Status Updates From The Road to Woop Woop, and ...

While these stories are all fine, none of them have popped out at me except maybe one. I’m hoping for one near the end here to really sparkle

Stories have definitely been improving the further I get.

Some of these are more snippets than stories.
Others I feel like there should be more to them. It could be they are Australian legends, myths, or fables that those native to the area would know and I just don’t (I’m Canadian).
Overall none of them are leaving me with a short story punch or impact (which is what I love about short stories is the ability to say lots with so little). Instead they are forgettable.

Between each short story there is shorter prose ~3-6 pages. Each seems to be about an Australian entity or nature that influences the world. It’s very clever the way they are set up (and with a beautiful illustrative page to start) and seem to influence the next story. I split them up early on and that seems to have been a mistake as they are a part of an overall narrative within this book of stories.

Short Story: A Case of Seeing
I think a mistake was made here. This story should be a full fledged murder mystery novel. While not a genre I often read even I can see the uniqueness and complexity put into this 34 pages. It’s really too bad it’s not a full fleshed out story. Maybe it still could be…

Still nothing too special in this short story collection.

First couple stories weren’t all that great. But the Beatitudes featuring a toad and a siren is quite clever. Best one so far.

It appears these stories are going to be quite existential. Will be interesting…

Story 1 - weird, bizarre metaphors… very unsure.

this is truly everything i want from a short story collection but it's killing me, the prose is really unforgiving

#6 Snow Metal
I entered this close to DNFing the connection because I'm largely struggling to connect. Ultimately, I liked this story, but like the others it felt plucked from a larger more complete narrative. 3-3.5 stars

#7 A Maji Mahi Chronicle
This is the first story I really really liked. It was not as abridged as many, but it did feel like there was more to the world worth telling. 4-4.5 stars

#4 the one who sees
And #5 beatitudes
Both 3.5. A bit more focus from me and I'm feeling a little more immersed. I thought I might have a 4 star here, especially #5 but I wasn't a fan of the ultimate direction

#3 a nursery rhyme
Another intriguing story in a unique and well constructed world but one that feels like the making of a bigger story. It felt like I was thrust into the climax of a bigger story that I had no investment in. 3/5

#2 Swimming with Daddy.
An easier to follow story but one that didn't strike much of a cord. 3/5

The first story is intriguing and very weird and surreal. Its a strong start, the titular story by which the collection is named by. But so much weirdness is such a small package is hard to do without leaving the reader wanting. The confusion will dominate my memory of this story more than the story itself sadly. 3.5/5 star.