Short Stories and Shorter Stories

Even though I originally posted the news a couple weeks ago on my FaceBook page, I'm keenly aware that not everyone (meaning all but maybe two people) follows ALL of my outlets so I like to sprinkle the news over sci-fi-like timelines of no particular order.

Ever since the anthology, that saw published my first marketed short story, came out, I've been wondering what I might do with it after its one-year run is up. More short stories based on it? I thought of maybe making it a three-part story, coming it at a sort of 50-60K novella length. Which I might still spin-off the idea in the future, but I've always had the niggling urge to do a sort of sampler of my two published series but with wholly original entries.

Well, one night a couple of weeks ago, I'd sat down to do a quick outline of one of those spin-offs and within a handful (I'm ableist trash so that's five) of hours, I'd ended up with an almost 10K word draft for a The Truth about Heroes spin-off story. Whether you're new to the series or you've actually read it already, the story follows my star-crossed Bryfolk characters, Dinsch and Seles, and their rather unconventional love affair before they parted ways. (Think Song of Solomon, written by an atheist, and with all the juicy parts uncensored. Also, they're not married and it's not a happy ending.) Because it's a sort of prequel to where the books' events take place, the spoilers are actually few and may give you a different sort of appreciation than the reader that read them in a different order.

Either way, it inspired a new idea-- to maybe write some other spin-off stories for my adult collection. There will be triggering themes, but the playground is still in made-up worlds so it won't be my intent to include any current events parallels, just some nice adult fun. While some of my stories can be romance-centric, it's never the entire reason for the plots, every generic piece revolving around sex. In the same vein, there's plenty of sex. Why? Because I find there are powerful psychological motivations in even the most seemingly casual encounters and it's another layer to our growth as people.

And this coming from an asexual, in case you missed me saying that ever. Despite my own disinterest in a physical partner, I don't have trouble understanding, appreciating, and enjoying the intimate human connections and how they drive people. In the same way that I understand why people embrace religion, even being an atheist, it doesn't mean I don't have parallel drives to balance morals, observations, and moods just like anyone else. In fact, if there's anything I have difficulty understanding, it's how people can enjoy lying. I've never liked the taste of one myself. If I can't be honest, I shut the hell up.

Despite the stick-up-your-ass wannabe gatekeepers throwing sex into the category of literary trash though? Eh, fuck 'em. And fuck the people who are swear-Nazis while we're at it. The idea that I'm somehow simpler or baser or unsophisticated for 'going there' is ignorance. I deal with enough of that when people treat me like I'm retarded when they find out I'm high-functioning. At least until I'm dropping that knowledge. Sure, if I was some kid flexing my rebellious right to swear and fuck, I'll even agree it's tacky. It doesn't change the fact that many adults are capable of using adult themes to a story's advantage. I like to think I'm one of them, but those people will find any reason to be right so I'll let them gnaw on their wheat crackers and call it a cookie.

Ahem, anyways, I've mentioned the idea of UnNamed spin-offs before and I may pick a couple for this teaser anthology in the future. Insofar, the prevailing theme is just adult fantasy, so anyone who appreciates my mix of adult romance and far-reaching fantasy themes will be right at home with this one. If I have to cite any influences in this work, think of it in the vein of writers like Karen Marie Moning and Laurell K. Hamilton, only not so much only urban-ish fantasy since insofar, only Gretel's Gift flirts with real-world parallels. All the same, I'm a woman who likes deep and sexy and supernatural/mystical themes, so that's the nearest comparison I could throw at you.

Personally, I'm a fan of Moning's Fever series (even though her other titles fell flat for me) and Hamilton's Anita Blake series, though that one fell off after the fifth book for me. All the same, they use a lot of investigative themes, who-dunnits if you will, that also appeal to what I like to write, so that's where you'll see my influences. Other than that, compare at your leisure.

The biggest challenge in maintaining a blog is that they're absolutely nothing like what I enjoy as a novelist and it's harder than I make it look to figure out how much to talk about myself, how much to claim any proficiency, how closely I should bother sticking to a topic. I like the organic flow and the rambling here and there, if only because it's a departure from weaving words I care to edit over and over and over again before slapping a price on it.

I do delight in what I'm learning about short stories. I like the way it challenges me to get right down to the point, to cut that beginning, middle and end down from my usual epic build into a complete story that might tempt the reader to imagine beyond it on their own.

So far, I have Gretel's Gift and Drawn to Perfection. Haven't thought about working titles for the other possible stories, but I'm thinking of calling the anthology Sword Romance. No, I'm not; I'm just fucking with you. I really haven't thought of a cohesive title and won't until I've gotten all of them drafted at the very least.

You're welcome to use Sword Romance as your title. But seriously, it's super lame. Probably don't do that. Even if your Sword Romance becomes an international best seller, I'm just going to make fun of the title. Promise.