A Retrospective on the Retrospectives (Essay)

Of the four books I’ve so far produced, two of them are retrospectives. Knotty Works: an erotic retrospective collected various adult stories I had published. The work in it dates from a period of twelve years. Releasing at the same time I released Scars of the Golden Dancer, I didn’t have time to write new material for it. I actually didn’t do the selection of the short stories for Knotty works either; I had my fiancé pick the stories. The only thing I added to the list he wanted to go with was “The Road to Midnight.” Putting “Foxing for Pizza” first was also his idea, and I ran with it. Some of the stories in the book were obscure, and everything did get reviewed and polished up before release.

Therianthropic Dreams was a different project. The impetus of this book was I had a lot therianthropic poetry sitting around, and people were interested in seeing some of it. I’m glad I was able to bring that out while also talking about dreams, hopes and writing in general in the book. Even the blurb says it contains twenty-five poems written over twenty-five years. It is very much a look back into my past type of project, but twelve of the poems in the book I actually wrote this year.

Going into the project, that seems a little shocking since I had over eighty poems to select from. While I did select one poem from high school, most of the ones from that era didn’t appeal to me. My undergraduate college years of 2000-2004 provided a more fertile ground for material that I found interesting, but I also had a number of poems that directly or indirectly referenced 9/11. While I find it personally fascinating how that era affected me, I felt it did not translate well to today, and I did not select any poetry referencing 9/11. Looking over all of this stuff did prove personally interesting, but little of it felt like something I wanted to publish.

I actually avoided the majority of my stuff that was politically themed for the book, instead focusing on the therianthropic nature of the work I had. Part of that was the desire to find a good theme and thinking about the audience who would pick up a poetry chapbook. The other part is most of the political material felt too smug in its assumptions about politics. The one poem in the book that does hit on politics is called “The Goodbye Parties,” and it focuses on issues related to the LGBTQ+ struggle for acceptance, something I’ve often talked about in my work before. I also included two laments for lost friends, who the book is dedicated to.

The theme of ink and my feelings associated with being a therian occur throughout the poems in the chapbook, and I stuck strongly to that, especially in the poems I wrote for it. “Ink on Paws” is my favorite in the collection, and I had a lot of fun doing the project. Even though I didn’t select many older works, it was certainly fascinating for me to go through them all.

With that now done, I move ahead. I won’t say I won’t do another collection that reaches back and pulls form my archives of existing work, but I’d like to keep doing more new material. Everything for Gnoll Tales was written during a three-year period, and I had been thinking of collecting those stories as I was writing it. If I do a new poetry chapbook, I expect all the content will be written after Therianthropic Dreams. I do have two short story collection ideas kicking around in my head. I’ve considered collecting some of my work that’s appeared on Patreon and never appeared elsewhere. I’m also considering a project called the Blue Door that contains stories from the setting of Scars of the Goldan Dancer. I have two unpublished stories in the setting that will someday need a home, one of which I could easily expand into a short novella.

 For now, though, I’m focusing on the battle with The Blood of Life and the editing the book is going to need before I release it. This was supposed to be a short project for me, but it was also meant to help me learn to write long form work faster. While it’s taken longer than I wanted, I have learned a lot about this process, and it’s helped me refine my novel writing skills. I think novels and novellas will be my primary focus going forward, but we’ll see how much I stick to that. I’m always willing to write an idea that grabs me.