by Rich Moreland, January 2022
As readers have noticed, there have been no posts on this site for over a year. It’s the pandemic. It pushed the adult industry to the back burner of my daily affairs and diminished my contact with those who perform, direct, produce and enjoy the fruits of their labor, so to speak.
Sheltering-in introduced a change in my writing that was totally unexpected. As a journalist in the industry and the author of two books about it, I was always interviewing people to get their perspective on their work. I reviewed their productions, as in commenting on film, and in the long run helped them build their brand.
Essentially, I was taking another look at what was already there or currently being created by somebody else. Frankly, it was fun to do these things and I was pretty successful at it. I met many interesting people and learned what goes on in front of and behind the camera in an industry that many people find morally offensive.
Of course, I can’t leave out the modest following that grew with this blog. I certainly appreciate all of you out there who take the time to read my words.
Despite all the misery and heartache it has caused, the pandemic offered me an opportunity that I explored. Staying at home left me with time on my hands. So, what to do? I started to root through old files from my grad school days long ago. You see, I had always wanted to be a novelist or short story writer. To some degree that goes with journalism, but I never considered that I had any talent for it. Going through some folders I’d kept from those days, I found notes about characters I’d created and situations they were in that would make good stories. I ventured into the note keeping habit because professors I knew suggested it.
With time on my hands, I decided to write a story. What has emerged is an untested novel and a series of short stories related to the events within its pages.
From this experience, I was eager to publish something of substance. I was fortunate to find an illustrator (really an old friend from my teaching days) to help bring the characters to life. A year’s worth of work has yielded a short story collection which I have marketed through Amazon Kindle Direct. As is customary with them, the book has a Kindle and a paperback version.
The anthology is titled The High Grass: A Collection of Short Stories. The events and characters that experience them are located in a rural community along the southern part of the Mid-Atlantic region of this country of ours. The time frame is a half-century ago. The stories contain a variety of themes from mysteries and murder to race relations and the paranormal. Oh, and I have to mention that sex also shows up every now and then. After all, adult themes are part of the business I’m in!
I have a second anthology I’m currently revising and a novel to follow. Both works further investigate the goings-on in this little town that dances around in my imagination.
It’s been an interesting journey so far and very self-satisfying. Finally, I’m doing my own creating rather than reporting on what others are doing. It’s a pleasant change.
