Travis Warman, Author

On choosing a small Kansas town as the heart of a crime thriller. When people ask me where Serial Husbands is set, I tell them Junction City, Kansas. And the first thing most of them do is pause. It is not exactly the name that conjures crime thrillers. It does not have the dark glamour of Chicago or the gothic weight of New Orleans. It is a small town in the Flint Hills, anchored to the plains, with a history most people outside of Kansas have never bothered to learn. That, in part, is exactly why I chose it. The other reason is simpler and more personal: From 2011 to 2013, I was stationed at Fort Riley, barely 21 years old, young and restless and doing what young and restless people do when they are given a patch of freedom and a town nearby. I was not studying Junction City's history then. I was living inside it, whether I knew it or not. The Town That Was Almost Manhattan Here is something most people do not know: Junction City was supposed to be Manhattan, Kansas. In 1855, lan...

Over the past 8 months, Serial Husbands has gone through an incredible journey. What began as an idea grew into a manuscript, then into multiple drafts, and eventually into a story shaped by feedback from more than a dozen thoughtful beta readers. Along the way, the book evolved in ways I never expected. The characters deepened, the investigation sharpened, and the world surrounding the story expanded far beyond the boundaries of a single novel. For several months, I pursued the traditional publishing route and queried literary agents who represent crime and thriller fiction. That process gave me the opportunity to learn a tremendous amount about the industry and to refine how I think about this project. Ultimately, however, it also forced me to confront an important question: what kind of future do I want for this story and the world it belongs to? After a great deal of consideration, I have decided to publish Serial Husbands independently. This decision ultimately came down to o...

Writing a novel is rarely a straight line. Stories grow, shift, and sharpen over time, and sometimes the most important changes happen long after the first draft feels “finished.” Over the past several months, Serial Husbands has gone through an intense revision process across multiple drafts. The newest version, Draft 26, is the most complete and fully realized version of the story yet. This latest revision wasn’t about polishing sentences or tweaking grammar. It was about strengthening the emotional core of the story, clarifying the investigative logic, and expanding the world that exists behind the scenes of the novel. Thanks to incredibly thoughtful feedback from beta readers, I was able to step back and see where the story could grow stronger. Draft 26 represents the point where those lessons finally clicked. Strengthening the Characters One of the most important pieces of feedback I received from beta readers was that they wanted a deeper emotional connection to the character...