I spent a better part of a year and a half writing short stories. I published two, was a finalist in a $1500 literary contest, and got a whole pack of rejections. Did it get me anywhere? Well, I think it helped my writing, but did it forward my career? No.
So I’m putting my short story writing on hiatus for a while. Which is one of the reasons this site has been so quiet on the writing front. With once again focusing on novels, there’s not much to report.
One of the theories behind writing short stories is that you have to start at the bottom, publishing small shorts, then working your way up. The problem with this theory is that you could spend a LIFETIME on short stories. They are a completely different animal than a novel.
And they require a lot of energy. I think I put as much energy into a 3000-word short story as I do a 25K chunk of a novel. Plus, I still have 8 stories circulating (all that have received various final round consideration at numerous places)…so I might tweak those slightly.
But for now, I’m putting the axe to the short story work, and moving back to novels. I finished the final, final, final rewrite of Curse of the Black Swan (seriously, it’s FINAL). I don’t think one original word exists from when I wrote this suckers 8 years ago.
And I have the Secret of Folloman Finn. I LOVE this story. It’s got everything. Sex, violence, gambling, rampaging rhinos, undead, the Sisters of Bloodshed, Crucifiers, the Butcher, the Merchant of Maul…and lots of other goodies.