Dear Reader,
NOTE: This email may get cut off due to its length. If so, just click HERE to read it online.
October is not just for Halloween and Spooky Season, but also Pentober, and this is our 2nd Annual event! Are you ready? We spent the last two weeks of September preparing for this unholy event. It’s the time of year where writers far and wide come together with their pen (or pencil or crayon, etc) and paper, to write a micro fiction story. To help you along I provide a word prompt. The time has come to start sharing them for the next 31 days. You should have the Prompt List, but in case you don’t, you’ll find it in this email again. Also, our 12’ Skeleton, Skelly, says HI!
In the marketing and advertising world this time of year is also known simply as, Q4 (the final quarter of the year), and for me it’s the time I like to spend thinking about two things:
How did I do in 2024 writing-wise?
What are my fiction goals for 2025?
In the coming months, specifically November 1st and December 1st, I hope to share with you all that I’ve actually accomplished this year. Turns out that it’s such a long list I can’t simply cram it all into just ONE monthly update email. So, look for one focusing on Non-Fiction and the other focusing on Fiction. Then, as per my norm these last couple of years, my January 1st email will share my 2025 goals for all the fiction I’d like to do, what I’m going to retire and walk away from, and my thoughts on trying to turn more of what I’m doing into a monetary venture! The January First Edition will be a long one as well since I intend to include my goals for all of my newsletters (aka Substacks) and not just my main one. Suffice it to say, the next 3 emails will look far different than these have as well. I’m working through a new look and feel to my personal newsletter headed into the new year.
How do you handle end of the year? Do you thinking about it? Is it too soon? Or do you wait till it’s closer to December before doing this sort of reflection? Let me know in the comments:
OCTOBER 2024 CALENDAR
100 WORD STORIES ARE STILL BEHIND A PAYWALL AND OTHER NEWS
The outcome wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for. But then again, I didn’t have much expectations when I made this decision. I am sticking with it, though. That means that the weekend FREE-TO-READ stories from September are now behind the paywall.
This month we begin putting our handwriting to word by participating in Pentober! And because I want to see your participation and have you see my own, I will be making a slight amendment to October this year (and every year in the future) by making these FREE-TO-READ indefinitely. I’m also hard at work removing the paywall from my 1st Annual Pentober in 2023 that you can go back and check out here.
For the love of writing and ease of use, Substack, please give us bulk editing so I can update the Tag and the Free vs Paid option at one time instead of spending nearly an hour doing these steps to achieve the same result:
Post → Filter “Second 100” → Scroll → Next Page → Three Dots Edit → Settings → Make Changes → X out of Settings → Update (top right corner) → Update - Repeat x 31 times!
So, if you’re looking to participate, please do take a picture of your handwritten story and share it with me either in the comments of my email or Restack with a Note in Substack Notes and tag me! I’m hoping to share your work any way I can as well!
Lastly, The Fifth 100 is slowly coming together. I hope to schedule its release date to around December. I will say that I’m going to be putting a pause on releasing any more books in this series in 2025 as I move into a different phase of self-publishing my short story collections, of which I have 2 collections planned for 2025.
In the meantime, consider purchasing any of the first four in my ever-growing collection of 100 word stories:
100 WORD STORIES IN OCTOBER
Pentober is upon us so I hope you’re prepared to put away your technology (for a few minutes each day) in favor of good old fashioned pen and paper to write some great stories! Here is the prompt list:
REMINDER: All previous 100 Word Stories are now in ARCHIVE for Paid Subscribers.
SHORT STORIES
What Big Teeth ← NEW TITLE ALERT!
Formerly Old Wounds—New Beginnings. I decided to change the title to one of the stories that will be featured in my first ever horror short story collection coming in 2025. And I also updated the cover. I wanted to wait till I got closer to the release date to share both of these things but I was getting far too anxious and excited about it so I’m sharing them now!
Two stories coming in October: Two Little Orphans and The Hanging Tree
A SERIAL WRITING JOURNEY
A horror serial about Faeries? Yes, please! Ever wonder what it’s like to co-write a novel from beginning to end? Find out the planning and the writing process first-hand as myself and
set out to show you with our podcast!OTHER PROJECTS WORTH CHECKING OUT
MICROZINE
Are you a writer or reader of micro fiction? If so, this is the home you’ve been looking for. If you write micro fiction, we have open submissions every 1st of the month for exactly 7-days. Reader of micro fiction? On the last day of every month we release a Digital issue with selections of stories written by lovers of micro fiction. These stories are truly bite-sized. Intended to be read quickly and in one sitting but they will leave you thinking about them long after you’ve finished reading them.
TOP IN FICTION
A weekly list of fiction stories written in Substack and recommended by lovers of fiction writing. Whether you’re a writer or reader of fiction, this is your one stop shop for discovering an endless supply of stories. You will truly find no other place on Substack featuring these writers and on a weekly basis bringing you new writers and stories to read.