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Thirteen months ago, I started posting on SOL again after a ten-year absence. In that time, I've written 18(!) stories, some with multiple chapters. I'm feeling a bit burnt out, which isn't surprising. I'm almost 81 for fucks sake. I still have lots of ideas to develop, but I'm trying to force myself to take my time in finishing them.
Don't worry, I'm not going away, just slowing down.
That last sentence made me think about some of the plane crash videos I've been watching lately on YouTube (don't ask). One of the things a lot of those accidents have in common is when a plane goes too slow, it stalls, and BANG. So, that might be a good reason for me not to slow up too much; I kinda want to keep myself airborne.
Sometimes I get the feeling that I'm writing the same stuff over and over, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Here are the scores of my most active posts, based on weekly downloads:
6.99, 6.86, 7.09, 7.00, 7.80. 6.81, 7.01, 6.67, 7.18
So, at least I'm consistent. I guess I've found my lane and should stay in it, even though it can be frustrating. The last time I tried something different, a no-sex, horror story, it bombed, at least based on downloads and votes.
When I think about some of the real authors that I like, John Connolly, John Sanford, Riley Sager, Michael Robotham, for example, "staying in their lane" seems to work for them, so perhaps I should forget about experimenting and just do what I seem to do well, even though occasionally I get the urge to let my secret 'Stephen King' persona out.
Well, this is weird. I didn't expect a no-sex, horror story to be very popular, and I was right about that. 'Spiders' has only had a little over 350 downloads so far. The really mysterious part is that it doesn't have enough votes yet for the score to show. I don't remember ever having a story sit there for four days without getting a score. Not sure what that means - do people download it, start reading it, and just bail? Come on, readers, give me some feedback, even if it's a 1 or 2.
On a happier note, this morning I hit 500,000 downloads! It had been my goal to get there before the end of the year, and now it's not even Halloween. A small yippee! for me. I'm not embarrassed to post that, because we all know that the main purpose of blog posts is ego-stroking.
Now that I've got my horror story out of my system, I'm working on the next chapter of 'Daisy and Me', and a new story with NO teenagers, but plenty of sex.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled reading.
I've had the feeling that I'm getting into a rut. A lot of my stories lately have been about naughty teens. They're still fun to write, but I wanted to try something different, so I decided to try a no-sex horror story. I've always wanted to be a horror writer, but I lack confidence, and smutty stories are easier for me. This one kinda creeped me out while I was writing it, kept me awake for a couple of nights, so maybe I should stick to my wayward teens.
Since I assume that most of the people who read my blog posts also read my stories, I would like to get some feedback from some of you regular readers.
I was originally going to enter this in the SOL Halloween contest, but I decided I'm not ready to go up against the popular writers here.
Hope you enjoy the cover illustration.
Sometimes, if I'm really lucky, I find characters in my brain that I fall in love with and enjoy writing about. Daisy and J.C. are two of them. I have no idea where the idea to write about teens in a small town in Southwest Georgia in the 1960s came from, but once I found myself there, the rest has come easily. I hope some of you are enjoying their exploits as much as I am.
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