So, first of all let me apologise to both people who follow
this blog for not updating it more often. Rest assured, this is directly linked
to how much I write. I would love to start a Patreon (Because this is all I
want to do and I don’t want another day job – it kills me on the inside) but in
order to have a Patreon or something like that, you need to offer additional
content. Content, that if I created would greatly diminish my output in a paradoxical
irony not lost on me.
I also have mixed feelings about letting people peak behind
the curtain.
With over a hundred stories out there in anthologies, I do
often get asked when I’m going to put out a collection. With all these short
stories, I’m writing between novels, or juggling, there’s a list of collections
I wish to release. I’m sorting them all into categories beyond genre, but
mostly by genre. For the Fantasy, much of them are sorted into geographical
locations within that world. So far; the main area (Midsseya), the far east (Sheulos/The
Dawnlands), on the sea (The Middle Sea), under the sea (Still the Middle Sea, I
guess with the odd accidental trip into the Great Eastern Ocean). There’s also
a collection regarding one particular character, another about assorted
character of his kind, one set in the old days of Fae folk. There are a couple
others, but early days without only one or two stories so far.
The first of that last is complete, and the exclusive period
of publication has lapsed on the last story, so I’ll very soon by sorting that
into the first collection. The one about the singular character has one story
yet to be published, so it depends on what kind of home I find that story as publishers
may contractually hold a story for exclusivity anywhere between one day and a
year. If I don’t find a home for it soon, I may just forgo having it in an anthology
and give the collection a ‘previously unreleased’ story. The one set in the far
east is probably only 1-3 stories shy of completion.
Then there’s the other genres. A horror collection close to
full, with about four stories yet to be published. Another horror collection
set around a singular character (and much like the similar sounding fantasy one
– based on what little information I’ve provided – is always told from the perspective
of others). There’s my science fiction world (galaxy/universe) based on an
alternate timeline branching from 1970. What is that called? Vinylpunk? I don’t
know. Overall it has more of an 1980s futurism vibe, I think. Each collection
in this series will span tricentures. So book 1 covers events between 2000 and
2300, the next 2300 to 2600, and so on. The first one has two stories still
waiting to find anthological homes but it’s otherwise complete.
There’s a Steampunk one that is slow going, because I’m just
not finding many calls for it all of a sudden. On a similar line, there’s Fairy
Tale retellings or tinkerings, for which I ignored a bunch of anthology calls,
having little interest in pursuing that line until an idea popped in my head,
then another, and another. A slow building list, so don’t hold your breath for
those two, but one day. One day.
Then… there’s the dream diary collection. Stories that are
essentially transcripts of dreams I’ve had converted into prose. This is an
interesting project. One I initially intended to release under a different penname
due to some of the psychotic undertones I’m a little embarrassed by (that I’ll
now justify or spin in the Forward). Some of my dreams have made it into
publications as I managed to fit them into my Fantasy, and Science Fiction
worlds. I’m oddly excited every time a dream of my ends up in print. So, I’m particularly
enjoying watching my dream diary collection list populate. It’s also a unique
list in that it is already pre-populated because these dreams have already
happened. As a discovery writer (a pantser as opposed to plotter, a gardener as
opposed to an architect) I have no idea what kind of stories will fill the rest
of my collections. I write on instinct. There’s no plan, no motive, I just
write. It’s a wonderful journey of discovery. But this project stands out as
the events have already happened. This is a journal. A history book of my
subconscious. Well… not a very thorough history, as I’ve slept a number of
times in the five-digit category, and so far there are only fourteen stories in
the list. So, it’s the ones that make good stories that I remember in
completion that would actually interest people. Afteral, nobody wants to read
about me solving crimes with David Bowie, vampireing about with Christopher
Lee, that time I opened a huge Belgian Bier Café in the Blue Mountains, or that
time I invented a hybrid of a cigar and sausage that smokes itself to
perfection as you smoke it before eating it. Or maybe you do, but it’s not that
kind of a book. (Seriously though, the Sausagar/Cigsage was delicious – I still
think about sometimes… seriously, I’ve completely forgotten my trail of thought).
Anyway…
I thought I’d share a screencap of that list as it’s
progressing. The year column is not when I had the dreams, but about when they
seem to be set. ‘Party Crawler’ was about then, though. Sadly, not the (incredibly
witty) name I originally had for it, but someone hijacked the facebook account
I made for my penname and the associated email account, so when I showed off
the artwork for it (because I honestly thought it would be a book but it
embarrassingly clocked in at about a tenth of a short novel in length) and used
the name there, and they didn’t delete the post. What the hell was their game
there? I couldn’t reclaim that account because the internet security of social
media platforms primarily exists to protect the wrong people. A tirade for another
day.
Anyway (again)…
The nature of this list being prefilled, watching it turn
from red (to be commenced or completed), to white (completed), to green
(published in an anthology/magazine) has been a real treat, and as I’m about half
way through. A couple more may spring up, as I attempt to write them, if they
successfully fish distant memory from the pond of fogginess. But this is the
list, prompted by the recent acceptance of ‘Allen Key’ in Dragon Soul Press’s
anthology ‘Thread of the Past’, due out in late April.
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