I’ve released Quitting. I’m reading it on this site mostly to be able to read it with a critical eye and not have the ability to edit as I’m reading it. I’ve already noticed a few issues in the first couple of scenes.
I have already found a few flaws that my previous editing runs missed. I’ve written up a list of “improvements” (minor textual changes) that I need to make, and there will be a new version up within the next week.
I will post my own comments about the story in a week or so, but I think I’ve enabled people to comment on it already. I don’t want to give away any spoilers before people have a chance to read it and determine its merits (or demerits) on their own. Reading is deeply personal, and seeing how people interpret what I write is instructive to me.
This story is sort of Lucky Tickets without the ticket gimmick. This allows the story to be “complete” and shouldn’t leave any plot points dangling. I wrote it as a short story because that’s how I initially envisioned it. However, I spent a lot of effort developing characters and since I divided it into “scenes” (those centered lines within he story), I managed to process it as a story in eight chapters (of wildly different lengths!) but posted it as a single unit.
I have a few more irons on the fire, and despite some large life changes, I hope I’ll be able to get some new stories out and about soonish, but will no longer promise anything unless I have something that I consider “worth publishing very, very soon.”
As for the question I asked myself a few years ago, “How would I rewrite the Tickets series nowadays?” I think this gives you insight as to how I would have done it if I knew then what I know now. Oh, it wouldn’t be a longish short story. I would have been a story with chapters that didn’t need a second book and a nonexistent third one to tie up all the loose ends. It would have been something like Quitting.
As I mentioned in the story’s end note, I don't get paid for my writing. I do it to get my ideas into something coherent. I’ve always admired authors, and maybe after I’m gone, someone will find a few of my stories worthwhile. If there’s an afterlife, and I can see someone reading one of my stories and thinking, "This one doesn’t actually suck," well, I can get to smile. However, right now, I don’t want to wait. You can just send me some comments as to what you think about my stories, and that will be payment enough for me.
Peace!
JiMC