The Clockwork Orchard started as a doodle of a brass tree and refused to stay a doodle. It is now a serialized book about missing seasons, wound-down machines, and one very tired mechanic named Pell.

The pitch

Imagine an orchard where the fruit ticks instead of ripens, and every autumn someone forgets to wind the trees. That someone is usually Pell.

• Chapter 1 introduces the orchard and its broken calendar.


• Chapter 2 is entirely Pell arguing with a ladder.


• Chapter 3 finally explains where spring went.

Writing it in the open

We are drafting in public because deadlines are less scary with witnesses. Each chapter ships as plain text first, then gets a light illustration pass:



If you want to read along or heckle gently, the chapters land on the projects page, and discussion lives at https://madsplash.net/community.

Fair warning: chapter 4 has a cliffhanger, and I am not sorry.