Feel something.
Once a month I share a story with my readers. I plan on doing this one hundred times from February, 2024 to May, 2032.
As I write this, fourteen have been published. Six wait patiently in the wings. Along the way, one turned into a slim novel. One is a brief, tongue-in-cheek book jacket bio. There is the Emoji Bible Book of Genesis.
They span genres, themes and time. You won’t know what you’ll read. I don’t know what I’ll write. The stories lead me where they will. As they should.
Writing a story is like trying to teach oneself to ride a bicycle: it’s wobbly, instructions are useless and the whole business comes down to letting go. But for all the dings and skinned knees, every now and then there are a few joyful yards of free-wheeling pedaling over grass and pavement.
And then it’s a new month and I’m off to learn to ride a bicycle all over again.
A word about you:
Until I wrote regularly on Substack, I thought the writer did the writing and the reader did the reading. Since then, I’ve witnessed how much of a story’s power is actively created in the minds of my readers. It’s delightful. I’m charmed to glimpse the stories through my reader’s eyes. We get to participate in a magical act of co-creation together. (In short, leave a comment and I will respond to you.)
Read slowly and these characters will be as much yours as they are mine. I promise you I have written them with great care and have dreams for each of them: the astronaut floating untethered, the Yankee knuckleballer, the boy who sneaks into homes, the daughter of Dionysus…
I am introducing my family to you. Faults and all, I want you to love them. They are only human.
Or long to be.
Adam
Here is my favorite:
An astronaut drifts untethered from his ship. A love story.
