I’ve been working on a long short story off and on for eight years now.
I wrote the first few pages for a fiction workshop at the University of Virginia in 2015. I was a first year at the time—and I was in a dark mental place.
The story is called FUMES. It’s about a young man who gets sober cold turkey in order to do what he can for his family.
Trusted friends and family are reading the penultimate draft now. It won’t be long before the story is finally finished.
I plan to publish FUMES myself. There will be physical and digital copies available for purchase. I will also be recording the audiobook.
Though I may post an excerpt here on Substack, I’ve sacrificed too much to publish the full text online for free. I’ll keep the price point as low as possible, and will likely post the full audiobook on YouTube for free a few weeks after the release.
Thank you all for your support.
FUMES is just the beginning. My vault is full and my pen is getting sharper by the day.
Happy reading,
William
Thrilled for your work. I make my living as a ghostwriter and have worked for some time in indie book design. Me and the guy I work with are both in our 20s and occasionally struggle to get work done because we pass time chatting about literary fiction and reading the classics. Unfortunately, traditional publishing is making very little room for young literary authors. Genre fiction has taken center stage.
Where are the young Hemingways writing Sun Also Rises at age 26? Or the young Updikes writing Rabbit, Run at age 24? Trad publishers are not making these bets anymore. We sort of envision a network of young writers bringing literature alive again with incredible quality, the ability to reach and promote eachother's work, and to do it all in an independent manner.
Could an underground literary movement today resemble what was happening under Gertrude Stein in Paris in the 20s? Would love to hear your thoughts on this.