Between You and I: A new short story

I have just uploaded a new short story to my newly reshuffled Writing area. I believe subscribers to this page are only notified about posts, so I thought I’d let you know in case you’re interested. The story was written a couple of years ago and is very brief. I’m a fan of packing a lot into a few words. I like a quick literary hit, so I can go away and think about it, or read it again without too much of a time investment.

Between You and I (conversation with a ghost)
The narrative explores the experience of a deceased soul residing in Limbo, observing the living world from a dark alcove behind a curtain-like veil. The soul shares their role as a custodian of the family, assisting a newly deceased ancestor in crossing over while warning of the dangers of becoming trapped in the living realm.

Image of the ghost from the story 'Between You and I' written by Dan Verkys.
The ghost from the story ‘Between You and I’ written by Dan Verkys.

Reformatting me

Since I retired from actively working on other people’s projects a few months back, and have given myself some time to recover, by enjoying a break from visual creation, I can feel myself slowly starting to reawaken, as though the light that had been dulled is being rekindled. Most stress has been removed since the change. I do not work to a timeline, and I do not push myself beyond the enjoyment of creating my own work for my own purposes.

Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of working with some very talented people, I’m sure some of them are probably pissed with my new found retirement/isolation and outlook, but hey, I gave bucket loads while I contributed over 30 years, there comes a time when you need to do your own thing, so I am, I’m now doing Dan things whenever fuck Dan feels like it, and it is good.

The combination of maintaining this website, while limiting social media interaction was just what I needed. Injecting energy into new hobbies and breaking away from art altogether has also been extremely helpful. You kind of burn out after a while and become jaded with everything you create; it is no longer fun.

I forgot that creating artwork was for my benefit, a form of therapy, which I will now continue uninterrupted.

Go ya by the nose

Sometimes it is important to regroup mentally, to step away from everything you’ve been doing to filter out the stressors. I’ve done that recently with a pause on social media. This has opened my mind(s) a little more and allowed me to experiment again and scribble down ideas and possible new pathways. The arrival of AI and its rape of the artistic world, dealt my interest in creating art a considerable blow. So the freedom given by stepping away from these digital platform has been good so far, I’ll keep at it, I do hope to find my feet again.