Alright folks, Chapter 12 of “Aiden and the Ring” has been submitted for posting. It’s a little longer since I am introducing two new characters into Aiden’s tale. They are critical to Aiden’s future endeavors, both within this story and in the sequel.
Also, I hate groundhogs. Well, one anyway. Six more weeks of winter! I need to get more bourbon in the house.
Okay, back to writing issues—not that running out of bourbon wouldn’t have a detrimental effect on my scribbling. Works continues apace on “The Immortal.” As I’ve mentioned before, it is both grueling to revise and update, but also incredibly rewarding to meet old friends and add in a few new ones to illuminate the plot better for ya’ll.
What else am I working? Well, five additional stories are in what I call my “Current Focus of Effort” category. They are in various stages of completion and you should start seeing their first chapters of five of them later this year. As written, they are all much shorter than Aiden or Jim.
And that’s kinda the way they are going to stay. Hear me out. When I first posted here, I made promises that I couldn’t keep. I said I would work up sequels if there was interest. Later I qualified that to scores being high enough to warrant the effort. Welp, readers gave me feedback, asking for more. As an aside, every comment has been very positive across the board, so thank you all for that. As a hobbyist, not earning a dime, I live for feedback and to chat with readers.
So, what happened? Nada. I’ve beaten this drum before, but Dan and Daisy are forever stuck “On the Highway.” Heck, one of my silly micro-stroke stories for the BSFSF Event scored higher. The rest of the BSFSF stuff, not so much, but you see my point. My dear sweet Laura from “Owning My Image” managed to score worse. Hence, even though I had a sequel sketched for her, depicting her solo struggles to rule her own multi-media empire, it’s apparently not worth the ammo.
On the flip side, Naomi from “On My Own Terms” has scored high enough and I do have a sequel planned, although the vote numbers are so low they skew my understanding of actual interest. Ugh. Ditto for my planned sequel to “The Student.” Truth in advertising; they do slip onto the Current Focus list every once in a while, but they are not priorities.
The bottom line is I am continuing to write and post stories that I love to write and post. That hasn’t changed. However, using any kind of data to guide sequels is…problematic. Bear with me; it’s only been five months and I am still adjusting.
As always, please let me know what you think. I’m not kidding. Writing for me is a solitary hobby and your comments/emails have kept me guzzling coffee-laden bourbon…or is it the other way round? Anyway, keeping me typing until the wee hours of the night.
Stay safe…and warm; damned rodent.