Dear Reader,
These monthly update emails, I feel, are constantly changing. Itās like, I know what I want them to be but they never seem to come out quite right somehow. Like Iām trying too hard to seem impressed and impressive with what Iāve accomplished in the past month. Honestly, these are tough to write because while I know Iāve accomplished a lot in my writing, I always feel like an imposter. Like I couldāve done more. But, itās only February so I canāt be too hard on myself. With eleven months to go this year, there is still plenty of time to try and get this monthly update email right. Iāve only been writing them for nearly a decade now!
WHAT IāVE WRITTEN IN 2025
Of course, thereās my 100 Word Stories. My fiction writing begins and ends with these stories. In January I used the titles of The Classic Honeymooners episodes as inspiration. And as I share this with you now, on February 1st, I have zero clue as to what my theme of inspiration will be for this month.
Iām working on The Fifth 100 and hope to have pre-orders ready in the coming months. This series will take a bit of a pause after the fifth book so I can focus on my short stories. If youād like to read my first 500 stories you have two options. You can become a Paid Subscriber and get access to the Archive or purchase my books on Amazon (or wherever print books are sold online):
And now onto my short stories. My goal was to release one story per month. January came and went and already Iām falling short of my goals. I hope February, while the shortest month of the year, will afford me more time to get one story out to you.
I spent most of last year sharing the first book in a fantasy world I created called Stonehaven. I wrote this first series many years ago and even went so far as to publish the first two books and one novella. They are down now but Iām sharing them in serial form on here. The novelette will finish soon and then I start sharing book two of The 5th Compass series. It will take the entire calendar year to release all 40+ chapters.
Another world of my creation, Wondermere, was created to fill the gap of two passions of mine; card magic and mysteries. Itās a fictional world that is not unlike London in the mid-19th century. I finally had an epiphany on how I want to write this story, heavily influenced by The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. In the coming weeks I will pull back the curtain on how an idea in my head becomes a story on the page using this world and series of novellas I want to start writing this year.
WHAT IāVE SAID IN 2025
Substack Live is a feature now available to everyone on the platform with at least 10 subscribers. If youāre not familiar with Substack or what it is, thatās perfectly okay. Not many people do. Itās like if Patreon and Wordpress and Mailchimp got together and had a baby with all of their best features combined. Anyway, because of their Live feature Iāve done a bit of sharing. Specifically, sharing the books on my shelves in a series Iām calling āShare a Shelf.ā Iāve done 3 such videos with more planned in the future.
Share a Shelf Part 1
This morning I answered the call from John Ward to share my book shelves. I decided to share an entire bookcase!
BUILDING COMMUNITY IN 2025
I canāt help but want to help others. Itās in my nature. I see someone in need or I feel I have some knowledge to impart (mostly by my own failures and lessons learned) and I put it out there for better or worse. These days Iāve thrown myself completely into Top in Fiction. Itās my way of giving back to the community of fiction writers. Itās a sort of living directory of all sorts of fiction. In just 6 months TiF has featured hundreds of writers and their stories and this year Iām doubling down on the community with Live weekly chats. If youāre looking for more fiction to read, youāll want to subscribe to Top in Fiction, where youāll get 25 new stories recommended every week straight to your inbox and access to our Friday emails where the comments section has dozens more to choose from.