Despite being a yet-to-be professionally published writer, I find myself a constant writing machine. Most recently, while working on the current novel set in my The Children of Gods wuxia universe (which is being blogged here [link] ), I realized that writing a complex epic mythological martial arts novel simply wasn't enough.

"What to do, what to do?" I asked myself.

"I know!" I said to myself. I says, "You should write even MORE! You know, write IN BETWEEN on those days you find yourself taking a break from the novel!"

"Can I handle more than one project at the same time?" I asked with some trepidation.

"Of course you can, you forgetful jerk! Don't you remember last year? You wrote a 505-page novel (the predecessor to the current novel) AND published four of your webzines last Spring and Summer! (webzines can be found at my new site [link] )!" I screamed at my ignorance of self.

"Oh yeah! I forgot!"

If there's a point in reciting this conversation here, it's this: first and foremost I may be schizophrenic (which, by the way, is a disorder I studied in preparation for the last novel I completed over the Winter, entitled Silent Knights -- it's a cyberpunk Christmas tale) and mayhaps be in need of medication and surveillance. I kid about this, of course. No I don't! Yes, yes I do. QUITE YOU!!!

I kid. I kid. I love Wesley Willis, truly I do.

Secondly, I set before myself a simple challenge: to write ten ghost stories in ten weeks. I suppose I should elaborate on the origins of this challenge. In the first part of June I went camping with my beloved and two friends and had a blast. On one particular night, as we sat about the campfire, after the conversation had died and no one truly desired talking but wanted to maintain the company, I told a few tales including one from Native American folklore and some ghost stories. As I told these tales, I realized I hadn't written a prolific number of ghost stories despite my fascination with the subject (even having gone ghost hunting with the same friends a couple weeks later at a 19th-century Victorian home), Halloween and paganism.

So I set before myself the challenge to write ten ghost stories in ten weeks.

I recently altered that challenge. The challenge now stands at a time limit of twelve weeks with a new short story being written every week, though now with a variety of subjects. I've already completed the first three weeks of ghost stories (the last one being a cyberpunk tale with a vengeful ghost). Today I began the fourth week with a robot story (this first story being set in a pulp/noir world I created a decade ago concerning a traveling sideshow) and will continue on in this fashion with a new robot story in the following two weeks (for a total of three robot stories). I'll then proceed with three stories of various undead creatures and wrap up the challenge with three weeks of BEM stories (BEM being the nerdy acronym for Bug-Eyed Monsters).

There. My head is cleared. What a relief. Thanks for listening/reading.

Now to return to writing and finding publishers.

~ Charles