Star Again: Blog

Just submitted chapter 8. Hope it will be posted soon.

James finally has a number. The building he lives in has a price now, and a price is a harder thing than a wish. It has to get past a bank, a landlord who's tired rather than sentimental, and a tutoring side-hustle that's outgrowing its room. He's good at building the net. He hasn't asked yet what it closes around.

The chapter turns on a question Marieke has been owed the whole book, and a phone call with his mother that was the hardest thing here to get right. Some care doesn't arrive as help. Sometimes it's a door shutting, quietly.

I also gave Chapter 7 a light trim, cut a few lines that said out loud what the scene already showed. No plot changes. If you've read it, skip the reread.

Scores and comments actually steer this thing, so if a line landed or clanged, tell me. I read them all.

More soon.

— Star Again

A new standalone novella starts today. Available Light is about a wedding
photographer who can read any room and cannot stand being seen in one, and
about the woman in the third row who notices.

It is eight chapters, complete, and I will post it in three parts: chapters
I to III today, IV to VI in three days, and the final two three days after
that. Romance first; the heat arrives late and earns its place.

If you would rather not wait between parts, or simply want to support the
writing, the complete ebook is already on ZBookStore, together with The
Long Way Back. Every copy there directly supports the next story.

Scores and comments are the fuel. Thank you for reading.

Star Again

You voted, and I listened.

273 of you weighed in on how much room you wanted between chapters, and the answer was clear. Two chapters a week took it with 49.5% (135 votes). Three a week came in strong behind that at 28.6% (78), and one a week held its own at 21.6% (59). Exactly one brave soul asked for a chapter every two weeks, and I salute your patience, whoever you are. So two a week it is. That's a pace I can keep and that gives the story room to breathe, which feels like the right meeting point between your appetite and mine.

To make it official: Chapter 7 is live today. Go read it.
Thank you for voting, and more than that, for caring enough to have an opinion about the rhythm of a story. That's a good problem for a writer to have.
One more note. Both the book and the novella, The Long Way Back and Available Light, are now up on ZBookStore. Any support over there means a lot and helps me keep doing this. And if you'd rather wait, that's fine too. Be patient. More will come online in time. Back to two chapters a week.

See you in the next one.

Staragain

First, the poll. Last week it was a dead heat, one chapter a week against two, and I asked you for a tiebreaker. You gave me one. It did not break the way I expected.

153 votes in:

Two chapters a week: 47.7% (73)
Three chapters a week: 30.1% (46)
One chapter a week: 22.2% (34)
One chapter every two weeks: nobody. Not a single vote.

So it was never really slow burn or a little more fuel. Nearly four in five of you asked for at least two chapters a week, and more of you want three than want one. That is faster than I sleep. I am working out what that means for The Long Way Back, and I would rather do it properly than promise something I cannot hold. But I have heard you, and the room has clearly spoken.

The poll is still open if you have not voted. At this point you would be voting for the record rather than the result.

And the news: Available Light is live on ZBookStore.

I told you what it is in yesterday's post, so I will not do it again here. If you missed it, scroll back. What matters for planning your evening: it is a novella, a little under sixteen thousand words, complete and self-contained. One held breath instead of a long walk. No timeline to hold in your head, no waiting on me between chapters.

It is coming here too, on StoriesOnline, in the next few days. Same story, no catch. If you would rather wait and read it here, then wait and read it here. If you want to put a little support behind the work, ZBookStore is the place for that. Both are fine by me. Reading and leaving a comment has always been enough.

Thank you for the tiebreaker. And for arguing with my characters as though they owe you an explanation. Keep doing that. They do.

Staragain

First, thank you. I mean it.

The reads, the follows, the comments that show up quietly under a chapter and then sit with me for days. Some of you have caught things I only half-knew I'd put on the page. A few of you argue with my characters like they owe you an explanation. They do. That back-and-forth is the best part of posting here. I get to keep learning about my own story from the people reading it, and that beats writing into the dark every time.

Honestly, this is the part I love most. Not just the finished chapter, but the whole messy business of building a story and watching it land with real readers. So thank you for being part of that.

On the poll: still a dead heat. One chapter a week and two chapters a week are tied, right down the middle. Which is either a nice problem to have or a sign I need a tiebreaker. If you haven't voted yet, now is the moment. Slow burn or a little more fuel? You tell me.

And this week, something different. I'm putting up a short story. It stands on its own, moves faster than *The Long Way Back*, and it doesn't ask you to hold a whole timeline in your head. One held breath instead of a long walk.

It's called Available Light.

Evan Reed used to be a medical researcher. Now he photographs weddings, and he's good enough at it to be frightened by it. The story opens in a too-warm hotel room in Prague, eight hours before he has to stand on a stage and talk to a room full of people who do what he does. His badge says SPEAKER. He keeps turning it facedown.

Evan's mind, as a friend once told him, is "a room where everyone has a key." Too many doors, too much noise, too many things starting at once. The one place it all goes quiet is a wedding day, where there's finally enough to see that nobody can accuse him of seeing too much. Then the day ends, the edit begins, and the doubt comes back.

Available light is a photographer's term. No flash, no rescue. You work with whatever light the room is willing to give you. That's the whole story, really. A man figuring out what he can make of the light he actually has instead of the light he keeps wishing for.

One more thing. The Long Way Back is already up on ZBookStore, and Available Light will join it there this week. So if you'd rather read on ZBookStore, or you just want to throw a little support behind the work, that's the place to do it. No pressure either way. Reading here and leaving a comment already means a lot.

The short story goes live this week. I hope you'll spend some time with it, and as always, I'll be reading every comment.

Thanks for being here.

Staragain