Status of my stories

I wrote my last post as a while ago and the hope was to use this site to post my stories as I wrote them or just rant about events in my life.  I put the first story on fictionmania and it got little fanfare which wasn't unexpected.  It was really a stream of consciousness blog post that needed editing before putting it out as a real story.  I'm also sure that it did a poor job of getting the attention of the readers as most of the first half of the story isn't very appealing to the typical reader on that site (or maybe any site).

I ignored this blog but put up 3 more stories up and gotten good response on most.

The first was the 10,000 word story, The Trial of Stewart, which I wrote in late January.  It was inspired by a friend's divorce and used parts of a magic system that I'm using in an much longer unpublished work.  I was nervous when I posted it as I was worried that I'd get trolled but so far the 11 responses have been really kind.

The second story was Bringing Back Isabell which came to me one morning when I woke up with a stronger desire for a cigarette than normal (read my first blog post if you want to understand why this happens).  To fight it I wrote the outline to a story about a man that was slowly changed into his wife after smoking her cigarettes.  The ending was supposed to be dark but I found myself unable to do it so I went with the happy ending instead.  The final product is about 10,000 words and it took a 3 day weekend in March to finish.  The concept didn't feel great from the start and I posted it in the hope it was better than I thought.  Reader response has been sparse so far with only 2  replies.  I'm going to mark this one off to a lesson learned.

The final story was A Brother's Request and I've been sitting this one for abut two years.  It is a deeply personal short story (1800 words) I wrote during a dark period in my life.  The thought occurred to me that if there is a god that perhaps I will be able to be a woman in heaven.  In my brain I felt I needed to be dressed appropriately and the story is about a man that asks his sister to help.

When I finished it, I never thought I'd publish it.  I know I could never do it without using a pseudonym and it is not much of a stretch to say that the 'coward' in the story is me.  My impetus for publishing it was the recent story of Lucy Meadows, a transitioning woman harassed by a a newspaper that killed herself.  I cleaned up the words and posted it.  The response has been overwhelming and I thought I'd share a few of the responses.  

• I do not often provide reviews, yet this short story is compelling. You have captured the essence of the desperation that many gender dysphoric people are trped in. I commend you for the skill with which you captured that desperation. The story is deeply sad, but intensly true, in its essence. We will never know how many misbegotten souls have taken this path, or some other to assuage their pain. My salute to your skill and sensitivity in capturing this situation.
• Thank you, Sara, for this story. It hit home in a way very, very few stories - CD/TG or otherwise - ever have or possibly can.
• A wrenching, beautifully-written story that moves in a way few other stories at this site ever have. It is wholly appropriate.
• I often visit this site out of a curiosity I don't care to analse too much and I enjoy more of the stories than I ever thought would be possible for me.  This particular story, however, is so far beyond what can normally be found here, excellent as much of that material is, and is a truly and deeply moving account of an inability to meet the expectations of others. It has been said so often that we cannot please everyone; surely we are allowed to please ourselves from time to time?
• Beautiful, poignant and well-written, this story will stay in my memeory for a very long time; thank you for writing it and sharing it with us.

Suffice it to say that I'm humbled by the response.  I know I cried a few times as I wrote/edited the story and it is apparent from the response that the feeling came through in my words.  I know I can't do that too often as a 400 page story filled with raw emotions will overwhelm at some point but it is nice to know I have the ability if I need it.

That's what I've published recently but most of my times has been spent on 2 other stories.  I've got a 100 page story I started last summer and a 400 page book that is about 2 years old.  Both are about 90% done and I'm struggling with a few chapters and as always, the dreaded editing process.  After that I need to figure out how to publish them.  I'm thinking of putting it on this site in a serialized format but I'm not sure I could get the following to make it worthwhile.  There's a few other sites that I might look at as I've put a lot into both and I want to make sure I maximize the audience.  I've found from the stories I put on fictionmania that they get readers for the first week and then lost in the mix.  I'd really hate that to happen to these.