I’m having triplets!

Let me clarify…

My wife is pregnant with a single human baby, and she’s begun the ninth month. We wave at him on the screen of the ultrasound machine. He waves back at us through the skin of my wife’s abdomen, like a tiny Freddy Krueger.

Now the caveat: my other two “babies” are books. Admittedly, less dramatic.

But the clock is ticking on my free time!

Near the end of last year, I aimed to keep the rhythm of posting a new short story every week. Then to make room for submitting to literary journals, assembling a book of the 2021 stories, and revising my novel, I dialed it down to a story a month.

…and wrote only one.

Listen, the feedback I got from beta readers of the novel had pulled me so deep into that headspace that when I sat down to write new stories, all I could think about was the massive literary tangle on my desk. All my fictional powers—conscious and unconscious—focused on that project.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the past few months, it’s that in my personal projects I’m a terrible creative multitasker.

The best visual aid I have is from an old Looney Tunes cartoon. Imagine that Cal the Chameleon is me, and each color is a different story I’m writing…

But my hands have not been idle.

The illustrated book of last year’s stories is almost DONE!

Subscribers to my newsletter get the ebook for free, so if you’re not already subscribed, sign up below.

The twenty-nine stories are all very different, but I found a common denominator (and title):

PEOPLE WITH PROBLEMS

I commissioned fourteen illustrations from talented artists I know. The rules were that the image had to be a certain size, and somehow inspired by their chosen story. That’s it.

The resulting art is as wildly diverse as the stories themselves.

Check some out for yourself.

More info soon. Thanks for your support.