Back in April, I attended one the WMG Mystery Workshops in Las Vegas. I wrote more in that weekend that I did in all of February and March. Around that time Dean Wesley-Smith announced a short story challenge – write and send a short story a week. I thought long and hard about whether to start the challenge because if I was going to do it, I had to mentally commit myself to 52 weeks of stories.

Eventually, as you’ve probably guessed, I signed up. This last weekend marked my 26th completed story. There’ve been a couple of duds in there but the stories range across all genres: mystery, fantasy, science fiction, romance, and two or three that don’t fit into any category.

The last couple of weeks were harder than usual because I was in England for a friend’s round number birthday party, and the tapestry exhibition my sister, Margaret, organized. This is the third Heallreaf Exhibition Margaret has put together, and the first I’ve attended. I don’t know if there’ll be a fourth. Margaret said after the first one, “never again,” and here we are at the third!

It was a conversation with Margaret about weaving techniques that generated a series of fantasy short stories I’ve written with a weaver as the central character. Margaret’s website is here.