Changing My Challenge!!

Yes, Only One Week In…

Amazing how starting a challenge can bring up reality and things a person had never thought of.

A tiny bit of back story. Last three years have been just flat pressure every day, from losing my sight three years ago, to business sstuff, to the fall and surgery and PT at the same time stunningly awful business problems were discovered and now the last two years of putting things back together and attorneys, lots of attorneys.

Kris and I, with the stunning help of Chris York and Stephanie Writt, put it all back together and better. And now Steph has moved on to different pastures and things have calmed a ton and Kris and I are going to be doing most things on our own, which is amazingly fun. For the first time in 12 years, we are a real indie publisher with no employees. Even the VAs are gone.

So I finally felt I could really focus on my writing, and I can, but then it became clear to me that the novel every two weeks was just adding back in pressure and on my writing where at the moment I don’t want it. Nope.

So NEW CHALLENGE!!!

I will do 52 different ten-story collections, averaging one per week, but no weekly deadline. Average.

This just makes me happy because I have over 400 original stories that have not been published or only saw the pages of Smith’s Monthly. And I have another 200 plus stories that I want to keep in the light of day that were published in collections or magazines often twenty or thirty or forty years ago. Another hundred or so I will not reprint. My horror years..

But that is 600 stories that will finally, if nothing else, get into books.

I WILL STILL DO THE PUBLISHING 75 BOOKS IN MY 75TH YEAR CHALLENGE.

Besides the 52 collections, some will be new novels, some non-fiction, some will be other things. But going to take the pressure off the novel writing this year and finally get my short stories into the light of day.

I might do the 26 novel challenge next year in my 76th year. See how I am doing with pressure on the writing at that point.

So this year (from my birthday to my birthday), I have two challenges. Publish at least 52 short story collections of ten stories each. And publish 75 or more books in my 75th year.

Pressure is off the novel writing and wow am I excited to finally get my stories into some form.

And yes, I still plan on doing more issues of Smith’s Monthly. With completely original stories in every issue. And each of those will count toward the 75 challenge.