Kingston is known for its deeply rooted history and strong community ties. There is one consensus that’s easy for Kingstonians to reach — there’s a sense of hometown pride in the hearts of everyone who grew up in this small city.

Adam Snyder is a Kingstonian. He grew up in Kingston, roaming its streets and going into long-gone businesses that are now small boutiques, coffee shops and upscale restaurants. After leaving for several years to pursue his passion as a writer and musician, he joined the renowned Iowa Writers Workshop in the ’90s before starting his full-time career as a touring musician. Snyder traveled all over the world performing and recording with bands such as Mercury Rev, The Waterboys, New Order, Mark Mulcahy, Superflu and The Red Cars. His current band is called Elephant Rex.

Snyder’s 2006 solo album, “The Town Will Get Its Due,” is about his love for Kingston. The mayor invited him to perform his record at City Hall, which had been completely restored and renovated about five years earlier. “To play a concert at the new City Hall, which was a fully packed concert that the Daily Freeman put on front page, it was like a ‘holy s--t experience.”

He also recalled how people responded to his album: “I think that album was a revelation for people in that someone was finally saying how great the town [Kingston] is.”

Snyder’s long and prestigious career has brought him back to the Hudson Valley once again, and now he’s working on his newest venture: a novel set in the city he loves.

“Kingston 76” is a special novel for many reasons. Most notably, the novel is free to read. Each chapter is posted in stages on Snyder’s Substack page — the first chapter appeared Nov. 15; a new chapter will come out every Wednesday afterwards for a total of around 30 chapters.

Snyder’s understanding of Substack, a popular platform for a wide range of authors, is that “not a lot of writers [are] using it for entire novels,” but he said he’s “attracted to the idea of being at the forefront of that.”

Even though Substack is typically a platform where readers subscribe to read particular writers, Snyder made a point of making the subscription to his page free. “I would love for people to spread the word and have other people read it,” Snyder said. “The best way they can show their appreciation is by expanding readership. I don’t consider that a small thing.”

The content of the book itself is literary fiction that includes elements of mystery. The main character is a 10-year-old boy named Timothy and it takes place in Kingston during 1976, when Snyder was a young boy himself. “For people who remember Kingston from that time they’ll see a lot that they remember, and people who have moved since it’ll be a nice story because it’ll show them things they’ve missed out on not growing up here.”

The friendship between the main characters and their mystery-driven quest harken to Snyder’s own friendships growing up in Kingston. There is also a coming-of-age element, where Timothy is not only growing up as the course of the novel progresses, but he is coming to terms with a very distinct aspect of his home life — his mother’s new female “roommate.” In a time when gay relationships were not widely understood nor as common as they are today, the novel exemplifies this theme of “revisitation” to the past when people didn’t quite know what the future would hold.

The book itself was completed over a year ago and is fully ready for its scheduled publication on Substack. So far, Snyder has received great feedback on what he has posted and sees the platform as unique because people can comment in real time on his story; he can gauge people’s feedback and critiques along the way.

“It’s kind of exciting that the community group is a little tighter this way, because I’m already getting such nice comments and people are already contacting me to tell me how much they like it.”

After the book is fully published online, Snyder will look to have it published in print. He believes that the process he is taking by going through Substack will garner the reputation his book will need to be successful in print.

Coming up, Snyder will be a participant at The Heavy Light Show on Radio Kingston on Monday, Nov. 27. In addition, he will be performing a few excerpts of his novel at White Noise, a live and livestreamed local open mic and performance event at Green Kill Studio, 229 Greenkill Ave., Kingston. The event is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. If you’d like to learn more about the event, go to their Facebook page, White Noise, their Instagram, @whitenoisegk, or check out the livestream in real time or afterwards at the Green Kill Sessions YouTube page.

If you’d like to read and stay up to date with Snyder and his book, you can go to his Substack page, or check out his website.