Busy is as busy does. And it's been a busy couple of months. October saw me with two releases bookending the month: Don't Run in Devolution Z magazine at the start of the month, and I'm Taking You With Me in Burning Willow Press' "Crossroads In The Dark: Anthology of Morality" at month end. November? Working on beta (read: proofreading/editing manuscripts for some of my beta team). And despite the fact that I started work on Kelly Metz's novella around mid-month (if memory serves), I still wrapped the beta and that of a short story for Terri two days before month end. Insert sigh of relief and contentment.
As much as I'm down to help out the team, it's not as much fun as knocking out new product. The first week or so of this month has been outlining a new story for the upcoming Burning Willow Press anthology, a collection which will revolve around urban legends. Fortuitous, since the current story is one I've had in mind for a while. Even though it's outlined, it's not ready to write yet - nor will it be without a little research first. Where will I go to for the background on this story? To the emergency services. But I won't tell you which one yet. Because that would be telling. The outlining took over a week. I'll be very surprised if the first draft takes more than half that time. Right now, while I'm still busy with writing, I'm seeing less open calls where the topic moves me to write something, where the topic actually speaks to me. I have a fair back catalogue of work to shop around, including the tale of Divine Liquor that earned an Honourable Mention from this year's AHWA short story competition call. But I also have a number of stories that I still want to write that don't necessarily fit the theme of the current open calls. It goes deeper than that, because most of the back catalogue, as it were, are short stories. While I find short stories can give a quicker fix, sometimes, I want a tale where I can truly sink myself into the narrative: what I imagine would be the literary equivalent of sinking into a candle-ringed bubble bath instead of a quick hosing from the power shower. The kind of long narrative to lose yourself in. The muse currently outruns me, and as yet, I see no sign of catching up. For the ideas I have, they may be for everything from flash fiction to full-blown novels. Regardless of the length of the tale, I'm just keen to knock out new product: and push my work to new and dark places. Longer places. But right now, the muse is playing dom-sub and wants to show me her themes up close. Who am I to say no?