serious food for thought for those tempted to seek the comforts of home when negotiating the trials of adulthood.” ―Kirkus Reviews“With candid wit…. Keck wins the reader over with his quirky honesty.” ― Publishers Weekly
Praise for Keck's Other Works
"Everywhere in his poems are little flecks of brilliance, like mica in a boulder, that tell us the world can be as strange as we let it." ― Charles Rafferty, author of The Smoke of Horses"Keck's prose shows the evidence of his poetic training..." ― The Pedestal Magazine“[A]n amazingly funny young writer.” ― Entertainment Weekly“Hilarious...sure to make you laugh out loud.” ― Playgirl
Contact
If you'd like to have Keck come and speak to your book club and/or give a reading, or if you have press inquiries, please use the form below.But if you just want to drop a note of encouragement or solidarity, don't be afraid to send a letter: PO Box 30485, Charleston, SC 29407.
Thank you!
Your order has been received. You'll receive an update by email when your first installment ships in September 2026 (most likely the week after Labor Day). Questions, address changes, or anything else? Contact us: [email protected].