Another Weekend Ends

I'm back from a weekend spent with family and old friends. I went to the wedding party of woman who I used to babysit when she was three, and I was twenty. Needless to say, I'm feeling pretty ancient at the moment. But it was good to see that life turned out happy for her and her family. In real life, happy endings are to be treasured.

Of course, when you're a writer that's not always the case. I always try to make sure and not get into a habit with my endings. In some of my stories the protagonist prevails, and in some of them they fall. When you write horror, you can't let the reader get comfortable knowing that your the type of writer who's charactors always get away, or always get "gotten." Fall into either rut, and you're stories lose their edge.

The current ghost story I'm working on is for a self publishing project. I intend to make a packet of four or five good ghost stories, and then sell them for .99 cents...or 1.99. I've got one story called "Storm Chase," that I have the rights back to, and another unpublished story called "The Tragedy Man" that only needs a little reworking, and there are two stories for it right there. The bridal story makes three, if it comes out well. And "comes out well," is critical. I will have to make sure my self published stuff is off the highest quality, just as if I was submitting it to a publisher. I can't fall into the trap of putting out subpar work, just because there won't be an editor looking at it. Just the opposite. I have to be three times as demanding of these stories. They will be out there representing me.

Yet, while I'm moving the main focus of my short story efforts towards e-book, novels are still another matter. I'm fairly confident I'm can rise to the challenge of formatting and putting out a short collection of stories, but I don't know about a novel. That's where a publisher still comes in handy. Finding the right home for the right novel is the name of the game there.

But first I need to get back to work on this short story collection. Having Rowan home during the summer makes working on the novels difficult anyways. And the short story collection can be educational for working and marketing in the ebook market. Also, it means I can  play with cover design...which I find to be enormous fun.

Anyways, that's pretty much it for now. Tomorrow Rowan starts her new Monday therapy at Learning Lane, so I will be taking her to therapy three times a week now. That's okay, it's good for her and that's what matters.