It seems that is the case. My last post here was November of 2021.

So what’s been going on in the life of Jack Mackenzie? Well, I have actually written quite a lot since then. I joined an informal writers group that has been motivating me to write a lot more. The idea is that we write and then get together at the end of the week, via Discord, to talk about what we’ve written and to generally shoot the shit.

The group’s members include fellow writer and long time friend G. W. Thomas, his brother, Tim and a new writer, Garth Frizell. The rules are simple: Write something that is at least 1000 words long and email it to the group Show up on Sunday to talk about it.

Thing is, in order to enjoy the Discord meeting you have to have written something and that has proved to be motivation enough. In writing for this group I have written some fragments of longer pieces but I have also done a remarkable number of very short stories, Writing short-short pieces forces me to focus on story above all else and that has been a very useful exercise.

In fact, I have managed to write a number of stories that I have had in my head but couldn’t figure out how to actually get down on paper (or in pixels). Having to focus exclusively on story has changed my thinking about writing. Discussing the story afterwards has also been very helpful.

As a result of the writing group I have finally written my alt-history story about what would have happened to the Beatles if they never got famous, my retelling of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine from the Morlocks’ point of view, and a story about a generation ship that I couldn’t quite figure out how to tell until I decided to write it as a poem. That’s already found a home at Polar Borealis Magazine!

So I now have a good handful of short stories that are making the rounds. I am hopeful that most, if not all of them, will land somewhere. I will keep you posted!