Even if only in a small way.  I am excited to announce that one of my short stories has been selected to be included in a forthcoming horror short story anthology.  My first of, hopefully, many more.

I have written and submitted several short stories recently, each taking place in and around the events of The West Wind.  Yes, I know, I should be working on the book but I can rationalize these side efforts in a couple of ways:

• Short stories have word counts.  Writing with a word count forces me to write as tightly as I can.  A good discipline and habit that will benefit a longer work where there is no word count.
• World building with a purpose.  I have heard of writers spending years on world building without eventually even writing the novel.   I am doing it the other way around.  I wrote my first draft and now I am world building through the short stories.  My rewrite will benefit.  I also can’t help but thinking that the short stories benefit by being set in a world where it is clear that there are other things going on outside of the perspective.
• Editing.  I hate it but learning how to do it takes the edge off a bit.