Weekend Milestones – Part 1

I finished my book of 18 short stories after just a bit over a year and a half of writing work. But I didn’t view it as work, because I enjoyed it immensely. I did hit a snag 2 weeks ago when I finished the last story. Then the daunting tasks of compiling the stories into one document, creating a table of contents with links, doing a final edit, and choosing a title stared me in the face. Ugh!  I love the creative process and hate the tedious details. But I hunkered down and finished the work this weekend.

The tentative working title (subject to change based on my whims) is “Beyond Life: Tales of the Afterlife.” Here’s a brief tease about what each of the 18 stories is about.

1. A dog
2. Satan & Davy Jones of the Monkees
3. Cremated ashes
4. Swimming
5. Half-unicorn
6. Final termination
7. The Rapture – Gee, this list is weird so far. But not as weird as Debbie Harry of Blondie singing about Rapture
8. It’s a Wonderful Life – the movie
9. Suicide
10. Game shows in heaven
11. Dating while dead
12. Saviours – Whew, this list is long. Sit back, take a break and listen to Depeche Mode sing about their own Personal Jesus
13. Apologies
14. Memorial services
15. Visiting the afterlife
16. Astral projection
17. Crappy Christian literature (I know, redundant)
18. Nose grapes

Upon review of that list, I’m reminded that I probably need to schedule a visit to chat with a mental health professional.

Moving forward, I have sufficiently (I hope) girded my loins for rejection as I have decided to shop this around to independent book publishers. I anticipate rejection, so I definitely don’t want ungirded loins (good name for a band). It’s nice to know I always have self-publishing as a fallback position and experience with self-publishing thanks to the Parasitic Twin novella.

So, I left this crisp, cool Chicago summer morning for a bike ride feeling very satisfied. I wasn’t sure of my destination this morning. I just rode. I went around in a circle one place and rode into a couple dead ends before finally finding a good path to ride. It was a very similar experience to writing this book. I said “good morning” to everyone I saw on my ride, because it was.