Fem-Pro Available On Amazon

In 2021, in this very library, I wrote an introduction to a short story collection featuring girls and women, to be titled "Female Protagonist."  And then it sat.  And sat.  

And sat.

Is this image offensive?  While I sort of hope so, it wasn't meant to be.

But here we are, in the middle of Big's mid-life crisis, and his enthusiasm for publishing and cover art has infected me, to the point where I actually sat down again and finished putting "Female Protagonist" together.

And it was way too long.  I included the stories from the 2021 version (except for "The Night Clerk," since I figured that could go in a Dead & Breakfast collection), and then the two or three stories I had written since 2021 that fit in there . . . and then a couple more I discovered today just going through files.  And we were well past one hundred thousand words.

And that bummed me out.  I had come up with an excellent cover for it*, and I was eager to get it published (Big has put out his collection already, despite starting on his a full two years after mine), but I didn't want to have to lose stories like "The Scottish Scene" and "Underdecorated" and "Subtext."

So . . . why not a second collection of similar tales?  

I could do a Volume 2 sometime, and it was already halfway full!  I asked Big what he thought of a collection called "Female Protagonist Returns," and he counted with "Female Protagonist Strikes Back," or "Dawn of Female Protagonist."

This dookie just writes itself, doesn't it?

But having that excuse, that I could put "deleted" stories into a second collection, made it all easier, and before long, I was done, and ready to publish.**

She's SUPPOSED to be looking in a window, but the green wall or whatever at the bottom is
perfectly-positioned for a title, so that ended up my pick.  And I love it.

There are nine stories, an introduction, and one novella in this one, equaling just over eighty thousand words.  It includes such gems as "Office Visit" and "A Lovely Singing Voice," and then such--what's the opposite of a gem?  A rock, maybe?--rocks as "My Funny Valentine" and "Creature Feature," and "A Gallon A Day."  

So, if you're interested, "Female Protagonist" is available on Amazon at THIS LINK.

And now, maybe I'll get started on the old man one.

P.S. I am working on an audio version of the collection, since I have all the stories recorded . . . but I had forgotten how long just formatting and saving new versions takes (especially since I'm way pickier about sound quality than I was even before the pandemic).  I'm two hours into it, and only partway through "Lovely Singing Voice," which will probably be the story I take a five minute sample from for Audible.  I just got to the part where Tanissa's dad says he's fallen in love, and I had forgotten how awful that moment is . . . good work, whoever wrote that thing.

*Actually, for once, there was an embarrassment of riches in coming up with the image of a teenaged girl looking into a window at something glowing green.  I would've been happy with three or four of the images that A.I. dreamt up for me, though all of them had a slightly different feel (and girl).

**The audio version will take longer.  But hold me to it--you know I am eager to let things lie.