Writing fiction is a bitch when you’re starting out. You come up with what you hope is a new idea that will draw people in, you develop the characters and setting, figure out the rough plot, and then find that you started writing your story in the wrong tense, or you started too early in the story and need to jump ahead to the climax, or that it’s 8,000 words too long for publication in the magazines and e-zines that might otherwise publish it. Even if you overcome all those problems, you find that everyone in the world is trying to get published too and that the editors are too swamped to do more than tell you that they don’t want your story for some reason.

I’ve had most of those problems over the last decade of writing fiction, but I’ve decided to try and bypass the last one by self-publishing my first few story or three. And finally, more than 10 years after starting to write my first short story, and having it grow to the length of a novella, I’ve self-published it over at my own website. It’s over 10,000 words long so I’m publishing it in three parts over the next few days, and it’s somewhat violent toward the end – consider yourself warned.

If you’re so inclined, check it out, and if you like it, let your friends know about it too. Thanks.

Undercity Gotham – Part 1