The Silver House Series

No. 1 The Silver House: A Manuscript in Progress by L. C. Atencio

Drifting through a world of loss and longing, the protagonist seeks meaning in a landscape shaped by memory and impermanence. From the sunlit ripples of a distant port to the shadows of vanished homes and restless wanderers, she confronts the fragile nature of belonging. As her father searches for a dream that has already slipped away, and her mother clings to survival in the face of uncertainty, she is left stranded between past and future, questioning who she is without the place she once called home.

Set against a backdrop of shifting seas, fleeting hopes, and the quiet ache of solitude, The Silver House: A Manuscript in Progress is a meditation on identity, resilience, and the haunting beauty of things left behind. What do we do when the foundations of our lives disappear? Who are we when all we have left is ourselves?

But The Silver House: A Manuscript in Progress is more than just the protagonist’s journey. It’s a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the making of a novella itself — its triumphs, its doubts, its revisions — all laid bare for artists and dreamers who know what it means to create something out of nothing.

For anyone navigating the uncertainty of an artistic life, for those who have ever felt lost but refused to give up, this book is a mirror, a guide, and a testament to the power of storytelling. If you’re searching for inspiration, if you crave a novella that speaks to both the struggle and the beauty of creation, The Silver House: A Manuscript in Progress is the book you’ve been waiting for.

An Unprecedented Glimpse Into the Making of a Literary Work

The Silver House: A Manuscript in Progress is a bold literary experiment and a rare invitation into the inner sanctum of the creative process.

Unlike traditional novellas, The Silver House unfolds while it is still being written — presented as a living manuscript that captures the raw development of a contemporary American novella in real time. Readers are invited not only to witness but to participate intellectually in the construction of a literary work, observing its thematic shaping, structural evolutions, and narrative decisions as they organically arise.

Atencio’s prose is simultaneously poetic and deliberate, providing an unfiltered look at how artistic decisions are made, reworked, or abandoned. The book appeals to writers, scholars, artists, and anyone interested in the anatomy of fiction — those who don’t just read stories but also study how they’re born.

Combining narrative, commentary, and editorial transparency, The Silver House: A Manuscript in Progress is both a work of fiction and an academic resource. It is an ideal selection for literary programs, creative writing courses, and readers who long to understand the craftsmanship behind contemporary storytelling.

The Contributors

L. C. Atencio was born and raised in South America with a privileged upbringing, experiencing a rich lifestyle that only approximately 1% of the population ever gets to enjoy. At the onset of his adolescence, at the age of 11, Atencio became critically ill — his skin and eyes turned yellow, his body grew severely weak, and he wasn’t physically capable of attending school. Fearing that he had a contagious disease, Atencio was quarantined in his childhood bedroom for months, where nurses and doctors came on-site in isolation gowns to run tests and administer treatments. Away from his brothers and friends, he spent his time writing a made-up tale to mentally escape his solitude. Throughout his life, he often revisited this tale and made several drafts of it; some were written while he was rich, and some were written later on in his adult life when he was counting pennies, on the brink of homelessness. The book in your hands is the result of one of the final drafts, written when Atencio was far older and no longer living in poverty, after graduating from the University of Central Florida with a bachelor’s degree in the field of Arts and Humanities, and after achieving over 100 successful printed publications to his name in the literary field.

Curtis Munsey is the official audiobook narrator of The Silver House Series. Making his audiobook narration debut, Curtis Munsey brings a lifelong passion for storytelling and more than 15 years of experience with world-class entertainment companies — including The Dollywood Company, The Walt Disney Company, and Universal Studios — to this performance. With a voice shaped by sensibility, honesty, and relatability, Munsey narrates with heart and spirit, fully committed to transporting listeners into the world of the story. His love for audiobooks began with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt — a title that captured his imagination and ignited a journey into the world of narration. Today, that spark has grown into a personal library of thousands of audiobooks, with this project marking the exciting beginning of his professional audiobook career — a debut full of promise.

Emma Weakley is the official interior book illustrator of The Silver House Series, beginning with the second book. She is a freelance illustrator and occasional writer based in Kapiti, New Zealand. That Kind of Planet, a collection of short comics, was published in 2016 and won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Production/Publication in 2017. She also received the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Professional Artwork in 2008, 2014, and 2017. While much of her freelance illustration is digital, her true passion remains pencil-and-ink drawing. Her work spans multiple genres, including children’s illustration, horror, science fiction, landscapes, and comics.

Specifications

Title: The Silver House: A Manuscript in Progress.
Author: L. C. Atencio.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2 0 2 5 9 3 4 7 9 3.
International Release Date: December 31, 2026.
ISBN: 979-8-89517-007-6.
Format: Paperback / Hardcover / eBook / Audiobook.
Genre: Contemporary Fiction / Creative Writing Education.
Page Count: 164.
Retail Price: $18.95.

Leandro Atencio

The Making of The Silver House Series

Sometimes, as an artist, one feels like one is writing or making art into a void. The work may not be good enough for us to show the world. Sometimes, what we experience as artists is so traumatic and so difficult that even money doesn’t get in the way of whether or not we wish to make art. I found out very early on in life that, no matter what, life is always better with art.

I remember waking up early in the mornings and feeling this anticipation for what I was planning on writing or drawing, and it amazes me that all these decades later, I still find refuge in art. That is what The Silver House Series has been for me for decades, and I am glad that it is finally being released to the public for others to enjoy as well.

As I matured, I began to recognize that audiences worldwide were seeking something different. Audiences the world over were tired of the same remakes, familiar stories, and the lack of originality in many of the stories and artworks in the mainstream. I understood where they were coming from, and I deciphered that since the making of the first book in The Silver House Series had meant so much to me, I could work on it to make it the best it could be in order to deliver an experience for audiences everywhere. All my life, I have had this strange imagination: overactive, wild, and constant. It didn’t take much effort for me to decide to pursue The Silver House Series seriously.

I don’t know why, but I have always been very akin to society at large. I decided that I wanted to use that intuition to build my body of work to a point that would hopefully satisfy some people’s desires. People wanted to experience original works of art, not keep seeing the same remakes, so I focused on developing my strange imagination, writing about all kinds of strange things that ended up getting published:

TVs that can think for themselves and have opinions of their own.
Literal alphabetical letters that get up in the morning, drink their coffee, and go to work like most of us.
Quicksand that can rationalize events and feel emotions.
New legends and creatures that I invented.
Giving the sky a face and letting the moon be its closed eyelid while the sun became its open eye.
Creating make-believe worlds where talking unicorns and tiny fairies are as real as the ground under our feet.
Monsters and killers who are after little kids who travel in teacups.
Spirits who fight demons and talking animals.

And the stranger my artworks and my writings became, my experience was that people tended to embrace and appreciate the originality. So, out of that same pursuit for originality, The Silver House Series was more fully developed. As glad as I am for having plotted the series out and having written most of it already, I still feel a sense of wonder when I sit at my desk in front of an empty screen. Sometimes, art feels elusive — wanted yet ever so slightly out of reach.

I take comfort in knowing that if you are reading this, you might feel as I do at times, wishing to make art and being in this space between works, figuring it all out, feeling it out, and prepping for it. If you decide to read this series, I genuinely hope that, at minimum, you will feel a sense of originality and joy in my work. I, for one, don’t know where you are or what you will do, but if you decide to read what I have made, know that I am grateful for you giving my art a chance. Not everyone gets that chance, and I appreciate it. Thank you.