I’ve mentioned before that I have a couple of stories in the works. I started on an unexpected sequel, and then took a break during the first week of the year to start a new story.

The new story, which started at a highway rest stop in the California Central Valley, apparently came to a convenient stopping point along a Southern California beach. Our main character intends to head off into the wilderness, so to speak, but ends up tamed by, and taming, a wilder creature. Along the way, the story has a couple of twists and turns, from a sleeping arrangement changed at the last minute to a family situation that did a 180 degree turn, figuratively speaking. And there’s also a bottle or two of wine.

But now I’m just a writer, standing in novella territory now, thinking about whether to continue as a single book or break it out into three shorter works. I can always collect them into one later. I’m somewhere between Metamorphosis and The Old Man and the Sea, in length at least.

I am feeling like I will finish the second part before publishing the first one, so that I have some runway for you to look forward to. My pace and writing discipline (and it makes me laugh a bit to say that second part) suggests that I could

If you have thoughts on whether you’d prefer “installments” rather than waiting another month or two for the full story all at once, I would love to read them in the comments.

As is often the case, the featured image, which will probably be the cover image, was created by me through a progression of NightCafe AI image evolutions.