Good Use of Short Fiction

The first story of Aeodar has been published over at Twisted Erotica, and I feel a bit relieved to have a piece of that world out in front of readers.  While I was writing The Price of Mercy I was fleshing out the back stories for the characters, and I repeatedly thought “wow, that would be a great story to tell too; it’s a shame I don’t have room for it.”  I realized once I was done with the novel that a batch of short stories would be a perfect way to get those stories written, and start promoting/branding the franchise immediately.

I was going to spend some time after the novel writing short stories anyway, and a lot of them were going to be writing exercises for me in writing about certain types of scenes and kinks.  I’m accomplishing the same goals, but now that I’ve gone to the trouble to create an entire world it would feel silly not to keep refining and defining it.

Once I’m done with the short stories, depending on when I find an agent, I’ll probably do another pass over the novel to tie things to the short stories a bit better.  I also have the opportunity to submit some for inclusion in anthologies, and it couldn’t hurt to have stories of Aeodar already picked up by a publisher.  Depending on timing, they might end up being recent credits to add to my query letters.

I’m really having fun with these short pieces so far, and it’s an outstanding exercise in character development.  Traffic is really starting to flow over at Twisted Erotica, so at least before too awful long I’ll be able to say that several thousand people have read each of them.