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Anaxagology for March 2025
A Free Monthly(ish) Newsletter from Author David Anaxagoras
David Anaxagoras
March 04, 2025
The Tower Audiobook Is Out Now!
The Tower audiobook Cover
The Tower
When 12-year-old Kolby wakes up on the polished concrete floor of an empty white room, he has no memory, no clothes, and no idea where he is. Kolby soon discovers he’s one of a dozen kids living in an extravagant penthouse atop the tallest tower in the city. Adults are nowhere to be found and, like Kolby, all the kids are missing their memories. The kids in the tower spend their time scaling the climbing wall, riding the winding waterslide into an Olympic-sized swimming pool, or playing video games on the 105-inch 8K video screen. A mysterious “manifesting room” magically provides food and rewards. They have virtually everything a kid could want.
Except a way out.
Locked Down
I wrote much of the first draft of The Tower during lockdown. I had been developing the story for a while so it was a coincidence, but it wasn’t lost on me that I was writing a book about kids locked up in a tower while we were all actually locked up inside.
Take a peek at the atmospheric audiobook trailer:
So what’s The Tower really about?
First of all, wanted to write a fast-paced, gripping mystery-adventure with horror overtones. The Tower is marketed as a middle grade book, but I don’t pull punches and I don’t talk down to kids. I honestly wouldn’t have written this any differently if it had been aimed at an adult market. The Tower is meant to be a great ride!
But more than that, I wanted to write a book with a young male protagonist who models courage that isn’t about dominance, leadership that isn’t about control, and strength that isn’t about suppressing emotions.
The Tower was written especially for readers who don’t see themselves in traditional "hero" narratives. It challenges the idea that bravery equals aggression and instead offers a different vision of masculinity—one based on resilience, empathy, and curiosity.
Kolby is emotional and vulnerable. He cries, doubts himself, and expresses fear, which is often denied to male protagonists in traditional adventure stories. His relationship with his best friend is openly affectionate and rejects the idea that male friendships must be built on competition or stoicism. His greatest strength is connection. His ultimate successes comes not from dominance, but from working with others.
This is also a book about late-stage capitalism, where people are pacified by endless consumption while being stripped of their identity and robbed of any real control over their futures. The kids don’t question the system because they are pacified by empty comforts and vapid entertainment. The illusion of choice keeps them from realizing they are prisoners.
You can hear to an audio sample at most retailer websites or listen here:
Order The Tower right now from all of your favorite audiobook sellers. Visit the publisher’s website for links to Audible, B&N, Libro.fm and many more:
A Special Gift for Newsletter Subscribers
As a huge thank you for your support (and for opening this newsletter and reading all the way to the end!) I have codes for a free audiobook of The Tower from Audiobooks.com for the first three subscribers who reply to this email and asks for one in the next 24 hours (March 5th, 2005 at 5pm CT)!
Thank you all and happy listening!
—Dave
ICYMI
If you’re just joining the party, here’s a rundown of what I’ve been up to and where you can find my work.
You can help my physical and financial recovery from a long hospitalization by visiting my gofundme and donating or sharing.
I am the author of the middle grade mystery horror audiobook original, The Tower (Recorded Books, 2025), narrated by Christopher Gebauer. Now available wherever audiobooks are sold, or check your local library.
My most recent short story, “Three Birds That Came Out of Grayson Huff and a Bunch More That Fell from the Sky“ is free to read at Lightspeed.
Other recent fiction includes “Under a Star, Bright as Morning” and “We Shall Not Be Bitter at the End of the World”. Visit my Bibliography for a full list of short stories and other works.
I wrote for Nickelodeon’s Glitch Techs, an animated sci-fi adventure about teens who hunt video game monsters that have broken out into the real world. I also created and co-executive produced Amazon Studio’s first live-action kids and family series, Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street, about three kids whose life is anything but normal.
Have Something to Say?
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Anaxagology is a free monthly(ish) newsletter from TV writer, SFF author and novelist David Anaxagoras. Subscribe now! You can find more about Dave at his website, or follow him on Bluesky.
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