the fishbone wolf

I started going to critique groups in 2018. In early 2019, I started writing The Fishbone Wolf

In 2022, a developmental editor read the entire story and told me (among other things) that the last third of the story wasn't working. This was the right call, and in 2023, I had the story start-to-finish

Critique groups were my primary source of feedback. I also found online freelancers and sent to a few alpha readers

The hardest part of critiques is deciding what to do with them: about half you can set aside, 35% are worth mulling over, and 15% are pure gold 

Back in May 2021, I hit a lull with The Fishbone Wolf, so I started a few sections of Stupid Volcano. Then in March 2022, I got in the zone and knocked out the entire first draft in two months 

That draft had been set side while I slugged through The Fishbone Wolf. For Stupid Volcano, I used feedback from AI and online freelancers. I’ve taken a vacation from critique groups while still dropping into local writing workshops

For 2025, I was planning to publish a two–story collection called Lost on Screen.

One of the stories is Stupid Volcano

The other had a working title Food Contest. It’s about someone who knows nothing about food but suddenly gets thrown in as a judge at a national cooking competition

I still have the food contest story waiting for a better introduction (per feedback). I also have an outline about someone working on a moon colony, and a finished rough draft of another short story that starts on a balcony. And I recently had a dream about someone who sends cryptic messages via fax (that old technology), so I may turn this into a supernatural or horror story

No clue what's next. My goal is a story per year. 2026 is next!