I am not by nature a short story reader or writer. Hence the reason it’s been seven years since I published my last short story collection.

But every once in a while I get an idea that only works as a short story and I write it. And then, because I have zero patience for the years-long short story submission process what I usually do is sub it to Writers of the Future (which I still barely qualify for), maybe submit it to another market or two, and then let it molder away on my hard drive.

But I actually like those short stories and would like for others to have a chance to read them. So I recently put some of the old ones and the new ones together in a collection and I published it.

It’s called When The Time Comes and Other Stories and you can read one of the stories, The Taste of Memory, which was a WOTF Semi-Finalist and deals with memory and creativity and the role of “the splinter” as Jeff Vandermeer refers to it in being creative, for free.

(Free everywhere except Amazon at the moment because they have the most annoying and convoluted process for setting a book to free of any sales platform on the planet, but I have sacrificed the ritual goat, walked three times backwards around a fire, and asked pretty please so that could change at any moment.)

Anyway. If you like short stories, check ’em out. If not, carry on. If nothing else I had fun practicing my cover design skills and can now justify the expense of buying that pretty font. (I have developed a font addiction, I’m afraid. Please send help.)