General Update, & Short Story Planning!

I just got back from volunteering at the San Francisco Food Bank, something I am hoping to establish into a semi-regular routine. I've had this sort of community sense ever since I was a child, when I would donate some of my allowance each month to North Shore Animal League. I regretted throughout college that I did not have the time, energy, or sanity to go out and help those less fortunate than myself. Now that I have time again, I'm hoping to go to the food bank once a month, or once every other month, to help out people. I would volunteer at animal shelters too, but the ones around here require you to commit for 40 hours a month, and I don't have that kind of extra energy lying around.

The thing with volunteering for me is that it doesn't give me any sort of ego boost or anything of the sort. I just feel a sense of... I don't know. Like I did something right. Like I made up for being so privileged and fortunate. I guess you could call it karma, or maybe my inferiority complex but either way: good results all around.

But now for the part I imagine you all are REALLY reading for. A few weeks ago, I decided I was going to self-publish a book of short stories. SInce then I've been exhausted, stressed, and lazy, but I'm now trying to kickstart myself back into writing and planning. Thus, I've been brainstorming what I want the theme of this book to be, and as a result, what kinds of stories I will be writing.

That's where I want you guys to give me opinions. I've thought of a few things that I think would make a good introductory book to my work and world, but I'm not entirely sure on the logistics. Thus:

1) Which theme sounds coolest to you?

- Location-driven - a collection of short stories, each derived from a different area of Malanee, thus exploring different cultures and lives
- Species-driven - similar to location, but focused on Malanee's varied sentient species. Individual stories for faeries, Oerdum, vampires, humans, etc.
- Character-driven - a collection of short stories that would serve as a sort of sneak-peek introduction to major characters in my work. Stories for Nur, Rose May, Kader, Tegre, Bertram, Alden, etc.
- Something else? Let me know!

2) Which characters are you MOST interested in seeing more of?

- Kader, Tegre, Eilís
- Bertram/Bakari, Alden, Batuuli (formerly Bertula)
- Rose May, Meander, Nur
- Nur, Almas, Lynette, Lin
- Anca, Victoria
- Gareth, Andy, Jacob, Duff
- Mahli, Malachi, Tadhg
- Anyone else I forgot

3) Which species are you MOST interested in seeing more of?

- Faeries (Mountain faeries, dryads, succubi, pixies, sirens)
- Wereanimals
- Vampires
- Oerdum
- Demons (Swamp, Mountain)
- Humans
- Demis

4) Anything else you'd like to see or recommend?

So yes. Please let me know and hopefully, I will have some prose to share from the novels soon.

Tschuess.