Introduction

So, I jumped the gun here a bit.  I felt like the best way to introduce my current writing project was to introduce the primary character:  Jacob Matherby.  This isn't the start of a novel.  It's the start of a series of short stories involving a town that may or may not be based on the town I grew up, and currently live, in.  A small town.  And some of the people that live there.

I've always thought that small towns seem to attract the lonely or the desperate.  Or at least, the lonely and desperate are more pronounced, because they have fewer places to hide from the world.  Gossip is more readily available, and neighbors know more about each other.  Not always a bad thing, but sometimes it is.  Sins do not stay hidden, and before you know it, an private event can snowball.  Let's just say that I know a thing or two about that.  It's more difficult to find people to connect with, because their are fewer people, so when you stand out as different, the ostracism can be harsher.  This is a series about people who fall into those categories.

The idea isn't as old as some of the other ones I've had, but it's one of the most put-together and the one that was ready to go.  I've been writing single stories and such, but wanted to do something a little larger.  The idea comes primarily from two places: Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio series of short stories, and William Faulkner's work.  Anderson's stories take place in a fictional small town, and involve "grotesques," people who are lonely or isolated, unable, unwilling, or unwelcome.  Combine with Faulkner's penchant for odysseys through his fictional Alabama County, Yoknapatawpha County.  Many of his novels, such as The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying, utilize multiple characters telling the same story, or parts of the same story, from their own unique perspectives.  Hopefully, you'll see the influences, but I want to try and move those ideas using my own voice, and create my own world.  Plus, the world has changed so much since either of those authors started writing.

I don't know how long I will write this series of stories, but I keep coming up with more and more ideas, more interconnected stories and "snapshots" of lesser characters and their own lives, giving more life to the town.  I know where the race is starting, but I don't know where I'm going to end up when I finish.  I know, I know, that sounded cliched and corny when I wrote it, but there's truth to that.

I'm pretty excited.  And thanks for reading.  I can definitely use any feedback anyone has to offer.