Aberrant Selected is my fifth collection of short stories, also containing a lot of the stories from the previous collections, those with mental illness as some way the focus. There are also a few personal favourites of mine there too. But I'm sure you're asking, why are you always writing short stories, Denis? Shouldn't you try a novel? There are reasons. But firstly, I have indeed indie published a novel, This Mirror in Me, and it is available online. It has been favourably reviewed so far.
But back to the short stories. When I began writing at the age of fourteen I surmised that writing short stories would be a great way of training to write novels, and thus be an author. After all, isn't a novel just interlinked short stories? Then, I simply fell into the habit of writing short stories, with no longer any ambition to write anything else.
Another reason for the choice is that I have a very hyperactive imagination, compounded by the schizophrenia. At least I can channel the sometimes sickening clash. In writing a collection one has to create, from my estimates, about ninety characters. All unique. All engaging. All real. A novel has about eight or so characters. Then they have to get up to adventures, each one unique from the others'. This imaginative complexity of a short story collection naturally attracts my imagination, which is always going in one form or another.
Having said that though, I tend to be creatively exhausted, feeling like a wrecked shell, after completing each collection. Even then I use my imagination to figure out the path back to starting on another collection. Its multifaceted nature, and the mood elevation from my depot (discussed earlier, My Much Needed Medications: http://aberrantselected.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/my-much-needed-medications.html) provides for a life that I always find interesting. Considering the previous serious suicide attempts that my schizophrenia has led me to, I still remain thankful for my creative mind. And I hope you like its product.
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