text: As Cycle 1 of Serial Saturday here on comes to a close, all that’s left to do is spotlight our fantastic authors. Let's take a moment to give a socially distanced . It’s been such a treat to watch people evolve their flash fiction serials with us and bring arcs to a close that for some have been with us for quite a while. For a good handful of writers on Serial Saturday, their stories are continuations of serials started on Theme Thursday weekly threads. One such story comes from /u/lynx_elia, a regular from /r/writingprompts. Here at we thoroughly enjoyed Lynx’s story of tradecraft, spy vrs spy action and adventure. But don't take my word for it! Here's a small teaser from /u/lynx_elia: *Ekaja Kaur is an assassin for the mob on New Earth. She’s also the last remaining shapeshifter alien in the galaxy. When her latest job ends in a rival gang stealing a vial of her blood, she vows to reclaim it and prevent the underworld from discovering her true identity.* *Hunted by the mob she abandoned, she traces the vial to an ice planet of mercenaries and entrepreneurs. There she discovers a warehouse of androids that are more than they seem, and a young human mobster who just might be her way out of the mess. But who can she trust in a galaxy of criminals and spies? And how far will she go to ensure her secret stays that way?* *Find out in The Professional: a space adventure set in the author’s Archivist universe.* For our first run of Serial Saturday at it was important for us to get author impressions of how their experience went with us, and give readers a peek at the "behind the scenes" of creating a flash fiction serial. Here's Lynx’s take on that: I loved writing this story. The shapeshifter assassin came fully formed to my brain -- they exist as a character in my novel series (as yet unpublished), and I was excited to explore an episode in their past, as well as expand on the universe. Impressions from writing in this format: I pantsed a lot of *The Professional*. You can see that when halfway through I stumbled with the plot outline. Writing the story through Serial Saturday really helped with that: after seven episodes on Theme Thursday, working with whatever happened for that week, it was becoming harder to predict where to go next. Don’t get me wrong, I love pantsing. I love the excitement of discovering the story as I go along. But when we switched across to SerSat, the idea of plot beats and a (still vague) structure helped me outline just a teensy bit more. Which brought the story together even better. I’m looking forward to going again for a different story next year. Challenges? Without SerSat, we wouldn’t have had Arthun. He was so fun to write. I planned to kill him off a bunch of times, but he grew on me too much. Funnily, Arthun only came about because I needed something to fill a few episodes. And now I’m really glad he did. SerSat was a challenge in and of itself. Sticking with the story and seeing where it took me has made me a better writer. As has all the crit and constructive feedback from fellow writers. Thanks, everyone! What’s the future of this story? I’m hopefully going to turn *The Professional* into a novella. Watch this space. With the tale of *The Professional* at an end there is only one thing left to do: show off this newly finished story for obligatory bragging rights here on . Let the bragging begin! Lynx’s personal sub is and I highly recommend checking out their author notes and other stories written for . *The Professional* in its entirety is compiled as a collection there, go give them some love! Without further ado, here's Lynx’s Table of Contents. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Original 20 stories as posted: Chapter log and updated versions available on subreddit: . \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ You can check out more of /u/Lynx_Elia's work by going to their subreddit, . Congrats on finishing your serial, Lynx, and we can’t wait to see what you do next. <3 from the team at , , and Serial Saturday. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ *For more information on the Serial Saturday program feel free to check out our* *.* We have members from all around the world and who have all kinds of schedules, so there’s usually someone awake to talk to. We also have scheduled readings, oration critiques, spur-of-the-moment story time, or even just random hangouts over voice chat.