Hidey Ho,

I’m a bit late sending out a link to my new flash fiction piece in trampset, a journal I’ve been trying to land a piece in for quite some time. It’s called, “256 Hz,” and has some Ray Bradbury vibes (so says my cousin). Which is to say it’s very different from my two novels and most of my stories. My writerly friend Robert P. Kaye described me as a realist who dabbles in the speculative, and I think that’s true. I’ve always been more of a “story-dictates-style,” kind of person. I don’t like hemming myself—or the story—in. I once read an interview with a semi-famous writer who said, essentially, pick a style and stay in it, because it’s better for your career. I guess my career is toast. But hey, I like toast.

Sales for Pepperleaf (buy it!) have been great so far. I’ve received two royalty checks from Thirty West (who is awesome), and the second was substantially bigger than the first, so I think word is getting out. I’m visiting two book clubs who are reading Pepperleaf this month, and I’m told a third is reading it as well.

With the help of a friend, I’m polishing a novella that I started in the pandemic. I checked my files and realized I shelved it for three years, hating it. I’m realizing now that I hated it because I didn’t like how it made me feel, which I guess is pretty human of me, but not very artistic, or brave. But in returning to it, I’ve realized there is a lot more substance to it than I’d noticed before. It was 55K words, now it’s at 35K. It’s interesting how cutting words can bring thematic elements to the forefront. It’s like at an upscale bougie restaurant, where they bring a huge plate with just one olive in the middle. You taste the olive in a different way than were a bunch of Pearls plastered over a pizza.

Hope you and yours are well. More soon.

Ross