I finally managed to finish the last of four short-stories that I will submit to a Swedish publisher. For the first time in my life I have actually asked if the publisher is interested and received a positive reply. This doesn’t in any way guarantee that the stories will be published, but it’s a good feeling.

As always when I’m involved the stories are pretty dark, outright disastrous in one case. I don’t work with plot-twists, simply because it usually brings with it the ”re-reading issue”. A story that’s mainly (sometimes only) driven by a twist is more or less irrelevant to read again, so I try to avoid it. Which is also the reason why I, after a long period of doubt, decided to let the first chapter of my novel tell the absolute end of the story. It’s simply a greater challenge to keep the readers hooked if they already know what’s going to happen. It’s more fun that way. Art shouldn’t be about taking the fastest, straightest and easiest road, quite the opposite. For me, the ”twist” might as well be in the composition, or the language, as in the plot. Unfortunately, the plot-twist-addiction spreads like wild-fire. It’s like bad pop-music: easy to digest, the sugar-rush of literature.

There will be some proof-reading, of course, but in a couple of days I will submit the stories and then the wait will begin.