Eyes looking in different directions...

...from looking at my own writing for too long - and see how much I over-use the word 'looking'? I don't know how those writers who Write Every Day do it without shooting themselves somewhere around, say, the 12th week.

This week I started 2 new short stories, both of which people have dibs on. This is both better and worse than them just popping out of my head because they must, they must, something is driving them.

The first is a horrible aftermath-of-Hansel-and-Gretel story called 'The Goosle', and its first sentence is:

‘There,’ said Grennan as we cleared the trees [psst - and saw the gingerbread house]. ‘Now, you keep your counsel, Hans.’

The second is called 'The Free Church' and is about a church on a string that gets reeled down to earth for people to worship in. Its first sentence is:

As soon as I saw it, I knew and I ran.

In both cases, the second sentence is such a dog that I won't repeat it here. But they pick up after that, honest.

Neither of these stories is for the collection Red Spikes, which is my most pressing commitment. However, I started 'The Goosle' thinking it might go into Red Spikes, but then it started giving off seriously non-YA vibes. And while I don't necessarily want to make the collection a YA collection, I want it to be salable to YA-oriented markets, so no, I still have to think up the elusive tenth story.