It’s the first Wednesday of the month again, time for a post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.

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OCTOBER QUESTION: What is the most favorite thing you have written, published or not? And why?

MY ANSWER: It is hard to choose. I have written many stories, some of them published, some not. My stories emerged in different lengths: novels, novellas, and short stories. All of them except one are speculative fiction: epic fantasy, urban fantasy, or science fiction. I have even written several magic realism short stories.

But to answer this question, I would probably go with the collection of short stories I self-published in 2014, the only book I ever published myself. I think it is still floating somewhere on e-book selling sites like Amazon, although it doesn’t sell anymore. I probably should do something about that, revamp it somehow, and I should definitely change its cover. I don’t like the one I have now.  

This collection of 10 short urban fantasy stories is called Squirrel of Magic. The stories all share the same protagonists: a young witch Darya, who lives in Vancouver, Canada (my hometown) and her familiar, squirrel Beatrice. Of course, there is a dash of humor in all the stories. How could it be otherwise when a telepathic squirrel is involved? I had fun writing them all and coming up with Darya’s unbelievable adventures.

Whenever Darya needs a supportive ear or a sharp set-down, Beatrice is there for her, loving and grumbling. Together they disarm a bomb, eliminate a rogue warlock, and liberate a sylph from a garbage bin. And always help friends in trouble.  

I found that I like writing series of stories focusing on the same protagonists. Besides, the shorter format – a short story or a novella – feels more natural to me than the longer format of a novel. Later on, I even wrote several different series of flash fiction stories for WEP, each series featuring its own protagonist. But Darya was my first foray into writing a series.     

What about you? Have you written short stories? Series? Or is the novel your preferred format? Tell me in the comments.