I’m going to do a reread and review of Death of Jezebel. I haven’t had much enthusiasm for reviewing, so I hope this project gets me back into the swing of things. Will I like the book as much as I did way back when? Only time will tell. That’s the first bit of news. The more important news is that I have a solid draft of story number two, The Last Gaze. This took a lot longer than expected. It’s not a detective story, but there are clues and a twist ending and Rowan does solve the case…so get off my back! It’s a mysterious crime story more than anything else. I may have been influenced by MacKinlay Kantor. And it’s far too serious. I sent Walter on vacation in February, and things have become grim. I’ll have more fun with story three. I promise. I’m crossing my fingers behind my back. I have no idea if things will get more fun in story three.
Here’s the description for the second story:
The Last Gaze is about a visual neuroscientist who develops a method of optography using the human retina. He is able (with some complications) to capture the last image imprinted on a person’s eyes before death. When the neuroscientist becomes a suspect in a murder, he offers to take an optograph from the corpse to find the real killer. The victim’s last gaze turns out to be a shocking vision of evil, borne from a plot years in the making. Rowan must make sense of the madness to find the truth at the heart of an unspeakable murder.
If I don’t finish the collection before 2025, I’ll publish The Last Gaze on this site in December just like I did with the first story The Silent Steps of Murder which you can read here.
I reserve the right to change anything I discuss on the blog. It’s crossed my mind more than once to drop the shared plot about the strangler. I may do that, especially if it helps me finish the project quicker.
It’s frustrating because I know so much work is yet to be done. How do I get by? One of these days, you’re going to see an image of the cover of this short story collection and then, before you know it, the book will be released. I’m not saying it will be be next month. In fact, I’m explitcitly stating that it will not be next month nor many months after. But it will be. That’s why I keep going, because I want to see it be.
I hope you’re doing well.
Take care,
James
James Scott Byrnside 
Exciting news about the short! Good luck with the rest of the writing too – hang in there!
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Maybe it’s just me but I swear trying to put together enough short stories for a collection has felt like a much longer process than writing either of my novel drafts. Probably because it’s harder to keep a good momentum when you’re jumping between ideas. On the other hand, revising multiple short stories is probably a lot easier once they’re done.
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Theoretically, writing a collection of shorts allows you to keep momentum while shielding drafts from scrutiny and giving you a chance to see them with fresh eyes. I think it’s supposed to work like this — when a draft is finished, you can put it aside and get to work on another story, one that you’re probably much more excited to write. (How many times have writers been stuck working on a novel and a new, more exciting idea pops into their head, but they feel guilty abandoning their current work.) By the time a draft of the new story is finished, it’s time to pull the previous draft out of the metaphorical drawer. Now, it’s easier to edit that piece because the writer reads it with more objectivity. That’s the theory anyway.
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