This is an absolute treat, I read the teasers and the first episode and enjoyed it a lot. I would not have heard about it except I read the blogs of several authors I enjoy, and some of the authors involved happen to be on my list - they then pointed me to the others and they have all been talking about this.

It’s also the product of a childhood imagination pastime being reinvented by the author the child has become.

So I thought I’d check it out. Could have been self indulgence, but so far it’s good

What is it? A donation supported episodic fiction - let me quote:

The FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit hunts humanity’s nightmares. But there are nightmares humanity doesn’t dream are real.
The Behavioral Analysis Unit sends those cases down the hall.
Welcome to Shadow Unit.

Nice teaser, eh?

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Just a quick note that I am catching up fast this week on Shadow Unit. I have read all the short bites and am working my way through the 8 episodes.
This is because the “season finale” is coming next week and I have read that this will be a multi media, interactive, enjoy-it-live-on-the-site-and-forums kind of thing.

It is actually a blast to read, so I figure I’d give it another plug - I’d love to discuss it with some of you :D

From Elizabeth Bear:

If you have been waiting to catch up/start reading Shadow Unit until the season is over, may I respectfully suggest that it is now approximately one week until the first season finale extravaganza begins. And, um. It’s the sort of thing that is going to be much more wonderful chaotic fun to participate in real-time than to read about later.

Trust me on this.

Shadow Unit, for those of you joining us in progress, is a web serial/hyperfiction written by Emma Bull, Will Shetterly, Amanda Downum, Sarah Monette, and, er, me. It’s modeled on a television show format, complete with episodic and season-long plotlines, burgeoning mysteries, and an ensemble cast of unrealistically sexy smart people attempting to save the world from the worst monsters imaginable… unless they die trying. It’s sort of what would happen if Millennium, The X-Files, and Criminal Minds had a love child, though I have to admit we have yet to have an episode with an industrial microwave. But surely, it’s only a matter of time.

Current site content comprises seven novelettes or novellas, a whole bunch of vignettes, artwork, a message board with thriving discussion threads and an awesome community (and a fine obsession with food!), a plethora of fairly lightly concealed Easter Eggs, and interactive character blogs.

Additional toys will be provided over the hiatus, and the current plan is to offer first-season community members a particularly nice toy in the fairly near future.

All content is free, unless you are moved to donate (We are currently using the Public Radio Guiltware model), and while we are exploring traditional publication options, there is no way on Earth that all the web content is going to make it into dead tree form. There’s just too much of it. So, you know. Here’s your chance to get in on the ground floor.