A New Writing Adventure

I sent my short story collection out in the spring. It’s still floating around, hoping to land at a place that gets it and loves it. It’s impossible to not think about it in the meantime, but I try my best. One thing I did to get my mind off of it was start planning my next set of stories. I sat down, and I made an outline of fifteen or so ideas I had and how the stories might connect. Things were flowing really well. I took my ideas and pinned them to my board above my desk. Then, out of nowhere, something hit me. It was—gasp!—the idea for a novel.

Novels intimidate me. It’s the wordiness of it all. I’m not one of those people who feels like novels are tougher to write than stories. Both are equally difficult. But I am one of those people who tends to get stressed out by word counts and knowing that I need 10k more words than I have.

Anyhow, I spent some time and planned the novel. I have several pages of notes. I have my characters. I have my plot. It all, at least for now, even makes sense.

I started working on it a couple of months ago. I’m far enough into it to know that the story is gaining some traction and is taking shape nicely, but I’m not far enough along to talk about specific details yet. I’ll say that it does blend elements of magic and horror, which is no surprise for anyone who has read much of my work.

It’s weird to not have much in the way of short stories coming out soon or to be planning to send any out soon. But I am writing. I am telling a story that I think needs to be told. I hope when I finish, it’ll be something I can be proud of. If not, I’ll just enjoy the adventure.

And, hey, maybe that collection will find a publisher in the meantime.