Hey

Hay is for horses.

It’s been awhile since I’ve sort of formally updated you on what I’m writing these days.
This is because there’s not a lot I have to say.
Despite having sent various stories and poems out over sixty times so far this year, (and with about thirty submissions awaiting response at the moment,) I have nothing new to announce.
Four months into the new year, and I haven’t had one new acceptance so far this year. (I knew by the end of 2025 something of mine was going into We Make the Village – and also in Transition Magazine later this year.)
I take some small comfort from a handful of recent rejection notices along the encouraging-and-frustrating lines of “we liked it, send more, but we don’t want this one.”
Eventually someone will want to publish some of my newer works. Right? Right? Yes, for sure.

I’ve been enjoying relatively quickly writing mini-to-regular-short-story-length stories inspired by prompts in the provincial online writing group each Monday for the past couple of months now. Not every story created this way goes on to seeking publication, but some have, and I hope one or two will be among the eventually accepted for publication this year. These Monday-prompt stories have mostly been speculative fiction so far.

I’m slowly working on a second film-related side-project, and have my mini-chapbook of film inspired poems looking for a home, both as a collection and as individual poems.
I’m very slowly sometimes now and then working on a potential second radio-drama linked cookbook. (You can still get a copy of the first one!)
I’m still looking for a home for a poem I wrote a couple of years ago now about the Franklin Expedition. I still think it’s pretty cool.

Aside from the ongoing Monday prompts to keep my writing life busy, the two previously mentioned slowly ongoing side projects, a nebulousness of constantly shifting and distracting new ideas, and a few quite old ideas I’m still holding on to at the back of my mind, I currently have six at least partially defined and commenced stories in my “under construction” file on my computer, with a seventh started in my hand-written notebook.

– One is a longer short story (mostly) set in the 1950s, in South America, and has sort-of-spies. (I have never been to South America. I am also not a spy.)
– One is (mostly) set during the Crimean War (the one in the 19th century) and has grave robbers and tall ships in it. This could actually turn into a novella-length story, if I ever get back to it, and I have done some research on a specific incident I wanted to highlight, but to be honest, this story has been stuck for quite awhile now and the chances of it ever being completed are quite small.
– I believe I’ve mentioned before I have the nugget of a young adult novel set during the American Revolution, only in Canada, with extra supernatural activity and a guest appearance from Gabriel DuMont. This has also been sitting for a long time now, but I feel more positive towards it than the Crimean War story at the moment.
– I also have a flash fiction during the same American Revolutionary time period partially completed, and will try and get this completed this month as doing so should be relatively simple.
– I have a story about an assassin who keeps sending chatty letters to a bored housewife. This is set in a vague “sometime in the 20th century somewhere in America” kind of space.
– I have notes for a radio/podcast detective series which has experienced creep-in from both the South American story and the next story. It’s set in timeless radio-podcast-detective space and time.
– I have a historical/allegorical/fantastical story inspired in part by a specific photograph of the construction of the Berlin Wall, and which has been serving as my start page background on my computer for over a year now, in hopes it will eventually convince me to get back to this story. (For the record, I have never been to Berlin – but I am aware it has changed a bit since then)

Two of these stories (and one of my recent Monday-prompted-stories) include St. Elmo’s fire.
Because I just think it’s a neat thing.

Let me know if any of these vague story ideas particularly leap out at you! I could use some direction.
Are you working on any writing lately? Say hello in the comments, don’t be shy!