Work in Progress: The Roads We Must Travel

For my next book, I am returning to my roots: the short story.

I am tentatively calling it The Roads We Must Travel.

I’ve been writing some new stories and tweaking some old ones (ones which have already been published in online literary magazines). Unlike my previous self-publishing projects, for this one I will go with an indie publisher (keep your fingers crossed).

Currently, I have fifteen stories that I would like to include in this collection. Three short stories, in particular, “Mojave Green,” “Going After Sexton,” and “Black Roses” are stories that I cut my teeth on as a writer when I was in graduate school (1987-1989). These are stories which demand a wider audience. “Mojave Green” takes place at an Air Force in the Mojave Desert; “Going After Sexton” takes place in Carbondale, Illinois; and “Black Roses” takes place in Chicago.

This is a tentative list of stories which I hope to include in the collection:

 

As Long as I Have my Cokes and Smokes *

What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas *

For Emily

Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell

The Footlocker

Black Roses *

And that’s why they call it the Blues

Greetings from Cambodia

Night Shift

The Roads We Must Travel

Maid Rite *

Mojave Green *

Going After Sexton *

(* previously published)

After spending nearly two years writing my last novel, The Panama Affair, it is refreshing to go back to my roots and write some short fiction. Don’t worry, I have already started another novel.