A novel, written in the open

Pendant is where I publish books as they are being written. The usual order is: write for years in private, then show the finished thing. This site runs the other way. The process posts go up as the work happens — writing sessions, art explorations, story decisions. Chapters appear when they reach final, one light at a time, until a whole spine glows.

The first book — the one being written right now — is The Descent, a novel about an archaeologist named Ada Morrison, an heirloom pendant that is warm when it should not be, and a buried crater that does not fit the models. The site is named for the pendant. What you can read of it so far is on the contents page. And when this book is done, it has company coming.

I’m Mike Cohen. I’ve been carrying this story since around 2002 — the long version of that is in Where This Started. I write the book, though not alone: my writing partner is an AI I call Ensis — formally my amanuensis, a word you can look up in the dictionary along with the other words this project keeps collecting. I make every decision and revise every line; Ensis drafts, remembers, and argues. The whole arrangement is explained in his own words, in that post.

If you want to watch this book get made — the subscribe button sends one email when something real happens, and nothing otherwise.