Get Shorties

I've put up a new page on my website for short stories. There's three full ones there, ones which have appeared in print form in the past. They were just hanging around, and it didn't look like they were ever going to be read again, so I might as well.

I've also listed all the stories I got published, plus a few thoughts on short story writing in general and the small press in particular. It seems like decades since I wrote most of these. Part of that is probably because I seem to have moved genre. I started out writing horror and generally weird stuff. Then I moved to crime and generally weird stuff. These days I dunno, maybe it's just weird stuff. When the weirdness goes, it'll just be stuff.

That's a strange thought, moving genre. It was a conscious thing on my part. Not only was I reading more and more crime, but it was looking more and more unlikely that I would ever get a horror novel published. It happens, of course, but the glory days of that genre are gone, for now. At least in publishing. (Not so in movies, it seems.)

Mind you, I've never been that attached to any genre. I do like them. I like the sense of community (AAARRRGGGHHH! Who was it who said "people who truly live in communities never actually use the word "community"? They were bang on...) it brings, and the feeling that you are carrying something on. But ultimately, I just write whatever comes out. I know the kind of format that suits me, and the kind of narrative I can do. But once you bring in your own personal wallpaper (characters, setting, language... obsessions) it becomes your own.