Remember I announced a new short story some time back? In fact, it was a collaboration of writers coming together to write a collection of short stories based on 5 random titles? Well, that was done last month, it was good fun, and, for a change, I ended up loving the tiny story that I wrote.

I normally never am quite happy with what I write. Some call it “perfectionism”, I call it “disappointment”. Anyone who’s ever written anything knows how the story on paper never quite matches the story in their head. There’s always something missing.

Anyway, long story short, as part of the collaboration, I posted my 1024-word story (cause, what are we, if not binary?) on FB, I got some interesting remarks, and, in the end, I was left with a feeling of “more”. As in… “there’s so much more one can do with this premise”! And, while this idea flourished, a good friend, and member of the aforementioned collaboration, Dawn Kirby (fb/web), posted a doll from her childhood that sparked in me another round of “more”. As in, “seriously, the images come out alive in my head, I do need to write more and expand and explore this Universe”!

I’ll see if I can get her permission to post the photo here, you’ll see what I mean. Till then, I’m seriously thinking about turning this into a series of short stories, much like how Sergei came up with the first book in the Night Watch series.

As for the title? Well, the working title is “the Dark”. The first story in the series is called “Live One More Day”. It’s posted on this website, but it’s password protected for now. If you want to read it, I will share the password, but, for now, it’s only there for the original members of the collaboration, plus a special duck.

Yes, a duck. Quack!