Jonathan Walter, Acclaimed Author, Expands The Towpath Universe With Companion Novella ‘The Lost Diary of Gil Stanford’
Jon Walter
Jon Walter's recovered-notebook novella deepens the mythology, darkens the tone, and plants the seeds for Book Two
LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, December 16, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Acclaimed author Jonathan Walter is expanding the world of The Towpath with a haunting companion novella, The Lost Diary of Gil Stanford, a standalone “found artifact” that draws readers deeper into the series’ central mysteries while setting the stage for what comes next.
Presented as a recovered notebook, The Lost Diary of Gil Stanford offers an intimate and unsettling look at the events surrounding The Towpath through Gil Stanford’s fragmented writings. Through private entries and increasingly disordered reflections, the novella darkens the series’ tone, deepens its mythology, and quietly introduces narrative threads that extend beyond the original novel.
“This novella is a must-read because it puts readers directly inside Gil’s mind,” explains Walter. “Through his private entries, you see how his thinking shifts, how his sense of certainty erodes, and how obsession begins to distort everything he touches. It reveals not just what he does, but why he believes his reasoning is sound, even as it slips.”
Gil factors heavily in The Towpath. He has a complicated past relationship with the Redeemer and is best understood as a witness and casualty of the Valley’s influence. As the diary unfolds, clarity gives way to fixation, and certainty becomes increasingly suspect.
The notebook traces a psychological descent shaped by prolonged exposure to the Valley. Through repetition, fractured logic, and mounting urgency, the entries reveal rules, consequences, and implications that the main novel only hints at, offering readers a destabilising new lens through which to reconsider what they thought they understood.
The material was initially written as part of The Towpath but removed during revisions for pacing. Rather than abandoning it, Walter reimagined and expanded the content into a self-contained companion novella. Framed as a discovered artifact, the diary format allows the story to unfold in a more intimate and disquieting way, revealing layers unavailable within the main novel’s structure.
The Lost Diary of Gil Stanford is available now as a companion novella to The Towpath. Click here https://a.co/d/1YtiGuC.
“This was material I wasn’t ready to let go of,” says Walter. “Gil’s voice carried a weight that lingered. Presenting the story as a recovered notebook gave me the freedom to explore that voice fully, and to use it as a bridge between The Towpath and the questions that will surface in what comes next.”
More than supplemental content, The Lost Diary of Gil Stanford functions as a narrative fracture point, subtly reframing events from The Towpath while expanding the series’ mythology. Long-time readers will recognise echoes and buried signals, while new readers are drawn into a character-driven account that suggests a much larger design still unfolding.
“Reading The Lost Diary of Gil Stanford unsettles the ground beneath The Towpath,” Walter concludes. “It complicates what readers think they know and leaves them hungry for what follows.”
Reader Praise for The Towpath: A Time Travel Suspense Thriller
“I trained for a marathon race on The Towpath Trail and have hiked most of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park trails. The CVNP is such an amazing resource and I love everything about it. It is such an exceptional local treasure, so I couldn’t wait to read The Towpath. I was hooked from the first few pages. This book makes it easy to forget about time and become engrossed in its time travel and suspense.”
About the Author
Jonathan Walter is the author of The Towpath, his debut novel published by Collective Ink Books in November 2024. The novel follows a group of teenagers targeted by a time-travelling killer and her band of Iroquois warriors. A senior UX design leader with more than 20 years of experience, Walter holds 19 patents in industrial software. He has written extensively on user experience for UXmatters, UX Collective, and The Startup. His short fiction has appeared in Ghostlight, The Magazine of Terror, Dark Dossier #32, and The Devil’s Doorbell.
To learn more about Walter and his work, visit https://www.jondwalter.com/
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