Teresa's Backbone

The Backbone

Readers’ guide

Teresa Van Santana

Teresa Van Santana

— 10 min read

Reading style guidance:

Here is a list of all the published chapters. This page is a useful navigation tool, so I recommend bookmarking it and returning here whenever you feel lost or like you aren’t sure what to read next.

You can read the chapters in chronological order of publication, which is how they are first listed below.

If you want the more choice-driven experience, look at the map below and then select the related story path. (This is a work in progress and is literally being written at the time you are reading, so this way is going to be buggy for a bit.) The individual paths broken out by main topic or character are given after the chronological list. Likewise, I am doing my best to provide links within the individual chapters prompting you to follow them to stay on that story path.

A friend pointed out that it might be useful to only read one or two of these a day, rather than trying to take out a whole bunch at once in a block. I think that’s good advice, but don’t let me stop you from doing what works best for you.

Thanks for your understanding in advance, and I hope you enjoy the ride!

Entries in order of publication:

  1. Hey bae (all paths)
  2. The Front Matter (all paths)
  3. Nine Years Gone (me & you, Karin, the park, Cade, photos, three ways)
  4. Going to the Chapel (Karin; First Cut)
  5. After Dinner, Upstairs … (me & you—smutty bit partially locked for free subscribers)
  6. Would You Spot Me? (me & you, SOMA, Zadok)
  7. A Pool Scene (me & you, Everything Fails, Grand Story of Not; other paths)
  8. Lava! (me & you)
  9. My Private Collection (me & you, TVS & The Black Book of Fear)
  10. Git! (me & you)
  11. The Backbone (literally this document you a reading now)
  12. The Path You’re Traveling
  13. Wendy (Wendy, obvs)
  14. Word About Geography
  15. Come Close or Feel Far (me & you)
  16. Estienne (Wendy)
  17. Walk Down Main Street (me & you)
  18. The Dream I Had Last Night (me & you; Dream #1)
  19. Please Tell Me You Didn’t (me & you)
  20. Another Dream (Dream #2)
  21. Morning After (me & you; Dream #3)
  22. Reskinned
  23. Soma Keeps the Score
  24. Nikki Comes to Visit (me & you; Nikki)
  25. A Litany of Crows (me & you)
  26. You Can Reveal Everything and No One Will See (me & you)
  27. Comic Sans (me & you)
  28. The Long-Awaited by Few—Probably Brand New to You—Revelation of the Complex, Bizarre yet Astonishingly True Nature of the Semimalevolent Entity Known as Dwizaal: a pseduodemonic paranoid fiction in rather disastrous array (D, Scenes from the Tank)
  29. Openings (me & you)
  30. Inhibition (Dream #4; me & you, Zuy)
  31. The Jupiter Room (me & you, Loona, Pem, Ecks; later on, Zuy)
  32. Thanksgiving, In the Library
  33. Seth (Wendy)
  34. Gay’s Hypothesis (Horace, Seth, Wendy)
  35. Rockin’ Offa da Toppa Dis Apocalypse (me, Klava, Roxy)
  36. A Microfiction Universe within the Secret of Secrets (Dream #5)
  37. Secret Garden (me & you)
  38. Alithea Arrives in Soma (Alithea)
  39. Slaggin’ at da Violet (me, Riley; smutty bit at the end)
  40. Subterranean (Dream #7)
  41. Occupied (Dream #8)
  42. Nice Folks (me, Dad, Mason)
  43. The Ones We Keep (me, Dad, Mason)
  44. Intersection of Tradewinds & Povich (me & you)
  45. Dream #9
  46. Planes of Existence (me & you, Nikki)
  47. The Sweet Sweat Ponged Party (me & you, Dag; Dream #10)
  48. Checking the Tapes (Seth, Wendy)
  49. A Peach In the Cage (Seth, Wendy)
  50. Eager (Dream #11)
  51. Vestigial Vestments (me & you)
  52. I Wouldn’t Expect You to Understand (Dream #14)
  53. Fused (Dad)
  54. Impacted (Dad, Dream #15, Made to Remember)
  55. New Neighbor (Desi)
  56. Pass Without Notice (Terry)
  57. Soaked Through (Dad)
  58. A Haze (Mom, Mitz, Mars the planet)
  59. He Doesn’t Get to Have a Chapter Named After Him (new path: Secrets school; Mickie kind of)
  60. The Hidden Shrine (Camp O-Bag, Mars the deity, Lilamara)
  61. Vampires Come at Night (Dad, Dream #16, Dream #17)
  62. Garbled (me & you, Garance)
  63. Christmastime In the Library [Ed. Near the end of Part I in the linear verszh.]
  64. The Problem of Plot
  65. Backbone Gaming Guide and Manifest
  66. Cinda Ashe (Wendy)
  67. It’s a New Dawn, It’s a New Day, It’s a New Life For Me
  68. Rust & Dust (Dream #12)
  69. Packed In Salt (Alithea)
  70. Back Cement (Dad)
  71. A Locked Door to the Shadow Plane of Existence (Klava kind of)
  72. Three Scenes In a Game I Do Not Understand (Dream #22)
  73. Wrecking Ball (Dad)
  74. By Hand, On the Floor (Thieves; me & you; Dream #23)
  75. Flower Arrangement (me & you)
  76. Each Day Has a Code
  77. Possible, But Unlikely (Wendy; Mickie)
  78. If These Warlocks and Devils Have Their Way (Dad; Klava [in absentia]; Bill; Scenes from the Tank)
  79. Looked Over (Bit; Avan)
  80. On a Precipice of Dream’s Edge (me & you)
  81. No One Ever Does (me & you)
  82. Death Shroud (Nikki; Bruno)
  83. Reading the Backbone: A New Introduction by the Author for the 2023 Crowd (new readers’ guide)
  84. Resolutions (me & you; ablated chapters)
  85. Places of Residence (me & you; Dream #19)
  86. When the Village Seer Is Wrong
  87. A Lampshade (me & you)
  88. Snake People (new path: Snake People; smut at the end)
  89. Let Me Steal This Moment From You Now (Wendy; Mickie)
  90. Wasteland Redux (me & you; Horace)
  91. Up Through the Cracks, Like Grass Under Concrete (new path: First Cut)
  92. In My Solitude (First Cut)
  93. The Old Crane, on Page Road (First Cut)
  94. Malefic Tastemaking In Metafictional Markets (new path: Mall)
  95. Revisiting Confessional Rededication (me & you)
  96. Vita Obscura (me & you; new path: Iz)
  97. Can’t Catch Me (me & you)
  98. Everyone’s a Pop Rocket (secrets school)
  99. A Small Misunderstanding of Epic Proportion (me & you)
  100. Return of the Knife or Nothing Ever Goes Away
  101. Of Secrets and Secretists (me & you)
  102. Backslide (dream #39; me & you)
  103. The Death of Wil Florencemachen (new path: Wil F; dream #40)
  104. Down the Axon Highway … (new path: Alumna abscondita)
  105. In a Sense, You’re Alone Here (Alumna)
  106. The Liberation (First Cut)
  107. And the Voices Say … (me & you)
  108. My Mind, My Body: How They Fit Together & Come Apart (all paths)
  109. You Wanna Live On a Farm
  110. Blast Along Clean (me & you; Cade)
  111. Cut Outs (Mall)
  112. Secret Beacons
  113. Poderós (Mall; locked cos smutty)
  114. Not for Certain (me & you)
  115. Prospero’s Books (me & you; dreams)
  116. Underwater! (me & you)
  117. Allothogenic Love (dreams)
  118. Timetwists (dreams)
  119. A Short Walk (Dad)
  120. Have You Been Paying Attention? (D)
  121. Cleaved (D)
  122. Items of Lasting Value (me & you)
  123. Meetings & Exchanges (dreams)
  124. You Are In Danger of Death, Desertion, and Burning Out
  125. Soul Chambers (heirloomers; me & you)
  126. Keep Coming Back (Desi)
  127. Recollections of Things Not Past (Desi)
  128. That Which Has Not Yet Left Us (dreams)
  129. One More Will Do It (Desi)
  130. This Feels Familiar (Desi)
  131. Mickie (Wendy)
  132. Need to Go Forward, Need to Go Back [content advisory: self-harm] (Mars the planet, D)
  133. The Dreamwar Corridor (dreams)
  134. Marlowe Harmoni and The Tests of Rage (dreams)
  135. Book 15 (me & you)
  136. Good Way to Go Out (Desi)
  137. Pushed Around from Shore to Shore (dreams; New path: The Other Mystery; Verna)
  138. Black Friday Dream (Dreams; secrets school)
  139. Way Down, In the Underground (me & you; Wendy)
  140. The Death Cage in Taruma Kivuli (Dreams: Dreamwar)
  141. After a Day or Two
  142. Lifestyles of the Dipshit and Lamous (me & you; mentions many other paths)
  143. The Wrong Impression of the Jungle (me & you)

The Map:

Path: Alithea

  1. Alithea Arrives in Soma
  2. Packed In Salt
  3. Lie Down
  4. Spread (smut)

Path: Alumna abscondita aka Lori Gayelder & The Sisterhoods of Secrets

  1. Down the Axon Highway …
  2. In a Sense, You’re Alone Here

Path: D

  1. The Long-Awaited by Few—Probably Brand New to You—Revelation of the Complex, Bizarre yet Astonishingly True Nature of the Semimalevolent Entity Known as Dwizaal: a pseduodemonic paranoid fiction in rather disastrous array
  2. The Old Crane, on Page Road
  3. Have You Been Paying Attention?
  4. Cleaved

Path: Dad

  1. Nice Folks
  2. The Ones We Keep
  3. Fused
  4. Impacted
  5. Soaked Through
  6. Vampires Come at Night
  7. Back Cement
  8. Wrecking Ball
  9. If These Warlocks and Devils Have Their Way
  10. Discharged
  11. Man With the Beard
  12. Back In Again
  13. Shave and a Haircut (Two Bits)
  14. I’m Just Going to Sit Here a Minute
  15. Death Shroud
  16. Ossuaries
  17. The Funeral
  18. A Short Walk
  19. Dad’s Truck
  20. Yard Waste
  21. Dad’s Ring
  22. Thank Yous
  23. I Wish I’d Done a Better Job
  24. A Pile of Black Stones, A Pile of White
  25. I Know One Day Soon

Path: Desi

  1. New Neighbor
  2. Keep Coming Back
  3. Recollections of Things Not Past
  4. One More Will Do It
  5. This Feels Familiar
  6. Good Way to Go Out
  7. We Will Have Some Time Together After All

Path: Dreams

  1. The Dream I Had Last Night (Dream #1)

  2. Another Dream (Dream #2)

  3. Morning After (Dream #3)

  4. Inhibition (Dream #4)

  5. A Microfiction Universe within the Secret of Secrets (Dream #5)

  6. Subterranean (Dream #7)

  7. Occupied (Dream #8)

  8. Dream #9

  9. The Sweet Sweat Ponged Party (Dream #10)

  10. Eager (Dream #11)

  11. Allothogenic Love (Dream #13)

  12. I Wouldn’t Expect You to Understand (Dream #14)

  13. Impacted (Dream #15)

  14. Vampires Come at Night (Dream #16, Dream #17)

  15. Rust & Dust (Dream #12)

  16. Three Scenes In a Game I Do Not Understand (Dream #22)

  17. By Hand, On the Floor (Dream #23)

  18. Places of Residence (Dream #19)

  19. Timetwists (Dream #26)

  20. Dreamdash (Dream #28)

  21. Backslide (Dream #39)

  22. The Death of Wil Florencemachen (Dream #40)

  23. Encoding 1100 (Dream #45)

  24. Prospero’s Books (Dream #46)

  25. Meetings & Exchanges (Dream #48)

  26. That Which Has Not Yet Left Us (Dream #49)

  27. The Dreamwar and Other Diversions of Ignorance (Dream #50)

    1. Dreamwar Corridor

    2. Marlowe Harmoni and The Tests of Rage

    3. The Sheriff and How My Dad Would Rather Not Pay Her

    4. My Dad Sees Both Sides of The House

    5. At the Dinner Table with the Mystic Set

    6. Vampire Theater

    7. The Escape Tunnel

    8. The Backporch/Reg In the Sand

    9. Three White Horses … 

    10. … And One Dark Horse

    11. Walking Back and The Biohazardous Waste

    12. The Death Cage in Taruma Kivuli

      1. The approach

      2. You aren’t coming at this the way it’s set up

      3. Organizing the tent

      4. People play sports out here?

      5. Could there be another way to live?

      6. Pregnancies

      7. The Lottery

      8. First Blood/You Don’t Have to Keep Coming Back

      9. Liquification

    13. Avan Closing the Time Loop

  28. Pushed Around from Shore to Shore (Dream #52)

  29. Black Friday Dream (Dream #54)

Path: Eight Gates

  1. Lie Down
  2. Eight Gated Agate Stage
  3. Gate 1—North
  4. Gate 2—Northeast
  5. Das erste Geheimtor
  6. Gate 3—East
  7. Gate 4—Southeast
  8. La Segunda Puerta Secreta
  9. Gate 5—South
  10. Gate 6—Southwest
  11. Winčhékpa Kin Kektúwa
  12. Gate 7—West
  13. Gate 8—Northwest

Path: The First Cut

  1. Up Through the Cracks, Like Grass Under Concrete
  2. Throat-clearing, an Introduction, and All That Jam (up through the line: “I dunno what else to tell you. That’s me.”); I may replace this chapter with “The First Thing to Fail”
  3. Going to the Chapel, which is linked from …
  4. In My Solitude
  5. The Old Crane, on Page Road
  6. Wendy Was Her Name-O (new chapter)
  7. The Liberation
  8. Three Worlds, Technically Four

Path: Heirloomers

  1. Rockin’ Offa da Toppa Dis Apocalypse (Klava)
  2. A Locked Door to the Shadow Plane of Existence (Klava’s stuff)
  3. If These Warlocks and Devils Have Their Way (Bill; Archie & Klava mentioned)
  4. Soul Chambers (Bill briefly seen; Klava mentioned)
  5. Back In Again
  6. Shave and a Haircut (Two Bits)
  7. Search for Klava (just what it says)

Path: Island Retreat

  1. The Island Retreat
  2. Writing in the hut / A Visit from Dane
  3. Movie Night Slumber Parties
  4. Poolside Alfresco
  5. The Retreat Masquerade Ball

Path: Karin

  1. Nine Years Gone
  2. Going to the Chapel
  3. Karin

Path: Library

Ed. Note that these chapters are really meant to be interstitial in character. While you may certainly read this novel anyway you like—multiple ways, in fact, and I hope that you do and gain new pleasures from it each time—they’re not really at their best read in a linear, one-right-after-the-other fashion. But you do you, boo. If it’s your jam then that makes me very happy.

  1. Soma Keeps the Score
  2. Thanksgiving, In the Library
  3. Christmastime In the Library
  4. It’s a New Dawn, It’s a New Day, It’s a New Life For Me
  5. I’m Never Getting Out of Here
  6. Who Am I?
  7. My Mind, My Body: How They Fit Together & Come Apart

Path: Mall

  1. Malefic Tastemaking In Metafictional Markets
  2. Cut Outs
  3. Poderós

Path: Mars the Deity

  1. The Hidden Shrine

Path: Me & You

  1. Hey bae
  2. The Front Matter
  3. Nine Years Gone
  4. Blast Along Clean
  5. After Dinner, Upstairs …
  6. Would You Spot Me?
  7. A Pool Scene
  8. Lava!
  9. My Private Collection
  10. Git!
  11. Come Close or Feel Far
  12. Walk Down Main Street
  13. The Dream I Had Last Night
  14. Please Tell Me You Didn’t
  15. Morning After
  16. Nikki Comes to Visit
  17. A Litany of Crows
  18. You Can Reveal Everything and No One Will See
  19. Comic Sans
  20. Openings
  21. Inhibition
  22. The Jupiter Room
  23. Rockin’ Offa da Toppa Dis Apocalypse
  24. Secret Garden
  25. Intersection of Tradewinds & Povich
  26. Planes of Existence
  27. The Sweet Sweat Ponged Party
  28. Vestigial Vestments
  29. Garbled
  30. A Locked Door to the Shadow Plane of Existence
  31. By Hand, On the Floor
  32. Flower Arrangement
  33. On a Precipice of Dream’s Edge
  34. No One Ever Does
  35. Resolutions
  36. Places of Residence
  37. A Lampshade
  38. Wasteland Redux
  39. Revisiting Confessional Rededication
  40. Vita Obscura
  41. Can’t Catch Me
  42. A Small Misunderstanding of Epic Proportion
  43. Of Secrets and Secretists
  44. Backslide
  45. And the Voices Say … (October 2023: second starting point)
  46. Prospero’s Books
  47. Underwater! (temporary placement; order will change)
  48. Items of Lasting Value
  49. Soul Chambers
  50. Book 15
  51. Way Down, In the Underground
  52. Lifestyles of the Dipshit and Lamous
  53. You Can Only See It from Outside of It

Path: Nikki

  1. Nikki Comes to Visit
  2. Planes of Existence
  3. Death Shroud
  4. Nikki Walks Me Through the Weight of My Words

Path: The Other Mystery

  1. Pushed Around from Shore to Shore

Path: Scenes From the Tank or …

  1. The Long-Awaited by Few—Probably Brand New to You—Revelation of the Complex, Bizarre yet Astonishingly True Nature of the Semimalevolent Entity Known as Dwizaal: a pseudodemonic paranoid fiction in rather disastrous array
  2. Vampires Come at Night
  3. If These Warlocks and Devils Have Their Way

Path: Secrets School

  1. He Doesn’t Get to Have a Chapter Named After Him (ft. Master Cunin)
  2. Everyone’s a Pop Rocket (ft. Master Furrow)
  3. Black Friday Dream (ft. Master Tonn; Lily)
  4. Master Whip’s First Lesson (ft. Master Whip)

Path: Smut

Ed. This is less of a proper path and more a collection of erotic stories; or, chapters that have an erotica element in them. They are locked for your protection.

  1. After Dinner, Upstairs (ft. me & you)
  2. Slaggin’ at the Violet (ft. me)
  3. Snake People (ft. Dr. Thanerthope)
  4. Poderós (ft. Mall)
  5. Embrace the Snake (ft. Dr. Borgogni)
  6. Lie Down (ft. Alithea)
  7. A Sudden Need (ft. me & you)

Path: Snake People

  1. Snake People
  2. Embrace the Snake (locked cos smut)

Path: Teresa Anderson

  1. Teresa Anderson Is My Duplicate
  2. Teresa vs. the Simulation

Path: Terra Cimmeria aka Mars the planet

  1. A Haze
  2. Need to Go Forward, Need to Go Back [content advisory: self-harm]

Path: Wendy

  1. Wendy
  2. Estienne
  3. Seth
  4. Gay’s Hypothesis
  5. Checking the Tapes
  6. A Peach In the Cage
  7. Cinda Ashe
  8. Possible, But Unlikely
  9. Let Me Steal This Moment From You Now
  10. Mickie
  11. Way Down, In the Underground

Path: Wil F

  1. The Death of Wil Florencemachen

Path: Zadok

  1. Would You Spot Me?

Path: Zuy

  1. Inhibition
  2. The Jupiter Room

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