Hello everyone (is there anybody out there?), my name is SF Russell and I am a writer. I am just about to publish my first short story collection, called A Night of Strange Dreams. Though if you’ve found this blog entry you probably know that already (my website isn’t particularly subtle is it?).
However, this post isn’t the hard sales pitch, it isn’t some AI generated marketing fluff… no, this is me, for real, talking about something that matters. To me, if no one else.
I’ve spent a long time dreaming up stories, writing them down, and occasionally entering a contest or two. And I’ve done well, never quite reaching the heady heights of being crowned a Winner, but I’ve placed as a finalist (or, in some cases, a top-tier finalist) on numerous occasions. OK, I confess that I’ve entered dozens of contests not just one or two!
But I’ve never had a game plan.
Until now.
I had no idea just what my brain had been doing behind the scenes
A Night of Strange Dreams is the culmination of years of short story creation. I didn’t intend to craft a book with 18 interconnected stories. I didn’t, initially, intend to craft a book at all. It just happened organically. When I decided I had enough source material to self-publish a short story collection, I had no idea just what my brain had been doing behind the scenes. It was only when I put the stories in order that a pattern started to emerge, a hidden architecture revealed itself. The focus on transformation, on shady dealings of big corporations, the whole deal with a certain Norse god and his favourite ravens. The colours of red and green. Everything started to coalesce.
I added in a few additional new stories, to help flesh out the world and found that I could’ve kept going. I have about a dozen other stories that were in for a while, then out, then in, then finally out again. But they haven’t gone to waste, as you will hopefully see in the future.
For now, I am sitting quietly at my desk before the launch of A Night of Strange Dreams on the 19th of February 2026. I am acutely aware that you only get to be a debut author once, and this is my time so I’d better do all I can to enjoy it!
SFR
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