Start Here

A post about promos and previews

So, this site/newsletter/creative dumping ground has existed since November 2023, and perhaps the time has come to create a few signposts to help orient newcomers to this little corner of the internet.

First and foremost, before I totally bury the lede, I’ve put together a sampler of a few of my favorite stories and posts from this site, which also just happens to include a free excerpt of Washed Up On Dark Shores, the novella I have coming out in August. It’s a simple pdf download. Please don’t be shy to grab it, share it around, print it out and use it as wallpaper in your guest room, etc. I could use all the help I can get here.

But anyway, if you’re new here, and want a taste of the sort of things that go on, that’s a great place to start.

But I also wanted to talk briefly about intent and the nature of this site. I’ve said a couple of times that this site was primarily created for the purpose of self-promotion. And I’m not going to lie and say that it’s not that. I’ve just linked to an excerpt of a novella I have coming out later this year. Clearly an attempt is going on to separate you from some of your hard-earned cash.

But I also want to be clear that self-promotion has become a distant second in terms of goals for this site. Now, is that partly because I see the site traffic information? Sure. But it’s NOT mostly because of that. Promise.

Really, the reason self-promotion has somewhat fallen by the wayside is simply because writing weekly stories here has somehow become one of the most creatively rewarding experiences of my life.

Look, I love writing novels. I always have. I always will. The scope of a novel’s canvas is a uniquely massive place to play, and create, and dive into the minds of people wildly unlike myself, and to learn about they change over time, and how they keep pushing through to the next day, and about how hope can sustain us in the face of impossible adversity.

But flash fiction scratches a different itch. I’ve talked before about how, for me, writing is play, a chance to mess around with words and images and see what happens when two conflicting thoughts combine, or to see how different limitations can create different solutions. Flash fiction is, for me, the most playful way to write. It’s a chance to experiment, and to be much weirder than I can be in a novel. It’s a chance to try out different prose styles, and different genres, and to push at the limits of a my skill. And because I am resolute about keeping the content of this site free, it’s also a chance to fail. I’m not going to lie, I don’t think all of the stories on this site work. But I also love that too. Because failure can be far more educational than success sometimes. The worst book I ever wrote (consigned eternally to the trunk) was also the most helpful one I ever wrote because it taught me the limits of my skill, and highlighted the things I didn’t know that I didn’t know. It showed me where to go next to learn more. That’s what this site has done. It has improved my prose, expanded my ambition as a writer, and brought just a ton of fun into my life.

Is that self-indulgent? Yes. Wildly so. But all fiction exists in a dialogue between writer and reader. So when the experiments I perform here work, hopefully they’re as much fun for you as they are for me. That’s the mark of success for fiction, right? Or a mark, I suppose. It’s the bar I’m using here anyway. Stories that are fun for both of us.

So, I guess if this post is to have a purpose beyond vaguely waggling a novella excerpt at you, it is to say this: part of the intent of this site is to advocate for the creation of things that are fun for you to make and for others to consume. I think indulging that creative urge adds richness and flavor to life—both yours and others. Not a particularly hot take, perhaps, but one I think is important.

So, yes, I would really appreciate it if you took a look at the sampler, and shared it around. But more than that, what would be even cooler, is if you used it as the launching point for creating something awesome of your own. And when you do, please let me know about it so I can come and geek out over it and be inspired by it in return.