Insomniac Nightmares

“Shiny things,” in this instance meaning stories.

I have a pile of short stories sitting around. Some of them are good. Others are bad. Some I can’t decide how I feel about them. But there’s still plenty of them.

I’m thinking of doing another collection, similar to Insomniac Nightmares, with some of those who were bypassed for that book – whether because they needed some more love, were forgotten in a corner of the hard drive I didn’t go, or were written after it was already at the editor’s – as well as another handful that are currently being written.

It isn’t easy picking through them, deciding who stays and who goes, who’s good enough and who still needs to pick up their grades, and who is destined for the remedial class for eternity. It’s like picking a favorite child, in some ways.

I feel bad for the castaways, moldering in their drawers or distant folders, never to see the light of day. But I also feel it’s a mercy. To unleash them on the public, expose them to the light of day, so they can just be burned to cinders like a movie vampire, seems crueler still.

What about those of you out there? Are there stories you’ve written that you can’t bear to share for whatever reason? That you try your best not to think of? Why? What do you do with them, and how do you deal with the guilt – if there is any – of leaving them in that state? Let us know down below!