A Little Too Late

I was filled with the Christmas spirit this month, I guess, and I thought it would be cool to put together a new collection of Christmas stories like my already released Christmas Creatures. I do like to write Christmas tales during December, so I didn't have to be cajoled into it. The trouble is that, because it was already December, I couldn't get all the stories out in time for folks to read them during the season. 

Today's post is the case in point. I just published three stories yesterday. All Christmas stories. All published after Christmas. Whoops! I'll tell you about them anyway. The first one is called "Eve of the Living Dead." 

Here's what I wrote to tantalize the reader without giving away the plot too much:

The zombie holocaust has descended on the world and Gage is on his own, all his friends and family gone, looking for a reason to go on with the necessary struggle to survive in this harsh situation. Winter has come to Wyoming, where he'd fled in hopes of finding a place with less of the shambling undead, and Gage finds a farmhouse where he can shelter from the weather. Inside, there is a big surprise waiting for him. He also learns that Christmas is here again, and jolly old St. Nicholas is still making his rounds even in this world of never-ending horror.

That probably needs some work. Just because I can write doesn't mean that I can write ad copy. That's a different skill, and I think I need to learn a lot more about it if I want to be a self-published author.

That one is a big, full-sized story, 13,984 words, and I think it's pretty good. I really like that one, and I bet you will too.

Next story I published was "Frosty Force."

Here's what I wrote to tantalize a reader about "Frosty Force" without totally giving it away again.

When Dixon inadvertently offended an unhinged and aggressive kid at school, the boy shows up at his house with his two brothers to get revenge. This kid and his family are into witchcraft. Dixon and his father assumed they were crazy, but are they...

This one is shorter. It's a flash fiction story that only runs 1,557 words. I forced myself to write something much smaller just to prove that I could still do it since everything I write comes in around 15,000 words these days. I priced it down at 99 cents, although, I wonder if a shorty like this is supposed to be even cheaper. Pricing of eBooks seems a little crazy to me sometimes. I guess if you sell a lot, it might be worth it to lower your price to fifty cents or twenty-five cents.

The last story I published today was "Artificial Christmas."

Here's what I wrote about it to entice you to check it out:

When I met Santa on a beach in Tahiti, I knew something was wrong. Christmas had changed forever. Things would never be the same. Oh, did I mention, Santa wasn't in Tahiti for his post-Christmas retreat, oh no. He was there on Christmas Eve, the very day he should be out in his sleigh delivering presents...

This one is also shorter, but not flash fiction levels. It's 3,252 words. I really like this one too. It's about AI, robotics, and what the future has in store for humanity, and it's something that I think about a lot. Hopefully, you'll find it interesting too.

The worst part about all of this is that I'm still not done. I have one more Christmas story that I'm writing now. I'm 7,500 words into a tale called "Unmaking Memories" that I should hopefully finish by New Year's Eve. My plan is to start into a novel on New Year's Day, and begin my new push for 2025, so I need to get there. Of course, that means that I have one more Christmas story to put out after Christmas has passed us by. Oh well, I guess you do what you gotta do.