I haven’t mentioned this for a bit, so I thought it was time for an update on the weird western novel I’d been working on.

My original idea, a weird western fantasy (with dashes of steampunk), took off after I wrote several pieces of flash fiction and short stories. I realized that those stories spoke to me for a reason, and the characters demanded more. I began roughing out ideas, different arcs and the world my characters would inhabit. I started a first draft, and had 20,000 words down.

It was exciting, but then NaNoWriMo hit. That whole month of Novermber would be a haze of rushed writing and frantic pace, so I decided to halt the weird western for a Viking tale of wild, Northern wolves entangling with changed Natives in a new world. I felt that I could write that without much pain, since it was designed to be disposable anyway.

Well, that idea took off, and I considered continuing with that story after November.

With that under thought, I started producing short stories and flash fiction for submission to professional paying markets. I’ve submitted several stories so far, and while I have yet to hit paydirt, I’m in a comfortable groove. Stories are getting better, tighter and more focused.

Which brings me back to the novel. I’m a writer, but I want to write novels. Short stories are good for practice, for perfecting skills and for more experimental works, but it’s not a career path that will work for me. Novels will.

So it’s time to head back to the west, send out the telegrams, and return to the characters and stories I had planned. I’ll still release stories here, I’ll still submit to markets, but my weird western world is crying out for my attention. It’d be a shame if I let it sit any longer.

I also turned 42 today. Yay me. Someone eat some cake for me!