Hello!

I’ve been working on a few different pieces over the last month or so. The first is a novella/short novel (I find it’s a blurry line between the two forms). It’s been six years in the making, and it’s probably on its 11th draft, but I’m slowly working through it one last time with my writer/editor friend Robert P. Kaye before it’s ready to submit. It’s a dark, emotional, spiritual piece. I take a few days’ break in between editing sessions because diving into that world and the characters is painful in a heavy-yet-feverish kind of way. When one can, one has to plan out one’s fevers.

On a lighter note, I continue to make progress on the 1890s-era “Avalanche Novel” I’ve been working on for years. In terms of story and plot, it’s a stretch for me—it being so big and all—so I have to take it slow so my brain can churn its gears, hopefully to turn the pennies I feed it into collector’s items depicting space travel or a ferry ride or something. Silly inept metaphor. Anyway, it will continue, but slowly, because to do it more quickly would require a backhoe and I’m only in possession of a shovel.

I have a short story, “Brewster’s Dead,” out on submission to a handful of journals and magazines. I like the story, but it seeks to express the perspective of a 90yo white woman’s life, and she doesn’t omit the biases of her younger years, which I know can be difficult to read (and publish). I don’t feel bad at the attempt, though, and I had two octogenarians read it and say they thought it was true to life, and that’s enough for me.

And enough for now. Thanks for reading along,

Ross