Yesterday I started a new project.

I think it could probably be described as a “novelette”, as its final length is likely to be between 10,000 and 25,000 words. Though classifying stories by length is always a little bit weird to me, as a story can be that length and still have a short story’s structure.

This book is something I would broadly classify as epistolary. The story is told in a series of vignettes, all related in the form of a woman rating her romantic and sexual encounters. I’m aiming for a decent blend of biting humor and actual functional erotica. There will be a finite number of pieces that go into it, as the working title of the book is 50 Grades of Shay.

Because this is a finitely bounded project, I’m going to post periodic updates on this blog listing how far along I am in the initial phase, which is compiling the 50 entries. When I’m finished with that, I’ll still have editing to do, including arranging them into the best order, finding threads between them to strengthen, expanding what needs expanding and trimming what needs trimming.

Yesterday, the initial burst of inspiration brought me eight entries. Today I added three more, for a total of 11. So, update #1: 11 Grades of Shay out of 50.