In my time off from publishing on the regular here I decided, as is often the case, to do something dumb.

For context, a while ago I deleted all the “Fiction” posts I had published here because, quite frankly, those posts were only some of what I’d written and various short stories and other material was scattered around here, there and everywhere. I also took down my Wattpad and Patreon content. In short, I removed it all from anywhere it might be and consolidated it all in Google Docs.

Now I’ve collected it all under the Creative Writing page on this site. From there you can read various short stories, including everything under the “Status” banner, as well as a novella I wrote last year called “Collapse Into Me.”

The decision to publish that here came after several months of trying to find an actual publisher for it and failing spectacularly. I still wanted to show that off, though, and so broke it up into a few chapters/sub-pages and there you have it.

I’m aware, yes, that there are other options available to me. I could have Kindled it. Or I could it or “Status” on Medium and put them behind the Member paywall to make a few cents here and there. Those would have been fine, I know.

The problem is I can’t shake my foundational belief in owned/managed publishing. It’s not that I don’t *want* a book deal (I’m still writing a few different full novels, hint hint agents contact me today), it’s that if I was going to do this myself I wanted it to be on my terms. These examples are out there because I want the stories to be read and I’ve added PayPal Me buttons to the pages in case someone feels the desire to drop me a few bucks to thank me for my work.

They’re there not only because I felt the need for self-expression as well as self-publishing but also because I wanted to provide examples of my creative writing chops, an important skill set for a freelancer to have.

I hope you check those out and enjoy what you read.

Chris Thilk is a freelance writer and content strategist who lives in the Chicago suburbs.