Welcome! Read This First!
A warning, of sorts.
Not a dire one, more of a combination heads up and apology:
There’s no easy way for me to catalog the stories in this collection.
Part of the appeal of fiction to me is not knowing where the words are going to take you, so there’s no way I’m going to group the stories into subcategories like “Pets” or “Violent Crime” (there aren’t very many of those anyway).
I could alphabetize them by title, but that won’t help you much either.
Like a good, cluttered used bookstore or a flea market, you just have to wander through and see what grabs you by the cornea. Some of the subtitles will give you a hint, some won’t.
I grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and that environment has a heavy influence on many of the stories.
Every writer draws from their experience, so you’ll find stories of addiction, music, life on the streets, love and hate.
I do not just stick to me, though. The stories aren’t some linear look through the same set of eyes. Perspectives, characters and viewpoints change, as they should. I also enjoy the small-town life I only briefly glimpsed, when my parents sent me out of Detroit to try to wash the delinquent off me.
When I’m writing about lives I haven’t lived, I hope I listened closely to those who have lived those lives. People from the communities described herein tell me I’ve done a good to great job, for the most part.
You might wish for a roadmap of these tales. I simply can’t provide one. But I truly and fervently hope that you enjoy meandering, meeting characters you may never have met in real life, or finding a character or ten who feel like friends.
If you love a story, I want to know it.
If you hate one, you can tell me that too, but I certainly hope you’ll veer off into a different aisle, down a different path, and find one you love to make up for the one you don’t.
The first 877 stories were written over the course of a two-year, six-month period and were published daily, nearly all of them the day after they were written.
I sprinkled some non-fiction stories in there as well.
Tonight, I start the next 877.
Meander around the archive at your leisure and know that a new story will be hanging from a vine as long as I am able to write.
Thanks for being here.
-Jimmy
Love this. 9/10 people (including me) would have imposed arbitrary, unhelpful, whimsy-destroying categories to hold a collection like this as a way to self-soothe anxiety. You definitely made the right call.
Jimmy, you are impressive.
Obviously, that can be said of many, but out of the ordinary, come the extraordinary.
Something I meant to do when I first began reading your works, but failed from the get-go, was to catalogue each of your stories.
You are correct when you claim they almost defy categorizing, but since we live in a digital age, we can easily create a compendium by date written, age (juvenile, teen, mature, NSF), subject matter (human interest, lifestyle, choices, struggles) nature, etc.
Naturally, some lists would be longer than others, but the reader could choose, based on their choices to create a list - even a random order list, aka by date!
I wouldn't advise you trying this yourself, as you have enough on your plate already - just keep cranking them out and let the historians collect and order the chips where they have fallen. Those 'guys' are the experts on lists!
You definitely get the award for Most Prolific Short Story Writer.
Congratulations and All the Best for the next 877!
ps: don't discount this "A Note from Me" as it is a story on it's own and would make a great forward to one of your books