I was honestly going to post a final part to the Small Town Saviors story, but then I realized this past week was the one year anniversary of this endeavor. Anybody who knows me knows I am easily distracted, every project I begin goes through a series of starts/stops, and sometimes I get bored halfway through, resulting in my bailing on many efforts.
Originally, I intended Serial Smithery to involve a mix of true crime and crime fiction, but eventually settled on crime fiction. This space has allowed me to go back and edit older short stories, create new ones, and experiment with genres outside of traditional crime fiction. I posted consistently, read/followed/watched all the “How-to-Substack” content, engaged with others, and made some writer-friends. All things outside my comfort zone.
Prior to this, writing was a hobby that would come and go, depending on my motivation and bandwidth. Now, I’m either plotting, writing, or editing nearly every day. I’ve learned that I can never be a pulp fiction writer, as story ideas take a bit to marinate and I’m guilty of “over-editing” everything I write (which is why posts have slowed in their frequency). I’m still figuring out my goals as a writer (the first is to make that statement without an eye-roll). Unfortunately, imposter syndrome prevents me from owning that title or including it on my LinkedIn profile.
I took a huge step a few months ago (thanks to my wife who loves networking on my behalf) and met with a publicist who works with writers. She was extremely supportive and encouraged me to reach out to others who have found audiences through online & print literary mags, independent book publishers, and self-publishing through Amazon. I’ve since met with a few independent authors and a few educators who have helped me see possibility in being an independent writer, which is where I believe I’d like all this to lead.
So—writing goals. I plan to take the short stories I’ve written thus far on Serial Smithery and submit them for publication. I think I would also like to write some non-fiction or essays or whatever it is you submit to online and print magazines. I will spend some time finishing a full-length novel, of which I’d completed about 30k words before getting bored and moving on to something more entertaining (this Substack). Now that I’ve written these goals out loud, I have 125 accountability partners or the number of subscribers I’ve picked up over the course of this year. Fun fact: 120 of those are people I’ve never met before (*Did I mention I don’t network or advertise my writing amongst family, friends, or acquaintances due to the aforementioned imposter syndrome?) By the way—Thanks to I. M. at
and Sharron at for recommending my publication to their readers and providing great feedback along the way.Going forward, I will continue to post updates on these writing goals, as well as use this space to workshop content for new short stories and the abandoned, second-half of that novel I gotta finish. I may not have the bandwidth to post at the same rate as I did this past year and Serial Smithery may be evolving into something new, but I really hope you all stick around and maybe I’ll pick up some more subscribers in Year Two!
Congratulations on a job well-done, SR, and for deciding to continue forward despite dealing with imposter syndrome. (You'll get over it.) Look in the mirror every morning and loudly affirm, "I am a writer. I have stories to tell and people want to hear them!" You have formulated some great goals and plans for this coming year. And, wait, is there such a thing as over-editing? I suspect your "over-editing" is why your prose sparkles as it does.
Well done! Fantastic work